The Summer of You and Me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He throws his back against the soft sand and it ripples away, leaving his imprint. He moves his torso back and forth and moves around his legs until he finds a comfortable position, and then lays his head back. He lets out an audible sigh, his chest rising and lowering, as he sinks deeper.

"You have sand in your hair," I say, reaching over and running my fingers through his unruly brown mob of hair. He smiles at me, squinting against the sun, and I lean down and kiss him on the cheek.

I look both ways down the long expanse of sand, and then out to the aqua-blue sparking water. No one else, nothing else but the two of us.

And I couldn't be happier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aria didn't expect any of this to happen.

Not being told she was being sent to a boarding school halfway across the country the day before her birthday.

Not missing the bus by two minutes, and being stranded in the rain in the middle of the desert.

Not meeting him, and going on an adventure she never thought possible.

And not learning what life's really all about.