As the last month of summer rolled in everyone knew that their vacation was coming to an end. At the very beginning of their trip they had decided to come home with three weeks left until the start of the new school year, so that everyone could get ready for it. Thomas was having a bit of confused feelings towards everything, because even though he was excited to start his studies at a new place and meet new people, he couldn't deny that this summer was probably the best he had ever had. He felt sad knowing that it would soon come to an end and that he'd inevitably have to part with his friends. Well, not entirely. Of course he'd still meet up with them, but it'd be weird not seeing them every day as he had gotten so used to.
For their last week together on their trip, Teresa had offered for everyone to stay over at her family's beach house, since it wasn't too far away from their home town and it felt right to spend the remainder of their time near the sea. Thomas had been there a few times in the past and knew that it was the perfect place to relax before coming back to the real world.
When they got there everything was the same as he had remembered: a lone two story beach house on the edge of a slope that led down towards the beach. There weren't any other houses close by, though a small town was situated not too far away, so if they were in need of something it wouldn't be too far away of a drive. Thomas really liked the place as there were tons of small secrets you could find like caves and an interesting array of local fauna and flora in the nearby forest, which he loved to explore every time he came here with Teresa.
Incidentally, their group of friends had also come here last summer, so everyone except for Newt was already acquainted with the place, leaving the blond boy the only one who was looking at everything with amazement.
"And everything here belongs to you?" he asked Teresa after a small whistle as they entered the house to unpack their bags.
"Well, more so to my parents, but I can practically do anything I want here," the girl shrugged.
"Dibs on the single bedroom!" Minho shouted as soon as he stepped over the threshold.
"Of course," Brenda laughed as she climbed the stairs to the second floor. "I'll take the usual one, okay, Teresa?"
"Sure," the other girl waved her off. "Just please don't dump everything on the bed, since we'll actually need it to sleep on."
Thomas quickly turned to Newt to explain the situation, "As you can see, we've already been here a few times, so we all have a sort of arrangement. There are four bedrooms, so there are always people who fight to get to be alone in theirs."
"I'm taking the other single one," Jorge said nonchalantly passing them. Thomas was sure he heard the other murmuring something along the lines of 'Finally, some peace and quiet' as he dragged his bag upstairs.
"I don't mind staying with Brenda," Teresa joined in to Thomas' explanation, "but it seems that you two got the short end of the stick as there's only one bedroom left."
"Guess we'll just have to share," Thomas laughed a bit, feigning disappointment, even though he had known about the single bedrooms and hadn't tried to beat anyone to them.
"Let's end as we started," Newt said without any annoyance and looked at Thomas with a reassuring smile.
"O-okay," the brunet boy smiled himself and started heading upstairs to show Newt their room.
Since they had arrived early in the day there was still a lot of time left to go to the beach. The day was pretty hot, so there was practically no delay as the group headed for the beach after changing their clothes. Of course, Thomas and Minho refused to take the stairs like normal people and just had to slide their way down the slope. Thomas didn't regret stumbling over his feet at the last moment and getting a face-full of sand, since the exact same thing happened to Minho.
As the two laughed at each other the rest of the group reached the beach without any incident. Jorge, Newt and Brenda were each carrying a beach chair while Teresa brought a parasol. The four of them watched their two other friends as they sat on the sand and kept trying to pour more sand in the other's hair.
"Are we sure neither of them will drown nor break something during this week?" Teresa asked.
"We can only hope," Jorge answered without any real concern.
When Thomas and Minho finally joined the others Teresa and Jorge were playing badminton while Brenda and Newt were on the beach chairs, both reading. Thomas flopped down on a towel that was spread beneath the parasol and closed his eyes. The soft ocean breeze relaxed him as he listened to the sounds of his friends playing. Everything seemed somewhat muffled and the boy closed his eyes.
Thomas wasn't sure how much time passed with him just lying there, but after some time when he cracked one eye open he saw that Brenda had left and he was alone with Newt, still on the chair reading. He steadied himself on his arms as he got up and dusted some residual sand that was still on him. He looked at Newt with a bit of hesitance, but finally managed to speak up, "Hey, do you want to come with me?"
The blond boy looked at him before closing his book and standing up himself. "Sure," he said, "where do you want to go?"
"There's a place I want to show to you, but we need to bring a phone or a flashlight and a plastic bag," Thomas explained as he started rummaging through one of the bags they had brought.
"I can take my phone, it's almost fully charged," Newt offered.
"Okay," Thomas said as he pulled out a plastic bag and balled it into his fist, "then we're set."
As they started walking there was silence between them, so Thomas decided to break it, "It's a bit far away, but we have the phone just in case."
"So what is it exactly?" Newt glanced at him with a questioning look.
"It's a cave I found a few years ago. It's somewhat hard to get into, but it's really nice…" the boy trailed off for a moment before continuing again, "I haven't shown it to anyone else."
