“Rae? Parker?” Mikayla said, her eyes wide as she saw her two roommates staring at them. “Er… hey?” 

“Who’s that?” Parker asked in a whisper to Rae, who only shrugged. 

“Uh, well, guys,” Mikayla said, drawing their attention once more. She gestured to Beau, who raised a hand in a wave. “This is Beau.” 

“Hello,” he greeted with a smile. 

“And Beau,” Mikayla said, turning to look up into his eyes. “These are my best friends and roommates, Parker and Rae.” 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Beau said, extending a hand out for them to shake. 

“Uh, likewise… Beau,” Parker said, shaking Beau’s outstretched hand. 

As he turned to shake Rae’s hand, Parker sent Mikayla a wide-eyed glance with a silent question. Mikayla just smiled wryly in reply, turning back to watch Rae’s and Beau’s interaction. 

“Wonderful to meet you, Beau,” Rae was saying, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head as she made a show of looking Beau up and down. “How’d you meet Mikayla?” 

“At the beach,” Beau answered readily. They dropped hands as he turned to gaze at Mikayla. “She found me, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” 

Mikayla’s eyes danced to the fish hook lodged in his ear. No doubt her friends noticed it as well, not to mention the crown of shells and the braids with pearls. But he was smiling so sweetly, so innocently, that she couldn’t help but discard her worries and flash him her own blinding smile in return. 

“You’re the one who caught my heart with your gorgeous singing,” she replied, linking hands with Beau again. 

Across from them, Rae and Parker stared incredulously at their friend, stunned at the cheesy words that had left her mouth. Mikayla had been acting odd for weeks, vanishing in the afternoons without a word and returning soaking wet and covered in sand. Not to mention her confession to them that first night, of her claiming to be in love. At first, they doubted her. Perhaps this was another of her whims, they thought. But obviously, this was who she was in love with—and she was very much in love. 

“Well, I must have, for you to chase after me like that,” Beau teased, a twinkle in his eyes. 

“Says the one who was just so hooked he had to kiss me!” Mikayla replied. 

“And I’ll do it again,” he said, tugging on her hand to pull them close enough that he could dip his head to brush his lips against hers. 

“AHEM!” Rae coughed as she dropped her glasses back onto her nose, jolting the happily-in-love couple back into reality. “Let’s keep things PG, shall we?” 

She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, making Parker roll her eyes and Mikayla’s cheeks warm. 

Parker cleared her throat to draw the others’ attention. She turned to Beau, redirecting the conversation. 

“So, you met on the beach?” she clarified. Beau nodded. “But… I don’t think I’ve seen you around campus. Are you a local?” 

Mikayla tried to stifle a sigh. She and Parker had been best friends since middle school back when Parker’s parents got a divorce and her dad moved into the house beside Mikayla’s. They grew up almost like sisters, studying and hanging out together. They met Rae in high school, and they had become an inseparable trio. 

Mikayla was the studious one of the three. She had fluffy black hair that never cooperated and rich, brown eyes that gave her the characteristics of a puppy. She was the tallest of the three, along with the most athletic. Her favorite sport was skateboarding, though she had to constantly persuade people that yes, it was a sport. 

Rae was the cool one of the group; she generally didn’t give a shit about anything. It was a quality that some people admired and others absolutely abhorred. It was also what made her buzz her ginger hair, much to her mother’s dissatisfaction. She had also been learning martial arts since a young age and had an odd obsession with cheese. 

And Parker had always been the protective ‘mom’ friend. With her long, straight brown hair and chubby cheeks, she had the charm that made her seem younger than she was. She was the shortest of the three, too, and definitely the most romantic. She and Amy had gotten together early in their first year of college and have been happily in love for a while. Rae and Mikayla used to gang up on Parker, relentlessly teasing her about her lovey-dovey relationship. 

But, what with her protective tendencies, the other two were also used to having to answer an endless amount of questions whenever they went out, missed hangouts, or (god forbid) brought a date to anything. She had gotten more ‘I-told-you-so’ ever since Mikayla discovered Michael’s true colors, something Parker had predicted back before the two had even begun dating. 

“A local?” Beau repeated, a gentle frown furrowing his brow. “Well, not local here, exactly, but around this area, yeah.” 

“Where?” Parker pried without a moment of hesitation. 

“I believe about an hour from here, right?” he said, turning to check with Mikayla. “At least, by bike, it is.” 

Rae had sauntered over to Mikayla’s side, shamelessly going through her bag of candy. But now, her head shot up as she lifted her glasses again to stare at the couple. It was a habit of hers to lift her sunglasses from her eyes whenever she wished to make some sort of dramatic statement. Mikayla rolled her eyes. 

“She let you ride her bike?” Rae asked Beau, leaning around Mikayla to stare incredulously at him. 

