They walked around the coast of the island for about an hour, just shopping and taking pictures, basking in the glow of their time together.They felt like highschoolers on spring break who had taken a road trip to Miami. Except this was much more sophisticated.They were in college now and had taken a yaht to Martha's Vineyard.
Jenny, Amanda, and Abbey couldn't keep their hands off their respective cameras. It seemed to the guys that a camera was always flashing at some point. They stood on the boardwalk, with bright lights and a lighthouse behind them, and went picture crazy. Jed found himself again mesmorized as he watched Abbey model mockingly for the Jenny and Amanda's cameras. As he watched, his thoughts kept quickly flashing back to about five years earlier, on that very beach.
Afterwards, they headed to a small bistro nearby which overlooked the ocean. It was dark by then and the moonlight lit up the patio of the restaurant where they all sat.
"This is so amazing. Would you just look at that view?" Jenny marveled, taking numerous snapshots with her camera.
"Come on, Jenny, put the camera away now. This is a restaurant," Leo requested.
She sighed and did as she was told.
"Oh, God. This is bringing me so far back! All those summers with my grandmother when I was a kid. The carefree days of summer vacation," Abbey said, her eyes glazing over at the memory.
Jed had to kick himself to keep from responding.
"Had some crazy times, eh?" Leo surmised, raising an eyebrow.
"I was a kid, Leo!" She exclaimed, laughing.
"Oh yeah, and when did you stop visiting here in the summer?"
Abbey looked down with a sort of amused embarassment and answered, "When I was 18."
"That was, like, a year ago! You weren't a kid then."
"So what kind of stuff did you do here all summer, Abbey?" Amanda questioned with interest.
"Just what you'd expect. Spent the entire time here at the beach with my friends. Ugh, I got so sunburnt every year. But I never cared."
"What about you, Jed? What did you do when you were here?" Jenny asked him, noticing he hadn't joined the conversation yet.
"Oh…um…well, basically the same," he answered, stuttering. "Nothing exciting."
"I remember one year, when my parents had their annual cook-out here, Ron and I…" Leo began.
Ron held his hand up and signaled for the waitress, jokingly.
"I'm gonna need a beer for this one!" He commented, laughing.
Two hours, four bottles of champagne, five beers, and two vodkas later…
"We really need to do this more often!" A drunken Leo exclaimed, pouring himself more champagne.
"Here, here!"
Jenny, Amanda, and Ron, all equally as drunk as their friend, raised their glasses in hearty agreement. Leo refilled their glasses. Abbey and Jed, neither of whom had consumed more than one glass of champagne throughout the entire evening, sat quietly across from each other, both feeling slightly uneasy about the conditions of their friends.
"I got it!" Ron cried, out of nowhere. "Let's go to Junky's!"
"What's Junky's?" Jenny asked.
"It's bar down the street," Leo clarified. "We gotta play some pool!"
"Yeah, man!" Ron agreed. "Show the ladies how it's done!"
Jenny and Amanda, clearly very tipsy with no attempts to hide it, were all in favor of the excursion.
"Jed? Abbey?" Leo said, extending the invitation their way.
Abbey cleared her throat uneasily before she answered.
"Uh, no. I think I'm gonna pass on this one."
"Awe, come on, honey. We could win a lot of dough outta this. I'm a master at pool," Ron said, trying to persuade her.
"No, I'm…just no." She didn't bother to explain. The state they all were in, Abbey knew, would prevent them from comprehending reasoning or rationalization of any kind.
"Well, we can't leave you here by yourself, Abbey!" Jenny said, in a high-pitched voice.
"That's right. She's right.I'm not leaving you here alone. I may be drunk, but I'm not gonna risk anything happening to you," Ron agreed.
"No, it's fine. I'll be fine. I'll just walk the beach for a little while then head back to the boat. No harm done," Abbey insisted, fervently. In fact, she wouldn't have minded some time without Ron just then.
"No, I'm not gonna leave you by yourself. Point blank."
"I'll stay!" Jed volunteered, trying to mask his enthusiasm.
"There we go!" Leo said. "Jed'll stay with Abbey. All is well."
"I don't know…Abbey?" Ron looked to her for approval.
