𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 || baxter radic

24.

"Hey sleepy head, you wanna go out with me?" Bax is bent down to my level, grazing my cheek with his fingers. The coldness of his touch is what shocks me awake, then his words slowly sink in.

"I'm already going out with you." I mumble as I stretch my arms above my head before sitting up.

"Funny." He squints his eyes to acknowledge my shit joke. "Come on, now you're going in." He sweeps me up off the sand and runs with me toward the water. I don't fight him, I won't win.

My body drops to the water, the shock waking me up completely. I flail my arms around until my head is above water. I look for my boyfriend to see him bent over laughing. I give him the evilest eyes I ever could.

He tackles me back into the water, pressing his lips to mine as the water washes over our bodies. When we come above water, he shakes out his hair, flipping it out of his eyes. Something about the action has my stomach flipping.

"You can take this off." He pulls his hoodie off my body, walking it up to dry land. It slops to the ground with a wet thud. The sound is gross—it makes me cringe—but it has no effect on Baxter at all. It's like the sound doesn't even register now that he has his eyes clung to my bare skin.

I'm standing with my arm's held against my chest. It's not something he hasn't seen before, but he seems enamored by my skin. Like he's looking at the most beautiful thing he's ever laid his eyes on. "If you took a picture it'd last longer." I yell out to him as he grabs his board from the sand, slowly making his way back to me. His eyes completely refusing to leave their trance on me.

"I have plenty of photos, don't worry." He remarks as he collects me back up in his arms. He places his lips along my skin, trailing soft kisses down the salty skin on my neck. I tilt my head back, giving him access to all the skin he desires. But the moment I do, his lips depart and he's pulling us both onto his board.

He's been in such a mood. A teasing mood that has my body on constant high alert. It's hyper reactive to whatever he does, no matter how small it is. He could breathe a certain way and I swear it might have me begging for much more. Or maybe it's just me, relaxing into who we are. Maybe being able to let go and move forward in life allows me to freely feel something more than just... alright.

"Have you secretly snapped photos of me naked you—" I start but he cuts me off before I name call.

"I'm not desperate." He scoffs, jokingly. "I'd much prefer the real thing."

My body tingles at the words rolling off his tongue. He says it so nonchalantly. Like this is just normal conversation that we could have any day of the week. I mean granted we could, we just never did. I guess we much preferred each other's company rather than the sexual tension that kind of always simmered in the air.

"Baxter Radic!" I scold him, but playfully because when he talks a little dirty, I actually enjoy it, like many girlfriends would.

"You can scream that in bed Babe." For the lack of sleep, his mind is quick. He doesn't even take more than a second to comeback with a remark. It's taking everything in me not to flip this board just to give myself a second to cope. But were in no man's land. I don't trust what's beneath the surface. The less I give to be taken, the better off I am.

"Or I can scream it on this surfboard because you are being a punk." I look over my shoulder at him, very carefully. I hold onto the board tightly in fear of one wrong move ending it for the both of us.

"I mean I reckon someone has fucked someone on a surfboard but... I'm not too sure that's a good idea Maybelle." His tone reeks of self-satisfaction.

"Baxter, if you want to fuck me. Do it." I flip the board over, sending us both under the water. The heat on my cheeks needed to be hidden. The fear of the creatures under the surface didn't outweigh the battle in my head.

When we both come above water, Bax has a smirk on his face. His perfect white teeth shining like he's just won a gold medal. I mean I guess he really had. I had just given him full on permission to what he pleased, whenever he sees fit.

"My girlfriend doesn't want to catch a wave with me?" His mouth instantly shifts to a pout after asking his question. His mood fake shifting like I've hurt his feelings. He was great at changing topics. If he didn't want to acknowledge a topic, he'd make sure to avoid it however he could.

"My boyfriend doesn't want to admit he wants to fuck me?" I shoot a glare at him, ignoring his attempt to divert topics.

"Flustering you is so much more fun." He climbs up onto the board, helping me up onto it afterward.

I roll my eyes as we finally catch a wave he so desperately wanted. For whatever weird reason he had in his head. It's the only wave we catch, immediately handing back to shore once we've ridden the wave in.

We arrive back at Summer and I's laughing at how much of an idiot Bax is being. He's still on his teasing game, as well as acting like a dog again. And honestly, I can't get enough. I'm nearly in belly laughs trying to get away from him when we arrive at the front door.

What I don't expect as I reach for the door handle to enter is for the door to open before me. Behind it stand my parents. My face drops, as Bax steps up behind me. Almost as if he feels he needs to protect me. I bump into him as an attempt to get away, but there is nowhere to run.

"Maybelle Grace." My mom's voice rings through the air as I feel Bax's chest tighten against my back. A pit forms in my stomach and every thought of a good weekend like I expected, vanishes in a flash.

My parents were here to ruin it all. They were going to take Bax away. They were going to take Max away—they had taken Max away. Every single thing that my friends had spent the last few weeks working on was about to be ripped away from me. They were here. They weren't in New York anymore. There was no more avoiding them, avoiding what they felt the need to force on me.

I had been thrown into the Coliseum. Two lions snarling their teeth, ready to pounce. Every single move I made, every action I made, it was all going to impact my future. One wrong step and my entire life would be taken. When you enter the Coliseum, you don't expect to walk out. But I had to. It all just couldn't end here.