I sat on one of the beach chairs, alert and waiting.  Sorrel and Honey were already in the ocean, but I was waiting for Riven to arrive.

“I can’t decide if you’re happy or agitated,” Hayden took a seat next to me, “but I imagine you’re just super nervous about seeing Riven in his swimsuit for the first time?”

I’d really have liked to deny that, but I couldn’t.  The first summer when we visited, Riven hadn’t actually ended up swimming with us because he was too uncertain about swimming in the ocean.  Now, two years later, he felt comfortable enough to risk the ocean.  Which meant this was the first time I was going to get to see him in a swimsuit.  Which also meant this would be the first time I’d get to see him without a shirt.

Of course I was nervous.

“Aww, let him alone,” Vance tossed a beachball at me, which I caught automatically.  “Young love is tough, remember?”

“It’s not just ‘young love,’” I grumbled.  “Riven’s my soulmate.”

“Morgan’s ours, too,” Vance nodded towards Morgan, who was swimming in the inlet of their island with the rest of my family already, as well as Sterling, Alex, and Gwen.  Percy and Riven had arrived later and were up in the house, changing.

“We didn’t realize that when we were younger,” Hayden added.  “We actually didn’t realize how we felt about him until he up and disappeared on us at 17.  Took us 10 years to find him again, but we couldn’t ever quite give up on the idea that he was out there.”

Okay, that was terrifying.  I couldn’t imagine Riven disappearing on me.  After freaking out, though, I’d probably just keep looking for him forever, though, right?  Because I couldn’t give up on the idea of him being with me.

“What are you two telling Ren that made him look so scared?”  Riven had come up behind us and was frowning at Morgan’s husbands.

I immediately hopped to my feet, realized I still had the beachball in my hands, and sort of threw it to one side, where it bounced against Hayden’s head before landing on the sand.  But hey, he deserved it.

Riven was beautiful, of course I knew that, but seeing him without his shirt on…oh.  My.  Sun.  I found myself swallowing and kind of wanting to just reach out and feel his skin for myself.

Riven reached out and took my hand, rescuing me from the two adults – Vance was winking at me while Hayden was rubbing his head – and pulled me out into the water, but not close enough to the others that they could hear us.

“I’ll have you know I can tolerably swim now,” he announced as we got a little further out.  “I’ve gotten the stamp of approval from Morgan that I most likely won’t drown in the ocean.  I think that’s about as good as it gets for your average non-merfolk from him.”

“You’re beautiful,” I burst out, unable to keep it in any longer.  Then I blushed when he looked at me in surprise at the topic change.

“Well,” he swam over closer and twined his arms around my neck, “you’re pretty hot yourself, love.  Working out is definitely paying off.”  He glanced down at my chest for a moment and then back up at my even redder face.  “Hmm, I seem to recall that I owe you 15 kisses.”

Apparently we were doing this now.  I – I wasn’t going to protest, eagerly reaching out to rest my hands on his bare waist and tipping in closer for a kiss.

I was really enjoying just kissing him, slowly drawing him closer, when Sorrel ruined the moment by splashing us both and dragging us over to join in a game of something that involved splashing people – I kind of missed the rules of the game, too focused on staring at Riven as I was.  I was pretty sure I was never going to get used to seeing him like that, his bare shoulders glistening in the sunlight as he laughed at Sterling before diving behind me so he didn’t get caught in the next splash.  And when he grabbed me from behind, wrapping his arms around my neck and ordering me to go attack Honey, all I could think of was that his chest was pressed against my back and I – I loved this feeling.

Later, after we’d worn ourselves out in the water and eaten some grilled food brought to us by Hayden, I laid down in a lounge chair next to Riven and stared at the stars, feeling full and content.

Riven reached over and linked his fingers in mine, also looking at the stars.  “I’m glad your family was able to come again.  I enjoy having you guys here.”

“Are we interrupting your internship too much?”  I turned my head to look at him.  “How’s that going?”

“No, but that reminds me, I need you to show up at my office sometime while I’m here and you need to look – well, just look like yourself.”  He turned to look at me, a lazy, relaxed smile on his face.  “This guy keeps flirting with me and thinks I made you up, so I need you to prove you’re real.  And very much in love with me.”

“I can do that,” I agreed instantly.  “Can we also take a picture of us together for your desk?”

