Isla
From the time between then and until the sun starts to go down, we spend the entire time on the boat. I actually—or rather we —spend a lot of time in the water, enjoying the warmth of the sun and relishing in the relief that the water gives me. It's a perfect combination.
Julian and I have been doing a lot of things together. We have gone wakeboarding way too many times, with him teaching me how to do a few new tricks and me trying to keep up. Most of the time through our lessons, though, I just laugh at how thrilling this all was. I could never take his lessons seriously because just going on the board—gliding through the water—was enough. I loved it so much that I didn't need to add a twist to it.
But I do have to say that when I learned how to do that one trick where you go high on a wave while trying to bake yourself, it was so much fun. It felt deserving after all of the tries I've given it.
Aside from spending some time with Julian, I spent a good chunk with the cousins as well. When Jack and Joe first saw that I had gotten used to wakeboarding, they took it upon themselves to challenge me to their races. Their races were simple: whoever could hold on to the rope and balance their skate on the wakeboard the longest. Even though the kids were young, I knew from watching them that they would beat me easily, so I had to put effort in order to keep up with them.
It was hard, though. I think I lost at least all of the rounds, and in the one that I almost won, Jack had gone under the water and yanked on my ankle. As I slipped off the board and into the water, I could have never seen it coming. The kids had loved to tease me, but never had they gone under and pulled something devious. It was not a fun time, and yet—I saw the smiles on the kids' faces and couldn't help but break out into my own.
I played with the older cousins as well, inviting them to swimming races and diving challenges. It is safe to say that the boys have almost all of the swimming tricks down, so it was hard to beat them. But I tried and tried my hardest to beat them, and it never worked.
To quote one of the middle cousins (whose name I didn't know at the time and had to go ask Julian), August, "You'll never beat us unless you spend a lot of time with us."
So with that, I had given up on my quest to beat them and had gone back to swimming by myself. After a while, though, Leo had stood at the edge of the boat and had thrown a volleyball down. Jumping into the water, he yelled, "Pick your partners; we are playing chicken fight volleyball."
Naturally, the boys had paired up with the people they usually do, so within half a minute, everyone had their partners. Everyone except Julian, so he did the amazing thing of giving me a grin as he swam over to me and said, "You wanna be my partner?"
I had laughed, slapping a hand over his arm, and his grin widened as he took my hand, and the both of us moved to where the game was taking place. For the game, Julian insisted that I get on top of his shoulder because there was no way I'd get to carry him (we tried, and I failed so embarrassingly that the both of us are never bringing it up). As I got on top of his shoulder, I was a laughing fit because of the past interaction, but as his hands went to the top part of my thigh, I think everything stilled for a moment.
This was a boy whose hand was so high up on my thigh that nothing seemed to be funny anymore. His hand had caused me to still, and Julian had called out, "Are you okay?" To get to me, find my thoughts again. It was crazy how one moment could change perspective for a bit, but then it was good. After that moment, I cleared my head and then got back to the group. But as I played basketball the best way I could, Julian had to keep readjusting his hand because I threatened to fall.
It was the most exhilarating and nervous game I ever played. I don't think I've felt so seen or out in public on top of his shoulder. It felt weird, but I didn't want those thoughts to ruin the fun I was having. So, I pushed through it, and after the game of volleyball that I had beaten Harry's team in, Julian put me down.
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Sunkissed Serendipity
Romance-Summer teen romance- Isla Nova Dawson has always been the type of girl to hang out amongst big crowds of people. She prefers the company of a few people where she feels the most confident in. She thrives lost in the crowd, where she can confidently...