Chapter Four

Maybe

Today was the day to explore. I haven't been to this half of Hill Side for a year and I need to refresh my memory, meet new people maybe. I walked down to the boardwalk so I could go to the ice cream parlor. This place called Brain Freeze; it has like every possible flavor of ice cream. My weakness is Neapolitan. I love the taste of the mixed flavors melting in my mouth. Next to Brain Freeze there was this store called Nataelly's. It must have been new because I had never seen it before in my life. I looked in the windows and saw various colors, like pink, orange, purple, brown, blue, so many colors. I walked in to the music loud above me and surrounded by girl clothes. I looked around to see who else was in the store. A group of girls that looked about my age where standing around the swimsuit rack. Come on Bethaney, you got to start somewhere. With pretty much all my confidence I walked over to them.

"Hey," I said to them. They all looked up at me. There were three of them, a blonde, a brunette, and a red head.

The blonde was the first one to speak, "hello." She sounded bored and kind of annoyed.

"Um, I'm new here and I don't really know anybody so I was wondering if maybe you guys could um, show me around or something. You might know my friend. His name is Tyler."

The blonde looked up at me and the other two looked at her. The blonde's eyes brightened a bit.

"Tyler Hunter?" I nodded and she smiled. "Yeah, we would love to show you around." I smiled and kept looking at the swimsuits which were mainly bikinis. The three girls mainly conversed between each other and I just kind of followed them like a lost puppy.

After I was with the girls who I soon learned that the blonde was Kaylee, the brunette was Lauryn, and the red heads name was Georgia I left because so far they weren't showing me much interest, plus I had to go home to eat. I got the girls numbers and had a time to hang out tomorrow at the park that all the older kids hang out at. Kaylee also invited Tyler to go if he wanted to.

After I got home I went straight up to my room. After we were done looking at swimsuit, which I also bought one, it's white and blue stripes, we went to the beach and sunbathed. I had a ton of grains of sand in my hair and I felt dirty so I took a shower before dinner.

It was the first week of the summer that we were officially here and my parents always threw a first week barbeque. The smell of the hamburgers lingered up the stairs and the savory taste was making my mouth water. I hurried in the shower because I honestly didn't know when Tyler and his family were going to get here.

After I changed into my sundress I went back downstairs to find a lot more people in my living room then I expected. About three more families were sitting in my living room all with teenager children.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until I was in line waiting to make my plate. I didn't have lunch and I didn't wake up in time for breakfast. What the heck. For me that is so unnatural. For a girl, I have quiet the appetite. All of us "kids" went out to sit on the porch as the adults sat in the kitchen drinking their margaritas and laughing about their past experiences. The two kids that were sitting outside with Tyler and I were two boys and a girl. One of the boys was sort of short looked like he had pretty good muscles. He wasn't extremely short but he was definitely shorter then Tyler and his name was Ryan. The other boy was definitely gorgeous. He had amazing black hair and hypnotizing green eyes. He was about Tyler's height and had a tad more muscle, his name was Travis. He had this smile, every time I caught him looking at me he would flash me that smile of his that almost embarrassed me. Then there was Elly. She had long dark brown hair that curled towards the ends; she had dark brown eyes, and a really good tan that I was a little jealous of. She seemed really nice though, she even said that we should hang out sometime because like me she just moved here to. Her dad is a marine in the military so she has moved around a lot. It was a lot of fun hanging out with a bunch of other kids my age.

"Oh, Tyler, I almost forgot to tell u," I said. "I talked to this girl today she said she knew you and wanted me to tell you hi." Tyler looked at me with a kind of strange look.

"Who was it." He said with his mouth full.

"Her name was Kaylee. She has blonde hair and is kinda short with one of those really little bodies." Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Yeah I know her from school. She annoys the crap out of me to." I nodded my head at his comment and went on eating my food. No one was really talking.

I got this idea. "Who wants to go to the beach?" Everyone's eyes shot up at me like I was some kind of crazy person.

"Let's do it," Elly said in her quiet voice. So that's how we ended up spending our night, splashing in the water and pretty much getting completely soaked.

After we were all done splashing around we went back up to the porch to dry up a bit. Travis was flirting with me like crazy, and I'm pretty sure Tyler was noticing it because he was sending Travis death glares. But I don't understand why Travis would ever be jealous because it's not like he ever pays me any attention. I mean he does but like he never showed any girlfriend interest in me. I mean sure maybe I had before for him but that was when I was like twelve. After everyone else left Tyler stayed around.

"So, what was all that about?" he asked awkwardly.

"What was what about?"

"How that Travis guy was like, non-stop flirting with you," he replied.

"Well I don't know what you are talking about," I lied. I most definitely knew exactly what he was talking about.

Tyler scoffed. "Just be careful. He seems like a bit of a player and I don't want to see you getting hurt or something." Okay so is he trying to look out for me like I'm some five year old. I mean I know I shouldn't be getting mad over him just warning me about this guy but I mean seriously, I can look out for myself.

"I'll try to be careful Tyler." He had a reassuring look on his face.

"So what are you doing tomorrow?" He asked. He stopped what he was doing and leaned against the counters. He put his hands on the counter which lifted his shirt showing a sliver of his plaid boxers. His jeans sagged perfectly on his hips. Sometimes I did think about Tyler, and what it would be like if we ever were more than the best friends we were. In fact last summer he even said comparing a pair that went to his friends who we both thought we going to be a thing, he said maybe they will be like us, always be best friends but never had a relationship. But I don't know maybe.

"I don't know yet, how 'bout you?"

"I'm thinking surfing, are you up for it." Okay he was definitely challenging me because he knew that I am a horrible surfer.

"I want to take you up on that offer but me and my parents are doing a ton of stuff tomorrow." I said. "You could always skip surfing and come with us."

He slightly laughed looking down towards the floor, then looking back up at me smiling. "I might just take you up on the offer." I smiled at him.

When I was turned around putting dishes back into their proper places in the cupboards I felt a burst of water on my back. When I turned to face Tyler he had the nozzle pointing towards me his finger on the trigger.

"Step closer and I won't shoot you," he threatened. I step closer to him with my hands in the air.

My body was practically touching his body when I whispered, "What are you going to do? Drenched me to death?"

"Maybe." He stepped a centimeter closer to me where our faces where practically touching. I honestly thought he was going to kiss me when he leaned closer to me and as I to started leaning forward he pulled the trigger. My whole shirt was drenched in an instant.

I screamed, "Tyler Anthony Hunter, I'm going to kill you."