A lot of the shops on the boardwalk had mail delivered to their business instead of their homes. Jamie liked it; everywhere he needed to go was closer that way, save where Steven lived, but they usually didn't get anything. Today he decided to get to the boardwalk in the morning, before the tourists came and made everything harder. Plus, the earlier he got this done, the less time he would have to spend tiredly trudging through the streets in the hot afternoon.
Life was a lot easier without a crush on anybody; he had talked himself out of liking Garnet a while ago. He definitely did not expect anything that would bring that struggle back.
Steven was skipping, rushing ahead, pulling somebody behind him. Jamie heard him say, "Oh man, I have to show you the arcade- you're gonna love it!" with his usual enthusiasm. "They have all these games..." A moment of silence. "Oh, don't worry, on earth we don't power things with gems, just wires and electricity. It's fine."Steven was adorable sometimes.
"Oh hi Stev-" he paused a moment, and his next breath was a bit shaky, "en..." Calm down, he told himself. Someone was standing next to Steven. Her short, carefree hair blew around in the wind. The sundress she wore was several different tones of blue, and it matched the lighter shade that covered her skin. Jamie didn't even question this; lots of weird things happened around here. You get used to it after a while.
Steven unknowingly saved Jamie from an award silence by saying, "Hi Jamie! Do you need any help later today?"
"No," Jamie said. It came out sounding a bit mean. However, Steven wasn't offended at all.
"Okay. He turned to the girl next to him. Lapis, this is Jamie. He delivers the mail to everybody, but he's a really good actor and play director too!"
"Um, hello," she said shyly. Her voice was sweet and melodic. Jamie melted. He opened his mouth to reply, but he didn't know what to say. Even if he had, he doubted he would have been able to say it. The wind ruffled her hair again, and the search for words became a bit more frantic, a bit more distracted. Steven, unaware of his dilemma, continued on,
"Jamie, meet my beach-summer-fun-buddy Lapis Lazuli! I'm showing her around. Do you want to come with us?" Yes, you do. Jamie thought, say yes. It's not hard.
"No, I have a lot of mail to deliver. Sorry, Steven." Why did I say that? He scolded himself silently, then sighed. Life just wanted to keep throwing these things at him, didn't it?