Love Always,

Chapter 11

"It's right up here on the right" Sydney pointed out the paying booth to me. I handed the man $10 through the window. "Do you have an excelsior pass?" The man asked. Sydney looked through her wallet and showed the man her pass. He nodded his head and let us through.

"Wow, this place is extra exclusive. How'd you get a pass for it?" I asked her while walking down towards the water. There were only about 10 people there. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nothing-" "Oh you mean cause I live in a dump and have a pass to a really nice place like this." "C'mon, that's not what I meant." She huffed air through her nose.

I put down the beach chairs I was holding along with my towel. Sydney laid down a blanket and secured down the corners using our shoes.

"So how did you get the pass?" I asked again sitting down. "Well," she started sitting down also," it's kind of weird." "I won't judge, I'm weird." "That you are."

We both chuckled slightly.

"As I was saying, it was weird. I lived with my brother for a while before he moved away. So he worked for a surf shop and his boss' brother in law owns this beach. And my brother, Riley, was good friends with his boss. His boss was Riley's best friend's dad actually. Long story short, Riley got the pass as a birthday present from his boss. And Riley gave it to me before he moved away."

She was staring our to the water the whole time, not once making eye contact.

"That's not weird. It's just a long story." I couldn't get out of my head that I really know what happened to him. "I'm sorry. I know I ramble on. " "Don't be sorry, I like listening to your voice."

I looked at her waiting for a reaction. She just continued looking at the ocean.

"Well, um. Do you wanna go in the water?" I snapped her out of her daze. "Oh, sure."

I took off my shirt while she slipped out of her cover up dress. She looked amazing in her tankini, and that's hard to do but she rocked it.

"I like your bathing suit, it looks good on you."

We started walking towards the rolling waves.

"Thanks. I've had it forever." "Jesus, it's cold" she said after making contact wit the salt water. "You just have to get in." "No. That's the rule for a pool. This is the ocean," she was making hand motions,"you have to ease in." I shook my head, "you're Italian, aren't you?" Sydney tilted her head to the right and squinted her eyes at me. "Yes," she continued speaking in a stereotypical British accent," and I'll have you know I'm part British." "Is that right?" I laughed.

We were inching into the water.

"Yes it is good sir. Would you like a spot of tea govna? And maybe chit chat over a few crumpets with the queen?" "Um like no thanks. Oh my God, the queen is like sooooo old. Those British people need to find a prettier queen, like me! Oh my Goddddd!" "It's a jolly good day we're having, ain't it mate?" She playfully elbowed me. "Um excuse me. Get your filthy hands off of me. Now I'm hungry, lets get some Starbucks." "Maybe on the way we could pop in at your mum's flat to say hello."

We were in each other's faces making stereotypical remarks. I picked her up and ran into the water.

"Harry!! No it's too cold!! Put me down!!" "Ok." I put her down.

We were out where the water was just past her waist.

She splashed me in the face. "You ass hole!" "Am I a jolly good ass hole?" She splashed me again. "That sounds disgusting! Stop it!" "I'll stop being a jolly good ass hole when I want to be govna!"

She splashed me again and I splashed back. We had an all-out splash war. Sydney jumped on my back.

"Are you trying to drown me?!" "Like I don't know. What does it frickin look like?" She had the traditional American accent on full blast. "To me it looks like you want a piggy back ride." I ran out of the water with Sydney still on my back. "Harry!!" I ran down the beach a few yards then started walking back to where we had set up.

"You can put me down now" she said. I put her down and we walked side by side to our chairs. She was walking along the shore line getting her feet wet. Her hair was blowing in the wind.

"Do you like coming down here?" I asked breaking the still silence besides the sounds of the ocean. "Yeah, it's so pretty. Especially now with the sun starting to go down, this is my favorite part of the beach day." She looked into my eyes before looking away again.

We got to our set up and sat down on the blanket to watch the sunset. "I always thought that the sun disappeared into the water as a kid." "Really? I just always thought it took turns with the moon of being in the sky" I responded. "Aw, that's cute." "Sharing is caring." "Speaking of sharing," she turned around and reached into her bag. "Whatcha got there?" "This, my jolly good ass hole frien-I mean boy friend, is a photo album." "Of you?" She opened the cover. "No, of all the photos I take."

She showed me every picture and explained every experience behind it.

"And this one is from when I decided to go off the trails in the park." "Did you know where you were going?" "Of course not, I got lost and had to call the park office." I laughed. "It was so embarrassing." She kept flipping through the pages showing every picture to me.

She skipped over a page.

"What's on that page?" "Nothing, really. I'll tell you another time." "Ok."

She sounded upset and she was enjoying her day so I didn't want to ruin it for her. Watching her face light up as she explained every photo was like something I've never seen before. It's hard to explain. It had a different sense of happiness to it. Her eyes brightened up and her lips softened to the most beautiful and natural smile I've ever seen.

"And that's it." "All of those are really amazing." "Thank you harreh." "You're welcome sydneh."

We packed up the stuff. The chairs had straps to go on our backs and the blanket fit in my beach bag.

"Today was really fun." "It was, especially the splashing part." "Yeah, it was pretty fun. But thanks for taking me." "Thanks for letting me." The walk to the car seemed longer than before.

I reached for Sydney's hand that was by her side. She let me hold it and I intertwined my fingers with hers. She hesitated at first but became relaxed. I looked over at her and she was already looking at me. She smiled ear to ear, I did too.

We got to the car and drove home.