Endless Summer

Chapter Four

Chapter Four:

I look over at the beach. Taylor is watching me. I start to stand up but once I take my hands off the board I fall into the water. I come back up now with my entire body completely wet.

“Okay, so maybe I lied.” I shout to Taylor who is now laughing. “Hey! Its not funny!” I whine.

“Yes it is! You falling was hysterical!”

“Then why don’t you come out here and stand up without falling.”

“I will and I wont fall like you just did.” he heads my way with his board. He gets to the spot where I am and stands up perfectly.

“Its that easy.” he says to me.

“Shut up!”

“Hey, you were the one that fell not me.” I swim over to him.

“You wanna bet?”

“What are you talking abo¾ ” I grab his leg and he falls into the water.

“That’s not funny Holly!”

“Oh I think it is!”

“I guess that I was bound to get wet anyway, you just beat me to it. How about we get you back on that board to learn how to stand?”

“That’s a good idea.” He helps me back onto of my board and he himself gets on my board. He tells me to do exactly what I did last time only this time not to take me hands off of the board yet. He puts his hands on the sides of my torso and guides me up. Once I’m standing he lets me go. I start to lose my balance and he grabs my arms to steady me. I turn forward face to face, he steadies me and then begins to fall forward, his face to my shoulder. I fall backwards into the water with him coming down on top of me.

I swim back up to the surface and grab onto my board. His is attached to mine so that it wont float away. I look around but I don’t see Taylor anywhere. I look around again and when I turn away from my board he is directly in front of me.

“That was a pretty nasty fall, are you okay?” Taylor asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What about you?”

“I’m more worried about you, I came down on top of you.”

“I’m fine.”

“Lets go in anyway.” He has me hold onto our boards and he swims us in. He pulls our boards up on the beach and walks with his arm around my shoulders as we walk out of the water. Halfway up the beach we stop walking and sit down. He brings his hand up to my head but I slowly pull away.

“Its okay, I’m just checking to see if you have any cuts.” he puts his hand on the side of my forehead and I flinch.

“Ow, that hurts.” I say. He moves my hair our of the way and sure enough I have a cut.

“Its not deep and it doesn’t look like you’ll need stitches.”

“That’s good.”

“How about we get you cleaned up?” He gets up and holds his hand out for me. I take it and we head up the beach to the house.

“Holly, you might want to…” I run smack into the sliding glass door and fall down. “Watch out.” he finishes. He helps me up, opens the door, and leads me into the living room setting me down on the couch.

“I guess I should have told you earlier, I’m a huge klutz.” I say.

“No, you just don’t watch where you are going, there’s a difference.”

“Maybe but,” I bring my hand up to where my hairline meets my forehead. “Ow.”

“You have a small cut, but its not deep so you don’t need stitches.”

“That’s a good thing because if I did my brother would most likely kick your ass.” Taylor laughs. He leaves the room and comes back with a cold washcloth and puts it on my cut. Then he sits down next to me.

“Hey listen, about last night…” I cut him off.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I know we haven’t know each other that long, well we kind of have, but I really like you.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“We used to know each other when we were little. We were really little so I don’t expect you to remember.”

“I remember, a little. I remember being here with my parents and brother and….are your parents Erica and Jason?”

“Yeah…”

“Oh my god, I remember. We used to play in the water together.”

“Yeah and build sand castles.”

“We were friends, weren’t we?”

“Yeah, we were. Until you stopped coming.”

“I….yeah. I was eight. My parents wanted me to come with them, but my best friend had invited me to spend the summer with her.”

“You never came back until this year.” he looks away from me.

“I wish I would have come back sooner. I…I became so caught up in my own life that I didn’t even care about this place anymore. I only cared about my friends and boyfriends.”

“I spent a few years hoping that you would come back, you were a really good friend and I suddenly lost you. For a little kid losing a friend is awful. I thought it was something I did.”

I instantly feel horrible. “Oh….It wasn’t.”

“I know that now. I remember when your parents came back every year my parents would ask how you were. Your parents gave mine pictures of you and they gave a few to me.”

“They did?” I blush. I cant believe that my parents did that!

“Yeah, they’re on my corkboard in my room.”

I blush again. “I didn’t remember who you were, but you knew from the beginning.”

He nods. “I was going to tell you, but I didn’t know if you had figured it out and just say anything or not.”

“Wow, I feel awful.”

“Don’t, its alright. You have your life back home, I didn’t think you would remember anyway.” he gets up and walks outside to the deck. Great, now I feel worse! I get up and make my way outside and over to Taylor.

“Taylor, I heard what you said earlier. I know you probably think I didn’t but I did and I like you too, a lot.”

He turns around and faces me. “You do?”

I nod. “But I want to take things slow, my last….” I don’t finish.

“Taking it slow is perfect.” I smile and put my hand on his shoulder pulling him in for a hug.

“Do you want to go out with me tonight?”

“I would love to.”

“I will pick you up around eight then.” he starts heading towards his jeep.

“Wait, what are we doing?”

“You’ll see. Wear something nice.”

“Okay.” I smile.

“See you tonight Holly.”

“Bye.” he heads towards his jeep. While he is driving away I wave and he waves back. I run to my room and to my closet. I’m going on a real date for the first time in six months.