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A Confession and its Aftermath

His face still warm, Lance turned away from Rikki and quietly replied: "No reason."

Placing her towel upon the sand, Rikki said: "Alright, be mysterious then." And with that she sat down on the towel, pulled her sunglasses out of her purse, put the purse next to her, and then closed her eyes.

Turning his head to look at Rikki as she tanned, Lance walked over to the nearby beach chair and sat down. His heart pounding, he wanted to say something to her, bring up the subject about how he felt, but instead asked: "So, how did the interview go, Rikki?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Badly?"

"You know you can sit beside me, Lance." Rikki said, changing the subject.

"I don't know, I don't want to ruin your tanning by casting a shadow over you."

"Then don't sit on the side of me where your shadow will fall." She patted the sand next to her towel. "Come on."

Getting up from the beach chair, Lance sat down next to Rikki. With her eyes closed, she just lay there and Lance did nothing but watch her for a moment, watch her breathe in and out as the sun fell upon her, while his heart continued to pound.

Looking out to sea, images filled the boy's head. Images of him and her in an embrace, but in order for those images to become a reality, he first had to say something.

Him say something? He couldn't even read words from a book, what made him think he could tell a girl something as simple as "I love you"?

Again, he turned to look at Rikki, her hands behind her head. He stared for a moment at her lips, swallowing nervously as he did, but eventually he just once more stared out to sea.

Lying back, Lance turned onto his side so his back was to Rikki. Tell her? Not tell her? What was a few days? A few months? A few years? Why should he have told her how he felt? Because he loved her! If he didn't tell her now, by the time he got around to telling her, she would probably be with someone by then.

Feeling uncomfortable on his side, Lance rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. It was clear and blue, not a cloud to be seen. Maybe he could have tried small-talk and worked his way up to how he felt.

"So, interview aside, how'd everything else go, Rikki?"

"It went." Rikki replied quietly. "After the interview I went home. My dad was at work and Cathy was at a doctor's appointment, leaving me all alone so I got my things and came down here to tan to take my mind off what happened. How has your afternoon been, Lance? Any excitement?"

"I ran into Miriam and Cynthia… It was a brief meeting. After that, I considered going home to change into my trunks so I could go for a swim, ultimately, I didn't."

"I can tell."

"Then I ran some girl named Abby, apparently we are in the same history class, and she invited me to join the school's news team."

"Will you?"

"No. At least when Zane invited me to join the film club it actually sounded interesting. Did I mention he did?"

"You might have." Rikki replied. "Are you going to join?"

"I don't know, maybe. After Abby, I ran into Zane and we talked a bit about the possibility of me joining film club. We seemed to be going somewhere until it turned sour for me."

Sounding annoyed, Rikki asked: "What did he do?"

"Insulted my eyes." Lance replied, closing them. "You don't think there is anything wrong with them do you, Rikki?"

"I didn't when I first met you and I don't now, Lance." Rikki assured him. She sat up, removed her sunglasses and put them back into her purse. After which, she laid down on her stomach and rested her head on her arms, her head positioned so she was looking at Lance. "Hey, Lance?"

"Yeah, Rikki?" Lance asked, opening his eyes and looking at her.

"What do you think of me?"

Well, that was being put on the spot, wasn't it? It was almost like fate was trying to make him say what he thought of Rikki, how he felt about her. The strange thing was, Lance didn't even believe in fate and yet when one was put on the spot like that, what was one to say?

"Though I haven't known you long, I think you are the most fantastic girl I've ever met, the kind of girl that I only would have seen in my wildest fantasies. Rikki, when I met you, I felt like I had been struck by lightning, felt like a goddess had come to earth, like I was being visited by Aphrodite, Hathor or Venus, I saw you and I fell in love and I didn't realize it until these few days later… Rikki Chadwick, I love you."

Lance had not been sure what to expect. A blush upon her lovely face, Rikki stared back at him and yet her expression was one of conflict, uncertainty.

Suddenly getting up, Rikki collected her things and quietly said to him: "I'm sorry, Lance. I-I just need to figure all this out."

And with that she was gone, almost as quickly as soon as she had arrived. Sitting up, Lance sat up, feeling only semi-crushed. He had confessed and while she had not outright rejected him, there was no certainty they would become a couple.

He did understand it all though, Nate was a thing of the past and now here he had come, a second suitor in addition to Zane. If she didn't have feelings for him, would she have said "I just need to figure all this out"?

Sighing, Lance picked up a stone and cast it into the sea.

Well, at least Rikki knew how he felt. Still, there was a part of Lance that wondered if maybe he should have stayed quiet, said something else. Still, what else could he have said? Should he have just stopped at "I think you are the most fantastic girl I ever met"?

How was he to know? Maybe he should have just gone back to the Juicy Bar and tell Emma, literally the only other person who knew how he felt about Rikki. As literally the only other person who knew, didn't she have a right to know?