"Oh, it's fine with me," she replied. Then she smiled kindly at Jed. "That's really generous of you, Jed."
"Well…bars aren't really my thing to be honest."
"Then it's settled!" Said Leo. "Let's go."
Leo, Jenny, Ron, and Amanda all stood from their chairs, all of them swaying and almost tipping over. Not only were the incredibly drunk, but none of them had stood on their own two feet in hours. They said their goodbyes to Abbey and Jed and rushed off to Junky's fast as their alcohol-weakened bodies would take them.
Jed and Abbey still at the table, looking at each other, unsure of what to do next.
"You know, I would really like to go off on an tangent talking about how pathetic they are but…we didn't exactly do anything to deter them. So I guess we're about as much to blame," Abbey said.
"True."
"Thanks for staying with me. I know Ron would have literally dragged me along if you hadn't volunteered. He's so paranoid like that."
"And he's not paranoid leaving you alone with another guy?" Jed asked.
Abbey laughed.
"You're studying theology, Jed! Why should he be worried?" She wanted to tell him that, in truth, Ron really was suspicious of Jed's intentions, despite his potential future. He was just too drunk now to realize what was happening.
Jed nodded, emotionless. She was right. Why should he be worried? He looked around to noticed a few couples out of the dance floor and was struck by an idea.
"Hey, do you wanna dance?" He inquired.
She looked surprised, and then smiled.
"Why not?"
They both stood and walked out onto the floor. She took his hand and he put his free hand on her waist and they began to sway, looking like any other couple out there. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. It didn't seem as if there were any words that were apt enough for the situation.
"Wow," she said, smiling. "You haven't stepped on my feet once. You may be the only guy I've ever danced with who has accomplished such a feat."
"Well, I'm concentrating."
She grinned. He really was, she noticed with amusement.
After another moment of silence, he spoke.
"Ya know, Abbey, I've been meaning to talk to you about something all night."
"Oh no. Not about what happened back on the boat…?"
"No, no. Not that," he answered.
"What then?" She asked with curiousity.
"Well, it's about you spending your summers here. And me…also spending my summers here."
Abbey laughed at the awkwardness of his sentence. Somehow she remembered Leo telling her that Jed was quite the wordsmith…but it turned out he was only verbally talented in front of large groups of people, not in one on one situations.
"Yes?"
"Um…did you used to go to the far end of the beach, the rocky end, by yourself and just read?" He felt beyond ridiculous asking her that, but he was just so sure.
She was taken aback.
"Well…yeah. How did you know that?"
"I knew it," he whispered to himself. "I can't believe it."
"What? You can't believe what!"
"You're Sweet Knees," he told her, disbelief plain in his voice.
"I'm what?"
"Sweet Knees. Ok, this is going to be hard to explain. And embarassing."
"Well, for goodness' sake, tell me. I'm shaken."
"Ok. Well, every summer starting when I was twelve, I starting seeing this girl when I came to the Vineyard. She seemed to always be where I was. After awhile, I just started noticing her everywhere and noticing everything about her. It was like…like she wasn't even real. I went through a point where I truly didn't think she existed, that she was only a figment of my imagination, my own conjured up image of the perfect girl. And I used to watch her every summer until I was eighteen and went to college."
Abbey eyes were widened and watery.
"And?" She asked, quietly, as they continued dancing.
"And…that girl, whom I eventually dubbed Sweet Knees …is you."
She was stunned and, simply, speechless. She'd had admirerers before, but none quite like this.
"Why…why Sweet Knees?" Abbey asked quietly, stammering profusely.
"Well, it's hard to explain, but she…you…had these fantastic-looking knees. I never knew why I noticed them or why they were fantastic but…they stood out."
Abbey glanced down at her knees and blushed, suddenly wishing she'd worn a longer dress so she wouldn't have to look at them.
"I…wow." Was all she could manage to say.
"I'm sorry, I know I sound like some crazy, obsessed stalker, but I'm really…
"No, you don't. Not at all."
"Then what's the matter?" Jed asked, concerned.
"It's just…just that...well, that's just the most romantic thing I've ever heard anybody say."
TBC.