Better Kept Secret

chapter 15

"Rachel! Elowyn!" Claire shrieks while jumping out of her boyfriend's lap and running towards us. She pulls us both into a hug, smiling giddily. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," she says to me.

I see one girl and one guy that I recognize from school, as well as Claire's boyfriend sitting on the beach. They have towels and snacks set up and they look like they've already been swimming.

"Here, I'll introduce you to my friends," she says. We all say hi to each other and they offer Rachel and I some snacks, which I happily take.

"The water is calling my name! Come on let's swim!" Rachel says after eating a hand full of chips. Claire looks at her giggling and I feel a rush of energy. I throw off my jean shorts and run into the water till I'm up to my knees. It's such a nice day that the water looks like glass, completely clear and still, and the sun is shining heavily down onto us.

"It's so nice girls," I say to them as I motion for them to run in. "The water isn't even that cold." They both look at eachother and then head into the water meeting me knee deep.

"It is cold what are you talking about?" Rachel says while laughing. We walk further in and I shriek as the cool water hits my stomach.

"You just have to dunk!" Claire says. She plugs her nose with her hands and goes completely underwater. When she comes back up, she shakes the water off like a dog, spraying the both of us.

"Claire!" We both say. Rachel gives me a mischievous look and I know exactly what she's signaling to me. At the same time we both splash Claire with the cold water making her yell.

"You bitch!" She say while laughing and running towards us. She chases us as we try to run through the water but she catches up and dunks us both underneath. When I come back up, it turns into a full on splashing fight and I'm laughing harder than I have in forever. I mean, my belly even hurts from laughing so hard.

We continue to swim around, having competitions to see how long we can hold our breath and just relaxing in the water. The afternoon goes by faster than I though it would and although it wasn't just us three girls, I still had fun with Claire's other friends.

As I'm laying on a towel eating watermelon peacefully, I hear a car pull up and a whole lot of loud voices. I look behind me and see a whole group of guys and girls getting out of the car, obviously the other people that Claire invited. She rushes over to say hi and through the group of people I see Gloria.

What is she doing here?

After looking more closely, I realize the group of people are all jocks. Guys from the soccer team and cheerleaders. They all set up a game of beach volleyball and in a blink, instead of this just being friends hanging out, it's a beach party. My antisocial self is definitely not pleased with all the people here but, the more the merrier I guess. And plus, I don't have to talk to Gloria if I don't want to. But wait, why shouldn't I? It's not like she's every done anything rude to me. All that happened was I overheard her conversation where she said she liked Ben and that's none of my business. He's not my property.

Feeling a sudden rush of confidence, or maybe just stupidity, I walk over to her. If she really is Ben's girlfriend, I should talk to her.

"Hi Gloria! I love your bikini," I say.

"Hey, thanks," Gloria replies while looking at me a bit strangely. "Do I know you?" She asks and I'm taken a bit aback. I didn't even consider that she might not know me.