Three days… Three measly days, why couldn't it have been three weeks, months, years, or decades? No, weeks or months might have seen Rikki seeing someone and years or decades could have seen her married, the former even could have seen her engaged! A confession that late could have been painful both physically and emotionally, presuming Rikki's fiancé or husband didn't accidentally kill him.

Picking up another stone, Lance cast that into the sea as well.

Might as well have headed back to the Juicy Bar. Talking to someone would help and it was best that it was the only other person who knew.

Making his way to the Juicy Bar, Lance looked across the beach. There were people on it, going about their lives, lucky people. He wondered how many other guys his age there were going through a similar situation at that same moment. How many others had confessed how they felt about a girl only for her to leave because she had to figure out her feelings?

Sighing and running a hand through his hair, he looked out to sea and, of course, there was nothing. No basking shark, no sea monster like the one the Daedalus had seen.

How long would it take Rikki to figure things out? Were things going to be awkward between them until she did?

Closing his eyes, Lance thought back to his confession.

Saying he saw her and fell in love… How did one love another? With the eyes? The heart? The mind? All three? Life was strange, but love was not. Love came from the heart. If the stomach spoke, the brain was forgotten, if the brain spoke the heart was forgotten and if the heart spoke everything was forgotten. If one could love with both the mind and the heart, then it was possible for the two to be in agreement, thus it was possible to love with the eyes as well and all three could be in agreement.

What was he even thinking? This was not the time for philosophical thoughts. Was he even being philosophical? Maybe he was just thinking like a crazy person.

Was he? He had no idea.

Still, when he got down to it, Lance knew or supposed that he loved Rikki with his heart. He might have fallen in love with her at first sight, but it was with his heart rather than his eyes that he loved her.

Opening his eyes, he continued on his way to the Juicy Bar. Finding it to be somewhat busier, yet at the same time not so busy that Emma was dashing from table to table, Lance took his seat at the nearest empty one.

Tapping his finger on the tabletop, Lance imagined what it would have been like if his confession had received a completely different reaction. He did not imagine a kiss, the most he imagined was Rikki giving him a warm smile… If only.

In his mind's eyes, Lance saw Rikki's face, blushing and yet at the same time so full of conflict. Would he see that face in his dreams? It was not exactly the worst reaction to a love confession, yet could it have been at the same time worse than an immediate rejection? That was certainly something to debate with one's self.

Sighing once again, he looked out to sea. He was not expecting to see a sea monster, a basking shark or anything like that, he just looked out to the waves, imagining going out to sea for the day or even just diving as far into the Deep as he could before he had to surface for air.

With Rikki by his side? That was a wish, but what one wished did not always come to be.

Finally, Lance's mind drifted towards the great mysteries of the Deep. Sea monsters, the faraway Sargasso Sea, ghosts and ghost ships, the question of if anyone had sailed to the Americas before the Norsemen, lost treasures… What person ever had such luck? Lance doubted he would even find any lost treasures and there was plenty of those outside of the Deep like Oak Island's "Money Pit", the treasures of the Lima, the mysterious treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau, the hidden spoils of Nazi Germany, Arizona's "Lost Dutchman Mine", there were plenty of mysteries outside of the Deep and while he sometimes dreamed of them, Lance knew he would never uncover any.

He had a better chance of meeting a mermaid than he did uncovering some mystery.

Still, if he were to find some lost treasure what was he going to do with it? He supposed Rikki would look pretty with a pearl necklace, if she would accept such a gift, but beyond that what would be done with it? Hand it over to the local museum? Donate it to charity? He hadn't the foggiest.

As Emma came over, Lance stared at her with a less than cheerful expression and neither happy nor sad, told her: "Rikki knows how I feel about her."

With an expression matching Lance's, Emma inquired: "How did she respond?"

"She looked conflicted and said she had to figure it out."

Taking the seat opposite of Lance, Emma quietly said: "I thought that would be the case. Still, it is good that she knows."

"I wouldn't have told her if she had not put me on the spot and asked what I thought of her." Looking out to sea, Lance began to wonder if he should have just stayed quiet. If he had, how would Rikki have reacted? There was something to not think about.

"Maybe that's how things needed to be."

"They probably are."

"What did you say to her?"

"Basically, what I told you when it came to how I felt about her… With the addition of some goddesses mentioned by name and the statement that I love her." Closing his eyes, Lance again saw Rikki's face in his mind's eye, still blushing and so full of conflict.

"Well, at least she knows how you feel now. It is just a question of if she chooses you or Zane." Emma commented.

Lance did not reply. He merely opened his eyes and stared out to sea. He was going through a few emotions himself and was beginning to wish he could just dive into the sea and never come up. Yet, if he did would he ever hear again from Rikki? Would he ever know if she and him could be together?

If so… Could he make her happy?