Guy Problems

Part 2, Chapter 1: New Love

After Brett and I broke up, I stopped dating again and focused on my social life. Over the summer, I spent a lot of time with Carol, Blake, Britney, and Will. Sometimes, I hung out with all of them, but most of the time, I hung out with just Will. I went over to Will's house often and played video games with him, and sometimes I'd beat him, but it was probably because he let me win. We went to the beach by ourselves a few times, and he'd buy me a strawberry shortcake, which was my favorite. One time, when all of us went to the beach towards the end of the summer, I noticed that Carol and Blake weren't as inseparable as usual. Carol seemed to want to be around him, but Blake didn't seem to want to be around her. Then, I noticed it.

Blake was totally checking me out. I wondered how long he had been checking me out. Was it because of me that he was sort of avoiding Carol today? I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Blake was pretty cute, but if I ever dated him, or if Carol even suspected that Blake and I liked each other, she would hate me forever.

"Krista, want to build a sand castle?" Will asked, sitting near the tide holding up a clump of sand in his left hand.

"Sure," I said. I walked over and sat down beside him. We didn't have any pails or shovels, so we simply grabbed sand off of the ground and started piling it up. Then, we dug a trench around our "castle" and filled it with water.

"We should build another one and make a bridge in between them," Will said.

"I don't know how we'd make a bridge," I replied.

"I'll help." Will and I turned around to find Blake standing behind us.

"Um, sure," Will said. For some reason, he seemed hesitant about letting Blake build sand castles with us, which was weird, because he and Blake were best friends.

We sat there building a second sand castle in silence, which was also weird, because Will and I had been laughing and joking around before Blake joined us. Blake was still checking me out and I'll admit, I was checking him out too. He had a six-pack, just like Will, and he had nice arms, but I wasn't as sure if his biceps were as rock-hard as Will's. His jet-black hair had grown a little bit longer than usual, which I liked. I'd always liked guys with longer hair.

Will was looking at me, as usual. He was always looking at me, but he was never really checking me out. Will never looked me up and down, like Blake was doing, but he was always looking into my eyes. He looked down for a moment, and I picked up a handful of sand and threw it at him. It landed on his chest.

"Hey!" Will exclaimed, playfully. He smiled at me and retaliated by throwing another handful of sand at me, which landed on my shoulder. We both stood up and began throwing wet sand at each other, while laughing at each other. When some sand that Will threw at me landed on my chest and slid down into my bikini top, he fell to the ground laughing. I rolled my eyes.

"We should probably go wash off now," I suggested.

"Okay," Will said, still laughing. He got up off of the ground and started walking toward the water. I followed him.

When I came up beside him, Will said, "I'll help you get the sand out of your bikini."

I punched him in the arm. "Ow," Will said, rubbing his arm where I punched him.

"Did that really hurt?" I asked.

"Not really," Will said, smirking at me.

After we had waded out enough that the water was up to our waists, he ducked down in the water. I did the same, but when I came back up, there was still sand in my bikini top.

"Will, look away while I get the sand out of my bikini," I said.

He laughed. "No," he said, shaking his head while giving me a playful, boyish grin.