Chapter 3
I tried to sleep that night, but I kept thinking about Brett.
Does he like me? Does he think that I’m pretty? Or beautiful? Does he care that my life is all painting, and barely anything else?
I’d known him for less than three days, and I already care so much about what he thinks of me. Usually things like that didn’t bother me, but he was just so amazing…
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The next day we went to rent bikes and biked around town. It was Ali’s idea, because for some reason she wants to try and exercise, even though we were supposed to be vacationing. I decided to call Brett before we left; he’d given me his number the day before.
“Hello?” Brett said when he answered.
“Hey, it’s me,” I said.
“Oh, hey, Beth, I was just about to call you,” Brett replied. “What’s up?”
“Nothing; I just thought I’d call and say hi.”
“Are you doing anything tomorrow?”
“Nope,” I said happily, and I popped the p. I liked where this was going.
“Well, do you wanna do something with me?” I could practically hear the smile in his voice.
“Yeah,” I said. I’d agree to anything if it was with him.
“Okay. Where are you staying again?”
I told him the address and he said he’d pick me up the next day at two, and not to eat first.
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We biked around town and did some shopping in Destin Commons, and I think I may have bought too much…I was glad that I had thought to bring my backpack. I found a cute outfit that I was going to wear tomorrow, and Kathy got a new sketch book. I’d also bought another cute outfit, and we also found a Victoria’s Secret. I may have gone a little overboard on the make up and perfume there, but it was too hard to resist!
After, we found a cinema and parked our bikes out front, then we went in and saw a gooey romantic movie. It was about forbidden love, but that’s all I could catch. I couldn’t stop thinking about hanging out with Brett that next day.
I called Brett again, but he didn’t pick up, and I decided not to leave a message. I didn’t want to seem pushy or anything.
I ended up sleeping a lot better that night, and I fell asleep a lot quicker. I dreamed that Brett and I were married and we had a little Brett and Elizabeth Jr. I woke up and laughed at how badly I wanted to be with him.
I had quickly taken a shower, got ready, and put on a white mini skirt, a light pink tank top, a white sweater, with sleeves that went down a little past my elbows, and flip flops that had an intricate design in white that I bought the day before. I had straightened my long hair and put on minimal make up, with a very light pink eye shadow and a thin line of black eyeliner.
Brett called me around 1:30 and said he’d be early, but I was ready, so I didn’t care. Five minutes later he pulled into the driveway of the little beach house and rang the door bell. I said bye to Kathy and Ali and went onto the porch with him.
He pulled me into a hug, as I breathed in his scent and electricity sparked throughout my whole body, and then we walked towards his car, holding hands. He didn’t say anything until we were in his car, but he still didn’t say where we were going.
“I missed you yesterday,” he said.
“My friends and I went biking,” I said, trying to hide the disappointment that I hadn’t seen him the day before.
“I didn’t know you exercised on vacations,” Brett said. He smiled, showing off his white teeth.
I laughed. “I don’t. It was Ali’s idea.”
He looked behind him as he backed out of the driveway and started driving to wherever it was we were going.
“So, where are we going?” I asked
“Do you really, really want to know?” Brett teased.
“Yes, I really, really want to know,” I teased back.
“Okay.”
“Where?”
“You’ll have to wait and see!”
“No! I wanna know nnooowwww,” I whined like a little kid.
“Babe, you have to wait.” He called me babe! I had a good feeling about this date…
“I don’t want to wait…will you please please please tell me?”
“Nope.”
“Please with a cherry on top?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you. Seaside.”
“Seaside?”
“Yep.”
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“One; is this a date? And two; are we like, dating?”
“Technically, that’s two questions,” he looked over and playfully grinned at me. “One; only if you want it to be. And two; only if you want to.” He looked at me again and gave me a smile.
“That would be nice,” I said, blushing.
“I love it when you blush,” Brett commented, only making me blush more.
We drove for a while, talking and laughing. I knew I could easily get used to that, just being with him. Eventually Brett told me when we were there.
Once he parked, he led me around the town to a restaurant called Bud & Alley’s. I’d been to Seaside before, but I’d never heard of the restaurant.
We ordered and when our food came, we ate, and we talked the whole time. When the bill came, I insisted I pay, but Brett refused. I eventually said he could pay, and he was pleased. I wanted to do some shopping, and he did good about not complaining. He said he wanted to take me to the beach before we left, so I had let him lead me there.
I had taken my flip flops off and held them once we were walking in the sand. We just walked in the sand awhile, holding hands, until we were interrupted.
“Brett? Brett!” I heard a girl’s voice say. I turned and saw a gorgeous brunette running towards us.
“Hey, Heather,” Brett said nervously. His smile had gone away. Heather kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug. “This is my friend, Elizabeth.” He gestured towards me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Nice to meet you,” Heather said in a British accent and stretched her hand out to shake mine. I noticed the way she clung to Brett’s shoulder with her other hand and didn’t let go, even when she shook my hand, and she completely ignored that fact Brett and I were still holding hands. And I didn’t like it one bit.
“You can just call me Beth,” I said uncomfortably.
“Cool,” she said, then looked over at Brett.
“Beth and I are kind of dating,” Brett said. I don’t like when he said kind of. I didn’t like Heather either, if we were talking about things we didn’t like.
“Oh, that’s cool. Well, I need to get going. Bye!” She kissed Brett on the cheek and ran off towards her friends.
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After that, it was awkward for me and Brett. He didn’t really talk as much, so I didn’t really get to find out how he knows Heather.
“Do you wish you were with Heather instead of me?” I said when we were window shopping half an hour later.
“What?” Brett said, sounding surprised. I guess I had asked the question pretty randomly.