Riven’s eyes warmed.  “That’d be great.  I’d love that.”

We laid like that for a long time, just looking at each other without talking, until our parents called us to get in the boats and head back to the mainland.

When eventually we had to part a week later, I was sad to step on the plane, but still happy I’d gotten to spend time with him again, in person, and get to see a little more of him – literally, this time.  I’d even been able to play the jealous boyfriend at his internship, which was kind of fun and only mostly pretend.

One more year, I reminded myself.  One more year and then Riven will be coming back to Avenglade and we’ll get to see each other like this all the time.

I was really looking forward to that.

~~~~~

“So,” I propped my phone up on the bed next to me, resting my head on one arm, “how’s senior year looking?  As bad as you were thinking?”

“Weirdly, no.”  Riven was flopped on his bed on his stomach, his arms resting over his shoulders and his head in his arms as he looked at his phone.  I thought it was cute and wished I was there to kiss him for being so adorable.

“I have one less class I need to take because of the internship,” he explained, “but also it feels like the teachers don’t expect us to do any work?  But I’m doing it anyway – I’m trying to get a scholarship and I don’t want my grades to slack my senior year.  I know Dad can pay for me to go to college, but I’d rather not have him need to if I can help it.”

That had been his goal for a while now, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear it still was.  “You’re still planning to come back here for college, right?”  I asked, suddenly anxious.  “And is your dad okay with that?”

“Yeah and yeah.  I’ve made it clear I planned to go back eventually and he knows we’re probably getting married at some point and all, so we’ve both known it is coming.  He says he’ll miss me, and I’ll miss him too, of course, but I’ll just have to do video calls with him and see you in person instead.”  He smiled broadly.  “You think you can live with that?”

I nodded eagerly.  “Yeah, I can.  I really miss getting to see you every day.  If it weren’t for our calls, I’d probably have pined away into nothing.”

He laughed.  “Ren,” he shook his head, an affectionate smile on his face, “you know you’re allowed to be interested in other things than just me, right?  What about your other friends?”

I was mildly offended by the suggestion.  Okay, so I was a teeny bit obsessed with him.  I was still actually kind of balanced in life.  Sort of.  “I am interested in photography, you know that!  And I go to school and all, I hang out with Benji and Nathan and my family, occasionally other people.  I just – mostly want to spend time with you,” I added, a little more shyly.  “Is that so bad?”

He bit his lip, but his gray eyes were sparling.  “No,” he finally admitted.  “I feel the same way.  I work on classes and all but half the time I’m just waiting to talk to you again.”

“We could text during the day?”  I suggested.

To my disappointment, Riven shook his head.  “Nope.  If I let you do that, you’d spend all day bothering me during classes and we’d probably get nothing done.  I have to focus at school and get my homework done and if you’re texting me every five minutes, I’ll never be able to focus.”

Despite being turned down, I couldn’t help but beam brightly at him.  He’d just admitted I was distracting and it was hard to be annoyed by that.  “I love you,” I burst out.

Riven’s eyes warmed and he smiled shyly at me.  “I love you, too.”

I so badly wished I was there in person and could just kiss him endlessly, getting lost in him until there wasn’t two of us anymore, just one, but…I could wait.  Less than a year now.

I could survive that long.

~~~~~

I peeked through the door and shifted anxiously from foot to foot.

“Calm down, Ren,” Honey informed me, trying not to laugh.  “He’ll be there, he’s graduating and all.  We just have to wait for Percy’s signal that the graduates have all sat down and they won’t see us sneak in.”

We’d decided to surprise Riven for his graduation – I mean, graduating from high school is a big deal, and I’d been disappointed that I couldn’t go until Mom got tired of seeing me mope around the house and made the executive decision that we were all going to Riven’s graduation.

Riven just didn’t know it yet, and we were hoping to keep it that way until he saw us with his family when he got his diploma.

Still, I kind of wanted to just bolt in there, find him, and kiss him till we were both weak in the knees.  He was so close and I didn’t want to just stand here waiting, but – but this was supposed to be a surprise.  I could hold back until the ceremony was over.  Probably.

The graduating seniors in their caps and gowns were filing in, and after they got seated, we finally got the signal from Percy for us to sneak in.  Sterling waved enthusiastically when we slid into our seats, then made a shushing motion even though he was the one who looked like he was about to start greeting us loudly.

