I’m not a fan of walking to the beach but that’s what we have to do since Rebecca completely vetoed my idea. She freaked when I offered my car.
“Why can’t we just walk? It’s like, six blocks from here,” she told me and did that hands-on-her-hip thing. I’m currently questioning calling her cute at all with that expression on her face.
“I’m just offering, gosh,” I had replied and we walked in silence. There was a lot of people walking but even more driving. It felt like everyone wanted to go to the beach or that general area today. I feel like I’m in the school hallway again except everyone is in shorts and bathing suits instead of jeans or something. We stop for cars to pass. I glance at Rebecca who is watching the cars drive by.
“You have everything we need, right?” I ask her. “I’m not about to walk back just because you forgot your sunglasses or whatever girls bring to the beach.”
“Says the guy who just had to bring his aviators,” Rebecca rolls her eyes at me.
“They’re cool unlike your glasses. You look like a bug,” I smile a little. Her glasses are gigantic. They cover a gigantic area of her face and I can’t imagine getting tan lines from them.
“This happens to be the style for most females,” she informs me snottily and I shake my head. “What? It’s true!”
“Whatever,” I look forward and finally we get the signal to cross. We walk across the street and behind us a group of girls, probably thirteen, burst into a round of Justin Bieber. I fight off the cringe I feel coming on and run a hand through my hair. It’s freaking hot here and now I have to listen to an off key version of ‘baby’ being yelled. I look back and glance at them. They are thirteen. There’s a gigantic group of them, probably ten or eleven. They’re all wearing sunglasses and short shorts and a few have braces. I meet the eye of one in the back who’s being quiet. I give her a small smile and she smiles back.
“Are they singing baby?” Rebecca asks and I look at her.
“I think so,” I say as we turn down a sidewalk, yet another road getting into our view. The girls are now laughing loudly and talking about people with funny nicknames and hinting at certain people. I’ve heard quite a few ‘you know whos’ and then giggling. I’m tempted to say something just to shut them up. I wonder if they realize how annoying they’re being. I turn back and see Rebecca walking onto the road, where a car has a turn signal and is about to come down the road. I grab her by the waist (her arms her out of reach. I don’t need her getting hit by a car and I grabbed the first thing I saw.) She jumps back onto the curb and forcefully slams into my chest.
“Ow,” escapes my lips. It takes me a few seconds to realize my hands are still on her waist. I drop them and fix my glasses, clearing my throat.
“Um, thanks,” she says awkwardly.
“No problem,” I look at the electronic hand sign thing they have set up. It blinks green and we walk down, finally seeing the entrance to the beach. I walk onto the sand and Rebecca slips her flip flops off. The sand is unbelievably soft and my feet slide. And it’s white too. Like someone bleached a beach. The water is the clearest, cleanest blue I’ve ever seen.
“Wow,” Rebecca says and I nod. We find a spot that no one has taken yet and lay out our towels. She picks up the sun screen from the sand and looks at me. “Sun screen?”
“Sure,” I take it from her hand and start doing my own. Rebecca slips out of her shorts and I slide off my own shirt. Most people you would not want to see without a shirt, myself included. I mean guys are usually hairy and such but after one of my friends got some female magazine like Cosmopolitan or W or something it said eighty-percent of women like waxed chests. After that we went and got our pretty minimal chest hair waxed. I have to admit, you get looked at a lot more then having a pretty hair chest. When I finish I hand the sun screen to Rebecca.
“You can go swim if you want. Don’t stand here awkwardly,” she smiles at me.
“Alright,” I walk down the beach and put my toes into the water. I wade through a little, not getting totally wet. The water is surprisingly pretty cold. I guess it’s still early but compared to the heat outside the water it’s freezing. I look back to see Rebecca having trouble getting the sun screen onto her back. I swallow and know I should help but not my style. She’s Rebecca! I can’t be all doing sun screen for her. That’s just weird. Everyone knows it’s the same amount of sexy as giving someone a back rub. You don’t give one to some girl you barely know. But I find myself out of the water and walking over. It’s the nice thing to do, right? If she gets burned I’ll probably never hear the end of it. It’s a simple just help her and then move on. No big woop.
“Do you need help?” I ask and Rebecca looks around, finding me.
“I.. I guess so,” she looks at me. I think she does anyway. I can’t tell with those monster glasses she has on. Rebecca hands me the sun screen and I squeeze the bottle onto my palm. I rub some on and I think she’s shaking. Either that or it’s me. I can’t tell. This isn’t exactly a normal thing for me to do. Thankfully her back doesn’t take much to cover and I rub it on quickly.
“Thanks,” she looks at me as I hand the bottle back to her.
“Are you going into the water?” I look at her.
“I don’t know. I m-”
“You should,” I smile.
“I don’t think I will,” she looks at the water behind me. I can’t tell if she’s being honest or not.
“Too bad, you are,” I smile and swipe her up, fire fighter style.
“Put me down! Anthony put me down!” Rebecca squeals and laughs. “Anthony!”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you,” I stand by the water’s edge. She’s surprisingly light. It feels like she eats nothing but air. The water hits my feet.
“Ohmygod! Anthony! You better not!” Rebecca laughs and tries to squirm out of my grip.
“Sucks for you!” I walk out farther, slowly going through the water until I’m at a spot where she’s almost half under water.
“Anthony!” She smacks my shoulder and I toss her into the water. She flies close to the water before screaming and going under. She stands up and flips her hair out of her face. Her hair is dripping and her bathing suit went from light blue to a dark blue.
“I hate you,” she says and I laugh.
“Thank you,” I watch as she tries to walk back before getting sucked in by a current, losing her balance, almost falling under the water again.
“Shut up,” she tells me before I can say anything.
“Oh don’t be a bitch. Have some fun!” I splash her and she turns back.
“Thanks,” she says in a sweet tone and gives me a short, sarcastic smile. I walk a little bit forward and we’re standing there looking at each other.
“You’re really wet,” she says quietly. Her splash was gigantic for a tiny body and my hair got wet in the process.
“I realize,” I say back and I move a stray piece of hair from her face. I run my hand down her face slowly and lean down.
