━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎━︎𝑹𝑬𝑩𝑬𝑪𝑪𝑨 𝑴𝑰𝑻𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑳✈︎
"So..." Phoenix makes motions with her hands urging me to go on. "Did you guys kiss?"
I pick at the picnic table, chipping some of the wood off. "No. We didn't." She sighs slapping a hand on her side of the table.
"Men are stupid!" She spits.
I hold back a laugh, shaking my head. "I'm the one that backed off."
She gives me a questioning look. "Now why would you do that?"
I hesitate, not wanting to give an honest answer. I look out to the ocean. The Hard Deck has the best view of it. The sun was about to set. The sky is painted with different shades and variations of blues, pinks, and purples. "I was scared." I whisper. "I am scared." I roll my eyes as tears prick them.
"What could Cherry Bomb possibly be scared of?" I feel her staring into my soul but I can't bring myself to look at her.
"Rejection. Loosing him again. I feel like I'm stuck in the past and all of my friends are just moving on." I bite my lip. I've barely said anything but I already feel like I've said too much. "I'm sorry. T-This is stupid. Crazy actually." I finally meet her eyes. "Am I crazy?"
She breathes out a laugh. "Rebecca, listen to me." She reaches over the table grabbing my hands before I give myself a splinter. "You are not crazy. Look I don't know much but I know one thing for sure. He loves you." She shakes my hands. "Do you realize how oblivious the both of you are?"I let out a laugh, blinking back tears. "And you still love him. Am I right or am I wrong?" I nod in response. "I say make a move."
I furrow my brows at her. "Didn't you just say yesterday to let him come to me."
"Screw that. He's taking too long!" She shrugs.
I laugh. "Thank you, Phoenix."
"You're welcome, Cherry Bomb." She winks.
"Ladies." I roll my eyes at the familiar voice. I look up to find Hangman and Coyote. "This looks super gay. Got something you want to tell us?" Hangman points to our linked hands.
"You're just mad cause you can't get a chick's attention. No matter how hard you try." Phoenix smiles sarcastically.
Hangman kisses his teeth. "Anyone know why we're here exactly?" He asks, changing the subject.
"No idea. But anything that involves the beach has to be good." I slide my retro shades up the bridge of my nose.
"That's the thing-" I flinch at the voice from behind me. I look and see Bob.
"Geez. We need to stick a bell on you."
"As I was saying." He clears his throat. "We're fighter pilots, why did he bring us to the beach?"
***
"Dogfight football." Maverick throws a football in the air, catching it swiftly. "Meaning we'll be doing attack and defense at the same time."
"What's the point of this?" I whine. I get irritable in the heat.
"I'm building a team. You are my team. Now I need you to act like one." He quickly tosses a football to Hangman and Rooster. "Pick your teams."
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Rooster asks, holding a hand out.
"I pick the old timer." Hangman says, completely ignoring him.
Rooster licks his teeth before turning back to us. "I got Becca."
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a pity picker." Hangman teases.
"Says the guy that picked the museum piece." I wink at Dad.
"Oh you are funny." Dad smiles sarcastically.
"I got Payback." Hangman claps.
"Coyote."
"Fanboy."
"Bob."
"Yale."
"Phoenix."
"Omaha."
"Fritz"
"Harvard."
"Let's get this show on the road." Hangman's team hoots and hollers. "Why don't we make this interesting?" They quiet down, listening to what he has to say. "Whoever loses has to buy a round of drinks." They all start cheering before heading out.
"I did not wear the proper attire." I sigh, looking down to my red t-shirt and jean shorts.
"You're telling me. Do I look like I'm ready for a game of football?" Rooster shows off himself.
"Blue jeans and a button up, rookie mistake." I start gathering my hair so my neck doesn't get sweaty. I tie it in a loose bun.
I glance back to Rooster to see he's taken his shirt off and rolled his pants up."This better?" I forget to reply. I was busy observing the scenery. The scenery being the beach of course. Definitely not his abs, or biceps. "Becca?" He holds back a laugh.
"Hmm?!" I meet his eyes.
He smirks. "You good?"
"Just beachy." I smile turning towards the boom box I'd left on a nearby beach chair.
"Whatcha got for us?" I flinch again at the voice behind me. I can practically feel his body heat as it radiates off of him. Then again it could just be the sun.
I hold up a CD. "Ever heard of OneRepublic?" He nods. I slide the CD in. The song starts and I turn to Rooster. "Let's play some ball."
