Chapter Seven

It's party time!

Elly and I were standing in front of a mirror examining our outfits. Elly was wearing a dress that went a bit above her knees puffing out with a floral fabric. The top part was a navy blue. Her dark brown hair was halfway to her belly button in perfect waves. I did my hair about the same, and had on the same kind of dress except mine had a white top and a different floral print.

"I think we look ready for a party," Elly said in a serious tone but I started laughing like crazy. We grabbed our shoes and headed towards my car outside.

I started my car and looked at my new friend sitting in my passenger seat. I smiled and said, "It's party time." We both laughed as I pulled out of my driveway. So you might be thinking, why I am driving to the beach if I live practically on it, well that is because this party is all the way across town and we were already late. Tyler had called my twice asking when we were going to get there. He was also complaining because he didn't know how much time he could take with Travis. That was a bit exaggerated don't you think?

When Elly and I got to the beach we saw Tyler and Travis right away. Kaylee was also standing in front of Travis with a plastic cup in her hand and gesturing widely. Travis had his hand in the pockets of his sweatshirt, looking around like he was searching for someone and nodding every once in awhile. Elly and I hurried to the guys and Kaylee.

"Hey," I said reaching over to Travis, who was closet to me, wrapping my arms around his neck. He put his arms on my waist which slowly fell towards the bottom of my back. After I pulled away before he could go any further he then pulled Elly in a hug. I stepped over to Tyler. He had a kind of stern annoyed look on his face. I wrapped my arms around his neck then too. "Relax a little and have fun." I felt his whole body relax and then he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Why don't you show me where that keg is," I whispered into his ear. I could feel him laugh a bit before I let go.

"We are gonna go get drinks, you guys want some?" Tyler asked Elly and Travis. They both nodded and we started walking towards the keg by the huge bonfire. A big beefy guy came up to Tyler slapping him on the back. He was tall, taller than Tyler by at least three inches and had brown hair spilling out from the hat that was turned backwards on his head.

"Enjoying the party dude?" he asked.

"It's a great party Kyle. You sure know how to throw them." Tyler replied. "Great band by the way." I hadn't even noticed the band until he just mentioned it. I looked over by the bonfire and there they were, four guys standing on the back of a truck singing and playing instruments. The singer was pretty cute. He was kind of scrawny and didn't have a summer tan yet, he wasn't ghostly white but he definitely wasn't tan. As Tyler talked to Kyle I watched and listened to the band, mostly the singer though. At the end of the first song that I actually listened to he took his hat off and did that flippy thing with his hair and then put his hat back on. He had dark hair, dark brown or black, I couldn't tell.

"I see Matt is singing tonight?" Tyler said. I caught that part of the sentence. Matt, where had I heard that name before, then it hit me, hard.

"That, that is Matt?" I asked Tyler. He nodded his head at me.

"You of all people should remember him Bethy," he said bumping me with his elbow. Truth be told I do remember Matt. The summer that Tyler turned fifteen he had a party with a bunch of his guy friends. A couple girls came over too. But that night we all sat down stairs in the basement and played spin the bottle. Matt and I got picked and the boys shoved us into a closet. It was almost like seven minutes in Heaven. That whole summer Tyler and Matt hung out all the time, so I saw him a lot, I had a little crush on him. Well anyways, he kissed me when we were in there, my first kiss, Matthias Sutton. It was nice though. Looking over at Matt again I saw he was walking towards the keg on the other truck. I looked at Tyler who was still talking to Kyle about some baseball game or something.

"Ty, I'll get the drinks stay here." He nodded at me and went back to his conversation, I rushed over to the keg. Matt was right in front of me and I saw up close he had eyes that almost glowed they were so green and his hair was jet black. He had a perfect shaped face, and when he smiled he had no more braces. He was tall now, last time I saw him two years ago he was barely taller than me, but now he was probably a whole head taller than me. My body was boiling with emotion, should I talk to him, would he even remember me, would he think I was some freak girl? What would he think?

It took about all my courage to finally tap him on the shoulder. When he turned around he smiled and said, "Hey." I smiled and froze. I probably looked so lame because I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Mhmmm." I tried to speak but at least I got that much out. I cleared my throat. "I met you when we were fifteen. I was one of the girls at Tyler's party. We-"

"I remember you. Your Tyler's friend, the guys shoved us into a closet and we kissed." I could feel my face flush. I knew it had to be bright red, and probably noticeable even through the darkness.

"Mhmmm." I tried again. I mentally face palmed myself. He obviously had no trouble speaking.

"I don't remember you being this quiet, but I do remember you being this pretty," he laughed a bit looking at the sand. "I had a crush on you that whole summer, I just never had the guts to tell you." My eyes were probably huge. He reached towards his pocket pulling out a blackberry and flipping it open. "Well hey, I have to get back up there and sing some more, but we should hang out after this and catch up." He handed me his phone so I could put my number in it. I handed him mine. After we gave each other's phones back he pulled me into a hug. "It was really nice seeing you." Oh god, he even smelt good. It was like the ocean was in him. I grabbed four cups to bring back to Elly, Travis, and Tyler. They were all standing in the same spot I left them but now Tyler joined their group.

Everyone started dancing after awhile. I was getting a little dizzy after I had a couple drinks. Kaylee kept bumping into Tyler, trying to dance with him every once in awhile, he tried to avoid her but never really succeeded. I kept glancing at the truck where Matt was. Every time I looked he caught my eye and smiled.

Later in the night things started to slow down. Less people were there and not as many people were up and dancing. A lot of people were sitting by the water or by the dunes.

I danced with Tyler most of the time but I think he noticed how much I glanced towards the stage. Elly and Travis disappeared somewhere but I hadn't seen where they went.

Travis has been getting a lot of drinks. The guy he was talking was full on drunk now and was screaming like a baboon. Travis was too. I could tell Travis was drunk and I didn't like this side of him as much. When I danced with him he kept touching my hips and trying to pull me closer to him, whispering things in my ear that he would ever tell me, just saying weird things.

"Bethy," he whispered. "Let's go behind the dunes like Elly and Travis did." His waist was swaying against mine and he was behind me, whispering his slurred words.

I turned around and looked at him, right into his eyes. "I think it's about time-"Tyler cut me off by pressing his lips to mine, fiercely kissing me. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know if I should kiss him back or not. My eyes were wide open and his were softly shut. He cupped his left hand on my neck and his right hand on the bottom of my back. His lips tasted like alcohol, but I couldn't help but kiss him back. I closed my eyes and still thought about the other things around me. It wasn't a kiss that sparked my body and made me walk on Cloud Nine. I still thought how Matt is right there probably watching me kiss Tyler.

I pulled away from him. "No. This isn't right." I said looking down at the sand. Tyler grabbed my chin and looked into my eyes.

"But it so is." Still his words will slurred. He started leaning towards me again his hand still on my face. I turned my head away just as his lips brushed mine. This may be a bit surprising but I don't want to kiss him, especially when he is like this. To be honest, I wanted Matthias, more than anything. I mean I know after seeing him once I wanted to date him, but he just seems so sweet and what he said…you know what I mean.

"No," I said pushing on his chest. "Not like this." He had some kind of look in his face that I really had never seen before. We just stood there looking at each other until thankfully Matt walked over to us and ended the awkward moment.

Matt looked at me and said, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"