"Bee, slow down!" Roy yelled to his best friend. Beatrice was running farther and farther ahead. It was hard for Roy to catch up.
As he ran, following his best friend, Roy watched the scenery around him, although careful not to run into something. As he was running, he saw a boy with a dog, and he turned around and watched them pass by as he put one foot in front of the other. When he turned forward again, he noticed a long, green field ahead of him.
Now only a couple paces behind Beatrice, Roy stopped short.
"I am not going through the golf course again," he said stubbornly, when his blond-haired friend had realized that he was no longer chasing her.
"Come on," she said, pleadingly. "I really wanted to show you something out on the river!" She stared at him with puppy eyes.
How beautiful can two brown eyes get? thought Roy. For a moment, he forgot all about what she had said, and he stared into her eyes, locked in their beauty. Quit it! he told himself. He shook the feeling off and thought, She's just a friend. No more than a friend.
"Hel-o-o!" Beatrice waved a hand in front of her brown-haired friend's face. "Roy." She said firmly.
"O—o—okay. If it's the fastest way to the river," said Roy, distantly; barely tuned in to what he was saying. He was still a quarter into his trance, and was trying to shake it off.
"Great," said the girl, smiling, grabbing Roy's hand and leading him through the "dangerous" golf course.
There's something different about her, thought Roy, as his friend held his hand, and he felt the sensation up his spine. And I've never noticed it until now…
Once the two had passed the golf-players and reached the Molly Bell, having ran the whole way, Beatrice plopped down on the boat's bow. Roy, oblivious to all his surroundings, stared at her, waving her hand in front of her face in the Florida heat.
After a moment or two, the blond began to feel uncomfortable, again, and said to her friend, "Roy! Hello! Earth to Roy…!" Roy snapped out of his daze and shook his head at the sound of his name. "Come sit here and look at the river with me," said Beatrice. The smiling lips that had just produced those words seemed more soft and beautiful and kiss-full to Roy…he'd never really inspected his best friend's lips before. He shook his head once more, trying to shake of the feeling like a wet dog would shake off water. He sneaked one last glace at his friend and sat down next to her.
"You've been weird today," said Beatrice. She looked at her friend, who, afraid to be entranced again, was stubbornly refusing to look at her, staring out at the river as though it were the most interesting thing he had seen in his life.
"I…" Roy said, trying to collect an answer. He racked his brain, searching for the right words, "I…know. I've—um…been having some um…weird things happen to me." Roy spoke a little too uncertainly, not sure his reply was very true.
"Oh?" Beatrice raised her eyebrows. "Weird stuff, eh?"
Roy frowned, "Yeah, yeah!" he said, trying to make himself believe it. These peculiar feelings counted as "weird stuff", right? That led Roy to trying to convince himself that his feelings were not weird at all—that any guy who had a best friend who was a girl had a crush on her, right? But that led him to telling himself that he didn't have a crush on Bee AT ALL.
"Roy!" Beatrice rolled her eyes. "There you go again! Urgh! Here, let me show you what I was going to show you…it'll keep your mind of off—whatever's bothering you."
"Nothing's bothering me!" Roy said, forcefully.
"Roy?" Beatrice gave him the look that he was hopeless. "Just shut up and come on." She looked at him irritably, and then—quick like snapping your fingers—a smile erupted on her face and she grabbed Roy's hand (tingly feeling!) and pulled him into a small boat.
For a while, the two sped along in the small motorboat, talking and laughing. Roy noticed that Beatrice smiled a lot, and he liked it, and she laughed, and he liked that, too. When she laughed her face broke into a huge smile and she let out a normally loud laugh, not too loud, not too quiet, and she appreciated it when he said something funny. Soon Roy began to scold himself for noticing so many nice things—and then he thought, Why shouldn't a guy think good things about his best friend? And then he thought, because most guys don't have girls as best friends, and then he thought, what kind of reason is that? And then he got annoyed with himself, and he stopped thinking about it altogether.
"Here!" said Bee, as she attempted to "quietly" stop the boat.
"Where?" asked Roy, looking around.
