Perfectly Ourselves

Chapter 33

Today I'm facing one of my fears. And it's not a big one, but it's still something I'll have to get used to.

I'm gonna go swimming.

Swimming means I can't wear a long sleeve shirt, and I'm not comfortable letting Zoey see my arms yet, which is why I'm just taking Riley with me.

"Hey baby, we're gonna go to the beach. Hope you don't have plans." I say as I go to Riley and shut his textbook.

"I was studying for my final! You should too."

I scoff. "We need to relax. You're going to stress too much. Come on." I grab his hand and drag him to his bedroom.

I dig shamelessly through his dresser and closet until I find his swim trunks, and I toss them at him.

"Be in my apartment in no less then 7 minutes." I say. "You need to de-stress!"

I run out of his place, and into mine. Thankfully I actually have a a bikini. Noah forced me to get one, even though I didn't want one. Especially one that showed so much of my skin, but he told me I could just like take a bath and wear it. It made no sense at the time, but I got it anyway.

It's just a simple black bikini, the back on the top is crisscross. But with like three noodle straps. I don't even know, but it looks cute. And the bottoms and is just your normal boy cut shorts.

I slip into a pair of sweatpants, that I might have borrowed from Riley. Then I take one of my hoodies, and put it on. I've just gotten a towel, when I hear Riley entering my place.

"Hey beautiful." Riley says as he leans against my bedroom door frame.

I roll my eyes and brush my hair then braid it. "Ok! Let's roll!"

Riley smiles as we go to the bus stop. It takes about 40 minutes to get to a beach, which is fine. Beaches in Maryland are quite sad. The best beaches are in Ocean City, but it's still not like beaches in Florida. There's some secluded beaches scattered around, and I know the perfect beach that no one usually goes to. Because you do have to hike about a mile to get there.

"We have to walk how far?!" Riley asks when I tell how far we gotta walk.

"Dude, you've been to this beach before. You know it's not a bad walk."

"Hun, that was back when I didn't have back pain. I didn't know how much work walking was."

I snort. "Back pain? Ok grandpa."

Riley grumbles about not being prepared for his final tomorrow the whole walk, and I finally tell him ever so nicely to shut up about it when we get to the empty beach.

"I'm sorry. I love you, but you're stressing too much over this final. You could literally get a zero on your final, and still have an A in the class. It's fine." I say rolling my eyes.

I lay out my towel, and Riley copies me. "So, swimming time?"

I look over to Riley, first I have to get him to agree not to freak out.

"Hm... let's make out first." I say then walk over to him, I pull his head down to me as I go on my tiptoes and kiss him.

Only a minute passes before Riley just picks me up, using one arm holding me up by my butt, and the other to hold my neck.

We break apart to breathe, and I go straight for his sweet spot. Showing no mercy.

I have Riley right on edge, then I pull away.

"Promise you won't freak out?" I ask.

"Yep. I promise." He rushes then goes back to kissing me.

I giggle into the kiss, then pull away. "Ok. Let's go swimming!"

Riley frowns and sets me down. He pulls off his shirt, and I swear I started drooling. My boyfriend is one hot guy.

I take off my sweatpants first, and Riley's eyes are stuck to my legs. He's funny. I tease him by making eye contact while slowly hopefully sexily pulling off my hoodie.

His eyes darken as he looks over my body. "Gosh. I'll never get over your six pack sweetheart. It's honestly more defined then mine."

I giggle. "You should let me give you some advice sometime." Then take out my hearing aid. I can swim with it in, but I don't want to take a chance of loosing it.

I hold out my hand for him, and his eyes go right to my scars. His jaw clenches, and his eyes narrow.

"I know you don't like them baby. I don't either. Let's move on please."

Riley sighs 'Sorry sweetheart.' He signs then takes my hand.

We run out to the calm water, and swim out until I can't touch the ground. A small wave comes by, and I scream and clinch onto to Riley, who can still easily touch the ground.

"Hahaha... time to go back. I forgot how ruthless the beach is."

'You're fine hunny. I'll keep you safe.' Riley signs then wraps an arm around me.

Another wave comes, and while it wasn't big, and still clung to Riley with all my life. I guess 7 years of not swimming is starting to show.

Riley chuckles to himself as he walks back to where I can touch the ground, and we definitely have more fun. Probably because I wasn't scared out of my mind.

I splash Riley, and he splashed me back. We break into a water fight, until an unexpected big waves crashes over both of us.

Riley is laughing when I resurfaced. "What if I just drown?"

Riley looks at me, and laughs even more. 'The water is up to our knees darling. I would've seen you frowning and would've saved you.'

I smile and shake my head. "Ok. Let's go dry off."

We lay on our towel, drying off some and talking about random stuff.

"Hey, thanks for making me come. I definitely was stressing over my final too much." Riley says.

"Yeah no problem. You needed it."