The speaker’s presentation was boring as usual, so I spent most of the speech trying to figure out where Riven was.  It was really hard to identify him amongst all the other students given that they were all wearing those silly hats, but I was fairly certain he was in the second row, about a third of the way in.

Then finally the speech ended, there were some more announcements or whatever, but at last the principal stood up and began handing out diplomas as the students filed across the stage.

Some of the other students cheered or posed after they got their diploma, but Riven seemed a bit embarrassed and started to just politely walk off the stage before his eyes shifted over to glance at his family, a tentative smile on his face.  I saw the moment he spotted us cheering and clapping, his eyes widening as he actually paused for a second before his smile widened and then he had to rush off before the next student after him got held up.

As I sat down, I reached for my phone.

Me: Congrats, Riven, we’re all proud of you!  And we’re glad we got to come.

Me: I love you.

Me: You owe me 16 kisses by the way, for my birthday this year.

Riven: Well, you owe me at least one for graduating.

I beamed, happy to see he had his phone with him.  Also, I wasn’t exactly opposed to his graduation gift idea, either.

Me: I’ll give you as many as you want.  One for every minute that guy talked?

Riven: Why do I feel like you’re just going to increase the number to your satisfaction?

Me: Hey, we both benefit from the number being larger!

Riven: That’s true, I guess.

Riven: …thanks for coming.

Me: Of course.  We all wanted to cheer you on.

Then finally the ceremony was over.  I immediately stood up, looking around for Riven, but the entire senior class and their families were there and suddenly everyone was crowding around everyone, so finding him might be a bit harder than I’d initially planned.

Without warning, someone slid through a small gap in the crowd, holding his hat and diploma in one hand as he threw his arms around my neck and kissed me, taking my breath away as I enthusiastically returned the kiss and hugged him back.

“Oh, look, I found Riven,” Sterling announced in a monotone voice.  “Looks like he’s pleased about Ren coming.  What about the rest of us, Riven?  We don’t get a hug, too?”

“You can have a hug,” I allowed when our kiss ended, still looking at Riven’s face, drinking in his beautiful features, his warm eyes, those soft lips.  “But I’m the only one who gets to kiss him.”

“Eww, yeah, I don’t want to do that, thanks.”  Sterling managed to tug Riven free from my arms – to both our disappointment.

Percy herded us out of the auditorium so we could go back to their house and celebrate properly.  I did manage to get a picture of the reluctant graduate holding his diploma up and smiling awkwardly before he turned in his cap and gown and then rejoined us, linking his hand in mine as we walked.  Everyone had to tell Riven congratulations, which seemed to embarrass him, but we were all happy for him, so.  Yeah.  He could survive a little happiness on his behalf.

Morgan was at the house, along with their entire family, to celebrate.  Riven got congratulated by Vance, Morgan, Hayden, and Alex, though I’m not entirely sure if Alex knew what the big deal was, but she wanted to join in with what all the adults were doing, so she did.

Percy had gotten a big cake that said “Congradulations!” across it and made Riven blow out candles, much to his chagrin.  Alex and Jessie were happy to help him, and then Riley tried to grab a corner of the cake and help himself, so it all turned to chaos pretty quickly, but everyone was having fun and Riven was laughing at Vance’s chagrinned expression when Riley wiped his blue-icing-covered hands all over his nice white shirt.  As long as Riven was happy, I counted the day a success.

I mean, I did sneak him off to the study to collect my promised birthday gifts and give him his graduation gift, and it’s possible we sort of lost count of how many kisses we were up to the further into making out we got, but eventually Sorrel found us and ordered us back to the party so we reluctantly had to stop and rejoin the festivities, no one commenting on our reddened faces or the way our hair was messed up.

As I looked around the room at people gathered to celebrate Riven, I couldn’t help but feel a burst of pride on his behalf.  When I’d first met him, Riven was alone, barely talking to anyone, and yet now he had his own family who cared for him and friends who’d come to celebrate with him because we all loved him.  Seeing the way he smiled and laughed easily with everyone, it was almost hard to remember how difficult it’d been to get him to just look at me at first.  He’d found himself now, and everyone who met him couldn’t help but love him in response.

But I was pretty sure I loved him just a tad more than everyone else.  Or maybe a lot.  Maybe a whole lot, because to me, Riven was the center of my world.

And he’d always belong there.