Day 5 Point Pleasant, NJ — BEACH DAY! #3
In the brilliant sunlight, I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes off it. “I really dig it, dude. It suits you.”
The smile Sam shoots back at me might be brighter than his hair.
On his next throw, he nods up towards the sand. “Get a load of those two.”
Roxie and Blake have finally made it to the beach. They’re sitting underneath a rainbow-striped umbrella, both of them dressed entirely in black. Roxie is wearing a T-shirt over her suit and a pair of red John Lennon sunglasses, and Blake has a huge hat on, his nose buried in a book.
“They look like Wednesday Addams and that kid she kissed in Addams Family Values,” I call back.
Sam snorts. “I guess there’s a lid for every pot.”
I toss the Frisbee back at him, and this time it slices way out over the ocean. “Shit —”
Look, I never said I was a fucking athlete.
But Sam is game, diving out into the waves to retrieve the lime green disc. When he finally emerges with it, he stands up, the water at waist level, and he whoops, raising his fist in victory, turning toward me with a wide grin on his face — too absorbed looking at me to notice —
“Dude, watch out!”
The towering wave knocks Sam full across his back, towing him under.
I sprint forward to the spot where I last saw him, grabbing him by the elbows and pulling him to his feet again.
When he comes up, he’s spluttering a little, but he’s shrieking with laughter, too, shaking the water out of his ears and pushing his hair back from his face.
My hand is still clutching his elbow, and he’s only inches from me, the water sluicing down his bare chest, the tip of his nose pink from the sun, his freckles standing out like copper pennies. He even has little droplets in his eyelashes.
We lock eyes on each other, and suddenly I can’t hear the waves, the gulls overheard, the shriek of the kids a little ways up the beach. Sam’s eyes have always been a kaleidoscope, flecks of green and gold and brown, as changeable as the sea we’re standing in.
As I watch, his gaze drops to my mouth.
“Sam —” It’s barely an exhale.
“Nnnnh!”
He breaks away from me, diving back out into the water, twenty feet away from me before I have a chance to draw breath. And I’m left holding the Frisbee, watching him go.
Oh.
Oh.
Fuck, this is not good.
BLAKE
What a perfect day this has been.
I’m sitting on the couch in the living room in Roxie’s aunt’s house, a book open on my lap.
Sam and Max are out on the enclosed porch, and I can hear them through the open window playing their guitars.
When we go on these trips, the band always comes fully prepared for both electric and acoustic sets, in case they run into a chance to do some busking in the afternoon before a show, or if the power goes out or the cops are called for noise at one of our DIY venues.
Roxie has a washboard, and she scowls at it every time she pulls it out, but we all know she likes to play it — and she’s good.
Max strums the opening chords of Green Day’s “Good Riddance,” and Sam chuckles. “Really, dude?”
I can’t see Max, but I can feel his shrug in my bones. “I dunno, I was just feeling sentimental.”
“Okay, go for it.”
For all of the screaming he does into the microphone, Max actually has a perfectly pleasant voice, warm and rich. Sam’s is a little lighter, but when he comes in on the harmony, they really complement one another. I close my eyes and listen, letting the peace wash over me.
This afternoon, we stayed on the beach until golden hour, and then came up to the house to shower before walking back down to the boardwalk.
It’s early in the season, and school is still in session, so the boardwalk wasn’t as busy as it will be later on in the summer, with families coming down the shore every week for vacation.
But we enjoyed strolling under the lights anyway, playing a few rounds of Skee Ball.
Dinner was hot dogs and cheese fries at an open-air restaurant overlooking the water, the breeze off the ocean just a little chilly after sundown.
And I don’t know why, but there was a vibe?
Just an electrical charge in the air, as if something is changing, headed down the pike in our direction.
I hear a cough, and I open my eyes to see Roxie standing in the doorway looking at me, her arms folded across her chest. She’s trying to look disgusted, but I can see the humor dancing in the quirk of her lips.
“Hey, you —” I put my book aside and open my arms, and she crosses the room, climbing onto my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. There’s a crooked smile on her face.
“You going soft on me, babe?” she whispers, playing with the hair at the nape of my neck.
“I will be as soft or as hard as you want me to be,” I murmur back, sliding my hands up her thighs to circle her waist.
“That’s what I like to hear.” And when she kisses me, I know it’s true, that I’m happy to go anywhere or do anything as long as she’s with me.
And a little while later, when I pick her up and carry her back to our room, leaving Sam and Max to whatever they’re doing out there, I make sure she knows exactly what she means to me.