Only Us

2 | Meantime

December 20, 2004
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
5:13 P.M.

Leiah POV

"Such a pretty sunset," I said staring in awe of the beautiful blended hues of pink, orange, and purple cascading over the Atlantic ocean.

"Just like you."

I rolled my eyes in response to his statement, trying not to blush in the process. He had been complimenting me the whole afternoon and I didn't mind, but I acted like it annoyed me. This was my go to, and only, way of continuing the conversation with a guy when they tried to flirt with me or compliment me. As you can see, I don't have much experience with talking to boys at all. I was very shy, in my opinion until I got comfortable with a person.

In the 3 hour span of time that we had known each other, we had talked non-stop and were already acting like we knew each other our whole lives.

"So you gon finally sing for me or not?" I asked feeling as though my parents were coming soon, even though they been should have taken us back to the hotel room. At this point, I don't even know where my brother is. All I know is that he better be here when our parents come back.

"Why you want to know how I sound so bad?"

"Because you said you got a whole record deal, meaning I'm going to hear your voice eventually. And didn't you say you be singing at school during games and to girls. I'm a girl. So sing."

"Mann..." He says sucking his teeth. I mock him while urging him on with the wave of my hand.

He begins to sing "P.Y.T." by Michael Jackson and I quickly realized he wasn't playing about the record deal. He stands us up from our sitting position on the beach and starts to imitate MJ.

"Oh so he's a full package. He can dance, sing, and he's cute." I thought to myself while watching him.

"You should dance with me," he says, reaching down to help me off the sand.

"See... about that, I don't dance," I stated, taking his hand to stand up.

"I don't believe you and even if you didn't you can still do a lil one-two step."

"Ugh if I dance you better not laugh Chris. I'm serious," I said staring directly at him.

"Okay, I won't. I promise," he said, already struggling to hold back a smile to show he was also serious.

"You know what. Nevermind you already showing me you not gon be serious about this," I said, knowing good and well if I started dancing he would bust out laughing.

"Okay well let's do it my way then," he said as suddenly I was lifted up into the air.

"Chris bruh. Why couldn't you just sing. You over here doing extra stuff. You not that much bigger than me to be doing all this. You know what, drop me and we fighting. And I was about to stop you anyway," I ranted, letting my southern accent run wild.

Laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever witnessed, he slowly lowered me down to the sand.

"What was your goal with that? Like really, what did picking me up do for you?" I questioned stepping away from him to prevent a repeat of what just happened.

"You know what I noticed about you?" Chris asked, directly ignoring my questions.

"What?"

"You ramble a lot. Like a lot a lot."

"You know what," I said as he put me down, "let me go find my brother. You can stay here by yourself."

"No, no please, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do it again. Don't leave me," he pleaded, making
puppy-dog eyes to convince me to stay.