My Mirror Image

bike rides and chasing waves

Chapter 8
bike rides and chasing waves

"You would not believe it. California is breathtakingly fun." I chirped to Kaylee on the phone.

"Yeah. I know. I've been there dozens of times." Kaylee snapped back at me.

"Yeah, you've visited, and you've technically been here, but you've never really been here." I corrected

"Mom said I could come for a week in July." Kaylee sassed.

"Read at 9:35," I laughed. "gotta manually ignore these hoes." I whispered under my breath. Then I pressed the red button and put my new iPhone 6 (sry 2 brag) down, forgetting about the horrifying conversation I just had. Kaylee, coming here? staying with me? no. no way. I wasn't even gonna talk to my mom about it. If she showed up no one would be there to pick her up from the airport. sorry?

••••••••••••••••••

Hayes was messing with his hair as we were walking down the beach. Midnight Memories was playing in a resturaunt near the parasail stand. We walked up and Hayes pulled out Nash's credit card and paid for a 1,200 foot ride for 2. We picked up some snorkeling goggles and the go pro cameras Hayes got from Aeronow.

We rode out to a bigger boat on a banana boat. Man, Hayes loved those things. He pretended he was in the Coast Guard or something. He kept pretend-shooting me. I would fake die and then one time he pushed me off and we stopped doing the little gun thing.

We hopped off the banana boat and onto the parasailing boat. I was about to pass out. I asked the worker to let us go last. I heard that the people who go last get more time. I watched as other couples and siblings went up and came down with huge smiles on their faces.

As soon as I saw people smiling, I wasn't anxious anymore, just excited.

"Alright kids let's go." Kevin, the parasail also surfer dude (as he told me), yelled in my direction. Me and Hayes climbed into the straps. If felt like I was sitting in a chair. We made sure everything was tight and hooked on and without warning, we were up.

I felt like I was gonna throw up. Well, at first. After like 2 minutes we were finally all the way up. We took a selfie and then I realized there was no noise. At all. It's like once you get up there, you can't hear anything. Except I heard Hayes whispering "I love you" in my ear. I turned around and without meaning to, kissed him. It felt right. I didn't really mean to since I'm not usually the one to make moves. I mean psh we've kissed plenty of times, but it was different this time. It's never been this quiet. Our first kiss was at the airport, with my mom yelling at Kaylee. Next was at the fair, in the movies, at school, in a resturaunt, at a concert, in an airplane. It's never felt like this. It felt so much more real.

"I love you too Benjiman Hayes Grier," I spoke quietly. I didn't have to yell up here. "with everything that I am."

"Aw Jo-" Hayes began.

"No stop, like seriously. This began with an obsession I had over you. I thought about you all the time. I imagined things about us going on dates and hanging out. I even wrote a fanfiction about you. Yeah, I'm one of those crazy fangirls. I never thought wishes came true. Until I met you, that is. Nobody ever talked to me the way you do. It's so different and interesting and amazing to be even near you. You picked me out of a crowd of millions of girls who love you. I was just another Hayes-crazy girl. And you make me feel like something so much better. And did you realize that in a few short months, at the end of the summer, it will be a year for us?" I didn't know what I was saying, the words just spilling out of my mouth.

"Jordan, watch out." Hayes yelled.

"What?" I looked around and realized I had gotten so lost in those blue eyes that I didn't know where I was. And crashing into the ocean, that was where I was.