Summer Rain

[8] Luke

Over the next few weeks, I hung out with Zach, Lila or both quite often. On the rare occasion they were both doing something, I saw a couple other people from school, but for the most part it was just them.

And I loved it.

Today the three of us were hanging out on the beach. I arrived a little bit later than the other two because my dad forgot some important papers again, but I found my friends in the same area of the beach we always go to.

Lila was wearing a white bikini which looked amazing on her, especially since she was now tan from living on the beach. Her hair was tied in a messy bun and she had her giant brown sunglasses on her face. Zach and her appeared to be having some sort of disagreement, so I joined them warily. They did this often, fighting over something stupid and irrelevant.

"Hey guys" I greeted, throwing my towel down and sitting on the sand next to them.

"Great, you can settle our little problem now that you're here" Lila said, seemingly frustrated.

"What problem?" I asked apprehensively.

"Lila thinks that Wendys has better fries than McDonalds" Zach shook his head, "Like c'mon we all know that McDonalds is the fast food fry leader of the freaking world"

I looked between the two of them, Zach was smiling at her and Lila crossed her arms and glared back at him.

"I have to agree with him, sorry Lila" I shrugged.

Lila turned her glare on me and Zach grinned triumphantly. They were so stupid, it was funny. They had these little arguments with me as tie breaker every single day. Actually, several times every single day.

We lounged at the beach for a while, we even saw a few people from school and introduced Lila to them. It's a guarentee that you'll see people from school at the beach on most days because it's the main thing to do in the summer here in Bridport. There's really not that much else to do that isn't a decent car ride away, or indoors. 

While my two friends were in the midst of another brewing argument about something else monumentally stupid and unimportant, Zach's cell phone rang shrilly preventing it from happening. He looked down at the screen, and his face tensed for a split second up before becoming the mask of indifference I was so familiar with. I've seen him use that face in pretty much every situation involving an emotion besides amused.

"Hello?" He answered it.

He listened intently for a while, face giving away nothing.

"Fine" He said tightly, hanging up the phone.

This time, his face slipped into a frown for a noticable couple seconds before once again going completely blank.

"I have to go guys, but I'll see ya" He said quickly, rushing off the beach and to the parking lot, not even glancing at us as he dashed away.

Lila turned to look at me, her eyes boring into me. She was curious about what was going on, I could tell. As Zach's best friend, I'm almost immune to these things, but Lila was new.

"Do you know what that was about?" She asked bluntly.

I didn't exactly, but I knew I had to choose my words here carefully to explain what it's like.

"Zach's my best friend but he's really private" I said slowly, "I know some things, but I definitely couldn't tell who that was or what they said"

She dropped it, thankfully. Zach's secrets were intense, and I was the only one not involved who knew. And I found out on accident. Sometimes I wonder if he would've ever told me if it didn't go down that way.

And honestly, I kinda doubt that he would have.

I guess what I'm trying to get to is that Zach doesn't really trust at all. And with his past, who could really blame him?

I turned to face Lila again, but she was staring intently at her slightly chipped dark blue toe nails. The sun had just started setting, and people were leaving for dinner, but Lila didn't move at all for about five minutes.

"Tell me about your family" She said suddenly.

I jumped a little, from her voice breaking our silence and from the randomness of the question she asked.

"Well, I'm an only child. My dad owns the car dealership. And my mom... well let's just say she sucks" I said quickly.

"Why does your mom suck?" She asked immediately.

I looked at her, and she stared back at me interested. She moved closer and put her hand so close to mine that they were almost touching. I wanted to reach out and take it.

So I did. And just like that, I was holding hands with Lila.

"My mom sucks because she told me she went to rehab and she didn't. She never does. When I was really little she'd fight for custody every year, and they'd tell her she could get every other weekend or maybe even every weekend if she stayed sober but always a week in she'd get drunk. I was with her a few weeks ago and she was taking a long time in the kitchen so I went to help and she was downing a bottle of tequila" I explained.

"I'm sorry" Lila said softly, squeezing my hand comfortingly. It was really nice, actually, to be comforted like that.

I smiled at her. Suddenly, I became super aware of how close we were. She was holding my hand, and she was only an inch away from my face.

I glanced down to her lips, and she saw me do it and smiled a gentle, closed mouth smile. I cupped her chin, and kissed her.

She wound her fingers into my hair and kissed me back. It was finally happening, I had wanted to do this for weeks and weeks, and I was finally kissing Lila.

"I know I haven't known you for all that long, Lila, but I really think I may be falling for you" I admitted out loud for the first time when we finally pulled away.

She bit her lip, smiled at me and laid her head down on my chest. I wondered if she could hear my heart beating and beating at an abnormal rate, but if she could, she didn't say so.

We laid back on the towels, watching the moon light hit the water, and watching the clouds light up the night sky.

And I thought everything finally made sense.

[Dedication- knightsrachel because I loooove her work!]

(Author's note- they kissed!!!! does anyone have any sort of opinion on that? yes? no? I don't know! I started working on something new today that might work out, so I'm excited. I was going to post this tomorrow but I wont be home)