A Bondi Dream

Chapter 15 - Finally

"Oh, I have something for you." He says.

"It better not be a snake." I joke around as he digs through his bag.

"Haha, no promises." He says.

I snicker. He pulls out a tiny little box. I was thinking, hm spider?

"Open it." He says

I slowly open the box. Not a spider. Not a snake. Not a bug. But a necklace. It's sterling silver with a small heart on the end.

"How did you know I like silver?" I ask since I hate gold.

"I heard you talking about it with Emma." He smiles.

"Oliver, I love it." I look back up at him and give him a hug.

"Come on, let's go in the sparkling water." We run down to the water with our boards.

"It's so cool! I love this." I say.

"Me too."

We paddle out back, where the waves break. We stare out to the big Pacific Ocean.

"The ocean is huge." He says.

"It really is."

* Play the song now and stop it when you want.

"It's so big, you'll never know what sea creatures lurk beneath your feet." I look at him confused.

"Sharks, crabs, fish with lights on their heads? You never know. One minute, it's fine. The next, they come up and SNAP." He lunges off his board and pushes me off mine.

"AH, STOP IT!" I scream and splash water in his face. He splashes back and laughs.

We laugh and splash each other before I jump back on my board and paddle in, Oliver close on my tail.

I run up the sand, and he grabs my ankle and pulls me. I lay on my back, laughing and swinging my legs like a child. He holds out a hand, and I take it and brush myself off. I giggle and look back at him.

He's standing there laughing as well. I look into his eyes. He looks into mine. He's like 4 inches taller than me, so he looks down while i look up. He has that same glisten in his eyes as he did in the hospital.

His blonde hair is brushed to the side, and water drips down his face. The waves crash to our left. We're in South Bondi right now, where the surf is better.

I look out to the ocean and smile at the moon shining above us. Then I look back to Oliver, who looks back at me.

Those same butterflies came into my stomach, and all I heard was the pounding of my heart.

I swallow from nerves and happiness, and my breathing gets calmer.

We were face to face. He holds out his hands, and I take them. Our fingers are interlocked, then suddenly, it seemed like time had stopped, and it was just us. Like a movie scene.

He pulls me in by my hands, and I wrap them around his torso. He wiped the water droplets off my face, and he put his hand on my neck.

We both lean in at the same time, and our lips lock together. He was slightly bent forward, and I was slightly bent backward because of the height difference.

I close my eyes and feel my body relax. All I could think in the moment was that everything was going perfect. Our eyes were closed, and the water rose to our feet.

What felt like forever later, he let's go, and we straightened out. He tucks a stray hair behind my ear. Then it hit me.

I just kissed a boy. I love him. But did I force him? Did I want this, and he didn't? I overthink so much.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I'm so sorry. I need to go, I'm so sorry." I say

I grab my bag and begin walking back up the beach.

Oliver grabs my wrist. I turn around.

"Hey. Don't leave. I've wanted to do this since the day I layed eyes in you. " He says before smashing his lips against mine once again.

He takes my bag in my hand and throws it on the beach. I let go and take a deep breath. I look into his eyes, put my lips back on his.

I didn't want it to end. I wanted it to say like this forever. Never let go, never go home.

"I love you, Elizabeth." He says.

I open my eyes and look at him.

"I love you more." I say back.

He sits on the sand near the water and pats the seat next to him. I sit down next to him and lay my head on his shoulder.

No one will understand how good the feeling that your crush just kissed you is until you've been through it. It's the best feeling ever.

"Oliver." I say.

He looks down at me.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask.

"Mhm?"

"Why didn't you kiss me before?" I ask.

"What do you mean before?" He says.

"You know, at the hospital. You looked at me like you were gonna kiss me, and then you walked off." I say.

"Oh yeah... I wanted to avoid that conversation."

"Why? I'm not mad, I'm just curious." I smiled

He sighed. "Well, I was ready too. I was going to. But then I got scared that you wouldn't like it, and I was scared you were thinking something different." He says.

"Ollie, I felt the same way. We should've just asked each other." I say, putting my hand on his bare back.

"I also felt like we shouldn't have our first kiss in the hospital. I felt like it was bad luck." We both laughed.

"Fair enough, I suppose." I say back.

"But I wanted to, I did. When I first saw you, I told my buddies that you were the most beautiful creature I have ever seen on this planet earth, and they laughed at me and said that you would never get with me." He says and looks down.

"Well, they were wrong because look what happened." I smile, and he looks at me. He kisses me again.

"This is the best birthday ever." I say and smile.

"Happy birthday, beautiful. 17 years in, many more to go." He says.

"Well, let's see what time it is. I should be home by 930, just in case." I check the time. 915

"Here, I'll walk you home." He says.

"No, no, it's okay. I'm gonna stop at a friend's house anyway, I left my charger there last night." I lied.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yep! I'll text you later." I say.

"Okay. Love you and happy birthday." He plants a gentle kiss on my lips one more time before waving and walking away.

It's not that I was uncomfortable and wanted to leave, in fact quite the opposite. But I had only one reason I had to get out of there.

~~~~~~~~

I bang on Jesse's door with my fist continuously.

"JESSE. OPEN THE DOOR." I yell, still knocking.

Jesse opens the door and stares at me like I'm an idiot.