You + Me

4. Enchanted

I laughed. "Uhm, yeah, that'll be fine," I answered. "But, uh, actually, I'd like to get out of here cause this is kind of overwhelming." I really don't know where the courage to say that came from, but it just did.

"Sure," he replied, happily. He didn't seem to mind the fact that I was taking him away from the party.

So we got out of that crowded night club and we headed to one of those small booth along the shore.

"What do you want, lady?" the man inside the booth asked me.

"I want a chocolate ice cream, if that's possible."

"Of course," the man answered before he gave me the ice cream I had asked for.

The boy, which I realized I didn't know his name, looked at me with surprise.

"I thought you wanted a glass of water," he said.

"I changed my mind," I replied, smiling at him. "Hope you don't mind."

He shook his head no. "In fact, I'd like another ice cream, please."

"Alright," the man gave us our chocolate ice creams. And then the boy paid.

I decided to call him 'the cute boy' until I found out what his real name was.

We walked to the beach and then we sat down on the sand and finished our ice creams.

"It was so good," I told the cute boy. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome, ..." he left the line unfinished.

"Gwen. Well, I'm actually Gwendolyn, but everyone calls me Gwen as a nickname," I said, talking fast as I got more and more nervous.

"Gwen, then," the cute boy smiled. "I'm Theo. I'm from Great Britain, in case you haven't notice my accent."

"Whaaaat? I would have never said so. I thought you just talked in a weird way."

He laughed.

"I'm starting to think you're laughing at me, because you laugh a lot. Like, a lot. And I've just met you."

He looked me in the eyes.

"I'm not laughing at you. You're funny, Gwen," he said that as if it was the most obvious thing in the entire world.

I looked at him, incredulous. "Sure I am," I replied, sarcastically.

"You are, indeed," he smiled.

"I'm not."

He laughed. "You are, you stubborn girl."

"Okay, okay, I am," I agreed.

He laughed.

We talked for a while. He told me things about his life: he was a 19 year-old british guy that was going to begin university that next september. He had come to California every summer since he was 10 because he liked to surf here. He also played guitar and was the singer of a british band called '13 Days'. I found that cool, since I had always loved music.

Then it was my turn: I'm a 17 year-old californian girl, I told him. I was here with my friends on holidays. I loved to write, but I didn't tell him that at that moment. I didn't know him that much. And the fact that I liked to write was my little secret. No one knew about it.

"When do you go back to London?" I asked him later on.

"At the end of August. What about you?"

"End of August too," I said.

"Cool."

We stared at the sea for a while. Everything was so beautiful during the night, only lit by the moonlight.

"I think it's time for me to go," I said.

"Wait, now? You have to go?" he seemed disappointed.

"I do." I stood up, ready to go. "I was enchanted to meet you."

He grabbed me by the wrist. "Wait, Gwen."

"What?"

"Uh, this is going to sound crazy but..." he looked down and started to play with the sand, "I thought that... That we meet once is a coincidence. But twice in the same day? That's fate and... since the Universe gathered us here tonight... I think it'd be rude if we didn't listen to it. Besides, you don't want to bother the Universe and its desires, do you? So... we should make the Universe happy and hang out for a little while, don't you think?"

He smiled when he finished his brilliant speech. And I was atonished. It sounded crazy, indeed, but there was something about the way he had said those things that made me want to stay with him.

"But it's too late," I complained.

"Whaaaaat? It's only..." he looked down at his watch, "2.12 am. It's not as if you have something better to do, right?" he smiled.

His smile was so beautiful. Everything about him was beautiful: the way he spoke, the way he moved, the way he laughed...

"Right. I don't want the Universe to get mad at me anyway," I finally agreed.

"Great."