"Sorry about that. It's just your house and that guy, they give me the creeps" Sebastian blurted when he pulled out of the drive. "It's alright."I replied. "But, where the hell are you taking me?" "Oh, not far. Just to Wildwood. I remembered you used to love going here and besides, it's about time we went somewhere other than each others houses. And before you ask, no my mom didn't kick me out for getting wasted on her wine. I left before she could." As he said this he took off his aviator sunglasses. Looking at his deep brown eyes, they looked bloodshot and tired. He caught me staring at them and I looked down at what he was wearing. Urgh, the same things as last night. But somehow, he'd managed to make them look better, sexier, smouldering almost. Wait? Did I think Sebastian Valenti looked sexy and smouldering? The same Sebastian Valenti who hadn't graduated, even with my help? I quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of my head and turned to look out of the window.
We pulled up at the beach at around quarter to ten. The journey had seemed long and tedious because we'd only engaged in small talk for about five minutes until we hit the freeway. Neither of us wanted to talk about last night it seemed. We walked in silence onto the beach where Sebastian proceeded to flop on the sand pulling me down. I tripped over his arm and fell onto him. "Oof." I exclaimed. "You're keen. A bit too keen. We haven't even kissed yet" He joked. I rolled off him and sat up, deliberately kicking him as I did so. "Ouch, no need for violence. So, do you want to know what happened last night or not?" he asked. "I won't tell you if you keeping assaulting me. Well, I suppose I wouldn't mind as much if it were sexual assault…" "Okay, I'm sorry. Just tell me what happened" I begged. "Well, not a lot really. We talked about music. You drank shit loads and I thought I'd be a gentleman and drink with you." "Because you're a real gentleman" I said with sarcasm. "If you're going to be like that I won't tell you what to did next." He retorted. "Sorry. I just need to know" I was getting edgy now.
"Well, like I said, we drank and talked about nothing for hours. Then after you're second bottle to yourself you started telling me things I know you'd never have told me sober". "Like what?" I was curious to know what I said, and it came through in my tone. "It's not as interesting as you think really. Brett, I know I shouldn't know any of this, but you told me. About Jeremiah and how that went wrong. About Kara and how that screwed up everything with Jeremiah and about Dalton that teacher. And Brett, he was a jerk, he tried it on with all the girls in my classes. Seriously, don't beat yourself up about him. Brett, you told me everything. I can't assume any details were missing".
I couldn't say anything, I was speechless. Had I really told him all that last night? All that stuff I'd only told half the story of to Jenny. No-one knew everything. But I guess I'd told Sebastian. "God, I felt so awful for you" he carried on. "You started crying and I couldn't stop you. I just held your hand and told you everything would be okay". "You did that?" I asked quietly. Memories of the past year came flooding back. Being undressed on Mr Dalton's boat. Kissing Kara at the WoW meeting in front of everyone. Kissing Kara again in her room. Jeremiah. The way Jeremiah had made me feel when he'd ended it. Last nights tears came back and I couldn't stop them. The beach went into a blur and I fell onto Sebastian's chest shaking silently. "Hey, hey. Stop crying babe. It's going to be alright. I've told you, Dalton was a jerk. And as for Jeremiah, if he ended it with you then he's a fool. And Kara and you are going to be fine. Everyone's experimented before, no-one can judge you for it. No-one". He pulled me closer into his chest.
We sat like this for a few minutes. Eventually, I lifted my head. I was staring straight into Sebastian's beautiful eyes. God, why did I keep thinking he was beautiful today? Was I just emotional? Or was something else happening? The beach had been quiet until now. People started swarming over the dunes onto the sand. Before long we were surrounded by screaming kids and frustrated parents and surfers in their wetsuits. Sebastian let go of me and went back to his car. I grabbed my mirror out of my bag and looked at myself. I thanked God I wasn't one of those people whose eyes got all swollen and puffy after crying. I put the mirror away and slipped off my shoes. A few minutes later Sebastian came back. He'd changed. He had trunks on now and no shirt. I'd never really noticed him like this before. I'd never really had, nor, wanted the chance to. His stomach was muscled and toned to perfection, his arms were gorgeous. I blinked behind my Ray Bans. I was thankful he couldn't see me. He had a body to rival Jeremiah's and that made me feel a little better about things.
