A Month To Live - Extras

The Vacation

There was nothing quite like sitting and listening to the waves. In my opinion anyway, I guess everyone had their own thing that helped them relax.

When I was growing up before dad started carting us all over the country, we’d lived near the ocean. It's probably why I liked being close to it. It felt homely.

There was a long period of time where we lived way inland and the only time we’d see the ocean was on vacation. Once a year maybe. I didn’t like that at all.

Nevada was the worst. I remember being excited to move somewhere that was so hot all the time but the novelty wore off after only a couple months. Hanging out on the beach or even just going for walks was one of my favourite things to do. I had the good weather but I couldn’t even appreciate it.

I didn’t realise how lucky I was though, seeing so many different places so young. It was a trade off in a way. We moved all the time which was fun, and new and exciting. But also hard. Just when we’d finally start settling in again, dad’s contract would run out or he’d get the call that we’d be back on the road again to some random town or city hundreds of miles away.

Oh well.

I scrunched some sand between my toes.

I shouldn’t be thinking about home when on vacation. We were thousands of miles away from Richmond here in Costa Rica. I think it’s the farthest I’d ever been from anywhere I called home. Maybe that’s why I was thinking about it. I’d not really left the country many times before. We went to Canada once when I was a kid but I couldn’t remember it that much. Just a lot of snow.

Man, it was hot today. Even with the breeze, I felt like the heat could be too much for me. With that in mind, I snatched up the bottle of sunscreen I’d stashed under my towel and slapped another layer on. I did not want to spend the rest of our vacation like a burnt lobster. Sunburn was the absolute worst. I’d rather have a fat ass migraine than stinging skin. Even so, I was definitely bronzing up fast. I’d almost caught up to Bradley. He didn’t have to put any effort into sunbathing ‘cos he was outside so much of the time he just naturally caught it.

I looked over at him now sprawled next to me. Actually, sprawled wasn’t the right word, he never sprawled. I sprawled. He was suave. I don’t know how he always managed to be so put together. Even when he was, in his own words, melting.

Bradley didn’t do so well in extreme heat. I learned that last summer back in Richmond when we had a couple weeks of a heatwave. It was cute really. He said he couldn’t think straight when it was too hot, it melted his brain. Unfortunately, he chose a girlfriend who was the complete opposite. I thrived in the warm weather.

I took a swig of water, frowning when I realised it’d left it in the sun and it was now disgustingly warm. Rookie mistake. Maybe the sun was getting to me too. Though I would never admit that out loud to him.

I opened my mouth intending on asking Bradley if he needed a drink but my own poor brain got all addled as I looked him over once more.

I’d gotten him some bright, patterned swim shorts I’d seen yesterday at a gift shop and, even though he insisted he wouldn’t wear them, here he was... wearing them. He pretended he didn’t like them but I knew he did. His favourite hobby was teasing me.

I knew they’d look perfect on him, especially when he had a tan this good. But if I’m honest, he could pull off any look. Usually, he dressed quite casually. He liked t-shirts in solid colours, jeans, sneakers. I’d seen him in a suit, and his birthday suit too and all were a pretty devastating sight for the human population. Especially me.

A sigh escaped me. He was, simply put, temptation in human form. I was ogling. Mom said that word first. She’d caught me staring at him back when we were helping them pack their stuff when they were moving house. It’s not my fault Bradley looked all manly and tough when he was carrying around heavy furniture. I liked his arms. Mom told me off for my so called ogling and told me to act more lady like. She was joking, of course, but I had no intention of paying her any mind either way. I’d ogle at my boyfriend all I wanted. Ogle, ogle, ogle. What a strange word it is.