Even if the sea had stolen away my dad and I ended up having to endure years of childhood therapy to deal with the gaping void left behind inside me, there was no way to avoid the water.
For one thing, I lived in a town right on the edge of the ocean; if I stuck my head out my window, I could literally see the beach. And two, there was always a slew of smoking hot guys roaming the shore during the summer. Why would I want to miss out on that?
When the beach isn't crowded with tourists covered in oily suntan lotion, like buttered lobsters standing around in the sun, I wake up at the asscrack of dawn to go swimming by myself and paddle around for a while before I have to run to class.
It made for a good workout, and I liked being alone with my own thoughts before having to join the hormonal masses back on land. I mean, I was social, but even I had my limits.
My towel and clothes are draped over one of the nearby rocks as I swim around the bluffs and grottoes built into the shore. The water wasn't too intense today, and it was crystal clear, so I could see all the urchins and tiny fish scurrying around as I kicked past, lost in this strange, hushed world by myself.
I could have spent hours staring at all the different types of coral and colorful creatures darting past if I had been left to my own devices. The ocean never stopped moving; even when it was still, every inch of it was alive, and I loved being surrounded by it.
As I glide past some wriggling stalks of seaweed, my lungs begin to burn, so I head to the surface. But as I move in that direction, something shiny, like a copper penny, catches my eye, and I turn around, catching only the tail end of it as it vanishes around one of the rock walls, a wave of bubbles trailing behind it.
Damn, that must have been a huge fish,
Or a killer shark.
I kick as hard as I can and pop my head out of the water seconds later, gasping for air.
I can't see anything but a line of open water and, of course, the shore in the distance, and a few people peppering the beach with their colorful umbrellas. There's no shark, but there's someone standing on the rocks where my clothes and backpack are.
It's a small kid. Specifically, it's a boy in ripped-up shorts clutching my jeans in one hand.
"Hey!" I bark at him, and he trips and starts to slide down the rocks when he hears me shout. "That's my stuff, kid!"
"Carter!" A voice shouts from the beach, and I turn around and spot a tiny, pink-haired figure waving at me. "We gotta go to class, asshole!"
I turn around to yell at the little brat again, but he's gone and there's a splash nearby and a flash of copper pennies again, so he must have swam off and scared the giant fish away while he was at it.
The thing was, he'd also taken my clothes and my backpack with him.
Shit.
I groan, and I paddle my way back to shore after a moment, annoyance churning in my stomach when I finally reach the sand and crawl out of the water in nothing but my underwear. Stupid-ass kids. Had I been that annoying when I was that age? I didn't think so. I'd always been cool as shit.
"Dude," Emilio, the pink-haired figure, approaches me, looking me over disapprovingly. "Why do you do this to yourself?" He questions.
"What?" I demand, and I push my soaking hair back with one hand.
"You're gorgeous, Carter," Emilio replies snidely. "And you're the only other gay in school. Unfortunately, you smell like a ripe tuna half the time because you like crawling around the beach like a weird little hermit crab. "
"I do not!" I snap back, but I'm more preoccupied with the fact that some random kid had my chemistry homework and my pants and had taken off God knows where.
"Hunny, Gordon Ramsay would be salivating if he got a whiff of you," Emilio replies. "Can you at least shower before we go to class? I'm not associating with a boy who's dripping in seawater. "
"Did you see a kid run by?" I ask him, ignoring his sass for the moment. "He took my backpack and clothes when I was swimming and took off."
"Um..." Emilio skims the beach and then flips his hair, "Nope."
I groan again and storm past him, mortified that I'd have to walk past the rapidly shrinking beach as tourists arrived for the day to set up shop. Fortunately, Emilio had decided to be extra rebellious against the school dress code and had worn a bright pink dress and flip-flops, which caught the attention of half the people lounging on their towels.
"Did you hear about the new kid?" Emilio asks me as we walk back up the seawall, and he hands me a towel to cover up with when we pass a bunch of cute college guys.
"No," I reply, and I tie the towel around my waist. "You know I don't keep up with that stuff."
"Oh, yeah," Emilio says, rolling his eyes, "I forgot you live half the time in a pineapple under the sea."
I glare at him, but he just smiles and shrugs, so I couldn't stay mad at him for too long. We had bonded over boys and the most awkward years of our lives trying to get through this thing called life-- thanks, Prince. But we were never going to be more than friends because Emilio was in love.
And by love, I mean he was totally smitten by one of the baddest boys in school, Creed Foster.
"Oh my fucking God!" Emilio suddenly gasps, and he suddenly ducks behind me and points across the street. "There he is! It's Creed Foster! "
When I turn around, I see Creed coming out of one of the stores, or rather, being chased out by one of the store owners, and he's laughing. "Ha! Old lady, fuck you! " He yells, then kicks over one of the trashcans, scattering trash across the sidewalk.
The owner, flushed, screams and waves her arms even more forcefully. But Creed doesn't give a shit and just continues on until he notices me and Emilio staring at him.
"Like what you see, boys?" He flips us the finger, then grabs his crotch and does a pelvic thrust, so I grab Emilio and yank him away before he can get wise and come over to us.
"Oh, man," Emilio sighs wistfully. "He's just so insensitive. There's gotta be a heart of gold under all of that leather. It happens all the time in those webtoon comics. The hot duke gets with the boy, you know?"
"Um... yeah?" I reply, but I knew otherwise because I'd gotten closer to Creed than anyone else ever had.
The dude was literally my ex-boyfriend.
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