that summer [h.s.]

two.

A confused expression washed over the familiar boy's face. He paused for a moment.

"I'm sorry...have we met before?" He said, smiling but with his eyebrows furrowed. I could feel heat rise to my cheeks as everyone looked at me.

I knew that this was the boy I met at the beach the other night. There was no doubt in my mind. We talked on the beach for hours. He was from England but he was visiting his dad for the summer before he went to "uni," as he called it, which I found endearing at the time. We shared a joint while we washed the waves crash on the shore and talked about our lives. There's no way he was that drunk, right?

"Um- yeah...we met on the beach the other night?" I avoided eye contact now.

"I'm afraid I don't recall...sorry." I looked up at him as he smirked at me, shrugging.

I furrowed my eyebrows. How could he not remember? He had to have been fucking with me. Was he just trying to look cool in front of everyone for some reason?

"...You- We talked on the beach...for hours...you told me you were visiting your dad from England..I-"

"Are you stalking me?" He cut me off, snickering.

My face burned hot. The others standing around us chuckled and stared at me. Chloe, the girl standing next to Harry muttered something that I couldn't understand to him. He laughed. Why was he doing this? There was even a moment where I thought he might kiss me the other night...

"Anyway," He brought me out of my thoughts, making me realize that I was staring at him. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at my feet. "Your name is...?"

I shot him a dirty look. I knew he knew my name. We talked about how my name is Delilah but I only like being called Lila. Even if he didn't remember it from the other night, Carter had just said my name when I walked up.

"Lila." I said coldly, still avoiding eye contact.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Lila." Harry said, the condescending tone dripping off his words like tar. I rolled my eyes, still staring at my feet. Chloe put her hand up to her mouth, stifling a laugh.

After a few beats of awkward silence, everyone's chatter picked up again. Carter lightly rubbed my back, catching my attention.

"What was that about?" He said quietly enough so Harry couldn't hear, but I could feel him watching us.

Knowing Harry was watching and probably listening I just shrugged him off.

"I think I'm just going to head out Carter, I'm tired. Being out in the heat all day, you know?" I gestured my hand in the air. Carter gave me a sad smile and patted me on the arm.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow...you owe me a fried twinkie though." He pointed at me.

"Yeah, of course. See you." I smiled and turned around, headed towards the exit.

"Leaving so soon?" I hear the British accent call out after me. I turned my head over my shoulder and looked at him.

"Uh, yeah. Bye."

I turned back around and kept walking. He didn't say anything more but I could hear Chloe laughing. That bitch.

---

I got home and laid down on my bed, pulling my phone out. Getting curious, I opened up the Facebook app. I was determined to find Harry on Facebook.

As I was typing his name in, I realized I had no idea what his last name was. He never mentioned it.

"Damn it." I muttered to myself.

I pressed enter with just "Harry" typed into the search bar, hoping that I would get lucky. But of course, nothing popped up. He wasn't even from this country so I'm not sure why I thought that might work.

I searched Chloe on Facebook and looked through her friends. They seemed pretty chummy at the fair earlier, giggling together and shit, so they must be friends--

I paused. Why was I feeling...jealous? I had no reason or right to be. I shook my head as if to reset my thoughts and continued on with my search. Alas, I had no luck. I sighed and threw my phone down. Why did I want to lurk on his social media anyway?

"Are you stalking me?"

His words rang through my head. Lurking on him, some guy I barely knew at all, on Facebook definitely wasn't making me not look like I was stalking him.

I spent the rest of my evening before going to bed trying to do anything to get my mind off of Harry and how much he pissed me off tonight. I don't know why it affected me so much but I absolutely could not get my mind off of it.

He was so charming at the beach the other night...

I was sitting out by the waves by myself, nursing a beer. "Mind if I join?" A guy, a guy with a British accent, said behind me.

Startled a bit, I turned around and saw a rather attractive guy standing behind me, with a small smile on his face. He was standing with his arms behind his back. How could I not let a cute British boy sit with me?

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He chuckled, sitting down next to me before I even gave him the go-ahead. I realized that I must have been staring at him.

"No, that's okay...I just wasn't expecting anyone." I smiled, looking into his eyes. Even on this dark beach, I could see he had pale green eyes. They were beautiful.

"My name is Harry." He said, sticking his hand out. A bit taken aback, I took his hand, giving it a slight shake.

"You shake." I said, more as a statement than a question.

"You don't?" He smiled at me, a dimple popping out on his cheek.

"My name is Delilah, but I go by Lila." I said.

We must have sat there for two hours. Just talking about anything and everything. I know I had just met him but I really felt like there was...some sort of connection there.

I found out that he was eighteen, like myself, and he had also just graduated high school. He was visiting his dad who lives in San Diego for his last summer before going to college. He was in the process of finding a summer job to keep himself occupied so he didn't "lose his mind from being so bored." Although, he was in San Diego with no responsibilities so I have no clue how he could possibly get bored, but to each their own I guess.

At some point in the night, after a couple beers and sharing a joint together, we were just staring at each other for a moment. The waves were crashing in the background. His green eyes, glowing in the bright moon light, glanced down at my lips and then met mine again. My heart felt like it was caught in my throat as he leaned forward an inch--

"Lila, we're leaving!" My friend Janine called out, completely ruining whatever moment could have just happened.

I glanced back at Janine, who was waving her arm over her head at me. I looked back to Harry, who was now staring out at the waves. "I uh, I guess I better go then." I said.

"Yeah, um, it was nice talking to you Delilah."

"I told you I like being called Lila--"

"I know. But maybe it's our thing now." He cut me off, meeting my eyes again and smirking at me.

My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest.

"Goodbye Harry."

I snapped myself out of my thoughts, forcing myself to stop thinking about it. Clearly Harry didn't want to remember me for whatever reason and I just needed to accept that. I needed to pretend like that night on the beach never happened.

I got myself ready for bed. I had work early tomorrow and I could only hope that Harry wasn't working tomorrow too.

But with my luck, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to be the case.