Zoey

The idiot had almost kissed me when he suddenly jerked back. My eyes shot open and I looked around.

"Hi…" an innocent-faced girl with caramel-coloured hair said slowly. "Sorry!'

She began to quickly walk away, a hand over her embarrassed face.

But Sean jogged to catch up to her. "Tamira, it's okay, come meet Zoey."

Oh, so now he wanted his friends to meet me? Before he couldn't get rid of them fast enough.

I was somewhat grumpy about not getting kissed.

"Hi, I'm Tamira," the girl said, nervously friendly, but her smile was honest. "You're Zoey, I know. It's not like I stalk you or anything but Sean just told me about you. Oh, and he wasn't like talking about you incessantly, he just--So you went surfing!!?"

Sean grinned at her affectionately. "Okay, Tamira? Oxygen plus cerebrum cortex equals GOOD. Okay? Okay, good."

Even though I was pretty sure that Sean had a thing for this girl, or at least he did at one point and still had feelings for her, I couldn't help immediately liking her. "I kinda surfed, yeah."

"I want to learn how," she said. I didn't hear laughter, but it was in her eyes and on her open face. "Sean and Alex taught themselves when we were in Bermuda, and I really wanted to get out there and try but I was scared of sharks."

"You surfed in shark infested waters?" I asked Sean.

He smiled and shrugged. "There were jellyfish too. But I didn't find that out till later."

"Goodness," I laughed.

"Well, I'll leave you guys alone," Tamira said, turning on her heel.

"You don't have to go," I called.

"I should though," she explained, rapid fire again. "My cat's head is on fire. Nice to meet you!"

When she ran up the stairs, I looked up at Sean, waiting for him to talk. But he never did. He just smirked at me.

"Old girlfriend?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said with a shaky laugh. "My first girlfriend, actually."

"I like her," I told him.

"Really? Because you look jealous."

Smiling, I poked him in the chest. "And you enjoy that, don't you?"

"Could be worse, I guess."

I sang teasingly, "You still liiiiike her."

He sang back, "I do nooottttt."

"Ten bucks says you do."

"Ten bucks says I like you."

To keep from giggling uncontrollably, I pretended to be involved with looking up at the sky.

Sean

Seeing Zoey up next to Tamira was mightily strange. Tamira was the first girl I had ever kissed, and she had taken my breath away with how sweetly naïve and innocent she was. I had never cared about anyone in my life up until then the way I cared about Tamira. The feelings I had for her were hard to get rid of even though we had broken up.

But Zoey was like magic. She compelled me. The moment I saw her, I had wanted her to myself. She wasn't like a supermodel or anything; but there was something alluring in her eyes every time I looked at her. I had never fallen for someone so fast. And usually no one really ever fell for me, but I think she was interested.

And then I saw them together, smiling and talking together. It suddenly struck me that I wanted Zoey. I loved Tamira still, yes, but I would have chosen Zoey. I asked myself if maybe that was because Zoey wanted me back and Tamira didn't, but I didn't think so. I had found something in Zoey.

The sky was dark and the air grew cold. We huddled together on a lounging chair, waiting for the fireworks to start as we got goosebumps from the chill. I didn't care when I noticed the other people on the boat giving me surprised looks, or even when Ashley began to catcall me…although I was quite relieved when Alex shut her up.

This was a moment that I wanted to last forever, but wouldn't. I was holding the girl I had always wanted to meet, both of us looking up at the sky in silence. I was going to leave in two days, and I wasn't going to let anyone else ruin that expiring moment.

"Looook," she said in awe, pointing to the stars. "Orion's belt."

"And the Little Dipper," I said. "And see that big cluster there? That's the Milky Way."

"Really?" she asked in surprise.

"I think so." I looked at it for a moment and then laughed. "Never mind. That's a cloud."

"Well, it's a damn nice cloud."

I tightened my arms around her.

She sighed.

I smiled.

Suddenly a loud thundering crack burst in the sky. I jumped, startled, but grinned as a showering of color lit up everything around us.

I watched her, a wisp of her soft brown hair floating across my face in the light breeze. Her eyes were bright with fascination as the fireworks used the sky as a canvas, painting with bursts of green and blue and red. I studied her slightly parted lips.

She was so into the fireworks and I was so into her.

Jimmy suddenly tripped over a pool noodle and sprawled on top of us. I slapped him across the head. "Jimmy, get off, you oaf!"

He grinned and chuckled moronically, but he did get off of us. "Hey, you guys wanna see my toenail? I think it's ingrown!"

Shooting him a revolted look, I said, "Come on, Zoey, let's go find somewhere that's not swarming with oversized monkeys with wonky toenails."