summer boy ~ tal fishman ✓

~28~

'The last one in the water is a potato!' I shout and I sprint to the sea. I nearly trip and now Tal is coming closer to me. Gone is my head start. Great, Julia. I run towards the water and I am so close. Am I going to win? That would be new. 

All of a sudden I feel arms around my waist pulling me back. 'I'm going to win', I hear Tal whisper while he picks me up. My feet are off the ground now. Why do I have to be so small?

'No, no no that's not fair! You are cheating!' I start trying to get out of his grip by wiggling my arms and body. He just laughs. Suddenly he lets me go and he sprints to the water. I run too, but by the time I am a few feet away from it, Tal is already up to his waist in the water. Which leaves a great view on his toned stomach. I could stare at him all day. 

That sounded pretty creepy. Not even pretty creepy, it sounded really creepy. I should stop this creepiness before it gets out of hand. Wait, it already is. Great.

I walk over to Tal. 'You cheated! I would have won if you didn't stop me!' I say and I pout my lips. He smiles at me. 'Would have. But you didn't, you lost. What would you like me to do about it then?' he asks with a grin. I think for a bit. Hopefully, I can think of a good punishment which is very benificial for me. Like him getting me food or something.

While I am thinking, I feel Tal's arms around my neck and legs and he literally sweeps me off of my feet. I am just really confused. Why would he do that? My skin tingles from where he's touching me. I look at his amused face and still can't figure out what he is planning to do. He's definitely up to something.

Then he lets me go and before I can even think about what just happened, I am underwater. I quickly close my eyes and get back up to the surface. 'Was that necessary?' I ask, wiping my face.  'Yes', he answers. I don't think about it too long and I scoop my hands full of sea water and in one quick movement, I drop it on his hair. His perfectly styled hair. Which he probably took a lot of time on this morning. Its color is somewhere between dark blonde and brown. It looks good on him. 

I laugh when I see his disappointed face. 'Karma!' I shout before I ruffle his hair, ruining it some more. I laugh again and quickly he joins in, so we're both laughing. We start talking about random stuff and we swim around a bit. It's getting a bit later and the sun is starting to get lower, turning more orange with the minute. 'You want ice cream?' he asks after a while. 'Who says no to ice cream?' I ask him honestly.

There's barely any line, so we get our ice cream cones pretty quickly. We sit down on our towels again and eat our ice cream. I got mango because it's so sweet and summery. Summery definitely is a word, right? It is now. I'm going to add that to my imaginary dictionary.

We're pretty close right now, which I really don't mind. There is a silence between us but it's a comfortable silence. I stare at the sun, which is turning more of a red tone right now, and he does so too. 'Be honest with me. What did you first think of me when you saw me?' I ask after we both finished our ice cream. 'Why?' 'I am interested in people's first impressions of me.' I lay my head on his shoulder, still staring at the pretty sunset. This date is so cliche but I had so much fun. 

'Will you tell me what you thought of me then?' I take my head off of his shoulder and I look at him. 'Yeah, of course. Now tell me', I say impatiently. 'You are very cute when you are slightly annoyed at me', he says with a laugh. 'I should annoy you more often', he finishes his sentence. 'You annoy me enough', I say back. It is the truth. He annoys me sometimes. But it doesn't matter, I don't mind.

'But what I thought was that you were very pretty. And when I got to know you better, I started liking you more. And what did you think about me?' he tries to change the topic. 'Well, to be very honest, I just thought you had, sorry have, the prettiest eyes ever and-' Tal mumbles something but I can't hear him. 

'What?' 'I said yours were prettier but continue'. I just smile. 'And I thought you were pretty hot and I felt so stupid for not giving you my number the first day when you asked. You were so nervous then! But thankfully I saw you again like a few days later. When I fell, remember that?' I laugh. Tal laughs with me. I love his smile and I do not want this night to end. Like, ever. Well, that didn't sound cliche, Julia.

'And after I moved, I was so thankful my parents put me on your school otherwise I probably wouldn't ever have seen you again and I wouldn't have met Meredith either. Which would be a disaster.' He chuckles. I'm only half-joking, though. Now that I have one, I don't understand why I didn't try to make a best friend before. Oh wait- maybe because my last 'bestie' betrayed me.

The sun is setting and it is very pretty. The sky turned so beautiful with all those colors. I feel Tal putting an arm around me. I feel so safe right now, but at the same time, my arm is burning from where he is touching me. His hand on my bare skin. It feels pretty darn good. 

'What if we went swimming. Like right now?' I ask without taking my eyes off of the sunset. 'That would be pretty awesome', he replies. I smile. 'Let's go!' I stand up and Tal just smiles and looks at me. It's adorable and I feel my cheeks are getting red. Hopefully, it's too dark to determine colors...

This time I'm in the water first. Tal follows shortly after. We just laugh and look at the sunset for a bit. When we are done laughing and the sun has set, Tal breaks the silence between us. 'I don't know why, but I just feel like you are a cupcake.' I laugh. 'And why so?' 'Well, cupcakes are sweet and cute and so are you. Besides that, I like cupcakes and I like you.' My cheeks are officially on fire right now. 

'You are so damn hot', I mutter. Seriously? First of all, that was supposed to be said in your head. Second of all, he thought about something meaningful and you're just like well thank you and um you are hot? Why am I talking to myself as if I am two people? I am getting crazy. It's Tal. He's messing with my mind. He can't help it nor can I. That sounded so poetic. Wow.

'Are we going swimming or what?' I ask with a grin on my face. The only answer I get is Tal grinning back at me, grabbing my hand and then dragging me towards the deeper waters. 

After literally two minutes, my feet can't touch the bottom anymore and I'm already swimming. Tal isn't yet, the water is just up to his shoulders. I'm not going to waste any energy on swimming if Tal is still able to stand, so I grab his shoulders with both hands to keep me afloat. 

I pull him closer to me and he stops walking so I can hold onto him. I've wrapped my arms around his neck and I wrap my legs around his waist so my head is still above the water surface. I can hear his breathing hitch for a little when I do so. I smile at that. He's so cute. 

Not long after that, Tal can't stand anymore either. I let go of him and we both start swimming a bit further. We swim for a bit but then stop so we won't get too far from the shore. We start swimming to stay afloat instead of moving forward. I feel like a dog right now. 

I look over at the pretty sky, to find a lot of pretty stars. I'm starting to get tired, we've been on the beach for pretty long now. 'Shall we go back?' I offer. 'Sure', Tal replies and we start heading back to the shore. When Tal is able to stand, he holds his hand out for me so I can grab it and stay afloat. I gladly do so and he pulls me with him out of the deeper part. I can stand again. Finally.

We head to an even shallower part until the water is around my waist. 'You look so pretty', Tal whispers. I turn around to face him and grab his face with both hands. Then I smash my lips onto his. And the fireworks return.