Seaside Serendipity
Ifell silent again. What was I supposed to say to that?
He had been one of my best friends for almost four summers now.
He had been my boyfriend, the guy I had been so insanely in love with.
He had broken my heart, shattering it to pieces and stomping on the shards.
Reid Bennett had joined the not-so-exclusive club of people I loved, who I assumed loved me back, but ended up leaving. That proved that I wasn’t meant to be loved.
Reid stared at me like he was silently begging me to say something.
I blinked. The sun peeked out behind a cloud, making me squint. For another minute, I replayed his speech in my head. All of it. From the beginning, like he had wanted.
“Loved. You said loved. You said you were scared of how much I loved you. Past tense,” I said, quoting his exact words. They were burned into my brain by now.
In a flash, he let go of my hand and flew them to my face, holding onto my cheeks as I let just one singular tear fall.
He ignored it and lifted my chin slightly to make sure I was staring him directly in the eyes.
“Loved. Love. Will always love. Put it in whatever tense you want, and it will mean the same thing. I love you, Marlowe Mitchell. Past, present, and future. You are my Mars. My entire universe, galaxy, and solar system. And I will love you until the day the sun dips over the horizon and becomes extinguished for the last time. I know I can’t expect you to still love me, but—”
I didn’t let him finish. I couldn’t. Because I knew what he was going to say, and I needed to show him how wrong he was.
I grabbed onto his wrists and smashed my lips into his.
I kissed him like I had been dreaming of doing again for so long.
I kissed him enough to make up for the past year of kisses we missed out on.
I kissed him like he was the only boy I had ever loved. The only one who understood me at my core. The only one who could take away my worries and stress and calm me from a panic attack.
I kissed him like he was my forever.
And he kissed me back, telling me without words how much he loved me. How deeply he felt about me. How sorry he was.
He slid one hand away from my cheek, to the back of my neck, his thumb brushing over my pulse point and sending electric sparks all the way to my toes. His other hand stayed put, more so pulling me toward him, attempting to get me closer.
With one last kiss, he leaned his forehead on mine, his lips brushing mine as he took a shaky breath. “When I said I waited weeks for you to ask? I meant it. I didn’t know where I stood, but from the second I saw you in the kitchen, wearing that towel, I wanted to kiss you just. Like. This. I was just waiting for you to ask.”
I sighed. “We wasted so much time. Let’s make up for it now?”
“As much as I’d like to continue, I think we have an audience.”
My eyes popped open, the sunlight streaming directly into them. All of time and space had become a distant memory, leaving me woozy and unaware of my surroundings.
Once reality came crashing back in, I launched myself away from Reid, remembering we were on a bench outside the lighthouse.
A public bench.
A very public bench.
With three girls standing ten feet away, their arms fallen to their sides, their jaws dropped. A tiny one with bright red heart sunglasses. Another with dark brown hair swept to the side in a braid, her hand shielding the sun from her eyes as she stared. And the last, with bright blonde hair like her brother, a little smirk on her face.
Emma held a tray of drinks in her hand, dangerously close to tipping over and dumping the liquid all over the ground. Norah held a to-go bag from the cafe, and Livvy had her arms haphazardly wrapped around a blanket.
“Um…” Reid started, trying to get everyone’s attention back.
“So… that happened,” Emma said after snapping out of it. She gestured to us with the hand holding the tray before realizing what she was doing. She dropped the bag on her other arm in order to steady the drinks. I suppressed a laugh at her expense.
“What are you two crazy kids up to here at the lighthouse?” Livvy asked, her head cocked like she knew there was some big secret going on. And the secret wasn’t Reid and I.
I pursed my lips, not sure how to answer. I pulled my sunglasses down to cover as much of my face as possible.
“Is this where you went after you both ran out of the cafe like you had just robbed the place?” Emma stated, finally putting the drinks on the ground.
I nodded. Reid coughed, shifting his legs slightly so his knee brushed against mine.
“Coming to make out in a park full of tourists? Not your usual style, Bennett,” Norah added with a raised eyebrow.
Reid just shrugged. I knew he wouldn’t give anything about the scavenger hunt away unless I told him to, but we were treading in dangerous waters. There was no way the girls really believed that we came here just to make out. We weren’t fans of PDA like that and they knew it.
“It’s the new and improved Mareid. Relowe? Yeah, I think Relowe is the better ship name. Relowe two point oh likes to make out in public parks,” Livvy said as she shimmied and waggled her eyebrows. She let go of the blanket and shook it out, letting it float to the ground. “You guys want to join us?”
Reid tapped me on the knee before reaching up and running a hand through his hair. “Nah. We… we’ve got to go. But hey, come on over later. Tell the guys.”
Emma stared at him suspiciously, but he ignored her.
“My parents are coming back in a few days and we haven’t even had a party or anything while they were gone. What kind of teenagers are we?” he said casually, like he was trying to change the subject without it being too obvious.
“What kind of Baysider teenager, you mean,” Emma teased, giving him a smirk. He shot her a faux-glare.
“I’ll shoot Liam a message. I’m sure he’s out with Caleb right now, since we both are guarding later this afternoon. But we’ll be off right as sundown hits, and can come then?” Livvy jumped in, interrupting the silent conversation Emma and Reid seemed to be having.
I had yet to say a single word. I had no idea what words to even say. The conversation happened around me just fine, without any sort of input from me.
That, plus all I wanted to do was dig a hole and curl up inside, never to see the light of day again. While kissing Reid had been amazing, the embarrassment of being caught almost outweighed it.
Reid agreed with Livvy and told them to all bring their suits so we could swim. It would be a Baysider pool party, without the cringy Baysiders.
My face was still on fire, and even though no one mentioned it, they definitely all saw. I just waved as Reid stood and took my hand, leading me away from our friends. I had no doubt all three of them had their gaze set on our hands, but they kept their mouths shut.
“Where are we going?” I asked as soon as we were far enough away from the group I couldn’t feel their gaze on my back. “We walked here, remember?”
Reid just nodded. “I know. We have a clue to work on, though. Let’s go wander through town—maybe it’ll spark something.”
A walk definitely wouldn’t spark anything for me. I had enough sparks shooting around my body at the moment that I could self-combust at any second.