“Uh, yeah?” Beau said, turning his attention towards Rae as Mikayla rolled her eyes even harder. “Why?” 

“No, nothing,” Rae said with a shrug when she saw Parker’s expression. She dropped her glasses back over her eyes as she popped a caramel into her mouth. “Nothing at all.” 

She backed off, her hands up as her lips smirked around the stolen candy in her mouth. Turning, she made her leisurely way towards the plot of shaded grass Mikayla and Beau had been walking towards and dropped onto the grass. She leaned against the trunk of the tree at her back, looking at the others expectantly. 

“So you don’t have a car,” Parker stated. She didn’t phrase it like a question even though it technically was an assumption. 

Mikayla’s eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. 

“I don’t see a need for one,” Beau replied with a shrug. 

Mikayla bit her lip; she knew that Beau had no clue what the fuck a ‘car’ was, but he hardly batted an eye. 

“How old are you?” Parker asked, crossing her own arms over her chest and leaning into a hip. 

“Twenty-four,” Beau responded. “I turn twenty-five on March seventh.” 

“And you’re not in school?” Parker asked, an eyebrow raising. 

“No, I’ve finished my education,” Beau replied easily. 

“And you aren’t pursuing anything?” Parker asked, a hint of smugness in her voice. 

“No,” Beau said, a soft shake of his head causing a curl that escaped his braids to fall into his eyes. 

“Hm,” Parker hummed condescendingly. She rolled her head to the side to give Mikayla a look as she drawled, “Really.” 

Mikayla scoffed, rolling her eyes as she dropped her arms exasperatedly to her side. She turned and joined Rae by the roots of the tree, leaning against the trunk and allowing herself to slide down the rough bark. She ignored the scratchy wood chips catching on her hoodie, resting her elbows on her knees. Rae held out a hand and Mikayla wordlessly complied by placing a small foil-wrapped chocolate in Rae’s open palm. 

“So how do you pay rent?” Parker asked with feigned innocence written on her face. The sneer became more apparent, however, when she added, “Surely you aren’t still living at your parents’, right?” 

“Is there something wrong with that?” Beau asked, tilting his head to the side. 

“So you do,” Parker said matter-of-factly, sending Mikayla another warning look with her eyes. 

Mikayla could practically see the flashing red lights screaming ‘CAUTION’ on Parker’s forehead. 

Beau shrugged. “My father insisted,” he said calmly. “After all, how else would I expect to take my father’s place if I don’t learn directly from him?” 

Finally, it seemed he had caught Parker’s attention. She turned her gaze back to him as her eyes narrowed. 

“What do you mean, ‘take his place’?” she asked cautiously, as if afraid it would be a trap. 

Beau shrugged again. “You wouldn’t understand,” he said dismissively. 

Parker was both intrigued and suspicious, but Beau had already turned away from her. With a nonchalant hand in his pocket, the bag of candy hanging from his wrist, Beau held his other hand out for Mikayla to take. She happily stood to do so. 

“Oh, and Mikayla?” Beau said, pulling his closed fist out of his pocket. “Your pearls, my love.” 

His hand opened between them to reveal a coiled strand of beautiful pearls of varying sizes and shapes and colors. Some were full and round, others small ovals, and a few were oddly shaped. They all somehow came together to give a whimsical, natural quality to the strand. 

The colors were gorgeous, too. Quite a few were pure white, but more of them were pink and blue and purple. Several were ivory—Mikayla’s personal favorite, especially if they were the irregularly shaped ones—and a couple others even seemed to be color changing. There were even seven whole black pearls that Mikayla couldn’t help but admire. 

“What is it?” she asked as she accepted the strand onto her palm. It was both heavier and lighter than she expected as it pooled over her skin, smooth and silky just like water. “Like, how do I wear it?” 

“Here, like this,” Beau said. 

Carefully, he plucked the strand from her palm and lifted it to her head. He draped it over her forehead and turned her around to work the strand into her hair. Mikayla couldn’t see what Beau was doing, but it felt like he was alternatingly curling her hair around the pearls and the pearls around her hair. 

“There,” he finally stated with a smile, coming back around to face her. 

Behind her, Parker and Rae’s jaws dropped because holy fuck, Mikayla looked like some sort of sea goddess. Well, minus the street clothes. 

Mikayla, curious of what it looked like, pulled her phone out of her pocket to use the camera to see. Her own eyes widened as she tilted her head from side to side, staring at the elaborate way the pearls were wrapped up and settled into her hair. 

“Oh… my gosh…” she breathed, reaching a hand gingerly up to touch as if it might shatter under her touch. “It’s beautiful. ” 

“Not as beautiful as you,” Beau said with a blinding smile. 

Mikayla beamed back even as her cheeks warmed.