"Thanks for dropping us off Alfie," I say, smiling at him and glancing behind me at Miles who is standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets outside, behind me on the pavement whilst I also stand outside the car but lean in, resting my hands on the passenger seat as I thank Alfie who gives me a little "good luck" look.
On the drive up to the Fairchild Residence, Alfie had suggested to me that Miles and I go to the beach near town for a bit since the weather was said to be nice this weekend and Miles had never really been except for when he was extremely young with his parents. I smile and nod at Alfie as I close the door and step closer to Miles on the pavement. As we look across the road we both notice at the same time that it is extremely busy.
"Jeez, is the whole town here or something?" I say.
"Looks like it," Miles replies, eyeing the people suspiciously.
"You have bathers on?" I ask, looking down at his pants to see if he is wearing swimming trunks, he is.
"Yeah, you?" He asks, noticing me eying his pants and giving me a strange look. It makes sense that it is awkward between us but why does it have to be THIS awkward like I honestly can't tell if it's tension or discomfort when he looks at me for a bit too long.
"Yeah, I also brought a beach bag, it has sunscreen and snacks in it," I state.
"Oh nice, any chips?" Miles asks.
"Of course," I say as we cross the road and head towards the beach. It is not that packed but still too busy for both Miles and I since we both classify ourselves as introverted.
I toss the beach bag at Miles who impressively catches it with one hand whilst staring at the ocean in a bit of a daze, wait nevermind, he is checking some girl out...I'm not jealous but I do wish that girl would drown. Woah intrusive thoughts, dark much? Jeez. I throw a towel at his head. It unbundled and ended up covering his back, chest and head so that he now looks like a kid in a stripey ghost outfit during Halloween. I let out a weird snort of laughter to myself as I set up my towel on the sand and snatched back his towel off his head to set it up next to mine. He glares at me before his jaw drops ever so slightly and his eyes widen, this is because I have just begun to take off my clothes which were covering my bathers.
Why is he even looking at me like that? It's not like I'm trying hard to look all dreamy like they do in those movies while I take off my casual clothing to reveal my literal only pair of bathers that still fit me...oh wait, I am. I smirk internally before looking behind me and then back at Miles who is still staring me up and down rather unsubtly. Mate, I'm literally wearing a colourful bikini top with swimming trunks that look like they were stolen from a twelve year old boy, how the fuck is he finding this mildly attractive in any way? He turns around and takes off his top slowly with one hand whilst staring at the ocean for real this time since he realized how unsubtle he was being and obviously needed to avert his eyes to somewhere else. I can't help but feel slightly creepy for wanting to see him without a shirt. He throws his shirt onto his towel as every single atom in my body tries to stop me from checking him out.
I notice suddenly that lots of people entering the water are wading around in the shallow end and looking as if they are absolutely in agony from the cold temperature. There are some kids splashing near some of the adults in the shallow end but most are making sand castles and gathering shells or using buckets to help them build mounds or holes out of sand. Most of the teenagers around are actually kind of unattractive to me since they look like everyone at school would like them, in other words they look popular and I dislike that. Miles is less of a stereotypical looking popular kid, even his personality doesn't instantly shout out "most liked guy at school". So that I don't have to avoid glancing in the direction of Miles, I decide I'm just going to run to the water's edge and dive in when I get deep enough.
I bolt across the sand which kicks up and sprays the backs of my calves. My feet meet the cold watery sea foam which is making people freak out and back away because it's "too freezing." I continue on at the same pace as I pretend to trip but instead leap and dive into the water, which unsurprisingly is extremely cold. I can feel my blood rushing through my body (not that it is heating me up noticeably like I wish it would,) as I swim through the water and swim around calmly on my back, trying to ignore the frostbite energy that the ocean is kindly gifting me.
I swim around but don't stand up since it will be colder with the wind blowing on my skin. I watch Miles who is still at the towels, he is looking at me in shock which is making me hella smug. He starts to bound towards the water. As he gets waist deep I watch as he stands on his toes uncomfortably, his shoulders lifting up and his arms tensing up at the icy water which has started sending little waves towards him. I laugh as I watch them slap against his stomach, making him screw up his face and scowl.
