Casey Smith has been through hell and back. After a falling out with her best friend Ethan Payne from school, she became closed off and isolated.
Tobi Brown, on the other hand, has it all. With his kind heart and caring nature, it wasn't hard to ke...
Nothing could have ended the day better than a late night bonfire. As I waited for everyone else to get ready for the fun beach party ahead, I went outside to the part of the beach I wanted to be. The part with the large rocks and beautiful view of the ocean. It was the perfect time to sit down and listen to music, because the sun was setting so it was getting dark.
I had both earbuds in and sat down on one of the flat rocks, straightening out my white sundress as I stared out at the ocean. My music soothed me, so I closed my eyes and let the smell of the ocean fill my nose.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I didn't even notice when someone sat down next to me until they pulled out my right earbud and put it in their own ear. I expected it to be Cal, but raised an eyebrow when I turned and saw Tobi sitting there.
There was a peace to him being next to me, so we sat in silence and listened to my music together. He spoke after a few minutes.
"It's really something, isn't it?"
I nodded, not taking my eyes off of the horizon. The pink and purple sky cast a shadow over us as the sun set underneath the water, but there was still a soft light glowing across the waves. They glistened, but it wasn't a blinding light.
"I didn't think someone like you could appreciate something like this," I turned my head to look at him.
He chuckled deeply, looking into my eyes. "Well, I guess we were both wrong about each other."
I bit my lip. Not breaking our gaze. "I don't think you were. I mean, I wish you were wrong about me, but you're not."
He put his hand on mine. "You always do that. You think you're some monster, but you're the opposite of that."
I looked down at our hands. "You don't know my past...it's hard for me to think anything else of myself."
He lifted his free hand and tipped my chin up to look at him, like he did at the pitch so long ago. He held his hand there, with his thumb on my chin and his index finger curled underneath. "Then don't think."
I noticed then that we had both leaned in, and we were very close to one another. My music played softly in our ears as we stared at each other.
Our lips were brushing together now. Not in a kiss quite yet, but I felt his warm breath on my bottom lip as he closed his eyes.
Wait.
I froze before we could both close the small gap between us, opening my eyes after realizing they were closed.
He opened his eyes a second later, dropping his hand from my chin as I pulled away.
I bit my lip and smiled awkwardly, playfully punching him in the shoulder to try and ease the tension. You know, like the idiot I am. I laughed awkwardly. "Oh, you. Always so serious."
