He's not looking away. And I've come to realize that haven't either. I don't know how long we stayed there like that, but after a while it was long enough for both of us to realize what we were doing.
Harry looks down at his feet and to the ball, then continues to kick it back and forth with Dave while I'm still standing there like an idiot. At least he could play it off.
I awkwardly walk to the umbrella and drop my stuff on the sand. What just happened? My first and only conclusion is that Harry and I just had a complete stare down on a public beach. Well that's a great way to start the day with the kid.
I slip off my shorts and shirt and put them in my bag along with my shoes. I grab my sunglasses and pull out a chair and decide to lay in the sun for a while. Natalie comes over and joins me.
"I saw that," she says.
Well shit.
"Saw what?" I ask pretending to be confused. If she says what I think she's going to say...
"You and Harry practically just had eye sex are you kidding me?" she says laughing.
Oh my god. I roll over onto my stomach and groan. That child has the eyes of a hawk. Why would I even doubt for a second that she didn't see that little scene between Harry and I.
"I swear to god if you say anything to anyone," I say into the chair. She just laughs. She is seriously one of the hardest girls to threaten.
"I won't, it will be our little secret. Oh, and Harry's too," she says. And probably Dave's too I think to myself. If it was as obvious as she made it seem, why even bother keeping it a secret, the whole beach probably saw it.
"Did somebody say my name?" As if on cue, Harry walks over to the umbrella with Dave following behind. My face probably invented a whole new shade of red. How much of that conversation did they hear? I look up to the two of them from my laying position.
"Oh yeah, Bailey and I were just talking about you," Natalie says behind me. Oh no.
"About me? What's there to talk about?" he says laughing. Thank god he's taking the situation lightly. I purse my lips together. If Natalie says one more thing she's going to get slapped here in a second.
"Apparently a lot to Bailey," she says. I suck in a quick breath. She seriously did not just say that. She can consider herself dead to me. I look up to Harry who has a cheeky half smile on his face with his eyebrows raised. Then he looks down at me and just shakes his head. I probably looked like a deer in headlights. I let out a light giggle to make it look like I was going along with the scenario, but it probably only made me look more guilty as to what she said. Dave lets out a loud laugh, breaking the tension a little bit. God bless that boy.
"Do you want to go down to the water? It's getting hot," Dave says to Harry.
"Yeah, sure," he replies. And with that, they both take off towards the ocean. As soon as they are out of hearing distance I practically give it to Natalie.
"What the hell?" I say to her. She almost falls out of her chair laughing, while I'm sitting here with my face still the color of a tomato. I put my face in my hands, "That goes to the top if the list of embarrassing moments..." I say. Of course this only makes her laugh harder.
"Well if you didn't like him, this obviously wouldn't be such a big deal now would it?" she says. Great, now she's bringing this whole thing back up. I'm not even going there right now. "He knows I was just kidding Bailey it's okay!" She says wiping a tear from her eye.
"How do you know that?" I say almost crying from embarrassment. Must she be so witty all the time? Even though I don't like him, my chances to ever go out with him are now long gone. Maybe not to him, but to me for sure.
I shake my head and let out a groan into my chair, then doze off into a nap.
***
"What the...?" I say drowsily. I wake up to a small shower as Harry shakes his head free of water. He and Dave must have just came in from swimming. He looks down and noticed that he woke me up.
"Oh, sorry! I didn't know you were asleep," he says guilty.
"No it's ok, I probably should be getting up anyways," I say. I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the chair. I take off my sunglasses and rub my eyes, adjusting to the bright sun. Meanwhile, Harry grabs a towel and starts to dry himself off.
"Well I guess now that you're up, do you want to go get some ice cream? I noticed a small shop down there on the boardwalk," he said while putting on a white t-shirt.
"Umm... sure. Let me just get my stuff." I walk over to my bag and put on my clothes over my bathing suit. As I slip on my flip flops I grab my phone and put it in my back pocket then I turn to Harry and see that he put on a snap back to cover his wet hair.
"Ready?" he asks. I nod my head in response.
We begin walking when I realize the other two are missing.
"Where are the others?" I ask.
"They're out swimming, Natalie joined us while you were asleep, I came in early but Dave stayed out there with her," he says.
"Oh ok," I say, then I continue looking back down at my feet. When we reach the boarded walkway, Harry guides me in the direction if the ice cream shop. It's kind of funny how quickly he's gotten to know the place. You would expect me to be showing him places but instead it's the opposite. I guess I was think out loud and I let out a giggle.
"What?" Harry looks down at me with a confused smile.
"I was just thinking how it's funny that you're the one taking me places. I feel like I should be the one showing you around," I say. He lets out a laugh and he just shakes his head.
"Yeah I guess that is kinda wierd," he says smiling. I look up to him, his dimple was showing and the hair that was just peeking outside his hat was dried into small curls. I look down again and put my hands into my pockets.
Harry then brings us up to a small ice cream parlor, one that seems like it's been in business for years.
The menu mainly consists of basic flavors, nothing fancy. I get a vanilla soft serve, and Harry orders a chocolate one. Once we get our desserts, we find a nearby bench and sit down.
We don't say anything really in the beginning, we just sit and eat our ice cream. I try not to look like a pig, only becuase it's so hard to look attractive while licking a huge soft-serve ice cream, especially when you love food as much as I do.
I think the whole scene that happened back at the beach an hour ago made things a little awkward, I mean for me atleast.
"How long are you staying here?" Harry asks me.
"The whole summer. My family owns a beach house here, and my parents finally think I'm old enough to be here by myself. I don't live far away from here really though so it's not too big of a deal. Plus, I have Natalie," I say. Harry seems happy with my response, because when I look at him, he's smiling again. I can't help but smile back, it's contagious with him.
"That's nice," he says.
"Yeah, a week is never long enough," I say.
"I agree," he sits back into the bench, "I've been wanting to come here for so long it's crazy. It's so relaxing, plus catching up with Dave is nice too," he says.
"Has he ever gone to London? To see you I mean?" I ask.
"No, it's hard really to get together. We both agreed that if we were to ever meet up for the summer, it would be over here in America."
"Really? Why?"
"It's just over all nicer down here. There's more stuff to do, the weather's nicer, the beach..."
It looks like he wants to say something else, but he's not sure if he should.
"Plus, if we didn't decide to come here," he looks down at his melting ice cream and take a deep breath, "I wouldn't have met you."
