Beach Gods
"Luke Parker"
That's all he said.
He stared at me with those intense eyes and never left mine.
Our stare down ended when Brooke spoke up.
"Oh Jesus Christ Luke, quit being so dramatic and serious. Let's have fun!" She squealed as she pulled Kai and I towards a cooler. After yesterday I needed a drink so I wasn't going to resist. I still felt eyes burning in the back of my head and when I went to turn around I caught Luke staring at me. His serious face didn't reveal what he was thinking. Boy, this guy was gonna be an adventure.
It didn't take long for the other three boys to catch up to us. Everybody cleared out of their way as we walked past and I couldn't figure out why. People acted as if these boys were royalty and stayed out of their paths to the best of their abilities.
After we all came to to a hault I finally whispered to Brooke "What is up with these people?"
"What do you mean?" She asked in all seriousness
"Well when the boys walked by it was like the splitting of the sea. Everyone just moved out of their way.. some even looked scared? Why?"
"Oh, yeah. That. Well you see they're actually known as 'the boys' pretty much everyone here attended the same high school and not much has changed since then. The boys were the popular ones in school. Every girl wanted them and every guy wanted to be them. Most guys were deathly afraid of them. I mean, practically everyone bowed down to them. I don't see why though.. if you knew them personally they're just like everyone else." She responded as if it were completely casual that "the boys" had people eating out of their hands.
"Oh yeah. They're all complete womanizers, except for Kai of course. They're all great people though. The boys are family to eachother and even I sometimes claim them." She finished with a subtle giggle.
"Wow, that explains a lot. You know.. my life has really felt like a movie these past few days. Ex boyfriend drama, moving to California, attending beach parties with a new found friend, and now getting mixed up with some drama kings. Life's almost been too good" I babbled on.
"Hey, enjoy it while you can Chey.. we're going to be 'adulting' before you know it." She was right. I'm going to start college soon enough and won't have time for all this free living.
I decided to push those thoughts to the back of my head and enjoy the rest of my night.
Starting with shot gunning a beer.
What? When you grow up in a small town all there is to do is drink for a "good time".. you learn a few party tricks after a while. I continued to drink and drink.
"Wow.. impressive" I heard a deep voice come up behind me.
"Thanks Dylan!" I said shyly.
"Why don't you take a break from the drinks and come swim with us?" He asked wiggling his eyebrows.
At this point I was feeling a little warm from the drinks so my confidence was slowly but surely rising.
"Sure!" I replied as I took my top and shorts off. I started running for the water before turning around and looking at Dylan who was shocked by my sudden burst of energy. He let out another little laugh while shaking his head with that blinding smile.
I reached out for his hand and pulled him to the water where we both ran in.
We spent the next 20 minutes swimming around and splashing each other. Any chance he had to have his hands on me, he took. I didn't refuse.. something about his touch sent electricity through my body.
After he noticed my shivering he insisted we get out, dry off, and go mingle. He wanted to get to know me better. Well he wanted to learn "my story" to be exact.
As we walked up towards our clothes we left behind I felt someone watching me. I looked up to find Luke staring at Dylan and I walking close to each other. Luke still had that stoic look to him. I chose to ignore it and focus on Dylan.
We got dressed again and went to get some water. I decided that I'd had enough to drink already but I was dying of thirst. We then went and sat close to the fire.
"So let me hear it. I wanna hear every stupid and hilarious story you have to tell" Dylan said sitting down next to me. He seemed genuinely interested in what I was about to tell him.
Like I had anything mind blowing to share anyways.
"Well you're going to have to be more specific than that. I've never been one for ranting about useless facts about myself." I stated.
"Oh please, I have a feeling there's nothing boring or useless about you. Start by telling me about Kansas. That has to be a huge change, huh? Trading wheat fields for beaches?" He said placing a hand on my thigh.
Thank god I was already sitting, his touch has enough power to make my knees buckle.
"You're at a party with your friends.. surrounded by cute girls and beer.. and you wanna hear about Kansas?"
"Well for starters, I see my friends all the time. These parties? They occur almost every night during the summer. I also happen to be sitting next to the cutest girl here and the beer is cheap anyways so I'm not missing out on much" His words flowed out with ease. He was such an easy going guy.
WAIT. Did he just say he's sitting with the cutest girl here? He just called me cute? I wanted to act as cool about it as possible.
"Oh" I said tucking my hair behind my ear noticing the heat rising in my cheeks. I had to look like a tomato right now.
Oh? All I could come up with was a little "oh?" I'm such a fool.
"The floor is all yours madam" He gestured as if presenting me an empty stage.
I took a deep breath and began.
