By The Beach ✔

Part 28. And the Winners Are ...

"IN THIRD PLACE WE HAVE, Sawyer MONTGOMERY" the crowd clapped as the female judge hung a medal around Sawyer's neck and placed a kiss on his cheek, it made me a little jealous but the uncomfortable look he sent made me a little better. I stood next to the other contestant from the surf contest as I looked around the crowd.

It had come down to Sawyer, me, and some guy with short red hair. As the male judge hung a medal around my neck and said: "In second place is Elizabeth Maywatcher" the crowd clapped and I gave a grin.

They gave first place trophy to the guy who was named Blake Nevil. We congratulated him before walking off to find Dini, Zeke, and Doug who had lost because he wiped out the first second he hit the water.

If I hadn't been so focused on the contest, I probably would have laughed.

Doug clapped his hands together repeatedly as we neared them "Bravo. Good show! At least you two got something, I don't get shit for trying!" Doug complained, Dini rolled her eyes at her brothers whining and jumped forward to hug me.

"Congratulations on the win!" She said as enthusiastically as she could and glared at her brother before giving a side hug to Sawyer who awkwardly patted her back.

Zeke smirked as he stared at me "You two did good" he said as he high fived me, I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him.

"So, would this be a good thing or bad thing in the romance novels you read?"

His eyes widened as Doug looked at him with a smirk "Dude. Do you read romance books?" my cousin questioned him.

Zeke shrugged and straightened out the open button-up shirt he was wearing "Sometimes. Nicholas Sparks might be my favorite" he said, looking at the ground. Dini turned around wide-eyed and grinned.

"I love his books! The Last Song made me cry" she said as she walked towards him, I raised an eyebrow at the pair as they started to talk about books. Doug rolled his eyes and walked off with a smile towards some girls on down the beach that he had spotted.

Sawyer stayed where he was, beside me.

He was bare-chested in swim shorts that were a deep burgundy with black down the sides, he wore simple black flip flops on his feet, his tan showed off under glistening skin from the water we had just came out of, his hair was wet and pulled back behind his head with his shark tooth necklace hanging down around the middle of his chest, and his blue eyes were staring right back at me.

Sawyer held a hand out to me and smiled showing his teeth "Shall we head to the hotel and change?" He said putting on a fake accent which made me laugh and grab his hand.

We walked up the sand to the hotel and he moved his hand from mine so he could wrap his arm around me, with Will locked up in jail I felt safe. Especially when I am with Sawyer, he knew all the right things to say that made me feel ... confident, and that made me happy.

I never felt that way at my college dorm.

The thought of college made the smile disappear from my mouth and be replaced with a frown. This wasn't going to last much longer, being here with him, I would end up back at my college dorm and he would be back with his band.

Why is it that we just found each other yet a lot was keeping us apart?

We walked to the elevator and Sawyer pressed a button, he turned to me and found I wasn't smiling. He looked for concern as the elevator doors opened and we stepped inside.

"What's wrong?"

The elevator doors closed and the elevator shot upwards, I shrugged and looked up at him "Nothing. Just realizing that the vacation is almost over" I told him, sadly, as the elevator doors opened and we stepped out into the hallway.