Babysitting The Bad Boy

Chapter Five

Luke and I finally arrived at our destination, which I had recently discovered to be a secret cove a little ways from Santa Monica Pier. It was very secluded, clean, and absolutely beautiful. 

I exited the car and stood at end of the ledge that we parked on, looking out on the water as the sun was about to set.

"C'mon Rae, we're gonna be late." Luke said, and started walking down the hill to the water. Late for what?

I wandered down the hill after him, trying not trip on my own feet, which I'm very good at (sarcasm intended). As I caught up to Luke, my foot decided right then to trip on a pebble and I started to fall on right on top of him. He noticed and whipped himself around to catch me, but he ended up crashing down with me. I fell hard on his chest and he landed on his back with an 'oomf'. I caught my breath and looked at his face to see his expression. Thankfully it was painless, and I let go of the breath I was holding in. That was until I realized he was staring at me. 

His light hazel eyes were searching my whole face, examining every inch of it, as if it was something he was seeing for the first time. His expression was soft and full of wonder as he looked into my eyes. He then glanced to my lips, and I gulped a bit from nervousness.
What was going on? Why is he staring at me? Is he going to try and kiss me?

He confirmed my thoughts when he started to move his face closer to mine and my pulse increased with every second that ticked by. He kept his eyes trained on my lips and I could feel his warm breath fanning my face. Right as his lips were almost brushing mine, I couldn't take it any longer. 

I quickly got off of him and dusted myself off, interrupting the moment because I wasn't sure I wanted it to happen. He sat up, looking confused and started picking himself up off the ground.
A weird awkwardness began to settle over us and we avoiding meeting each other's gaze.

"Sorry," I said. "I tripped on a rock." He scratched the back of his neck and looked everywhere but my face.

"Its cool," he replied uneasily. "Let's get going."

We began our way down the rest of the hill to the sand in a very awkward silence. I just didn't know what to say or what to think of what had just happened. Nothing like that had ever happened between Luke and I and the thought of some romantic interaction occurring between us was so bizarre. But even in that moment, I couldn't help but feel that something new had just begun.

Once we had reached the sand, I instantly spotted a group of people gathered around a big bonfire laughing and roasting marshmallows along the shoreline.

"There they are." Luke said, pointing towards them. I watched as he walked over, completely forgetting about me, and greeted all his friends, instantly taking a seat amongst them. I just stood there awkwardly until I decided I should probably just go over there with him.

Once I made it to where they were gathered, it became silent and all eyes were on me, besides Luke's who was completely oblivious to the fact I even came with him as he munched obnoxiously on a s'more.

"Hi..." I waved awkwardly to everyone and stood self consciously behind Luke with my hand gripping on to my other arm.

"Uh, hey." Some said back, making it clear they had no idea who I was.

"Guys," Luke said with a mouthful of s'more."This is Rae. Rae this is friends."

"Uh, hi friends." I said in the most awkward way possible. Way to go Rae!

"Uh, hey..." They replied back before instantly continuing what they were doing leaving me there to stand alone.

After a few seconds of awkwardly standing outside the group, I decided I might as well take a seat. I walked to the opposite side of the bonfire, directly across from Luke, and took a seat in a worn out lawn chair. I took a look around and saw so many different people laughing, talking, and being goofy all together and I couldn't help but feel like I didn't belong here. That was until one little voice greeted me softly.

"Hi." A soft voice said to my left.

I whipped my head around to find a short, spunky girl around my age smiling up at me. She had she had an olive skin tone, very wavy, dark hair, and she was absolutely gorgeous. I immediately smiled back once I noticed she was trying to be nice.

"Hello!" I replied, a bit too excited someone wanted to talk to me.

She chuckled a bit before asking, "What's your name? I saw you head over with Luke but I've never seen you before..."

"Oh, I'm Rae. Yeah, don't let him know I told you, but I'm kinda supposed to be babysitting him while his parents are out of town, so he had to drag me here. I'm his neighbor." I said with a laugh.

"I see..." She replied with a smile giving a glance towards Luke. "Well Luke isn't the most responsible person in the world, especially without supervision."

"Tell me about it! Are you two friends?" I ask.

Her smile falters a little bit before she replies with, "I guess you could say that, but we're not that close anymore."

Uh oh, I think to myself. Something must have happened between them. I nod in understanding before replying, a bit embarrassed , "Oh my gosh I forgot to ask, what's your name?"

"Nina." She answers with a small smile. I return the favor and turn back towards the bonfire. I examine the fire, impressed by the height, and watch every motion and flicker that occurred. I start at the base of the fire moving my eyes up the large flame, entranced by its abstract beauty. I look just past the top of flames to see Luke staring straight at me.

Instead of looking away like any two normal human beings would do, however, we stayed exactly the way we were, not breaking the connection. He looked at me with the same longing in his eyes as before on the hilltop and I couldn't help but wonder what made him suddenly feel that way towards me.

I noticed that behind Luke, a big, beautiful sunset was casting across the sky, and it reminded me of how Luke had told me today that my ugly face covered up the sunset. Lame insult, I know, but deep down I'm sensitive, and that hit my core. But somehow, the way Luke was looking at now was telling me he felt completely different towards me.

As we continued to watch each other, without even really realizing it, I started to feel the same longing towards him. Everything about him that I ever denied being attracted to was so undeniably attractive now. I never thought I would say it, but I regret not kissing him. It's unusual to say about a guy, but he was beautiful. His entire being was sculpted to perfection and now, I was craving it. How could I have not possibly felt this way towards him before?

Luke finally broke what you could call our "staring contest" by flickering his eyes toward Nina, then back to his friends he was previously talking to.

I suddenly remembered how Nina mentioned they weren't much of friends anymore. What happened between them? Was it really so bad that they just had to stop being friends?
I looked up into the sky, noticing the sunset was fading away and stars were beginning to appear. While connecting the dots with each star and my curious mind taking over for some time, my whole world went black.