As I climbed the rocks back to the house at Paradise City, there was a spring in my step that hadn't been there since I first fell in love with the ocean. People had their own charm to them, but I was born for the ocean, and I was more than okay with that.
The skin on my shoulders, face, and legs burned each time they brushed against my clothes or the wind, but my heart was filled with pride of my new opportunity, even though I didn't have all the details quite yet. But that didn't matter. I had found my calling, and no one could take it away from me.
I opened up the front door, and as I headed into the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of Logan sitting on the couch.
He deserved to know first. He supported me and worked with me, and it felt only right to share my success with him. He was watching something on his computer, but it could wait. Everything else in the entire world could wait. When I pictured my happy place, it was just him, me, and the whales, and that was all I could see in that moment.
Before he could ask me how the trip was, I stood right in his way and kissed him.
"Seems like you had a good time. How many whales?" Logan asked with a smile.
"Not a single one," I replied with a smile of my own.
Logan rose an eyebrow, but before he could ask about it, a voice roared from behind me.
"Reagan," Darrell shouted. "I thought—I thought you chose to abide by Rule Number One of Paradise City."
I reached for my mouth and looked up as my heart sunk into my stomach. Of course, the one time I decided to ignore everything in the room, everyone in the entire house was with Logan. I didn't even think most of them liked him. He was kind of rude, after all.
"I, uh, did, but that rule sucked, so I decided to not follow it anymore," I said.
"What is wrong with you? Did you just think I told you about Mona for no real reason? This is going to end up a disaster, and when your life comes crashing down, I don't want to hear a single whine from you. I tried to warn you. And with Logan, of all people? That's literally the worst combination I could ever even imagine," Darrell said.
"Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler would probably be worse," Logan said. "Rea, look at you. You look like you're about to start singing Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid."
Brett laughed. "Or tell us Bible stories with all your vegetable friends."
"I think it's sunburn," Carter said.
I nodded. "I forgot sunscreen this morning, and now everything hurts, but I'll be okay."
"I told you. This is exactly what you deserve for not following the single rule I put into place," Darrell said.
"The single rule?" I asked. "What about all the other ridiculous ones?"
"It's the single rule because it requires that you remain single the entire duration of the summer. It's not that difficult to understand, and it's especially not difficult to understand why it's in place," Darrell replied.
I let out a huff. "Well, I'm sorry, but this doesn't affect you, and I'd prefer it if we just dropped the subject."
"We'll discuss it later after you get some aloe on those burns. It'll blister if you don't," Darrell said.
I held up a finger. "No, we're not going to discuss it ever. Besides, this is a two-way street, and Logan is just as much to blame for this as I am, if not more. He was the one that said he liked me first."
Darrell turned to Logan. "Why? Why her of all people?"
Logan shrugged. "She's cute, she's sweet, and she's got a pearl of a heart. Nothing like me or you."
When I looked down at my hands, they were shaking. Was I really that upset about Darrell finding out, or had the sun sapped all of my energy for the day?
"Look, Darrell, I was having a really good day, and I'm tired of everything getting ruined because you're a douche. Logan and I are nothing like you and whoever the girl was who cheated on you and ruined your project and your faith in humanity, and I think I can decide what makes me happy right now," I said.
We already calculated the risks, and with the summer drawing to a close, why did it even matter what we did? We had plenty of decisions that needed to be made in the near future, and we certainly didn't need input from someone who let one bad experience ruin his hope for everyone else.
I had learned quite a bit about myself at Paradise City. I learned that I could be content while I was on the ocean, but I could never be happy unless I had someone who was willing to support me. And along the way, I had found someone who wanted to live my strange life with me. I wasn't going to just throw it away to please someone whose opinion didn't matter. Pre-Paradise City Reagan would have in a heartbeat.
Maybe that was why they called it Paradise City. It was an island far from the troubles of society, and there was no better place to figure out who exactly Reagan Winebrenner was. Sometimes she cared too much about what other people thought, but she also had some strength deep down inside of her that knew that no one could dictate what made her happy besides herself. That kind of thinking got me out to the island, after all.
All I wanted was to share my exciting news, and I had gotten caught up in an argument that didn't need to even happen. Or maybe it did. It was about time someone told Darrell where he could shove his precious Rule Number One.
"Fine," Darrell said. "But like I said, if things go south, and they undoubtedly will, I don't want to hear a single word from you."
"You'd be the last person I'd talk to. You're the only one here who's not my friend," I said.
"Nice girl is out for blood today," Jia said with a slight chuckle. She had kept her mouth shut pretty much the entire time, and when I looked over at her, she smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.
I glanced back over at Darrell, and as I stood up to moisturize and soothe the hell out of my sunburn, he looked down at the ground.
"I thought we were friends," he said.