***
"You're going down, Rooster!" Hangman yells from in front of us.
We've been playing for a while now. At this point I don't even remember who is on my team. I don't even know what position I'm supposed to be in. I'm just standing here waiting for the ball to come my way.
I see our ball go flying in the air. My eyes follow it, my body does not. Rooster catches it and runs to make a touchdown, he succeeds! "Eat that, Bagman!" He yells before doing a chest bump with Coyote, he then does what I guess you could call a victory dance. His hips and shoulders moved around in sync before running back to the middle. I turn my attention away from him when I realized I was staring. "You plan on bombing the other team, or you just gonna gawk at me the whole game." He whispered in my ear.
My jaw drops at his comment. I've been caught.
"What can I say?" I lower my glasses as I bring myself closer to his face. "I like a free show." I wink before pushing my shades back up. He bites his lip, turning his attention back to the game.
The ball goes flying through the air again. I run back as it comes towards me. "I got it!" I slam into a body, making me hit the sand.
"There goes my back." I hear Dad groan beside me as we lay on the ground.
I start laughing. "I'm sorry." A hand appears in front of Dad's face. Rooster helps him to his feet. He then helps me up.
"Be careful around the old guy. He's fragile remember?" I look down and knock the ball out of his hands. I run to the other side of the beach. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know!" I exclaim. "Winning I guess!"
Hangman tries to block the way in front of me. "Uh oh! Whatcha gonna do now Cherry Bomb?!"
"Over here!" I launch the ball over to Bob. He catches it and runs to the correct side. Getting us another point which is nice except we lost count of score about ten minutes ago. We all gather around him chanting, "Bob! Bob! Bob! Bob!" Rooster puts him on his shoulders as we cause a ruckus.
I call out to Maverick who is sitting with Cyclone. "Who won?!" I call out.
"I'll be fair and say everyone is a winner." He smiles before pointing to Cyclone. "Drinks are on him though."
"Yeah!!" The pilots yell, running inside the bar. Cyclone rolls his eyes following them inside. I go out to the water, splashing some on my burning skin.
"I suppose the sound of free drinks still doesn't excite you?" Bradley asks, moving to stand beside me.
I nod. "You know I don't waste my time with alcohol." I dip my hand in the water then run it over my arm. "Too much stupid stuff happens when alcohol is in the mix."
"Understandable." I feel a hand on my back, and suddenly I'm in the water. I scoff looking back to Bradley. "Oh I'm sorry you looked hot. In more ways than one." He says, smugly.
"Oh it's on." I toss my shades off to the side and yank him into the water.
He goes in head first, he coughs when he comes back up. "Gosh, you're strong."
"Yes I am, and I'm gonna wipe that mustache clean off your face."
I grab his head and dunk him back under the water. I may be strong but he's much stronger. When he comes back up, he grabs me and lifts me up bridal style and throws me into the deeper end of the water. The salt water irritates my eyes and goes down my throat. I come up and hold my hands up in defense.
"You win." I cough.
He swims towards me. "Of course I did."
I feel his hands grab my legs, boosting me up. "What are you doing?" I laugh. He shrugs, wrapping my legs around his torso. I keep my hands on his bare chest. I look up at the sky, it's changed colors as the night has gone on. It's golden hour, the sun is just about to set. "Beautiful." I whisper.
"Yeah you are." I look back at Bradley.
Before I get the chance to say anything. He dips his head down and connects our lips. Shock shoots through my body. I wanted to to take time to process and ponder my next move but my lips did that for me, I kissed him back. It was different from when we used to kiss. It was more passionate, more needful but not in a bad way. My hands in his hair, him holding me up, supporting me, his lips on mine. It just felt right. I wanted to stay like this for all eternity, but sadly we need oxygen to breathe. We slowly pull apart, I push his shades up, my green eyes locking with his hazel ones.
A sudden force hits my back, sending us rolling back to shore. The salt water goes up my nose again, my face lands in the sand. I lift myself up and cough like crazy. I look to my right, Rooster lays on his back, his sunglasses gone. Another wave rolls up, hitting his body. We look to each other and start giggling like two little kids.
I sit up, glops of sand fall off my body. "That was..."
"Amazing?" Bradley asks, he's now gotten up and sat beside me. "Wonderful? Passionate?"
"Salty.." I turn and spit some sand out before looking back to him. "But yes, exactly that."