Surrender

chapter 11

Chapter 11

With rocky road and moose tracks sugar ice cream cones in hand, they settled into the sand and watched the apricot-magenta sun descend into the ethereal and languid, blue-violet abyss. The day was coming to an end, yet their friendship was only beginning to blossom.

            Sophie caught a drop of melted chocolate ice cream dripping down her cone with her tongue. Chris stared at her, the look in his eyes resembling that of a mesmerized child attending the circus for the first time.

            "What?" She blushed, discomfited.

             "Nothing," he said, shaking his head with an amused glint in his eyes.

            "I feel like a little kid again. I can't remember the last time I did something like this," she mused.

            "Like what?"

            "Have ice cream on the beach. Watch the sunset with someone." She immediately regretting saying the latter as soon as it had tumbled out of her mouth. She didn't want him to take any clichéd romantic innuendos from their day together. A plethora of emotions that had lain dormant over the past year were working in overdrive; she could feel them bursting in her chest, in the pit of her stomach, tingling in her fingers and her toes. Hell, she could even feel them buzzing in the air like a swarm of wasps, threatening to restore every ounce of feeling and humanity that she'd lost yet was petrified to regain. "I mean, just, you know, watching the sun literally set--"

            "I know what you mean." He grinned, and spared her any further opportunities of making a fool out of herself. "It's nice being able to share a moment like this with someone."

            His eyes met hers, and she suddenly wished she hadn't insisted that he take off his sunglasses earlier in the day. But it was very unlikely for him to wear them at dusk, even if it was to spare her his entrancing, all-knowing, and sometimes mocking, gaze that put her under a spell of sheer stupidity and tongue-tiedness.

            They finished their ice cream in silence. The sun disappeared over the horizon some time ago, giving way to a sliver of moon in the darkening sky. Loud cries of glee echoed over the thunderous roller-coasters in the distance. The rainbow colored lights of the Ferris Wheel flickered like a neon sign. The carnival on the pier was open all year round, but it got especially crowded with out-of-towners during the summer. Some of her fondest memories of Sammy and their friends were made in that carnival; letting go of pretenses in the photo booth, heads spinning at the tilt-awhirl, sharing cotton-candy-sweet kisses, screaming at the top of their lungs as they rocketed down the roller-coasters.  

            She leaned her elbows against the sand and listened, a wave of nostalgia washing over her. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath of the refreshing ocean air.

            Chris leaned back to match her pose. "What are you thinking about?"

            "Just…reminiscing about the past," she answered, closed-eyed, not willing to let go of the scrapbook of memories just yet. The past wasn't all bad, she told herself, even though it often seemed that way. Upon opening her eyes, she floated back down to earth. She could feel the scratchy sand digging into her elbows, the soft breeze brushing her face, her toes tickled by finger waves. She watched Chris gazing at the stars, his lips pressed firmly as he remained deep in thought. He was an enigma to her, a puzzle with missing pieces that she desperately scrambled to find in hopes of filling the gaping holes between who she thought he was and who he truly was. And it didn't help that he hadn't given her much to work with.