"Why would you think that? You've done nothing but treat everyone here like they're worthless, especially Jia and me," I said, and with that, I headed to the bathroom.
Like usual, it was pretty gross in there, but I needed a moment to myself. I was just on top of the world, but it must have been foolish of me to assume that it could last for more than twenty minutes. I shook my head. I probably took it a little too far with Darrell, too.
Logan was really the only person who let me say whatever was on my mind, and he was really the only person who I felt that comfortable around. But I had gotten a little too fed up with Darrell over the course of a few months, and I couldn't take the harsh words back.
As much as I tried to convince myself that he deserved them, I was a better person than that. I had learned that loneliness shouldn't have felt so normal and necessary, and there I was, forcing it upon Darrell.
He probably didn't have many people who cared about him either.
On the shelf just outside the bathroom, we kept all sorts of necessary products, and that included aloe vera for sunburns. I grabbed the container, and just after I shut the door behind me, someone knocked.
Instead of mentally yelling at whoever it was, I opened up the door just enough to see who was out there.
Logan.
"Could you just leave me alone for a second? I just want to stop the burning, and then we can talk, okay?" I said.
"You weren't upset that you didn't find any whales, so I was just wondering what was up with that. It's a little strange for someone who's married to the ocean," Logan said.
A small smile forced its way onto my face, and I shut the door between us, so he wouldn't see it. "It's nothing. I just wanted to tell you something, but that was before Darrell ruined my day."
"Let me in. There's no way you can get all the burns by yourself. I don't know how you managed to get sunburnt that badly."
I took a glance in the mirror. My face was just about as red as my stringy hair, and I turned away before I could be scared by my own reflection any more.
What could be purer than a Paradise City love? I looked like a dumpster fire, and Logan still liked me.
"I don't know how you manage to throw up so much when you just look in the ocean's general direction," I said.
Logan let out an exaggerated sigh. "Let me in, smartass."
I opened up the door once again, and he slunk inside.
"That went over better than I thought it would," he said, and I pulled up the bottom of my shorts just a little to expose the line between red and white skin.
"Do you think Darrell will just let this go?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Nope, but I was referring to you. I thought for sure that you'd hang on to this little secret thing the entire summer."
"It wasn't much of a secret anyway." I shut my eyes and put the gel on my skin. It burned like a fire, but soon, it would calm down and feel somewhat close to normal for a while.
"What changed your mind?" Logan asked.
"About what?"
"About caring about who knows about you and me."
"It was mostly an accident. I guess I was just so excited about the job offer I got from the marine biology department."
Logan's eyes widened. "The what?"
"Oh, yeah. That's what I wanted to tell you." I smiled. "I guess they want to expand the whale identification program on a broader scale, and with one of the professors there, Atlantic Coastal wants to make it a save the whales campaign."
"And what does that have to do with you?"
"Well, people care about things when they have a name and face to them, kind of like Racecar the seal and Blue and Racecar the plants. If we let people 'adopt' the whales we identify, we can probably raise a decent amount of money for more research," I said.
"And what does that have to do with you?"
"What doesn't it have to do with me? This is my calling, and if I can keep doing it, then that's what I want to do. I can't just give it up now."
"Okay, but what about the winter?" Logan asked. "It can't be a full-time thing, Rea."
"Well, that's when the whales migrate south, so we would too."
"Who the hell is we?"
"Dr. McCann, other team members, and me," I said.
"The guy who taught evolutionary biology?"
I nodded.
"He was actually a really good professor," Logan said. "I loved his class."
"I did too, and I guess he asked for me specifically for this new research of his," I said.
I wasn't entirely sure if that was true, but I needed something strong to say for my case. I was expecting him to be just as excited as I was, but with the constant questions, it didn't seem that he was.
Who else would Dr. McCann want for his whale identification anyway? No one else knew how to do it.
Logan nodded slowly. "Can we talk about this later?"
I didn't even realize that we needed to talk about it anymore at all, since I already had the right decision for me built into my genes, but I nodded anyway. "Yeah, we can."
"You have sunburn all over your shoulders. Just let me handle that," he said, so I moved my hair out of the way, and he massaged the aloe into my burning skin.
I had thought that I had gotten over my need to please, but there was a palpable tension that lingered in the air between us, and though I tried to breathe, it did nothing to satisfy the way my heart raced.
Either I was losing my mind, or he wasn't nearly as on board with the plan as I was. And that was not okay with me.
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Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading! I hope everything is going well for you. If not, here is a message from my cat: njmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Once again, things seem a little less than a paradise on the island with Darrell, Reagan, and Logan. So many questions, so little time. What's going to happen to Paradise City's ship?
And one more thing, I'd really appreciate it if you went and checked out the lovely moonshivers 's art book, specifically the drawing of Logan and Reagan. It's fantastic, and it deserves all the appreciation in the world.