Currents

Twenty ~ Disclosure

"And Austin?"

She sighed and stared into her drink, swirling the liquid around. "Not sure. I'm meeting him this evening, but I doubt anything will happen this summer. Maybe we'll see if the chemistry still exists next year, then we'll know if it was real or not."

I nodded. "I guess you won't know how you feel 'til you see him."

"Suppose so." She sighed. "It's gonna suck when you go back to England."

"We can FaceTime. And it's my birthday before that. I have a feeling that this will be one of my best birthdays."

She smiled. "True. I'm looking forward to it."

With each passing day, I dreaded returning to London a little more. It was ironic, really, considering I'd started summer with each passing day representing a happy skip closer to going home.

~~~

With my birthday at the front of my mind, I decided Brent and I needed to clear the air. If we didn't, things would be much more awkward when the group met up—and I didn't want to continue avoiding the beach, either. More than anything, though, I wanted to see him. I knew that was bad, but that was the nature of the whole situation.

Brent was leaving his hut when I arrived, and the shirt he wore hinted he was going home rather than sticking around any longer.

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked as a conversation starter.

He shrugged. "Home. How come you're down here? Do I need to babysit?"

His tone didn't suggest any remaining awkward feelings about the other afternoon. In fact, he seemed back to his normal self. Perhaps that meant his guard was up again. Whatever the reason, I was thankful for the lack of awkwardness.

"No," I said. "I was just checking in. We've not spoken since the other day—"

"Yeah, you've been avoiding the beach again."

"I don't avoid the beach. Sometimes I just choose not to come here."

"Fine. Avoiding me."

He was so calm about everything, not giving a damn about the potential implications of his words, nor worrying that he might stir up feelings or cause awkwardness. Sliding his hands into his shorts pockets, his eyes remained on me.

"I hear you saw Mia last night," I said, when the silence became unbearable.

"Yeah, I thought she'd tell you about it," he replied, his head angled towards the ocean in what increasingly seemed to be a subconscious action.

"Mm, she said you didn't talk much."

He shrugged and finally turned his gaze back onto me. "There wasn't much to say."

"You know what she said to me at the party?" The words tumbled from my mouth before I could stop them. "She said you'd only go for two types of girl: a girl with zero commitment, or one you can trust with your life."

Pulling his hands from his pockets, he folded his arms. The way he raised his eyebrows terrified me, though—a challenging stare that made my legs tremble with arousal.

"Did she now?"

Averting my eyes, I swatted away a couple of midges that were hovering in the air. "I just thought, in the interest of full disclosure..."

"Well, Rosalie, in the interest of full disclosure, there are plenty of things Mia knows about me which would probably surprise you."

"Like how you're not as much of a dick as you pretend to be?