"Shh!" said Bee. "Whisper…! She's over there…." Beatrice pointed to the shore on their right, and then Roy finally noticed…
A crocodile. Roy frowned quizzically, and looked at his best friend with a puzzled expression.
"What?" whispered Roy. "It's a crocodile! We've seen them before. They're all over in Florida!"
"No, you stupid," said his friend in a harsh tone, "Look harder!"
And that's when Roy noticed a very small crocodile, a baby, following its full-sized common Florida mother around.
"Oh my gosh!" he said, eyes wide. "It's a baby!"
"I know," said Bee, proudly. "I found her myself. I know this sounds sort of stupid, but I thought we ought to name her. I already named her mother, Karen."
"No, no!" said Roy. "That's a great idea! How 'bout Mary? There. We named her."
"Ummm…" said Beatrice, uncertainly. "That's a sort of common name. You're not very creative, Roy." She smiled (again), and Roy put on a fake offended look.
"Me? How dare you say so!" He pushed her, and she wobbled and laughed.
"Hey!" Bee pushed him back, and this time, he felt cold water surround him as he fell off the boat. Surprised as he was, he emerged from the water and began singing the Jaws theme song. Beatrice began pushing the boat away as fast as she could, but Roy swam faster, half because he wanted to get back to her and half because he saw that Karen had noticed him and was looking at him suspiciously.
When the drenched Roy finally got himself back into the boat, he stared at his friend very solemnly, trying with all his might not to laugh; but Beatrice laughed and so he couldn't help but join her.
When their laughter had finally died out, Roy said,
"Well, what will we name her?"
"I think that Sadie is a very nice name," said Beatrice, now looking at Roy, trying to get him to look up at her just by staring.
"Yes," Roy said. "That is a good name. Karen and Sadie."
There was a moment's pause, and then Beatrice whispered,
"Roy."
"What?" said Roy, softly.
Beatrice leaned forward, and touched Roy's chin lightly.
"Kiss me…."
And then she pressed her lips against his, not shyly, but not hardly, and Roy found himself pressing back, trying with all his might to do as well as she was. Had Beatrice kissed before? Oh no, she'd kissed before, hadn't she?
What am I doing? Roy thought frantically. She's my best friend, not my girlf--he noticed that Beatrice had pulled away, and though he was extremely flustered, he had enough sense to pull back, as well. He blushed and looked down at his shoes. Faintly, he heard Beatrice' voice, sounding like it had just come through a forest full of vines and evil plants and all sorts of obstacles--and now it did not know what to say.
"Wow..." Beatrice was blushing as well, as she said this word so quietly.
"Yeah..." said Roy, doing the same thing and saying it, if not more, just as quietly. There was a long pause in which the two beings blushed harder and harder by the second.
"How did that--um, how did we--how long have you--"
"I," said Bee rather boldly, answering Roy's last stuttered question. "Have--well, I predict that I liked you for a very long time, somewhere down, but it didn't really come out until, well," she looked embarressed. "today, when I held your hand."
"You felt that too?" screamed Roy, a little too loudly. It echoed throughout the river and the boat, still sitting in its same place, was given an icy and suspicious glare by Karen, Sadie still tagging along close to her.
"Shh!" Beatrice pressed a finger to her lips and a hand to Roy's.
"Yes, I did," she answered a bit quietly. "If you mean the whole zingy thing...Do you mean that tingly sensation?" Beatrice looked really sheepish.
"Yeah, yeah!" said Roy quietly but excitedly.
"So what does it mean?" said Beatrice very, very softly, so that no one except Roy could hear, though Karen and Sadie were the only other ones there.
Roy was silent for a few eternities, or a couple of seconds, when he knew it was time to make his move.
"It means," said Roy as softly as his best friend had spoken. "That we're supposed to do this..."
And he leaned toward her and kissed her lightly, but strongly, and it was such a confusing kiss that only Roy understood, though he didn't what he was understanding or why and he thought that he did not understand. He kissed her, letting out all his feelings into that gentle press of the lips. They kissed wonderfully, only stopping for breath, and then...