Love is Dangerous

6

I stare at the ceiling in the dark, my eyes well adjusted. I haven't slept at all tonight. I kept having different thoughts that came out of nowhere. Thoughts like: my clock stopped ticking. I'm different. I don’t belong. I'm a threat. I couldn't make sense of it all. It was too random. Plus, I kept thinking about what Tyler wanted to tell me. And on top of all of that, I heard the ticking droning on and on, never ending. But it was different. It seemed to be a little louder than it was yesterday. It also sounded slower. In high hopes, I couldn't help but thinking, maybe I was closer than ever. Then a thought pulled me back into hopelessness. Or farther.

The next day, the buttery smell of pancakes wafted through the door. I get up slowly, like the teenager I am, and look over at the bed next to my small burrito bed. I was exhausted. I kept falling into a light sleep but I was pulled back out of it with my thoughts. This is really weird. It’s never happened before. I walk out of the room and down the hallway, past the kitchen, and into the living room. I turn a corner and walk over to the couches. "Hey, Kai," Corbin yells over the TV. I sit on of the couches and take out my phone. There are 3 new messages all from Riley, my girlfriend. I sighed and read the first one. "Kai, baby, I miss you soooo much. I wonder if we are soulmates because the feeling I get with you is like no other. Text me back please!" I groan. If we were soulmates, that stupid clock would've stopped by now. But being honest with myself, I didn't even like her.  She's annoying and needy. I hate that in a girl. Too needy equals desperate. Desperate equals Kai annoyed. I didn't bother reading the rest. I text her back with all the confidence I have in me. "I think we should break up. Things just aren't good with me and my parents and I'm too stressed to be in a relationship. I'm sorry." The sad part is that it’s true. My parents don’t pay any attention to me. They are always too busy with their scuba diving careers. Sure, they can take me on cool surf trips, but they only focus on the living organisms on the bottom of the ocean. I realize it looks cool the first few times but 30 weeks out of the whole year? Seriously? I throw my phone on the couch and stand up. I walk over to Tyler and tell him the news. "Well I am officially single." Tyler looks at me and says, "Oh I'm sorry. Were you dumped?" I glare at him. "Says the guy who was thrown down a hill because 2 teen girls in bikinis couldn't stand the sight of you." Now it’s his turn to glare. I grin and turn away. We eat our delicious breakfast of fluffy pancakes and bacon and go outside to go to the beach. As I walk toward the beach, I see a girl walk out of Marissa's house. Marissa, I can tell by her signature blonde, was walking inside. But then I saw a flash of brunette hair entering the house. I try to get a better look, but give up and turn away. As we walk on the sandy road, I can't help but noticing, my heart is 

 beating faster. And the ticking is slower, louder. I wonder...

The surf was pretty good today. 8-10 feet again. I kept thinking of the two girls across the street. I already met Marissa. Sure she’s somewhat pretty, but she didn’t like me. Not gonna force it on her. But the other girl, the brunette, she was eye catching. She was in a blue and green leotard and her hair was in a long ponytail, reaching to the middle of her back. There was nothing unusual about her. She seemed to look normal to me. But something about her caught my eye and the memory is  stuck on my mind. No matter how many waves I catch, my mind slips to her. I hope I can meet her soon. We get out of the water and set our boards down. “Let’s go to the rocks! Let’s go to the rocks! Let’s go to the rocks!” Corbin yells, doing a random front flip, landing it. “Fine, but don’t do a front flip on those rocks.” He nods and races ahead. I stay behind with Tyler. “What’ve you been thinking about?” I freeze, startled. How did he know? “Uhh, the usual. The beach, surfing, ---“ He interrupts me. “That girl with Marissa?” I look at him and whisper. “How did you know?” He looks at me knowingly. “First of all, we are best friends. Second of all, I think she’s eye catching too.”  I look at him. “I didn’t say anything about eye catching.” Now it’s his turn to freeze. “Uhh. Lucky guess?” I turn to him. “How did you know what was on my mind?” I ask cautiously. “Uhhhh…. Gotta go bye.” He ran towards the rocks, picking up Corbin on the way. Okay. Now that was weird.