Broken Wings

Chapter 13: Lick

"Damn, you're such a..." - Hailee Steinfeld

I went to the beach the next day after we unpacked, even though there wasn't much to do.

I settled down on the light soft sand, the mild and beautiful weather on a Saturday afternoon.

The beach wasn't too crowded and a few teenagers and kids played around in water or positioning theirselves on their backs, trying to get tanned. My leg was sweating inside my cast but other than that, the sunlight felt good against half-naked skin. I was wearing a black bathing suit, along with very short denim shorts.

I smiled as I watched people having fun in the water and making sand forts.

"Beautiful day, huh?" The sound of a husky male voice made me jump.

Looking up, I saw a half-naked tanned teenage boy spreading out a light blue and white towel on the sand.

My eyes captured his broad muscular body as he sat down right next to me. Those abs. This guy was gorgeous, my mind immediately decided.

He smirked when he noticed me gazing at his deeply tanned skin.

"Or is this view better?" He teased.

I blushed and quickly looked away. "Sorry."

"No, no. I don't mind." Then he leaned closer until I felt his breath against my ear. "It's every girls dream to touch it."

I moved away from him and looked at him like he was bonkers. I knew right away that this guy loved getting every girls attention.

"Oh, that's a surprise. Most girls would've already landed their hands on me by now." He grinned. "I can tell that you're different."

I wasn't going to let another guy in my life, not yet at least. I was still in the mourning stage over Luke.

I stood up and began to hop away.

"You want a drink or an ice cream?"

Seriously? This guy was not going to stop.

"What do you want?" I folded my arms.

"To get you to know you, sweetie." He grinned widely.

"What did you just call me?" This guy was starting to creep me out.

"Don't worry about it, precious. Can I get you something? You look like you could drink something with your leg stuffed into that cast. You're sweating."

I dragged my eyes down and saw that my casted leg was really dripping with sweat. He was right, I needed something cold.

"Alright, fine. I'll only let you get me an ice cream if you don't ever call me sweetie or precious again, deal?"

He showed of his perfect white teeth by smiling as wide as possible. "Deal."

"I'll be right back." He winked at me before he ran off towards the ice cream booth.

I shook my head and smiled as I began walking back to where I came from.

When he came back, he had a chocolate and a vanilla ice cream in his hands. "Which one would you prefer?"

"Chocolate."

"Really? What if I want it?"

"I called it first!" I stuck out my hand, gesturing for him to give it to me.

It took a few seconds for him to place a cone in my hand, and when he did, our skin made contact.

It didn't have the affect the way Luke made me feel, but it felt... better, somehow.

I could feel the flames firing up into my cheeks as I brought the cone down in front of me.

Before I took a lick out of the cream, I observed something wrong instantaneously about the color of the cream.

I had chosen chocolate over vanilla, but this boy had given vanilla to me instead. On purpose. I just knew it right away.

I whipped my head back up to see him licking out of the one I wanted as he seated himself on the towel he put on the ground earlier.

"You asshole!" I shouted.

"What?" He tried to play innocent but I could see the laughter in his eyes.

"Are you colorblind or something? I clearly said chocolate."

"I know." He grinned and licked the cream again. "You can have it now if you want."

He held it out.

"Oh, my gosh. No, it's fine." I tasted the white creamy vanilla on my tongue.

"Oh, shit." The next thing I knew, something thick, wet and cold landed on my upper right leg.

I slowly drifted my eyes to my leg, then I slowly glanced my eyes up at him.

Without saying a word, I dodged my own ice cream at him.

He didn't look the tiniest bit angry at me. In fact, he looked amused.

"What the hell was that for?" I demanded, a bit too loud.

"I-I'm sorry." He looked speechless for a while.

I stood myself up and danced on one foot as I hopped over to the ocean water.

"Grow up, Sasha," I grumbled out my thoughts.

"Sasha, huh. That's an uncommon name." And there he was, following me.

"Shut up." I placed myself on my knees in front of the water that was rushing at my bent legs.

"I'm Jesse, by the way." I noticed he wasn't washing the cream off of his body.

Why? Just why did he still have to look so damn good with all the white cream dripping down to his shorts?

"You're gross."

"Why?"

"Do you lick yourself clean instead of using actual water rather than your own saliva?"

"No. I left all this white cream on me because you were practically drooling just a few seconds ago while staring at this." He gestured to the sticky mess on his front.

"I was not." I scooped up a handful of the warm water and splashed it on top of the chocolate ice cream sticking on to me.

"Yeah, you were. You like me better in a white mess." He winked.

"Yeah, I like you better in a white mess. It makes you look disgusting."

He was taken aback as I rubbed off the cream and stood up.

"That's why I was drooling. You found some way to manage to make yourself look like a complete fool."

And with that, I hobbled away with my crutches.

After a couple of seconds, I turned around to see him staring after me with a look of curiosity and amusement in his eyes.

I gave him the eye─don't even think about following me─and started heading home.

I felt a tiny pang of guilt as I leaped back home. I was never really good at making friends, but Jesse had just randomly walked up to me. And I felt like I had rejected him.

I decided to go back but when I turned my neck to look at him, he wasn't where I saw him last.