He didn't stop next to me; he just dropped his towel and ran into the sea. The waves broke across his thighs and I sighed. Today was turning out a little differently than I'd expected it to. I rolled out Sebastian's towel and laid down on it, taking my blouse off. I was thankful I'd thought to put my bikini on underneath. I closed my eyes and drifted into a daydream.
"Excuse me, I hate to ask but, I think your on my towel," Sebastian was leaning over me dripping salt water onto my stomach. "Urgh, move. You're blocking my sunlight." I retorted. "No. If you get off my towel I won't be in your sunlight will I?" "Make me," I joked. "Fine." Sebastian grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Then, instead of taking his towel he wrapped his arms around me in a huge bear hug, getting me wet. "Eew, get off me!" I said. It came out muffled because my face was buried in his chest. "Say please," he sounded like one of the parents disciplining his child. "Fine, please get off me" I gave in. he let go of me and took his towel. He pulled me down again though so we were sat on the sand laughing. I was leaning on his chest like I had been earlier but this time it was different. I was happy. Suddenly I felt the urge to lean up and kiss him. I resisted this. Why should I give in? As fun as he can be, Sebastian's a jerk sometimes. Besides, I don't want to be tied up in a relationship at the moment. I stood up and put my sandals back on. "I'm just going for a walk a called as I set off".
The walk cleared my head. I walked past the screaming children to the beach huts. There was a little bar and I sat down on one of the stools. It didn't take long for the surfers stood in the corner to notice me. I smiled, I was a free woman, I could flirt. Maybe it would help. There were three of them. One of them had blond hair that fell in short curls around his face. Another had black hair and a long sweeping side fringe. The last one has brown hair, the colour of chocolate. I smiled again catching the blond's gaze. They walked over. "Hi," the brown haired one said. "I'm Zeke. This is Freddie" he pointed at the black haired boy "and that's Dom". "Hey, I'm Brett" I smiled at Zeke. He had the most amazing turquoise eyes I'd ever seen. They were the same colour as the sea. "Um, can we buy you a drink?" Freddie asked nervously. "Sure. Um, just a coke for now please". He walked to the bar. "You come here often? We've not seen you around Rumson before," Dom asked me. "No, not been here for ages. I got back home about a week ago. I board in New York" I told him. "Waverly?" he asked. "We're at St. Lucius. Jesus, you're Brett Messerschmidt!" "Oh my god, you went out with Jeremiah?" Zeke's eyes were wide with surprise. "Yeah, but we broke up. Before thanksgiving."
Freddie came back with four cokes. "Fred," Zeke said. "She's Brett Messerschmidt. The one Jeremiah ended it with." "You know, he's with that Elizabeth now. Rumours that she's pregnant with his kid" Dom told me. I quickly changed the conversation to surfing. I didn't really want to talk to them about Jeremiah or Elizabeth or any gossip it entailed. I could here some girls talking behind me. They were getting closer. "Ohmigod! Brett! I haven't seen you for years!" I turned around. "Teigan? Is that you." Two girls were stood behind me. "Kezia?"
I couldn't believe it, my two best friends in middle school were next to me. Teigan hadn't changed. She still had ivory white skin and wavy honey coloured hair. The only difference was she looked older. More mature. Kezia, she was so different. Her dark skin looked darker in the sun, her black hair was in two braids that went down to her hips. Her dark eyes still had the same mysterious sparkle as ever but her ears were full of piercings. She turned around and I could see a tattoo disappearing into her shorts on her back. She was just, wilder than she'd ever been before and I could tell.
"Ahem," Freddie coughed. I turned around and smiled. "Sorry. I just haven't seen these guys in so long." "Nah, don't worry about it. And don't bother introducing us Brett, I know you were about to," Kezia said. She'd always been able to tell what I was about to do. "We've seen these three everyday for the last week or so." "No, not the last week K. The last three years," Teigan corrected her. Teigan walked behind me and kissed Zeke. Damn, I'd wanted Zeke. Never mind, I guess if I wanted I could have Freddie or Dom. We carried on talking. It felt like I'd never been away. It was just like summer in eighth grade, sitting out in Wildwood. About an hour must have gone by. I'd forgotten about Sebastian completely until I heard a familiar New Jersey accent in my ear. "So," he said. "Why didn't you tell me you knew Kezia?".