Happy Endings

19. party

"I just don't know what to do 'cause I only want to be with you."

☼

The sky dimmed as the hours went by. The sun started to lower over the horizon slowly, so slowly Kellin didn't even realize when the hues around the beach started getting cooler, the breeze less warm. Most of the beachgoers had started to leave, going back to their houses, or maybe somewhere else, ready to carry on with their nights. Though Vic's friends didn't seem to be ready to do the same.

Kellin had settled himself nicely in one of the beach chairs, a bit further away from the tent. Since the sun wasn't annihilating anymore, he felt safe lounging under the dimming sky. It was pretty. He felt like he never got a moment like this back home. Being by himself in the quiet, only the sound of the waves and the wind around him, his skin hot with the aftermath of being in the ocean earlier, the sand sticking to his feet and ankles, but it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

He wasn't hanging out with anyone in particular. Tay had taken Penny back to the house to get her clean from all the sand and salt water. She convinced Penny to try the water eventually and Penny ended up loving it, throwing herself in the shallow water and having fun with the smaller waves. She splashed around with Kellin too and Tay finally got videos of them to send to their mom. After they wrinkled their skin enough, Tay took her back inside to clean up and that's where they were now. Kellin stayed back and appreciated the help.

As for the others, Jaime grabbed Matt and Leo and designated them to get fresh wood from the house out to the sand. A bonfire was part of the beach traditions and Kellin thought that was cool. But he was glad he didn't have to go and carry logs to bring back. So that left Tony, Carly, Vic, and him back at the beach.

Vic had gone closer to the ocean to take pictures. He claimed the scenery was so gorgeous he couldn't pass the opportunity to take some photos of the sun setting over the ocean. And he'd been at that for a while. Kellin didn't know what took him so long to take a picture of the sky, but seeing him from afar still made him wonder.

Kellin also wondered if he felt like he was in some sort of soap opera, what with the way his oversized, opened shirt flapped with the wind as he knelt, stood, and got different angles for his photo. He didn't know Vic's hair could get so curly either. It was under a cap right now, down to dry with the breeze, but the ends were starting to quickly curl up and it looked nice like that. Maybe Vic should stop wearing that bun all the time.

Carly laughing snapped him out of his random thoughts. She was chatting with Tony about who knows what back under the tent. It was cute how she seemed to be friends with everyone here. Kellin supposed he could be chatting with them too, but he honestly didn't feel like it. So he chose to relax for a few minutes, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. Grounding himself.

That is until his phone started buzzing in his lap. He opened one eye and checked the notification. His friend's group chat was popping up with a dozen texts. He was going to ignore them but that was always a difficult thing to do. The alerts wouldn't stop coming either.

With a sigh, he sat up straighter on his chair and unlocked his phone. Andy was the one who started the chat, he'd asked for a beach update ten minutes ago, but that quickly spiraled into another conversation between the five of them that Kellin couldn't keep up with so he chose to send them a picture of the scenery in front of him, unavoidably detouring the conversation further.

He took the picture from the messaging app camera and sent it with a smiley face. But Kellin didn't realize who also appeared in the picture, and once he did, it was too late. His friends didn't waste a second zooming in and sending cropped versions of the image, focusing only on Vic's dark silhouette against the bright colors of the sky, asking if that was The Vic Fuentes. That made him laugh.