"Callie, I need to sit for a minute," Harry mumbled from behind me as we made it to the pier.
"Fine," I growled and stared out toward the ocean. My mood was shit. Why did this vacation have to start this way? Why did Harry have to have my heart? Why did Alicia have to be a complete bitch? Why were my brothers all of the sudden feeling this sort of fatherly role over me?
"Harry?" I turned on my heel as he sat down in the dry sand under the pier dock. I could see the people dining above us and I wondered if they could see how screwed up my life is just by laying eyes on me. Did I wear my emotions?
"Yeah?" he spoke cautiously, knowing all too well how torn I was at the moment.
"Do you know where we should go?" I folded my arms over my chest and let the insecurity show in my voice.
"You should go home," he reached out to me and I let the tears break away down my cheeks. I fell into his side as he continued to talk and rub his thumb through my mangy beach hair. "I'll get a cab to the airport and go home. This is your family. Stefan was right, I've caused too many problems here."
I frantically looked up at him, now on my knees beside him. His hand that was in my hair went to my thighs and rested there. My brown eyes searched his solemn face and I wanted to cry even more. He probably wanted to finish us now. He was just that kind of person. When things got too tough, he didn't want to deal with them anymore.
"No, no," I grabbed his elbow.
"Callie," Harry warned me.
"No stop! Harry we can't let my brothers do that to us. You've been here for me more than they have been in my entire life. I don't want to spend time with them! I want to spend time with you! Please, let's keep doing this. We can get a cheap hotel or something until we have to leave in a couple days. Come on," I begged.
"Callie, it's not that easy..." he shook his head and reached his fingers up to his lips. He massaged the skin on them and the scab where Mike had split his lip, was now bleeding again.
"It can be," I reached for my hoodie and dabbed it on his bloody lip, cleaning him up. "I can pay for it. Listen, all I want to do is spend time with you. No matter how mad you make me at times, I've also never had someone make me so happy."
He gave me a shy smile that I really loved and I leaned in and kissed his bloody lips. I didn't care about the blood or the taste. All I wanted was to have him be mine. And he was.
He played with my hair as I sat on his lap. He was grinning and running his eyes over all the marks he could see. I couldn't quite tell how bad he was beating himself up. I mean, I was pissed that he made them on me, but at the end of the day it proved that I was his and his alone. No one else would try to claim me, because Harry already put his mark on me.
"Alright," he huffed and I squealed and gave him a kiss on the tip of his nose.
"I know a place that isn't too much. It's a few towns over, but then we won't have to worry about running into my family or Alicia and her friends," I stood up and dusted some of the sand off my legs.
"Callie," Harry chuckled. "Breathe." He stood up and grabbed my shoulders.
"What?" I was puzzled.
"Just look around. We can go find a place to stay later. But now look where we are. We're at the beach together and you're worried about silly things," he smirked. "I don't know about you, but I want to get in the water. I'm sweating my balls off." He turned around and headed to the water. His back was covered with my very own mark. Red scratches covered his muscular back, coating the skin in small little scabs.
"Harry..." I pouted as his toes hit the ocean water.
"What?" he called to me as I stood under the pier still.
"I don't...I don't have a bathing suit on..." I walked forward so he could hear me over the waves crashing on the shore.
"Do you have a bra and underwear on?" he eyed my body walking to me and once he reached me his hands ran up my arms, making goosebumps rise across my skin.
"Yeah..."
"Same thing," he shrugged and walked back to the water.
It sure as hell was not the same thing. And I'm not going to be that slutty girl at the beach with her bra and underwear on playing in the waves with her boyfriend. Harry was waist deep now and I watched as he playfully jumped the waves as they came rolling in.
"COME ON CALLIE!" he called and waved to me, trying to get me in the water.
I shook my head and he came out with water glistening down his body, his hair pushed back, and a playful smirk spread across his face. Once he reached me he shook out his curls and water droplets pinged across my scalding skin. He grabbed me across the waist and ran to the water with me flailing and screaming in protest.
"OK! OK! I'll get in! Just drop me! Don't get my clothes wet!" I fought back. Thankfully, he put me down on my feet as we reached the water and I only got my leggings wet a bit at the bottom.
He ran back into the ocean like a child's first time at the beach and I giggled to myself as I went back to where our little area of stuff was, which included his T-shirt and my hoodie. I looked around and small clusters of families and couples lined the shore a bit farther down. I pulled the band at the top of my leggings and yanked them quickly down my legs before I chickened out. I heard Harry whistle loudly from out in the waves and I flipped him off playfully with my middle finger as I layed the leggings on his shirt. I then took off my tank top and did the same with them, put it over Harry's shirt in the sand.
My feet finally hit the wet sand again and Harry fought the waves to come up to me.
"You're fucking beautiful, Callie," he smiled that gorgeous grin that held some sort of secret behind it as always.
"Shut up," I rolled my eyes and walked forward so the feeling of home hit against my shins.
"Are you going to move back here once you graduate?" Harry asked as he reached for my elbow, our sweet gesture to the other, how we show affection.
"I told you I got a scholarship to go to University of Florida right?"
"Yeah," he held onto me and we walked further out so our waists were deep.
"I also applied to NYU and I was accepted there, as well as Emory University in Atlanta," I jumped a wave with him as it came crashing towards us.
"Have you decided where you're headed? Which has the best program your interested in?"
He was asking more questions than usual and it had me curious. Was he planning on following me to college? What would happen to us? We haven't talked about it yet and I know its bound to come up sooner than later.
"I'm honestly not sure yet. My mom said I should go to Florida while Alaric was telling me to go to Emory. And I'm sure someone else will tell me to go to New York. It's difficult. I don't want to have to make the decision. I want someone to just make it for me. I'm sick of the politics of it all."
"Well you go wherever you're going to strive as the best student, Cal."
"I know," I frowned and leaned into him as I held his arm now. "I'm just scared of new things again and change. It'll be weird not having Alex, Alaric, or you around. You know?" No I didn't want to say that. Shit.
"Yeah. We'll be ok. Don't worry about us. Alex is the one you need to worry about. How is she going to make it without you? Poor girl doesn't even know how to do anything that doesn't involve fashion."
I laughed with him and it felt nice. Just the two of us out at the beach with our whole life ahead of us.
"What about you?"
"What about me?" Harry looked down at me and I squinted up to look at his shining sage eyes and his chocolate brown curls wet and pushed out of his face.
"What are you going to do with your life?" I walked further out and ducked my head under the water.
"Well," he frowned and looked confused about something.
"No more school?"I questioned.
"Fuck no more school!" he laughed and splashed me in the face. The familiar sting of salt water burned my eyes and I splashed him back and we found ourselves in a massive splash war which ended up in him grabbing me by the shoulders and lifting me up out of the water and flinging me around.
"Ahhh Harry!" I squealed. He dunked me into the water and I came back up for air. His hands went around my waist pulling my wet body into him and he leaned forward with our foreheads touching.
"I love you," I smiled at him and he gave me a warm smile back.
"I know you do," he kissed me passionately. Not the kind of peck that I would receive after school or the kind that we would give each other while hanging out or at the lounge with his band. But a true passion filled kiss. It was anything but ordinary and bland. There was no lust involved. I could only feel love. And I hope that kiss was meant to tell me he loves me too.