Things Unsaid

Serendipity

They say the ocean calms the soul. I believe it. 

As each wave crashed, each little fear and worry faded from my mind. Life is beautiful, and for the first time in a while, I was finally accepting it. Christine smiled and splashed through the water and my parents were having a blast. For a while I joined them in the shallow, cool waves, but eventually grew tired and opted to sit on the sand and soak up some rays.

"Use some sun tan lotion, will you? It's better to be cancer free later than tan now." Dad said.

I almost freaked out, but stayed calm when I realized that he still didn't know. Well, as calm as I could be. Reluctantly, I lathered up on the lotion, appriciating the smell of summer. Technically, leukemia isn't a skin cancer, so Dad's words of wisdom still applied.

Staring out into the sea in front of me, the waves crashed and the seagulls flew. Being late August, there was still quite a few people out on the beach, but not a heavy seasonal amount. Even so, the beach seemed almost empty to me, as the only people who mattered were my family. Everyone else was practically non-existant. 

That is, until my eyes caught sight of somebody else.

Blonde wavy hair, pretty pricy designer sunnies, and the body of a supermodel. The characteristics of this superboy that just so happened to fly the beach vollyball a little too far. It landed right next to me. Hello, there.

"I'm sorry, Miss. The wind must have picked up at the right time."

I lowered my shades. "There is no wind." Handing over the vollyball, I stared at him. He smiled. It felt like one of those moments in typical teen movies where the hot guy jumps out of nowhere and runs back to his cheerleading jerk girlfriend when it's too late for the hopeless romantic.

Now come to think of it, I watch way to many of those kinds of movies.

"Well maybe it was just destiny to meet you today. I'm Jake."

This definately could not have been real. I must have passed out or something from the heat. Oh god, maybe I died and this is heaven! There was no way that this was actually happening.

"I'm Angie. Nice to meet you too." 

Keeping my cool was way too difficult, but I tried my best. I watched as his eyes glanced over to my wrist.

"Nice bracelet."

My bracelet. That strange, odd bracelet. I had almost forgotton that it was still there. I inspected it again and sure enough the number dropped significantly. Apparently I couldn't hide it under sleeves forever. Especially once my bikini came out for the hot summer sun.

"Thanks."

Okay, I was clearly at a loss of words. The moment lasted a while, but soon enough it started to fade away.

"It was nice meeting you, Angie." Jake said as he took the vollyball and turned back to the court. I wanted to run up and ask to play as well, but instead I found myself stuck sitting like a log in the sand. It was Christine that walked up to me next.

"Who was that?"

I smiled like a little girl. "Just this guy name Jake. The vollyball went out of hand and ended up by me."

"So let me get this straight...this guy gave you his name and used the vollyball as an excuse to get to you. Seems like a total pickup line from the beach boy."

I shook my head. "Oh no, he's not hitting on me."

Christine raised a brow. "Oh really? From the looks of it, this Jake hasn't missed a volly in his life."

She was totally right. I watched him constantly hit the ball to perfection with the other people on the beach. It was impressive. He must be on a vollyball team in his school. Biting my lower lip, I continued to watch him. Life was feeling mighty well at the moment.

"Go. Talk to him again. Ask to serve!" Christine urged.

More than anything I wanted to, but then sank back to reality. "I can't." She shot me a glare. "Why not? He already invited you, practically! Go. Have fun."

I shook my head again. "I mean, I litterally can't. What if I do something silly or even worse, we fall for eachother? I can't handle that right now."

"Angie. You're on a beach, on vacation, in the summer, in a state very far away of our own. Playing a round of beach vollyball is not accepting an engagement ring. Besides, in your condition, it's okay to go and live your life. Really, you don't even know how much time you really have left. Just go. I know you want to."

It clicked. Everything. What she was saying. I did know how much time I had left. The bracelet I wore was the countdown.

The striking realization didn't matter though. Christine was right. I did have to live in the moment, and take advantage of the amazing opportunities.

So without futher words, I got up and made my way over to Jake.