Photograph | Matt Sturniolo

Chapter 7

Megan Taylor

It was the 2nd of July, two days before my eighteenth birthday. It was a scorching day so we decided to go to the beach.

I wore a black bikini with blue denim shorts covering it. We strolled down the beach, finding a place to set down all of our stuff. I laid out my blanket and sat down on it, planning on trying to tan. I start putting on sun cream, knowing I burn easily.

"Hey Chris" I turn to my left.  "Can you put some on my back?" I ask the standing boy.

"Sure" He squeezes some out onto his hands. I tense as I feel the cool substance on my back. Once he's done, he rubs the remaining cream onto his face before getting up to go play volleyball.

"Megan, Nick you two coming to join us?" I look up to see Matt standing above me, waiting for my answer. All of the triplets other friends tagged along, they all seemed nice.

"Nah I'm just going to lay here, Nick you can go if you want"

"I'd rather not, I'm not very athletic" I laughed at him while Matt went to go play.

Nick and I laid in silence for a while, Ariana Grande playing quietly in the background. I loved it here the sunshine until 10 o'clock at night, the way the wind blows my hair, the smell of the sea. I loved it all.

"Are you planning on doing anything for your birthday?" Nick turned his head to me.

"I don't think so, I'll probably just hang out with you guys. It's nothing special"

"It's your 18th birthday and it's independence day, we have to do something" He says sitting up.

"It's your independence day, I don't know we'll sort something out tomorrow or that"

"Want to go for a swim?" He asks, seeing everyone else in the water.

"Sure". We got up and walked towards the water. Coolness surrounded my body as I walked further into the sea, heading towards everyone else.

"Oh look who decides to join us" Chris says looking at Nick and I.

"Fuck off Chris"

"Want to play chicken?" Nick suggests after some time of swimming around.

"Nick I'm getting on your shoulders" Chris shouts swimming over to him.

"Want to be my partner" I hear Matt ask me. I nodded my head. He lifted me up onto his shoulders. We stood still waiting on everyone else, I ran my fingers through his wet hair removing it from his eyes.

We move up closer to Nick and Chris, wobbling a bit as we walk. I grab onto Matt's head while he grabs the tops of my thighs to keep me steady.

"Ready, set, go!" One of the boys friends shouted. My arms reach out to meet Chris's as we push at each other.

"Matt move closer" I shout at him as he walks forward. Nick stumbles as I push at Chris's chest, knocking both of them into the water. Matt cheers while I put my arms up in the air celebrating. All of a sudden I feel myself falling backwards, submerging into the water. I come out of the water coughing, just to see Matt laughing.

"Ha Ha Matt you are so funny" I say swimming towards him. I jump on his back pushing his head underwater.

We stayed in the sea for a bit before getting hungry and deciding to go get food. We walked into this small restaurant. I sat down at a table with Matt and Chris, Nick sitting with his friends that I can't remember the names of.

"What are you getting?" Chris asks me.

"Probably the cheese burger it sounds good"

"I'm going to get that too" Matt says, sitting on my left Chris in front of me.

A boy, no older than us came to take our order.

"Hey can you order for me?" I ask leaning in towards Matt. He nods knowing I've anxiety about stuff like this. After ordering the boy walks away giving me a glance.

"Why did he look at me like that?"

"He probably thinks you're pretty" Chris wiggles his eyebrows at me.

"Yeah no thanks" I reply, Matt looking at me through the corner of his eye before looking away.

We ate our food and decided to go to the arcade beside the restaurant. Nick walked up to me holding the camera in my face as they were vlogging.

"Megan, what are we doing now?" He asks me enthusiastically.

"We're going to the arcade and I'm going to beat Chris at basket ball" I say looking into the camera.

"You are not" Chris said from the other side of me.

We walked into the arcade met with colourful lights and the sound of machines. Chris and I walked straight over to the basket ball machine each putting in $1 and pressing start.

The basket balls came flooding out. I started grabbing and throwing them towards the net, getting most of them in. This carried on for about a minute before the timer sounded. I look up to see I won.

"Ha Ha Chris Megan bet you" Nick said camera in hand.

"Whatever that was rigged" He said with a small smile on his face.

"It was not" I say walking over to Matt who was standing at a claw machine.

"Which one are you trying to get?" I ask him looking at the display of colourful teddy bears in front of me.

"Which one do you like?" He asked.

"The pink one"

"That's the one I'm going for" He looks at me before sending the claw in the direction of the pink bear. He presses the button to lower it, the claw reaches down and grabs the bear releasing it into the bottom of the machine. Matt takes the bear out of the box and hands it to me.

"For you" He bows handing it to me.

"Thank you Matt" I say laughing taking the bear from him.

Later on that night I decided I wanted to go on a walk along the beach. Matt accompanied me, Nick and Chris too busy with their friends to join.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before deciding to sit on a rock and watch the sunset. It was calming to watch the waves come to shore with the yellow and pink sky in the back. The silence continued before Matt spoke up.

"Do you think everything happens for a reason?"

"Of course I do, everything always works out in the end" I reply looking at him.

"Like do you think you moving here and meeting us happened for a reason, not being a coincidence?"

Matt never spoke like this to me before. It was like I was talking to someone else.

"100%, I don't think it was a coincidence. We were meant to meet. We all have become such good friends in a certain amount of time, platonic soulmates even"

"Do you believe in soulmates?" He asks me.

"Yeah, romantically and platonically"

He doesn't respond only looks back out at the sky. I admire him yet again, he looks so beautiful. The sun set colouring his face perfectly. I come to the conclusion, I think I like Matt.

Matthew.Sturniolo