Focused

You Only Live Once

"I miss you so much, Marley. It's not the same without you." Jay said choking up on the phone.

"I miss you too. I've been thinking though." Here goes.

"Is this really going to work?" I heard Jay sigh on the other end.

"I have to go." Jay abruptly hung up. I sat up on my bed. What was that about? I looked over at my new poster of John Bender shooting his fist in the air from The Breakfast Club. What am I going to do? Long distance relationships usually don't last very well, long. 

"Hey bitch! Whatcha doing?" Kary came in and sat down beside me. 

"Well, I was talking to Jay and I don't know how long we're going to last." I looked at a tiny hole in the wooden floor.

"That's a bummer. So, tonight there's this bonfire at one of my friend's house. We should totally go together." There's Kary for you. 

"No. I don't know anyone here." I didn't want to go to some strange guy's party. 

"Well, I do." Kary stood up put her hands on her hips. 

"I don't--" Kary put her hand over my mouth.

"You're going. I'll be hanging ten if you need me." She smiled sweetly and backed out of my room. 

I changed into my bathing suit and walked outside to the beach. The waves seemed higher today and the sun was brighter. I saw Kary in a black wet suit talking to Stephen and she was holding a cherry red surfboard. She saw me and waved. Stephen however, did a double take when he saw me in my new bikini. I can't say I wasn't happy about that. I walked over to them and stood by Kary. Stephen was waxing a light blue surfboard that had YOLO on the top written in a graffiti style. Kary said she was going to teach me how to surf. I put on a wet suit and felt like a scuba diver. She showed me the basics and told me pretty much everything about surfing even the history of it. Then, we went out in the water. I laid on the surfboard she gave me. We both stalked the seas waiting for a big enough wave to come. Then, a huge wave morphed in the distance and I looked at her. She gestured for me to try to ride it. My heart pounded. I have never surfed before in my life. The wave came closer and I got ready. I stood up and felt a rush. All of the sudden, I was on top of a wave. My arms wiggled and I tried to steady myself. Kary clapped and whooped back on the shore. I was really far away. I turned around to look behind me and saw a huge wave barreling towards me.

Again? The wave moved closer and I tried to prepare myself once again, but it was just too much. The wave came over and I fell off my surfboard and into the water. My eyes burned under the water. My foot was still attached the strap on the surfboard which was somewhere above the water. I struggled to breathe. I came up and turned my head to see no Kary or Stephen on shore. Another wave came towards me again and I took a gulp of air and swam under the water to my surfboard. Why was the leg rope so long? I finally came above and threw my arms on the surfboard, so I could finally get some air. I rubbed my eyes and nose trying to stop the burn from the water. I could barely see because the salt in my eyes. I looked over at the shore again. I saw a figure with a jet ski coming towards me. I padded my feet a little to move towards them. The figure had muscular arms and toned biceps. The figure put me on the back of their jet ski and we started back to shore. I grasped the leg rope of the surfboard and watched it bob in the water as we sped back to shore. Everything looked really funny. It almost seemed like a dream. The figure laid me down on the sand and started pushing on my chest. I saw my father walking towards me and he was smiling. I reached up to him so he could pull me up. Then, I felt warm lips against mine and someone was pushing on my chest. How rude. 

I arose and started coughing sea water up. I struggled to breathe. My eyes felt like they hadn't opened for years and my chest burned. I looked and saw Stephen sitting by me. The figure must have been him. 

"Stephen?" My voice cracked. 

"Are you okay? God, I hope mom and dad don't find out." I looked at him confused.

"Dude, Marley you almost drowned. Two huge waves came at you and you were under the water for probably two minutes." Stephen rubbed his hands together. Where did Kary go?

"Where's Kary?" I looked around us and just saw the cherry red surfboard sitting in the sand. 

"She's in the garage looking for some rescue thing." He rubbed the back of his neck. I stood up and walked into the garage. Kary was mumbling to herself and looking threw storage bins in the garage.

"Oh my. Are you okay?" Kary turned around and looked at my forehead. I felt it and touched around my head line. I looked at my hand and saw blood on it. 

"You're bleeding. It's just a scratch though." We went inside and cleaned my scratch. 

"You'll look fine tonight." She clapped her hands and helped me out of the wet suit. We went back outside and talked with Stephen. Kary said she was sorry and that I wasn't ready to go out in the water yet to try and surf.

*

*

It was 5:00 in the evening and Aunt Jade and Uncle Tom got back from work. They both work together at the Orlando Zoo. 

"Hey guys. Did you have fun today?" My aunt came over and hugged all of us sitting on the couch.

"Yeah, we had a lot of fun." Kary widened her eyes and grabbed popcorn out of a white bowl sitting on the coffee table. 

"Well, that's great. I'm glad." Aunt Jade looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. I did have fun... until I almost drowned. 

We all ate dinner and an hour after that, I was in Kary's room helping her decide which dress to wear to the bonfire at her friend's house. Sadly, she was forcing me to go along with her. 

"So, the black dress or the blue one?" Kary looked at me and snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Um black." She looked pleased at my decision.

'Good. Exactly what I was thinking." She went to the bathroom. I stood up and walked around her room examining posters. She had so many it was hard to count. A few minutes later she came out wearing a black lacey topped dress it was gorgeous and casual. She had a thin white belt around it and she wore black high heels with a strap at the top too. 

"You look awesome." She smiled as thanks.

"Well, let's find you something." I walked up to her closet and looked through her clothes. She had a lot of beachy cover ups and dresses. I found an adorable yellow sundress and white strappy heels to wear to the bonfire. 

"Your dress is Juicy Couture. I got it for graduation. Even though, I'm a junior." She looked at the dress longingly. 

"I'm so sorry. Why didn't you say so? I'll go change." I headed back up the stairs, but Kary grabbed my arm.

"No, wear it. It looks good on you." We headed downstairs and Stephen looked at us coming down while he ate pretzels leaning against the counter. He looked at me and smiled. 

"Wow, Marley. Looking good." He punched my arm playfully. 

"Um hello? Your sister is standing right here. She spun around and her dress flowed around her.

"Okay fine. You look...okay." He laughed and she took the pretzel he had in his hand and ate it laughing also.  Aunt Jade came around the corner and saw us. 

"You both look so gorgeous. Have fun at the bonfire. Hey, and Kary if you're going to get drunk again don't take the golf cart." She laugh and went around the corner. 

So, we went outside and took the golf cart anyway.

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A/N

Marley's dress is on the side and like she said, It's adorable. 

This chapter was dedicated to Flickerings because she is so nice and a talented writer!

Check out her story Infectious!

-Katie :)