Most Lovely Words

Chapter 2: Sea Breeze

The sun shined through my apartment window as afternoon settled in, and Bry was still sleeping next to me. As the little clock I had on the wall clicked over to 12:02, I could hear the loud music from his phone blaring from my bedroom, and I darted to it before it could jolt him awake. I felt a quiet horror at the name. It was his mother. How was he going to tell her? When was he going to? I silenced the call and quietly crept back into the living room to see Bry sitting upright and giving me a curious stare.

"It was your mom," I informed him.

He nodded, but there was something different about him. There was a deep sadness in his eyes and a new look I'd never seen on his face. He frowned a little and sighed. He knew she had to find out eventually. I walked over and sat down beside him on the couch. Placing a hand on his shoulder, neither of us said anything. What could be said, after all? An hour could've passed for all I knew, and we didn't say a word. There was a feeling in the air that hadn't finished settling in last night, but it seemed to have finally made its way to both of us. An idea popped into my head then, and I looked at Bry with a grin. Jumping up, I held out my hand to him and smiled.

"What... what are you doing?" He asked, with an amused laugh.

"Let's go to the beach. We can even listen to music on the way there."

Bry smiled widely and nodded, standing up and walking to my room to grab his phone. After grabbing mine and texting my mom, we shared my pair of headphones on the walk to the beach as Crush by Tessa Violet played on Spotify. What a fantastic time for that song to play. Ugh.

When we finally made it fifteen minutes later, the beach was nearly filled with families and teens lounging all over. I was ready to say fuck it since I had massive social anxiety and despised crowds to no end, but Bry grinned and pointed to an empty spot just along the water.

"There." He said confidently. "It's the perfect spot. Nothing like being right against the ocean. You can really enjoy the sea breeze."

I noticed then one slight problem; we were still in our pajamas from the night before, and Bry didn't have any shoes on. We both looked down at the same time to realize we only had socks on our feet. Bry smirked as he kicked off his socks and went running for the spot he'd shown me.

"B- Bry!" I cried out, embarrassing myself as a group of onlookers stared at me in confusion. "Damn it."

He was taking off his shirt and pants as he walked right into the water, and I felt heat covering my cheeks as I ran after him. Running into the warm ocean water in cotton pajamas was my first mistake, and not bringing a change of clothes was my second. This is what I get for being spontaneous.

"Was there any reason for that?" I exclaimed when I reached his side.

"You only live once!" Bry laughed as he ran a handful of water through his hair.

"And I only have one set of clothes! That are now soaking wet!" I grimaced.

He gathered a large scoop of water in his hands and tossed it at me with a laugh, and we were suddenly flicking water at each other like little kids in a pool. Laughing and smiling the whole time. His bright smile, the happiness in his eyes, and the way we spent God knows how long at the beach, made me almost forget he was dying. It didn't feel like the truth. How could he be dying when he was so happy, so energetic and lively?

Enough people started watching us that I began to notice, and that drew to a close our day out. Helping him grab his clothes, I picked up the phone that I'd thrown on the sand and chuckled. We strolled on the way back, no music playing this time around. The light mood at the beach seemed to have stayed there, and Bry had gone quiet. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but I knew. I had made him forget, too. And now, there was nothing to distract him. It was so much fun to just be with him that for a small corner of time, it had felt like it was just us. No cancer to take him away from me. No pain that he would have to endure. Only an ocean and two people having not a care in the world.