A Summer To Remember

5: A Walk To Remember

"Hi Nate."

"Hey," he says. "Where are we going?"

"Actually, I was planing on walking by myself."

"Well, cancel your plans. I have a better idea." He answers with a smirk.

Oh God he better not rape me.

"Let's go." He reaches out to my hand but I quickly pull it away as if it was poisonous.

He gave me an awkward look. "I have a...a germ thing." I lie.

"Um, I was actually planning on heading back now so..." I say, turning around and starting towards the area Caroline, Hunter and Adelaide were waiting.

This time he grabs my wrist before I can pull it away.

"They left. Adelaide said that the heat was making her hair frizzy." He says slightly annoyed.

I look at Nate confused, "Well how are we gonna get back to the hotel if they left?"

I don't like where this conversation is heading, I have a feeling I know his answer.

"Well, Miss Valedictorian, we're obviously gonna walk."

I shut my eyes tight, "Please tell me you're joking."

He laughs, "Nope."

He enjoys my pain.

"But it's gonna get dark soon! And the walk is gonna be a few miles!" I frantically blurt out.

"Then we better walk quickly."

I roll my eyes, he always has witty comeback ready.

I start to walk quickly as he said, not waiting for him to catch up. Too many things were running through my mind to be talking with him right now.

I hear his footsteps approach closely behind me on the sand and suddenly he appears in my way, making me stop dead in my tracks.

I give him a dirty look. He puts both his hands on my shoulders. His eyes soften, "What's the matter? Did I do something wrong?" He asks me worriedly. His face come dangerously close to mine, to the point where I know that he put strawberries and bananas on his pancakes this morning.

I am kind of taken aback by his sudden worry. "Um uh... no I'm fine."

He looks deeply into my eyes as if he's looking for something; some kind of emotion. My eyes are just inches apart from his because he is bending his body slightly down to my height. He seems to not believe my answer.

I am flushed red because of this sudden close proximity and step back a bit.

Nate still stands close, keeping both of his hands still on my shoulders.

Well it's true, I'm not fine. I feel incredibly alone here. I know that I'm not going to have every moment of every day having fun here. But that's not the problem. It's that this entire trip I have barely had a meaningful conversation with Caroline. CAROLINE. The person that I came here to spend my last year before college with. I knew that there would be a day where one of us would find a guy we liked and we would start drifting away from each other a little bit, but, I just wasn't ready.