Swimming With The Current (Wattys2015)

Chapter 6

      I get out of the car, and Shayna smiles as I look back before I go into the ice cream parlor. I wave, and then go inside, the bell jingling. Music from the 60s is playing from a jukebox, and I look around to see Mitchell and a few other teens that is apparently my former friends and enemy. Besides Mitchell, there's a guy with a burnette buzz cut and hazel eyes that's tall and has a broad build, a girl with curly dark blue dyed hair, a short height, skinny, and bright green eyes. Also, the second girl is sitting on the windowsill, kicking her legs with flip-flops on in the air, and she has light brown skin, slightly large dark brown almond eyes, the body of a model, a small nose and chin, a little tall, and naturally red lips that are slightly larger than average. I'd know her anywhere.

Erika.

"Hi!" I wave, to everyone.

"Hi!" The girl with dark blue curly hair says, which is most likely Kelly. "Wow, Olivia, you look so . . . so different from when we were kids!"

"Yeah, I know." I nod. "You . . . also look different."

When me and Kelly were younger, Kelly was a total girly girl. Pink ponies, unicorn princesses, anything stereotypical little girl was her. Now, she's wearing a babydoll t-shirt with a howling wolf on it, leggings printed with skulls, and flip flops. Also, besides her dark blue curls, her ears have five piercings in them.

"Hi, Olivia." Dustin smiles. Dustin looks same as ever, with a plaid button-down and khakis.

"Hola, Liv." Erika says, with an actually sincere smile. "Nice to see you here."

Erika, who actually doesn't seem to hate me, is wearing a light blue Aeropostale shirt and short shorts, with her hair pulled up.

"My name is Olivia, not Liv." I say.

"Sorry, it's just that you look a lot like that girl from girl from Liv and Maddie, except that you aren't a movie star . . . but your names are pretty much the same, right?" Erika remarks. Youch, Erika. Way to ruin my hopes.

"Uh. Yeah." I nod. "Nice to know you're still you're the same old insentitive self."

"Nice to know you're a . . ." Erika starts, but then Kelly kicks her.

"So, how about we go order some ice cream and sit down?" Kelly suggests.

"Sure." I bob my head, and and we go up to the counter to order, and it's on Dustin, since it's his turn to pay. I order a chocolate custard, and we all sit down. Erika seems to be sitting especially close to Mitchell. That . . . you know, you already know what I'm going to call her.

As I spoon into my custard, Erika leans against Mitchell, and he kisses her head. That can only mean one thing.

THEY'RE DATING!!!!! OMG I WANT TO SWEAR SO BAD RIGHT NOW!!!

Instead, I casully ask, "Are you and Mitchell a thing?"

"Oh, yeah." Erika shrugs, like it's nothing, but she smirks. "We've been together for two years."

"How did it happen?" I ask.

"Oh," Erika seems to be choosing her words carefully. "Well, during summer, we were both at the same beach and we swam together for awhile and then I kissed him. And I guess he liked it, because our first makeout was about two minutes long."

TMI ERIKA!!!!

"Well, you guys are a cute couple." I finally comment. Erika gives a victorious smile.

"Thanks." She says.

"Thanks." Mitchell says, sincerely.

Kelly leans over to whisper to me. "They kiss in the school hallway everyday, and I'm thinking of putting up a poster that says 'This isn't a romance movie so stop kissing.'"

"That sounds like a good plan." I agree quietly.

"How do we know this isn't a romance movie?" Erika asks. "Me and Mitchell are deeply in love, we have a ton of fun, and we're so interesting. Our life could be a reality show, besides, this is the perfect setting for a romance movie. Beach, small town, small island. After all, in Teen Beach Movie, the people in Surf Side Story had no idea their world wasn't real."

"That's because they were in their own dimension. The movie in the movie is probably based off someone seeing things in a different dimension than theirs." Kelly says.

"No. That's ridiculous, it's not a dimension, it's a movie." Erika snorts. "That is so unheard of."

"In The Vampire Stalker by Allison Diepen, an author in the book writes her bestseller by tapping into another dimension which has vampires and stuck in the early 1900's." Kelly states perfectly.

"That's piracy, you know." Erika says.

"Okay, well, I don't care. Just saying the book is not piracy."

"How do you know?"

"I just know, you . . ."

"Alright, how about we say that Teen Beach Movie is just a movie?" Mitchell asks, interrupting. Erika smiles sweetly, and leans her head on Mitchell's shoulders.

"Of course, bae." Erika nuzzles into his shoulder.

"Whatever." Kelly rolls her eyes. Dustin sighs like their both hopeless cases and resumes eating his ice cream, a sundae with nuts sprinkled on it.

After we're done eating, it's become dark, and we head down to the beach, and gather driftwood to make a bonfire.

"Are we allowed to do this?" I ask,

"My brother did and he said nobody cares as long as we don't do arsen." Mitchell shrugs.

"Alright." I say, as Mitchell throws in the lit match he struck on the matchbox. The flames slowly stretch up, swallowing the driftwood, and starts to blaze. "Are we going to get drunk?"

"Nobody would care if we did," Dustin starts. "but we don't want you to get in trouble with your brother because he's a little more overprotective than most of the parents in New Shoreham."

"Alright." I say. "Do you guys ever get drunk?"

"No, no." Kelly snorts. "We drink a minimal amount, one can or glass per person and that's it. Unless it's a holiday, then our parents may give us a little more, but we rarely even drink."

"Okay." I shrug.

"Why, do you guys get drunk in Chicago?" Dustin asks.

"Not me. Most of the kids do, the school system is pretty bad." I say.

"Alright, well, me and Mitchell are going to go skinnydipping together, so you gus just don't follow us." Erika starts dragging Mitchell by his arm, and Mitchell waves to us quickly, before turning to walk regularly with Erika.

As Erika and Mitchell are skinnydipping somewhere unknown down the shore, me, Kelly, and Dustin talk a little bit about some corrupt politicians and the flight here and our classmates and what Mitchell and Erika may be doing, when I get up.

"I need to use the facilities." I say. Kelly points to a large rock.

"That's our special rock. We've all marked our territory on it; don't ask why, it's a weird thing Dustin started after you left." Kelly says.

"So it's always our rock." Dustin shrugs. "I'm not ashamed that I thought of it when we were only nine, but it's just our own little tradition though it may be strange."

"Okay, sounds strange but okay." I walk over to the rock far away, as Dustin and Kelly look away and casually chit chat. I hoist myself up onto the rock, and pull down my pants and undies, then pee. When I'm done, I pull up my pants and start to get off the rock, when a splash of salt water hits me and blinding me for a quick second, I fall into the ocean.