"Fuck," I hear him exclaim. I go underwater and start to swim towards him, eventually standing up directly in front of him. Warm breath, the cold water mixed with the slight tension between us makes me nervous and tingly inside. He looks down at me annoyedly as I look at him with a bit of a taunting gleam in my eyes.
"It's not that cold Miles, you're just being dramatic," I roll my eyes as a sly little smile forms on my lips.
"Did you think I ran in here to be all competitive with you?" He laughs, in a demeaning manner at me.
"Yes," I answer, sighing as I sink back down to neck deep in the water.
"Well you're right," Miles smirks, splashing me, the water gets in my eyes but I'm fine since I learnt to open my eyes under water at a youngish age. I go to splash him but he just dives through a small wave which I try to catch so that I can get away from the bloodthirsty Miles who is going to splash me continuously for ages since I was being a show off beforehand and he is obviously ticked off about it. As I see him resurface I decide that going deeper is my best option but before I dive underwater I see Miles throw a handful of sand at me. I spit a bit out since it hit my neck and a bit splatted near and in my mouth.
I go through a wave and then keep swimming deeper whilst using my hands to wipe off any sand on my chest, neck or face whilst I am under water. I soon realize that I can't see Miles, which is worrying since he is either drowning, swimming closer or picking up more sand to throw. I suddenly see that he is actually really near me but just under the water. He stands up from underneath me and now I am somehow on his shoulders.
"What the hell, how are you doing that," I say, my body wobbly and unsupported on his lanky, bony shoulders.
I'm also suddenly aware of how my legs are literally pressed against his neck...well of course now that that thought drifted to my brain I'm getting all flustered and probably blushing. He continues to walk very slowly to the deeper end, I simply die inside as I see and feel that he is holding me up by gripping my outer thighs.
"I used to play with Flora like this in the pool all of the time," Miles replies. I can't help but feel like he isn't doing this in an older brotherly way with me. He is flirting through being "Competitive."
Miles randomly lurches forwards as he suddenly throws me off his shoulders and dunks me under the water. As I get up I make a deal of splashing about as a repellent to get him away from me. As I resurface I push my hair back so that it is more like a gelled back beachy hair vibe rather than dangling soggy in my face.
Miles' head pushes up from under the water as he laughs hysterically. After he calms down he swims closer to me, I lift my hands to the surface of the water to let him know I will splash him if he comes near. Miles closes his hand and hovers it in front of me. He drops something solid into the water. I go under the surface to quickly retrieve it and get a look at what it is. It's a quarter or so of a shell, it is a common shape but it is completely jet black with a bit of a gradient white towards the bottom, it looks quite beautiful to me.
"Wait, this is actually super nice," I grin, holding it up to my face. Miles pushes through the water to come closer to me as he peers at the shell.
"Wanna find more?" He suggests.
"Miles you're literally nearly seventeen and I'm sixteen," I scoff.
"So you don't want to look for shells then?" Miles asks, smirking.
"No fuck off of course I do," I say, immediately diving down and observing the sand bed which is scattered with rocks and only a small amount of shells. I don't see anything interesting so I come up for breath. Miles is below the surface still looking so I dive down and face him under the water, his hair is floating around his head and his cheeks are all puffed out from holding his breath, he looks like a lion mixed with a blowfish. I let out a giggle which turned into massive bubbles. I come up for air. As I resubmerge myself I see that Miles is holding something. I move closer to his hand which he is holding palm out for me to look at. I realize he is holding a little gray crab. We both come up for breath.
"It's a crab," Miles says, staring at the small crustaction curiously.
"I can see that," I respond, eyeing the crab suspiciously. I am not standing close to Miles now but that is not because I'm scared of the crab, I'm actually just scared Miles is going to be generous and throw it at me.
"It's like a spider covered in shells," Miles says, gazing at the creature in wonderment. After a while of us observing it, he finally drops the crab back into the water.