He wasn't sure why he wanted to show it to Newt only. The first time he found it he had decided that it would be his secret place, but now he felt as if Newt needed to know about it too. He wasn't even sure if the other would like it, but he figured he'd take the chance.
"Oh, so it's going to be our secret?" Newt smiled knowingly.
"You could say. It's nothing too impressive though."
When Thomas finally recognized the surroundings a small smile came to him. A large rock formation was blocking the rest of the beach all the way from the water to the tall sand dunes. The boy got a somewhat nostalgic feeling as if coming home, just not as strong. He tended to go to this place alone when he needed to just get away from other people for some time, but since he had only come here with Teresa and sometimes his other friends, he'd always need to come up with some excuse why he had been gone.
But this time it didn't feel like running away.
"We're here," Thomas announced.
Newt looked at the huge obstacle in front of them for a few moments before turning back at Thomas looking confused. "How are we supposed to get through this?"
"We're not," the other boy answered simply. "We're supposed to get inside it."
"Inside? Is this the cave?"
"Yeah, at first I had also thought it was just a bunch of rocks, but actually there's an entrance inside of it," Thomas started to explain. "We'll need to go through the water though."
"So that's why you needed the plastic bag," Newt said with a snap of his fingers.
"Yup," Thomas smiled at him. "Now come on, the water's pretty low at the moment, so it'll be easy to get in."
As he said that, Thomas started walking towards the sea and beckoned Newt to follow him. The blond boy hesitated a bit but got in the water too. "Are we going to have to swim a lot?"
"Not really, only a little." Thomas then stopped in his tracks and quickly turned back to his friend. "We don't need to go if you don't want to. I completely forgot to tell you how we'll be getting inside here."
"Nah, don't worry," Newt shook his head. "It's fine if it's only a little of swimming."
"Okay then…" Thomas turned back towards the cave again, still feeling a bit stupid for not asking if it would be fine with Newt. During the time they had been traveling he had noticed that the blond had been favouring one of his legs over the other in some of the more physical activities. He figured he might have hurt it sometime during their nine years apart, since he was sure Newt had always been in great health when they were kids, but he never asked. Honestly, he just wanted Newt to tell him himself and if he didn't he could just pretend to be oblivious.
"Just follow my lead," Thomas said as the water was nearing his shoulders. "It's not a long swim."
"Okay," he heard Newt answer before taking a gulp of air and submerging his head.
Immediately he saw the opening to the cave a bit further away. He swam towards the clearing of the rocks while holding the plastic bag with Newt's phone inside of it. He quickly got through it so that Newt wouldn't have to stay in the water for too long and sat up on the edge of the rocky bank. Soon he saw a mop of blond hair emerge through the lagoon's water.
Thomas patiently waited for Newt to get his wet bangs out of his eyes so that he could show his friend around the cave. He had turned on the phone for a source of light and now everything was illuminated in a soft blue glow.
"Wow, this is actually pretty nice," Newt exhaled as he finally got out of the water and looked around.
"Too bad there's no natural light, but I think a phone is enough," Thomas said.
"So you come here frequently?" the blond asked as he walked up to the cave walls to inspect them.
"Not too frequently, only sometimes." Thomas put the phone down on the ground so that it could illumine most of the cave. It wasn't really big, but it didn't feel too claustrophobic either. The walls went up pretty high and there was plenty of space to walk around, lie down or sit by the small lagoon. He continued doing just that, following his friend with his eyes.
When Newt noticed that Thomas was still sitting by the small lagoon he walked back to him and sat down, submerging his feet in the water. The two of them looked at each other before simultaneously breaking into smiles.
"It seems so long since it was just the two of us," Newt said, keeping his voice lower than usual as not to disturb the peacefulness of the cave.
"You're right, huh?" Thomas answered, trying to remember the last time they were alone. There were plenty of short instances during their trip, but there was usually one or more of their friends always near.
"It kind of reminds me of when we were kids," Newt said, sounding a bit nostalgic. He probably was. "Speaking about that – how did you fare after I left? I can see that you made some good friends."
Thomas drew his gaze away from Newt's face and fixed it on the slightly rippling water. "I won't lie – I felt lonely. You were the person with whom I had spent most of my days with and I didn't know what to do with myself after you were gone. At first I moped around, after that I tried to pretend that everything was fine. I didn't really want to make new friends at school, but I did talk to some other kids from time to time." He then smiled from a far-off memory. "Teresa was the first one who decided to distract me. She just sat down next to me one day and said that she didn't have her book. I was really suspicious, since she never forgot anything."
"Yeah, I remember that part. She was one of the best students in our class, right?" Newt asked.
"Yup, but I didn't say anything and just lent her mine. After that she just continued to sit down next to me every day and we started talking more and more. Then one day Minho invited me to play on his basketball team. We did hang out with him sometimes, so he wasn't a complete stranger and I agreed."
"I'm glad they managed to get closer to you. I mean, they're really amazing people, even if a bit annoying sometimes," Newt laughed.
