School is out for summer. Thank god.
"Come on Tris!" My best friend Christina says, pointing at her computer screen. "You need to do something fun this summer! You never want to do anything. You don't like shopping, pedicures, spa days…" She stops, and her face scrunches up, trying to think of more things she's tried to drag me to, I assume.
I stare at the screen for a moment. Dauntless Surf Academy is written in bold across the top. It would be fun to learn how to surf, I suppose. After all, if I'm going to live in Florida, I might as well learn to do something beach related.
"Fine," I mutter. "One class. I'll try one class."
Christina wraps her arms around my neck. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she exclaims. "We are going to have so much fun! And who knows, perhaps there will be some cute surfer boys." She wiggles her eyebrows.
I sigh. There it is. "That's the only reason you wanted to do this, isn't it?"
A big toothy grin stretches across her dark lips. "Maybe."
"Christina!"
She clicks the sign up button before I have any more time to protest.
"It will be fun!"
I groan.
—
"Two piña coladas please." Christina winks at the cabana boy.
"Make mine virgin." I tell him, glaring at Christina. She could easily pass as 21, even though we are only 16, but myself, yeah, not so much.
"You got it." He smiles politely and walks toward the outdoor bar to prepare our drinks.
"You're no fun!" Christina elbows me in the side playfully. "Maybe if you had just taken the drink, you could lighten up a little."
"There is absolutely no way I could pass for twenty one, Christina."
"With that bikini you could!" She giggles and points to my chest.
The printed top is probably three times bigger than my actual size, even though it was the smallest one they had. Christina insisted we buy it anyway, since it made my chest look bigger. I swear, it is going to fall off any second now.
I grin and shake my head. Christina puts in her "bling" earbuds, and turns on whatever her latest pop favorite is. She and I have very different tastes. She enjoys pop music with whoever the latest hit is, while I just listen to Imagine Dragons over and over again.
I pull out my novel, Paper Towns, from my blue and white striped beach bag, along with some more sunscreen. It doesn't take much for my pale skin to fry, and I don't even tan if I do.
While I am reading, I notice some hungry stares come my way. A few teenage boys' eyes scan my body, and I feel sick. I haven't gotten this kind of attention before. I hope they aren't stupid enough to try something, but if they are, at least I know with my hand to hand combat background, I could any of them down.
In a little while, the cabana boy brings our piña coladas back, and Christina and I gladly grab them from him.
She holds her cup up. "To summer!"
I smile and raise my cup up to hers. "To summer!"
We both take a sip.
"Mmm," I smile. I had forgotten how much I loved the frozen pineapple coconut drink.
"Try a sip of mine, Tris." She takes another sip. "It's sooo good."
"No I'm fine, really." I insist. I go crazy when I eat bread, I don't want to know what would happen if I drank alcohol.
She shrugs. "Whatever you say." She leans back on her hot pink towel she used to cover the pool chair, sipping at her beverage.
A kid at the poolside runs and leaps into the air, curling up into a ball just before hitting the water's surface. Almost in slow motion, the water from his splash gets all over Christina. I burst into hysterical laughter.
"TRIS!" Christina sits up, and raises the heart shaped sunglasses off her face. "IT ISN'T FUNNY!"
"You're right," I say in-between bursts of laughter. "It's hilarious."
She glares at me, and then the kid who made the splash. He could care less.
"Now when I go up to the Hotel room I'm going to be all wet." She mutters.
Even though Christina and I live here in Florida, we decided to get a hotel room for the two of us this summer, and have a little stay-cation. And enjoy the hotel's many amenities, of course. Such as direct beach access, a pool, and outdoor tropical cabana thing. We needed a little bit of an escape from the beach's neighboring town.
"Isn't that why you wore your swimsuit?" I question.
"That, Honey, was so I didn't have to order the virgin piña colada."
I roll my eyes.
Christina pulls up her phone and positions it to take a selfie of us. We smile, and she snaps the photo. I'm not a big fan of taking selfies, but I've spent enough time around Christina to become used to it. She uploads the picture to Instagram, with the hashtag "poolsidebabes".
"Babes?" I raise my eyebrows.
She laughs. "You're a total babe, Tris."
I shake my head. "I don't see it." Between my pale skin, chin length blonde hair, and small frame, I'm not a "babe". Especially where beach babes are concerned. You know, the chicks with the long wavy blonde hair, and the tanned skin. But whatever.
The sun starts to set behind the ocean, and a beautiful array of pinks, oranges, and pale yellows coat the sky. It's beautiful.
All the little kids start to leave the pool, and the teenagers enter. The pool's lights come on, and water comes out of holes in the concrete that surrounds the pool in brightly colored spurts. A few people let out some whoops, and someone fires up some dance music.
When the sun goes completely down, and the only lights are the ones coming from the pool and hotel, Christina grabs my arm, and pulls me with her as she jumps into the pool.
I let out a yell and she laughs. We sink to the bottom of the pool from her momentum, and I swim up to the top quickly. I had no idea she would do something like that, and didn't have the proper amount of breath.
I come up to the surface with a gasp, and when I open my eyes, I notice dark blue ones starting back at me. My breath hitches. The boy attached to those eyes is very attractive.
"You alright?" He asks, his thick, dark eyebrows scrunching together with concern.
"Yeah- yeah!" My thoughts scatter. "I'm fine."
He smiles. "Good."
I doggy paddle over to the section of the pool where my feet can touch the ground. The boy follows me, discretely.
"Hey Four!" Someone shouts from across the pool.
The boy turns his head in that direction. "Yeah?"
"Another drink?"
"Nah, I'm good, Zeke." He smiles and his gaze comes back to me.
He looks at me, but not in the same way the boys were looking at me earlier. He looks at me as if I my face is beautiful. As if I am beautiful. And not a just an object he could screw later.
A familiar song by Walk The Moon starts to play.
"Would you…" The boy, Four, starts. "like to dance?"
I don't normally dance, but something about this boy is hard to say no to.
I smile and nod. He holds out both hands and I grab them. We jump up and down to the beat with the flashing neon lights. Maybe this summer will be different. Maybe this summer I will be brave.
Oh don't you dare look back.
Just keep your eyes on me."
I said, "You're holding back,"
She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"
This woman is my destiny
She said, "Oh, oh, oh,
Shut up and dance with me."