The End Is Only the Beginning

04. Blame It On the Alcohol

04. Blame It On the Alcohol

The first time we kissed was honestly the most cliché moment of my life.

It happened a few days after I took him to get burgers and came from out of nowhere.

Like most days I was at the beach with Aaron; this time he wasn't writing in his notebook and instead sat back to watch me surf. "You're pretty good at that," he spoke when I arrived back to the shore, sitting down on the sand at the water's edge.

"I've been surfing since I was six," I answered, unwrapping the leash from my ankle. "Do you do any sport?"

"Football," he answered, "but I hate it. My dad likes that I play it, he thinks it will give me a better chance of getting in a good college."

I didn't know how to answer that, so I instead remained quiet.

"You want a go?" I eventually asked, holding the leash of my board out in Aaron's direction.

Aaron barked out a laugh, "I'd probably drown."

"C'mon, I'll keep close," I smiled, standing up from the sand.

Aaron stood up but kept back, "I'm not exactly dressed to get wet," he argued again. He was wearing gym short, and t-shirt.

"Just take the shirt off," I suggested. "My house is like five minutes that way," I continued, pointing down the beach, "I'll get you a towel if you need one but your clothes would dry quickly enough anyway." I mean, the sun was out.

"Fine," Aaron gave in, dropping his notebook and phone onto the sand. His t-shirt was off a second later and I felt like I had swallowed my tongue. "So, what do you need me to do?"

            He'd barely been in the water for a minute yet Aaron was already drenched from head to toe. He'd practised on the sand for about ten minutes before he got bored and wanted to try 'the real thing'.

"How do you even balance on this thing?" Aaron asked, shuffling the board along the sand to where the water met the land.

I couldn't help but laugh, he looked like a newborn giraffe. "Spread your body weight, your feet can't be that close together," I spoke. Aaron tried to follow my instructions which led to him landing bottom-first in the sand with an 'uff'.

"I can't do this."

"Maybe that's because you skipped the actual practising part," I laughed as I walked up to Aaron again.

As soon as I was close enough Aaron grabbed onto my wrist as he stepped onto the board, desperately trying to shuffle himself and the board back out to sea again. "Just let me hold onto you, I've got this," he spoke calmly, his face only inches away from my own.

Aaron managed to keep his balance on the water for a whole ten seconds before he got too cocky. He'd just taken his hand off of my own when the board managed to slip from beneath him, and the next thing I knew he was tumbling into me, taking us both down onto the sand. "Shit," I hissed as Aaron landed on top of me, his elbow wedged in my rib.

"Oh my god," Aaron laughed loudly, propping himself up so his entire body-weight wasn't resting on my ribs alone. "I'm sorry," he gasped out through giggles, looking down at me with that beautiful smile that had enchanted me on the first day I had met him.

"I think you just broke my rib," I responded.

Aaron stared down at me and I could literally see the moment his expression changed. "Guess you're gonna have to get that checked out then," he spoke, the laughter in his voice dying down as he swallowed visibly.