Secret Jewel of the Ocean

Chapter 9

The cool evening air brushed roughly against my cheeks as Jewel and I stumbled off of the beach and towards the beach house. After a day full of crazyness, I craved some time to gather my thoughts; some time to relax. But Jewel, keeping her promise of "new experiences", had other ideas in mind.

"Why don't we spend tonight on the beach?!" she exclaimed as we dusted the sand off of our worn feet. Jewel was clearly going insane.

"Spending the night on the beach is not a good idea. Especially with all of these surreal events happening. Who knows what could go on? It's not safe," I babbled as I slid open the sliding glass door and stepped inside the house, Jewel following right behind me. I didn't like the way Jewel was thinking recently. It wasn't like her.

Or maybe I was the one acting differently. But I had a reason to.

Jewel and I stomped upstairs to our room for clothes to change into after our shower. "Come on, April! Why won't you just take a chance? Live your life!" she said as searched for an outfit in her large suitcase. She stopped rummaging through the piles of clothes and looked up at me. "I promised myself and you that we would have new adventures this summer. I intend on keeping that promise," she told me, looking deep into my eyes.

I sighed, giving up. There was no winning with Jewel. "Fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "I will spend some of the night on the beach. But I'm not sleeping there. We can stay there all night if you want, but there is no way that I am allowing myself to fall asleep in the middle of a dark, deserted beach."

"That beach isn't deserted!" Jewel argued. "It's just a lot less crowded than the ones we're used to."

I leaned againsnt the dresser in our room and folded my arms over my chest. "Whatever. You get my point."

A small smile crept upon Jewel's sun-kissed face. "So you'll acompany me?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

I giggled. "Yes, Jewel. I will be there. But we'll have to sneak out later because my parents wanted to watch a movie with us tonight," I explained as Jewel and I went back to our suitcases.

What had I gotten myself into? My life used to be so much simpler in the past. Jewel and I could sit in a room full of nothing and still have an amazing time. Which is still true...but for some reason, Jewel has been wanting so many more experiences. I guess I didn't mind keeping things the way they had always been. But maybe Jewel was right - maybe I did need to let loose and start taking some chances.

It couldn't hurt, right?

After showering and then eating with my parents, my grandparents came over to watch a movie with us. The movie was called The Fighter. It was actually a pretty interesting movie, and the storyline was quite intriguing. It was about a boxer who came from a large, troubled family. The boxer, a younger brother of many kids, wanted to make a comeback in his fighting career. He worked continuously to not only make it back up top but also to fix his family's issues.

I was getting really into the movie and I could tell that Jewel was as well. The look on her face was priceless as she stared intently at the television screen, chewing on her finger nail. I slapped her hand away, laughing. She whipped her head towards me. "What was that for?!"

I raised my eyebrows. "I thought you were trying to 'break the bad habit'?" I recalled from earlier in the week when Jewel had done the same thing to me.

Jewel's mouth turned up into a smile. "Shuddup," she told me, elbowing me in my side lightly and diverting her attention back to the movie.

Once the movie ended, it was about eleven and my grandparents headed back home. "See you all tomorrow for brunch, am I correct?" my grandma asked. I guessed that my parents had planned on going all of us going out for breakfast/lunch in the morning...

"You are correct!" my father confirmed as he and my mom walked my grandparents out.

"Bye, see you tomorrow!" Jewel and I yelled from behind. Once my grandparents left, we ran upstairs and changed into our bathing suits, throwing oversized sweatshirts on top. We then crawled into bed, setting an alarm on our phones for one o'clock in the morning so that we could leave after my parents had already gone to bed.

"April?" I heard Jewel whisper after I had nearly drifted to sleep.

"Yes?"

I heard her clear her throat. "I have a weird feeling..." she said, sounding as though she was half asleep.

My heart began to beat really quickly. I had the same feeling. "About what...?" I asked cautiously. But I received no answer. Jewel had fallen asleep.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I felt an intense vibration under my head. I realized it was my phone alarm buzzing beneath my pillow. It was time.

"Jewel!" I whispered as I got out of bed quietly.

"I know, I know! I'm up." Jewel and I tip-toed our way out of our room, past my parents' room, down the stairs, and out of the back door. "Ready?" Jewel asked softly as we disrupted the gravel below our feet with each step.

"I'm ready," I lied. I was not ready at all. I was so scared. I didn't know why, but I was.

Once we reached the beach, I noticed that the moon was not out. And the night before held a full moon. I looked up at the sky, pondering, and saw nothing but dark, threatening clouds. "Jewel, look!" I hissed, pointing up to the sky. "This is not a good idea...We should at least have picked a different night to do this."

Jewel waved her hand at the thought. "No way, that's just a little rain cloud. It won't be a botehr." She smiled with such confidence that I actually believed her. And so I stayed.

For Jewel.

I plopped down on the sand and sighed. I was so tired, so scared, so anxious, so unprepared. For what, I had no clue. Which was the whole problem all together.

"Don't just sit there!" Jewel grabbed my hands and pulled me up from the sand. "What kind of 'new adventure' is sitting around on the beach all night?"

I pondered the thought. Well, we were on a very empty beach in the middle of the night while everyone else was sleeping and there were really eery clouds above us and the ocean was going as crazy as I was. That sounds like an adventure to me. Too much of one, in my opinion.

"Come on, April. Let's go!" And with that, Jewel dragged me towards the ocean. The waves were so violent that I could barely hear Jewel giggling as she took off her sweatshirt, revealing her two-peice pink bathing suit. I took off my sweatshirt as well but back off of the water a bit. It looked way to dangerous to swim in.

But Jewel didn't think so.

"Let's go in!" she yelled over the crashing of the waves.

"No way! Are you crazy?! It's not safe in there! And I think there's a storm coming!" I hollered and looked up at the sky. Just then, rain began to pour down on us, growing heavier and heavier every second.

"It'll be fun!" I heard Jewel say. But I could no longer see her in the midst of the storm. Rain pounded the ground to the fast paced beat of my heart.

In the distance, I heard splashes in the water. I heard Jewel running into the ocean in the middle of the stormy, dangerous night.

And then...I heard thunder.

A loud crash of thunder startled me so much that I nearly jumped ten feet into the air. "JEWEL!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Jewel, get out of there!" I ran back and forth, side to side, in and out of the water. I didn't know where to go; where to turn. I just wanted to go home.

But no way was I leaving Jewel.

Suddenly, a bright bolt of lightning reached down from the sky and I fell to my knees. I wasn't struck, but the ground rumbled so feircly that I lost my balance. I felt my eyes begin to water. "Jewel!" I continued yelling like a madwoman. "Jewel, come on! This isn't funny!"

Sobbing, soaking wet, terrified, lost.

In need of my best friend who was nowhere in sight.