"Ah, that just means they care. The more annoying the better," Thomas smiled back at him. "What about you, though? I at least had the same class and neighbourhood, for you it was a completely new place."
"It was and I didn't feel very comfortable at first. I did find a friend fairly quickly – his name's Alby and I'm still friends with him. He helped me get used to the new place and kind of integrated me into the new class at school. I'm really indebted to him for that," Newt said with a fondness in his voice. "I still missed you, though."
"At least we're here now."
"True, I'm happy I decided to check in on your house. Wasn't entirely sure I'd find you there."
"I'm happy too," Thomas let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding in. "It's also nice to hear you had a good time." He almost admitted out loud that he had wondered about his friend almost constantly but managed to restrain himself. That might have just been too much information.
Newt's face stiffened at those words. His mouth straightened into a thin line and the blond slowly looked away. "That's not… entirely true."
Thomas felt his worry rise up again. He had imagined many unnerving scenarios as a kid and he suddenly remembered all of them. He spoke silently, "What happened?"
"I got weak, everything was too much for me and I wanted out," Newt drew up his legs to his chest and hugged them. "If it wasn't for Alby I might not even be here with you right now."
Thomas' blood ran cold as one of his worst scenarios was being told to him. He couldn't look away from Newt but couldn't think of anything to say either.
"My leg is a constant reminder of what I did and I still try to keep clear of higher places. I regret what I tried to do, but I think it changed my outlook on everything quite a bit," Newt continued, his expression shifting into something calmer.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there," Thomas whispered.
"That's not your fault, Tommy," the blond waved his hand.
"You should really give me Alby's number," Thomas smiled slightly. "I have to call him and thank him."
"You'll probably get the chance to meet him – he's going to study at the same place as me." Newt stretched out his legs again and turned his body more towards the other boy. "Maybe we can all hang out sometimes."
"Right…" Thomas sighed and shook his head. When he saw Newt looking at him questioningly he only smiled. "It's nothing. I just can't believe we both got a second chance to meet again and continue from where we left off."
"I can't believe it either," Newt said softly and Thomas felt himself inch closer to him. Newt also leaned in closer and Thomas saw the faint blue glow of the phone reflecting in his eyes. There was barely any space left between their faces.
"Think fast," Newt whispered before closing the distance between their lips.
Thomas had kissed before and this was by far his first time, but for all sakes and instances this might as well had been. He felt nervous and relaxed at the same time and the warmth of Newt's lips were as if a breath of fresh air to him. He hadn't realized how much he had wanted this to happen, but right now he couldn't think of anything else besides the way Newt's eyes looked as they both slowly pulled back and just breathed a bit unevenly, not being able to look anywhere else besides right at each other.
Thomas felt laughter bubble up inside him and he smiled wholeheartedly at Newt. "Thanks for the advice."
Thomas wasn't sure how much time passed with the two of them alone in the cave, but when both of them were startled by the phone ringing with a concerned Teresa on the other side they knew it was about time to go back outside. They swam together the same way they had come in and walked by the beach until finally reaching their friends.
Teresa fussed a bit about them disappearing for so long without saying anything to anyone, but Thomas could see that she wasn't angry. In fact, he was sure he saw her smiling as he put his arm around Newt's shoulders when they were walking back to the beach house. He winked at her and mouthed 'I'll tell you later' as Minho ranted loudly about them having fun without inviting him.
All of them spent the evening in the living-room after eating dinner prepared by Brenda and Jorge. Teresa had brought out some board-games and the atmosphere was comfortably warm as everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves, occasionally acting as little kids again. Thomas felt content as he leaned towards Newt, both of them lounging against the sofa while sitting on the ground.
During the night they slept close to each other as they had been used to, though this time Newt draped his arms over Thomas, pulling them even closer. Thomas hoped that this time of theirs together would never end.
Eventually, though, the week came to a close.
Everyone packed their things and carried them over to the car, settling in themselves after that was done. Minho was messing with the radio and kept asking Teresa if they could stay for some time more. Occasionally he'd look back behind him where Thomas and Newt were sitting and give them an apologetic look. Thomas figured he was doing that for their sake, since the moment it had hit the Asian boy that the two of them were acting a bit closer than usual he had taken up the role of a protector of some sorts. Of course, that didn't stop him from making fun out of them, but that was nothing unusual coming from him. At the moment it seemed that he was convinced that they would separate again after the trip had ended and would never see each other. Thomas had tried telling him that Newt was going to study at the same city as them and even at the same university, but Minho was dead set on his own truth. Ultimately, they just let him roll with it.
When they finally began driving back to their hometown Thomas didn't feel at loss anymore. He knew he had spent an amazing summer with his friends and there was still so much more ahead of them. University was going to be a rollercoaster, but he knew he could manage it.
The brunet boy looked back at Newt, who had snoozed off. He smiled to himself and intertwined their fingers as he also rested his head against the backseats and closed his eyes.