"Ashlyn!" Luke called, knocking on the bathroom door. "Hurry up!"
"I'm almost done, Luke. Hold your horses!" I yelled back. I finished pulling my hair up into a ponytail and gathered up all my stuff. I left the bathroom and Luke rushed in and slammed the door behind him.
I dumped my pyjamas back into my bag along with my toiletries. I pulled a towel out of my bag and sat down on the bed to wait for Luke to get out of the bathroom. We were about to go to the beach, just as we had been doing every day for the past three days.
"Ready to go?" Luke asked, coming back into the room.
"Yea, let's go," I said. I followed Luke out of the room and down the stairs. We said goodbye to our parents, who were planning on meeting us at the beach later, and left the cabin. Once we were out of sight of the cabin, Luke reached over and entwined our fingers together. He did little things like this and randomly hugging me or kissing me on the cheek when we were alone.
Once we arrived at the beach, there were a lot more people than usual in the spot we usually hung around. Most of them were teenagers, probably about our age or older. We layed out our towel in one of the rare empty spots. I took off my tank top and shorts I was using as a coverup and layed down to sunbathe.
"Luke, move," I said. He was hovering over me, blocking the light.
"Come into the water," he pleaded, poking his lower lip out.
"No, I want to tan," I replied, closing my eyes and waiting for him to move. Suddenly, he started tickling my stomach, causing me to have a spazz attack.
"Luke! No, Luke, stop!" I yelled, unable to control my laughter. I rolled out from under him and ran away from him.
"You do realize I'm faster than you, right," he yelled.
"A girl can try," I shrugged. I ended up running into the water and coming right back out. "Ok, that's colder than it was yesterday," I said.
"Come on, Ash," Luke pleaded. "Please?" he begged, poking out his lower lip.
"Fine," I groaned. I went and stood in the water ankle deep, but I didn't go any farther.
"Look out!" we heard someone yell. I looked over and saw a volleyball coming towards us. It landed in the water in front of me, so I picked it up and served it back over to the group.
"Nice serve!" a random guy yelled.
"Thanks, dude!" I yelled back. A girl who had been sitting to the side, watching the game, approached me. Luke had gone farther out in the water.
"Hey, I'm Lauren," she introduced herself.
"I'm Ashlyn," I replied. I pointed over at Luke and said, "That's Luke."
"Nice to meet you. That was a great serve you did there. How'd you like to play with us in the next game?" she offered. I looked over at Luke and saw that he was coming over towards Lauren and I.
"Yea, sure," I replied. Luke came and stood beside me, wrapping his arm around my waist and kissing the side of my head.
"Hey, babe. Who's this?" he asked. I gave him a confused look before introducing him to Lauren.
"I'm going to be playing in the next game," I said.
"Cool, I'll stand to the side and watch," he replied.
"Well, I'm gonna go back and watch the end of this game. I'll call you over when it's our turn," Lauren said, wading out of the water and back to the side of the volleyball net. Once she was out of ear-shot, I turned to Luke and raised an eyebrow.
"Babe?" I questioned, trying to keep the smile from making it's way onto my face. He blushed and looked down at the water.
"Didn't you see the guys over there watching you?" he questioned, not meeting my gaze.
"Oh, so you got jealous," I teased him.
"Maybe a little bit," he mumbled. I laughed and hugged his torso.
"No need to be jealous, Lu," I reassured him.
"If you say so," he replied, pecking my nose, causing me to scrunch it up.
"Ashlyn! It's our turn!" Lauren yelled, waving at me. I let go of Luke and sloshed through the shallow water to the beach. Luke followed behind me and found a place to sit in the sand to watch me play. I jogged up to Lauren and she introduced me to the team we were playing against.
"I'm Oli," the first guy said. He gave me a short glance, then turned back to chatting up some brunette chick.
"Hey, I'm Zach," he said with a wink. Ah, a flirt. How nice.
"Ashlyn and I are going to be a team," Lauren announced.
"Cool," Zach said. "So, you ever played a game of beach volleyball?"
"No, but my boyfriend-" I said, stressing the word boyfriend and hoping he'd take a hint "-and I play it in gym class a lot," I replied, gesturing towards Luke, who waved at me. Zach seemed to take the hint and didn't talk to me much after that.
~
"You're really good, Ash," Lauren said, high-fiving me.
"Thanks, you too," I replied. We absolutely demolished Zach and Oli, which I'm extremely happy for. Zach acted like an extreme shower-bag the entire game, saying he was gonna cream us because we are girls. I wanted to punch his lights out for all the comments he made.
"How about a rematch?" Zach suggested, approaching me casually.
"Sorry, I'm gonna go hang out with my boyfriend," I replied.
"How 'bout this. Meet Oli and I here tomorrow at one for a rematch to prove it wasn't some sort of beginners luck," he pushed. And me being the competitive person I am, especially around guys, I agreed.
"Fine, I'll be here. Prepare to be beaten... again," I replied, smiling a fake sweet smile and going back over to where Luke was sitting.
"Great game," Luke said, pulling me down to sit in front of him.
"Thanks," I replied, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. "I'm glad we creamed the jerk."
"I don't like him," Luke frowned.
"Only 'cause he was hitting on me," I teased.
"And because he was being a jerk to you," he added.
"Hey, guys," Lauren said, sitting down beside us.
"Hey Lau," I replied as Luke nodded to her.
"Tonight we're all sneaking out for a bonfire. You in?" she asked.
"Yea, sounds great. What time?"
"Great!" she cheered. "Anytime after midnight is good. All depending on when the parents are asleep."
"Ok, sounds good," I replied, smiling at her. It'll be nice to get away from our parents and be able to have some fun with other teenagers.
"Well, I've gotta go now. See you tonight," she said. Before she got up, she leaned over and whispered in my ear, "You two are the cutest couple ever, by the way."
"I'd like to think so," I replied, smiling widely. "See you later," I said, waving as she walked away with a couple other girls.
"What'd she say?" Luke asked.
"She said that we were the cutest couple ever," I replied, still smiling. His face broke out into a smile matching my own.
"Seems we're pretty good at being a couple," he replied. I hummed in agreement and lay out on the towel we were sitting on with my head in Luke's lap.
