When We Grow Up

Prologue

Prologue

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The bright sunshine beat down on my face, even with my hat on. I skipped along the sidewalk happily, hand in hand with my parents. We were supposed to be meeting our neighbors here, the Faynes. They had a son who was about my age, and he was my best friend. Gabriel. We had been best friends since before we could walk. 

"Rose!" a very familiar voice shouted.

I felt a smile cross my face. "Gabriel!" I could see him heading this way, so I ran and jumped into his outstretched arms, knocking him over. "Oops." I giggled.

He groaned, but mustered up a smile for me. "I'm okay."

Mrs. Fayne and my mom came over. "Well, what have we here?" she grinned.

My mom laughed. "Come on, don't you two want to go swimming?"

"Yes!" we chorused. 

Half an hour later, I was squealing and racing across the sand dunes with Gabriel. I made it all the way to the edge of the ocean. "Ha! Beat ya!"

"I let you win!" he shot back.

I shrugged. "Last one in the water's a rotten egg!"

Once we were in the lukewarm water, he yelped and jumped a mile. "Ow!"

I raced over to him. "What's wrong?"

"I stepped on something!"

I scanned the somewhat clear water with my eyes. "I can't see anything..."

Gabriel stuck his hand in the water and started digging through the sand. He emerged with a worn, but beautiful medium sized conch shell. Its inhabitant had most likely left long ago.

"Wow, it's so pretty!" I stared at it.

He smiled shyly. "It's for you," he said, holding it out to me while ducking his head.

"Really? Thank you!" I threw my arms around his neck and he hugged me back.

Then I heard the click of a camera and turned around to see his mother taking a picture of us. She smiled. "That was so cute!"

"Mo-o-om," Gabriel whined. 

"Okay, okay, I can take a hint," she said, and walked back to where the other adults were sitting.

I looked down at the conch shell in my hand. "I'm going to keep it forever and ever and ever."

"My daddy told me that if you put it to your ear, you can hear the ocean, but Grandma says that it's not the ocean, it's actually your soul mate's voice," he told me, sounding all scientifical.

"What's a soul...mate?" I pronounced it carefully.

Gabriel shrugged. "Wanna go ask?"

"Sure," I chirped. 

We walked hand in hand out of the water and headed straight for his mom. "Mrs. Fayne?" I called.

She came over to us immediately. "Yes?"

"What's a soul mate?" I repeated the question.

Mrs. Fayne chuckled. "It's the person you spend the rest of your life with. Your one true love." My best friend and I shared confused looks, causing her to sigh. "You're both a bit young, so you'll have time to digest the information, okay? Just go have fun," she patted our heads.

Gabriel and I spent the rest of the day under the sun, in the water, and just enjoyed our day at the beach together. Finally, we were all tuckered out and flopped down in front of our lopsided sandcastle.