The Heartless Persona

3

The next afternoon, the Walkers and the Hastings shared a beach house in Puerto Rico. The adults went to a bar not too far away and as far as Keri knew, everyone else was on the beach.

She had just came from the patio wearing her new bathing suit. Her bare feet touched the cold tiling in the kitchen while she searched for a water bottle in the fridge.

The plane ride was horrible. Mrs. Walker and Mr. Walker wouldn't stop talking about how big Keri had gotten and how beautiful she was and how they hadn't seen her in a forever. There was a great amount of awkward tension between Keri and Cam, although they hadn't spoken a word to each other.

Keri just needed some time to relax, so she had went out to tan.

"Oh, sorry, um, I thought everyone left," Keri heard a deep voice. Her eyes trailed down a very toned torso that was dripping with water.

There was a towel wrapped around Cam's waist, his hair had droplets of liquid, and he smelled like soap. He scratched the back of his head as he kept his piercing blue eyes low.

Keri looked away as she closed the fridge. "It's fine," she murmured. That was the first time they had spoken in about three years. It went quiet between the two for a while as Keri sipped her water and Cam ate a snack.

Cam's two brothers, Mason and Jack, walked through the door, soaking wet. Mason was seventeen, a year younger than Cam, and Jack was six.

"That water is so warm," Mason had a crooked smile as he walked in the kitchen.

Mason and Cam looked identical. They both had high cheekbones, dimples at the corner of their mouths, thin lips, and long eyelashes. Cam kept his brown hair swept across his forehead, unlike Mason who usually used gel to keep it up. Jack, on the other hand, had a smidge of baby fat left, especially on his cheeks. He had big brown eyes, unlike his older brothers. And was missing a few of his teeth and had freckles all over his face.

"You gotta go in there!" Mason exclaimed.

Cam snickered quietly as he moved his eyes to the floor. "Cute girls were there?" He looked back to his brother.

"Was I that obvious?" Mason asked. "Keri, have you been in the water yet?"

"Oh, um, no," Keri toyed with her finger nails, that were freshly painted.

This was so unlike her. She was never this uncomfortable. Keri Hastings always held her head high, but now it seemed as if she was her old self. That awkward kid that no one liked.

"I just laid out..." All of a sudden, Keri realized what she was becoming.

She painted a smile on her face and lifted her head. Her posture straightened and she stuck her chest out a little.

"But I'm sure I'll go down there soon. I have to find at least one cute boy here," she batted her eyelashes.