campfire

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The sound of sand crunches beneath your shoes with every step you take as you head over to the group of the hoodie-wearing posse.

The fire that they have is a pretty impressive one. Sparks float over their heads and into oblivion as their voices go up and down between laughter. They're all sitting in a circle of lawn chairs, all being very loud and seeming to be having a good time.

As you get closer to them, the person in the back looks up and notices you approaching. He was breaking out in a noisy laugh, body motion and all but it suddenly fades into a sly smile as his eyes land on you. You make eye contact with the boy for a moment. The people around him haven't noticed you yet and are still being quite loud.

The boy remains watching you walk over. This makes you a bit nervous and you look at your feet while making the last few steps.

"—like, would you even be able to get out of a situation like that?! Fucking shit dude, I would have—" The person with their backside facing you is mid-conversation when he realizes his friend who was watching you walk wasn't paying attention to the conversation anymore. This makes the boy question what he was staring at and he turns around quickly.

"Dude, what are you looking a—" the guy faces you and looks up at you surprised. At that moment, everyone's eyes were on you and it went from being super loud to silent fast.

"Uh- Hi!" You force a smile.

"I'm (y/n)." You introduce yourself shyly while doing your best to act confident.

I can feel my social anxiety brewing, oh lord, have mercy.

You get it together and continue talking.
"Your friend walked my way and invited me to hang out."

This makes a couple of them laugh.

"Of course." The man closest to you sighs and turns his back towards you again. They all get kind of quiet and seem a bit confused as they start to trade looks at each other and talk about the man who invited you over. You stand there looking at the ground as they talk.

A minute passes and none of them say another word to you. Some of them are already chuckling at inside jokes you couldn't understand.

Did they already forget I was here?

As they do this, your eyes bounce from person to person and you realize that - oh wow, they are ALL guys.

Your eyes continue to bounce and land on the person furthest away from you — the same boy who had first seen you approaching.

Your close enough now to see that he has fluffy, straight hair that falls all over his face from out his hood. While looking, you also notice that he still had a little smile on his face and he hasn't moved an inch, still gazing at you. Gulp.

"Alright - alright!" You hear a voice call out from behind you.

You and the rest of the group turn and face the backside of the beach and see the man who offered you an invite was jogging back over with two separate blue box coolers in each hand.

"I see you met the stranger!" He exclaims as he approaches, panting and stopping at your side. He lets go of the coolers and they drop into the sand.

"Stranger's name is (y/n)." One of them you hadn't heard talk yet from the far left side replies.

"Ah, (y/n), nice name." The guy beside you says, still panting. "I'm Tracy." He shoots you a toothy grin and falls to the ground. He breathes loudly and looks up at you.

"Well, come on, don't be shy! Sit. Grab a drink." His voice suddenly sounds more smooth and less slurry. The run must've done that.

You sit down on the sand next to him as he swings open the cooler lids.

"Pick your poison." He chuckles.

An assortment of beers and a bottle of Hennessy were in one of the coolers. Inside the other, even more beers, all of the different brands, some local and some imported.

"Aye!" The group of men exclaim and rush over to start rummaging through the bottles of alcohol.

The scent of cologne and booze suddenly fills the air. The guys are a bit too close to you now so you pull away from the coolers and stand back up. You take a few steps and look at the ocean.

The sound of a friend group talking, the waves crashing, a warm summer night. Laughter. Moonlight. The fire.

This is all strangely familiar yet I've never even met these people before. What did I get myself into?

"Hey." A soft, slow voice you can just barely hear calls at you from your side.

You turn to the right. It's the boy from the back again. He was the only one who hadn't moved from his seat since you introduced yourself, unlike the others who had pounced at the sight of booze. It even seemed that the same small smile he had before when he first saw you hadn't left his face.

"Hi-"

"Hey (y/n), think fast!"

Your soft hello was interrupted by Tracy's voice and you quickly turn to your side. In a split second, you notice a beer bottle in the air and headed straight for your head. You move quickly and throw your hands in front of your face, turning your head to the side and to your surprise, manage to catch the bottle.

"Nice!" Another man laughs.

Tracy gets up and does a little strut toward you. He leans his arm over your shoulder as the other boys began packing and folding their lawn chairs while another starts to put out the fire.

"Alright," Tracy smiles as you twist off the cap to your beer. "We are about to head back to our crib for a little house party if you want to come with us."

You ponder for a moment but he's staring at you, waiting for an answer. So, without thinking it through and the nerves from the boy on your shoulder, lingering for an answer, the words "Yeah sure." escape your lips.

What am I doing?  I don't even know them.
You begin to feel a bit anxious.

"Great! Here, follow me and I'll show you to the car." Tracy grins as he closes the coolers and picks them back up. They're quick to want to leave after just bringing the coolers out here only about 10 minutes ago. Perhaps that's what they were discussing while I was lost in the water.

"I'll be right behind you, I just want to look at my favourite place a bit longer." You tell Tracy, crossing your arms with a little smile. Tracy gives you a nod.

"Alright, don't wait up too long girl." he laughs and begins walking off with a few of the boys following behind him.

You watch them walk off for a moment and then turn your head down. You glance over at the just recently put-out fire that still has some sparks burning in the wood. Some more water hits the last burning area of the campfire and it's entirely out now.

You look up to see who poured the water and then you see him. The. Same. Damn. Boy.

He's got an empty water bottle in his hand and the same cheeky grin is still on his face from earlier. Why are you so smiley?

His face is slim and you can notice now that he's got a couple of visible tattoos under his eyes and on his cheeks. As you examine his face, his eyes go from the empty plastic bottle and then up to your face. Your eyes catch his.

The corner of his upper lip raises a bit and it seems like he's about to say something when a voice that isn't Tracy calls out to the two of you from the back of the beach. It's one of the other boys.

"Let's go!"

The boy keeps eye contact with you for a moment longer before giving you a sweeter smile than before. He then calls back to his friend "yup!"

His eyes leave yours and he begins walking away. You watch him as he leaves and you notice that the hoodie he was wearing had some really neat art designs on the back.

You linger on the sand a moment longer and take one long last look at the beach. The feeling of a dream world fills your body more than it ever was before, which you didn't think was possible. You wonder how that could be.

You start heading to the park pathway not too far from the noisy strangers you'd just met, thinking to yourself,

His eyes were really warm.

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