“Do you like her more?” I was anxious to even ask.
“Beth, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying, it seemed like you two had something. And I know how you’ve always lived in Florida, so you know people around, and I thought maybe you two were dating when you met me.”
“Why would you assume that?” He sounded angry.
“You wouldn’t tell a girl who you liked that you were dating someone else….”
“Beth! If I were dating someone, I would’ve told you! Do you not trust me? Because I would trust you with my life! If you wouldn’t trust me, then this just won’t work out.”
“I trust you, but…”
“But what?” By now we were stopped on the sidewalk, facing each other.
“I don’t know...”
“Maybe you should talk when you do know,” Brett said angrily. He turned around and walked off in the direction of his car.
“Brett, wait!”
“Wait for what? I can’t be with someone who can’t trust me. That I just can’t do. No trust? Relationships require trust.” He’d stopped a few feet away and turned back around.
“I trust you, Brett!”
“Then why didn’t you say anything when I was talking?”
“Relationships require listening, too. Especially if you think you might love the other person.”
He was quiet then, and that scared me.
“Let’s go,” he said. I followed him back to the car, and when we got in, I noticed the sun would set soon. I wondered how the time could just melt away when I’m with him. He started driving, but that time I didn’t ask where we were going.
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Ten minutes later, he pulled into a parking lot. I noticed a dock leading to water about twenty yards away. Brett got out and came around to open my door. I got out without a word and he led me to the dock. We leaned on the railing at the edge of it, and then he started talking.
“Heather and I were dating towards the end of senior year,” he started. “I ended it between us a few weeks before graduation because it just didn’t feel right anymore. She thinks she still likes me, but I know she doesn’t. Or at least, not more than a friend. I tried to make it very clear when I broke up with her that things weren’t working out, and she refused to let me slip through her fingers. Every guy wanted to be with her, but I was the exception to that.”
“Oh…” I trailed off. “Why did you call me a friend instead of girlfriend?”
“I don’t believe you ever said you wanted to be my girlfriend,” he said.
“I do.”
He stepped closer to me, which I was fine with.
“Okay, girlfriend.” He leaned over to kiss me. I backed away, still upset.
“What’d I do?” Brett asked, worry thick in his voice.
“Why didn’t you say anything when I said I might love you?”
“Because, Beth,” Brett said, “I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you and I always will.”
Brett grabbed hold of my waist, pulling me in towards him. In just a second, our lips were pressed together in the most wonderful kiss ever. I got caught up in the moment and intertwined my fingers in his hair. He put both his hands around my waist as we continued kissing. After about a minute, he let go, both of us gasping for air.
“Wow,” I said, breathless.
“Wow,” Brett repeated.
“I never knew you could kiss so amazing.”
“Well, it doesn’t get better than this,” he said, and pulled me back to him.
Our bodies felt like one as they were pressed together, feeling as though they were meant to be in that position forever. Our lips moved in sync as fireworks were shot off in the distance. I stopped kissing for a second and looked at them, and thought about how ironic it was that they went off when we kissed. We kissed more, fireworks still going off, and it was truly romantic.
We stopped after awhile, but we pressed our foreheads together, continuing to stare into each others’ eyes.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you,” he whispered back.
And in that moment, I knew I’d truly found love.
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The week that followed was one of the happiest of my life. Every day was spent with Brett. We went fishing quite a bit, and he even tried to help me surf. We gave up after two or three hours, though, since I just couldn’t surf. We went biking together, like I had with Ali and Kathy. We took long walks on the beach and stood together to watch the sunset.
We were truly in love, and I made sure all the time he knew I love him. I never knew life could be so…fulfilling. In five weeks, however, I’d be leaving. It seemed like a long way away, but when I was with Brett time just melted away.
In the fall I would be attending college, and Brett was accepted with a full scholarship in photography to the University of Texas in Austin, so we wouldn’t exactly be together.
One night we were going to have a picnic on the beach, and watch the sunset together. We weren’t going to do it behind the beach house where I was staying, so Ali and Kathy couldn’t stalk us or anything. They hadn’t eavesdropped in a few days, but we didn’t want to take any chances.
I took a shower and got ready, making sure my make up was perfect. I had slipped on a deep purple dress, that flowed to stop just above my knees and the straps tied behind my neck. It flowed beautifully and had a sort of flowery pattern in navy blue. I kept my hair natural since Brett told me he liked it like that. I had fifteen minutes to spare until he got there, so I went to the living room and watched TV. Before I knew it, he was at the door. I opened it and he pulled me into a kiss, as usual.
He was carrying a picnic basket and showed me the way to the spot he’d picked out for our date, and we walked there hand in hand. When we got there, he pulled a blanket out of the basket and laid it out in the sand. We sat down facing the sun, picnic basket at our feet.
“I hope you like wings,” Brett said and winked at me.
“Yup,” I said, smiling.
“Good,” he said and kissed the tip of my nose. I blushed and looked at him through my eyelashes.
We sat and ate wings, watching patiently as the sun set. It was so romantic, I felt like I was in a movie. We had a brief make out session, which I enjoyed quite thoroughly.
Eventually all the stars came out and we laid down on the blanket. I was snuggled up next to him, my head on his chest. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, it was morning.
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Author's Note: I almost stopped it short, but I hope this one was longer than usual, lol. Hopefully it is?? I haven't updtated in like four days and it felt like FOREVER...I don't like school taking up all my time!/: And I have two tests tomorrow...yipee. *note the heavy sarcasm, but i'm sure you did!* So hopefully I'll have time to upload again on Sunday? I might even upload the next two chapters;D
<3 you guys!!! Thanks for reading!!!!