Hold Me Close

Chapter Three: Waves

-=Jason=-

We were all in one car, the five of us, with me driving. It takes us about an hour to get to the beach, and by the time we do it is perfect out. We all hopped out of the car and took stuff from the trunk, the ocean sounding in the distance with a Seabreeze scent filling our nostrils. I grabbed my chair and a cooler and led the way down the sandy path to the beach. Asphalt turned to concrete, which in turn became warm sand, pressing between my paws. I struggled a bit to pull the heavy cooler through the sand, but because it was later in the day, not too many people were out, and finding an open spot was easy. We set everything down, opening all of the chairs in a semi-circle facing the ocean. Small waves crashed to the shore, with the golden sun hanging lower in the sky and glinting off of the choppy water.

"C'mon, let's go!" Amy shouted as she practically began to skip to the ocean. The rest of us followed suit, nearing the salty water. Alyssa hesitated before the water, prodding it with her paw. She seemed uneasy about going in. A devilish thought crossed my mind as I snuck up behind her. She screamed as I picked her u, bridal style.

"JASON BRING ME BACK OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!" She screamed, flailing her arms and legs. I ignored the threats and screams that emanated from her maw as I laughed and carried her further in. Damned cats. She gave one last yelp before I finally threw her into the water. Her head quickly emerged from the waves as she wiped her eyes with her paw. She glared at me, then without warning jumped on top of me.

"Fucking bird." She said with a grin starting to form on her lips. The others laughed, even quiet Brandon.

"Ow! Watch the claws woman!" I said as I dropped her back into the water. On it went, eventually with us all floating on our backs, staring at the perfect color palette in the sky.

"We should head back before it starts getting colder." Ev advised, his head in his paws. He looked so peaceful, and for the first time in forever he actually looked happy. He had a rough time recently, with his family and high school, but college seemed to be already working wonders on him. His eyes are closed and a rather large smile on his face. I dropped my head back onto the water.

"Suppose you're right." I say and get into a standing position and tread water. Alyssa also began to get up.

"Ugh I don't want to swim that far." She said, looking at the sandy coast.

"Want a lift?" I offer, not really thinking. Meh, she seemed light enough.

"Wait, really?" She asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Sure, get on my back." I said. Haven't had a chance to fly in a long time, most of us avian furs don't actually do it much. Alyssa looked weary as she pushed herself up on my back. Definitely light enough.

"Not too high!" She quickly said as I unfolded my wings.

"No promises." I smirked as I pushed up off of the water. My wings flapped for the first couple of seconds giving me some lift. Alyssa's claws gripped me tight, but I didn't care. This was actually fun. I glided towards the shore, doing a quick circle to show off.

"Wooooooo! I'm flying!" She yelled, seeming to be getting over her fear as she threw her paws into the air. After a couple of minutes of flying around, with the others looking on jealously, I started to decend towards the beach. Alyssa jumped off quickly, landing on her feet with ease as I began to hit the ground. I stood, shaking off my wings and folding them back up. "You mean you could do that for years and you never told me?!" She questioned with a laugh as she ran up to me. I shrugged. "Whatever that was amazing!" She yipped giddily as she pulled me into a hug. I would be lying if I said I didn't like it.

Everyone else came up to us, Ev wolf-whistling - literally.

"Shut up." I say as I sit in my beach chair, throwing my feet up on the cooler. Alyssa sat next to me which was also cool. Do I like her? I don't know. The thought of me and her being a thing seemed weird, probably because we are such good friends.
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-=Evan=-

"I've got to take a leak." I said, lifing myself off of my chair with my buried feet.

"Sexy." Jason commented, looking at me. I stuck my tongue out and turned to walk to the bathrooms.

On my way back, something caught my attention. A familiar voice.

"Evan!" I turned my head to see a cream colored wolf bounding towards me. It was Alex. My ears immediately perked up, my tail starting to wag. "Whatcha doing here?" He asked as he reached me. Not out of breath at all.

"Oh. I'm...uh, here with some friends." I managed to say, trying to hide the tone of nervousness in my voice. I pointed to the group behind me, where Amy was looking over.
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-=Amy=-

I turned my head at the sound of someone calling Evan's name. No one else noticed, but my large ears did the trick. I saw him talking with a rather handsome wolf. But something was off. His tail was straining against his hidden grip, trying to wag ferociously. His ears were against his head and I could tell he was nervous. But why? Then it hit me. Ev likes that wolf. Ev did seem like the kind of person who would be into that kind of stuff. Meh good for him. Just as long as his stays away from the Chrone gang. They would tear him to shreads. I averted my attention back to the conversation, which was about boring classes and the recent frat house fight.

Five minutes later however, I heard that wolf's voice again. It was coming closer, and this time I wasn't the only one who noticed. Everyone turned to look at Ev and his friend as they came near us.

"Who's this?" Alyssa asked Ev.

"Oh, he helped me move in. Just found him here earlier." Ev replied. The wolf extended his paw to Alyssa, who shook it.

"Hi, I'm Alex." He said smiling.

"Nice to meet you Alex, I'm Alyssa. Come join us." She offered.

"Sorry, can't. Too much homework." He shook his head. He seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"Nonsense." I chimed in. "Any friend of Ev is a friend of ours." I threw him one of the spiked Gatorade bottles. He caught it in one paw and looked at it.

"Well maybe I can stay for a bit." He said as he sat in an empty chair. I winked over to Ev, who blushed as Alex sat next to him. On and on it went, just us talking and enjoying the sunset that eventually turned into darkness. By now we were all drunk. Well, except Brandon. He never drank. Which I suppose it alright, we needed a designated driver anyways. I personally only felt a bit buzzed, but Ev and Alex were a different story. They didn't seem to take their alcohol too well. Both were talking with slurred speach, tripping up a bit as we started to pack all of the stuff.

"Need a ride home Alex?" Brandon asked as he folded up his chair.

"I-if you don' mind." He stuttered. "My buddy lef' me here high n dry." So it came to be. Brandon driving with the rest of the seats filled and Alyssa riding on top of all of the stuff in the hatchback trunk.
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-=Evan=-

I leaned on Alex's shoulder as we hopped to my apartment. I told him he can spend the night here, he was in no shape to get home safely. Neither was I, I suppose. Never in my wildest dreams would I guess what came next.
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Sorry about the cliffhanger. Next chapter should be out soon though, so don't worry.