"I was born and raised in Kansas. A very small town.."
I went on to tell him my life story practically, only stopping to answer his occasional questions. Like I said before, Dylan seemed genuine. He never once interrupted me.. well until I brought of Evan. He seemed especially angry about that. We started to talk about college until..
"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" I heard a stern voice say pulling my attention away from Dylan.
It was Luke.
Jeez, who pissed in his Frosted Flakes? He already seemed like a dick.
"Uhh no dude, what's up?" Dylan was acting like Luke didn't just walk up here with an attitude. I decided to stay quiet to see how it'd all play out.
"I'm tired of this. The girls here are boring and the beer is getting warm. I wanna leave."
"Oh, I'm kinda hanging out with Cheyenne here. Where's Brett at?" Dylan said cautiously.
"I don't know, but I do know you've had the least to drink. We rode here together and I don't plan on riding with anyone else."
Dylan looked down at the ground with a defeated look. He looked up at me really guilty like.
"Duty calls. How about I give you a ride too? I'm sobered up at this point and I don't want you walking home alone."
There it was. That genuine trait coming out. It made me gush.
"I can walk Dylan, it's alright. Luke's ready and my house isn't that far." I tried to say seriously but my smile made that hard.
"Come on, I insist. Gives us a couple more seconds to talk anyways" Dylan winked.
"Just let her walk man. I'm ready to go and I don't feel like watching you two flirt all night. I'm sick enough without it." Luke said with a disgusted look on his face.
Did he just seriously say that?
I've known this guy for maybe 5 hours and he's already acting like a douche pickle? GAH.
I shot Luke a dirty look before bringing my eyes back to Dylan. "It's fine Dylan, I promise. Here give me your number and I'll text you letting you know I made it back. You should probably do the same.. Luke looks like he's ready to kill" I whispered that last part about Luke.
Dylan handed me his phone and I put my number in before shooting myself a text.
"All done" I said with a cheeky smile.
"I'll see you later, Chey." He flashed that gorgeous smile.
"See ya." With my sweetest voice. "Bye Luke" wasn't so nice.
With that I turned around and started for my house. It was kind of nice to be alone on the beach. Something about hearing the silence from the city and crashing of waves against the shore was relaxing. I made sure my walk was slower paced than before so I could really take everything in.
So far, things were going smoothly. Almost too smoothly. I reached to my back pocket and pulled my phone out. I was so busy with Dylan and everyone else I forgot I even had a phone.
86 text messages
12 missed calls
3 missed FaceTime calls
All from Devinee? What was going on?
I looked at my phone and saw it was 2:30am so calling her wasn't the best idea considering she's an hour ahead. So I settled for reading the messages.
"CHEY"
"GIRLFRIEND
"CALL ME"
"SOS"
That's all that the messages were, they never explained what was going on. I'll call her in the morning.
I walked up to the back patio of my house and laid in the hammock, not ready to give up the fresh air and sounds of people on the beach.
I pulled out my phone again remembering I promised to text Dylan.
"Hey Dylan, I made it home! The sharks and beach bums didn't get me this time ;)"
Sent.
About 10 minutes later I get a text.
"Glad to hear.. they sure do like their beach babes haha."
Then another one right after.
"I made it back too, Luke didn't get me. Although his face made it seem like he was ready to.. lmao."
Beach babe, huh? I kind of like the sound of that.
"Beach babes?" I couldn't help but ask.
He replied within seconds. Ugh he even replies fast? He makes it hard to resist him.
"Oh yeah, the beautiful girls that hangout on the beach? You definitely fall under that category. Actually, that's your new name in my phone. Beach babe ;)"
After reading that, I remembered something.
Back in Kansas I agreed no boys and no distractions. I really can't afford to go though another heart break right now.
But Dylan is really sweet. And really hot. I'll just be careful and know my limits. Besides, why would he want just me? He'll probably get bored anyways.
"Oh jeez haha. I like the sound of that." I had been in a relationship for the past 3 1/2 years.. my flirting is kind of rusty.
"Good, because I wasn't gonna change it back anyways haha. You should go to bed, you have a long day tomorrow" he responded.
"What do you mean?" I had no idea what he was talking about. I wasn't aware of any plans.
"You're hanging out with the boys, Brooke, and I. We're gonna show you around.. and I won't take no for an answer." That reply made me giggle like a school girl.
"Well I guess.. since I can't say no haha" I was actually super excited. I'm trying to play it cool.. and it may have worked this time
"Cool! I'll text you in the morning with all the details. Be ready by 11:00.. we're starting with lunch! Also needed to give the others some recovery time"
"Perfect, goodnight Dylan."
"Goodnight beach babe"