Overprotected

Chapter Twenty

            Blair giggles and throws on a giant pair of white sunglasses. "How about these?" She asks, laughing.

      "You look ridiculous," I say, grabbing a yellow pair for myself. We look in the mirror and make faces.

     Carson and Nate walk around the corner and skid to a stop. "Woah, girls," Nate says. "I know my extreme hotness is blinding but is that really necessary?"

      Blair laughs and hands Carson her phone. "Would you take a picture of us?"

      We pose back to back while Carson snaps the picture. He hands Blair her phone and I crowd over her, looking at her screen. "It's cute. Thanks Car."

     "Yup. Hey ladies, me and Nate are really hungry, can we go get something to eat?"

      Blair daintily places the sunglasses back on the rack and adjusts mine, which I had tossed back on haphazardly. "Sure. There was a cute café down the block."

     We exit the shop and walk down the boardwalk. Carson steps next to me and grabs my hand. I smile, thrilled to be back together with him. He busted Noir pretty badly last night. Noir texted me a selfie this morning. His jaw is swollen and bruised. I told him I felt bad, but I didn't apologize.

     I realize that I can never be more than friends with Noir, and I never want to be. Noir doesn't seem to know that, and I'm hoping Carson straightened him out for sure.

       We sit down in the little café, the air conditioning cooling our warm bodies. The waitress brings our menus and asks us what to drink. We all order iced teas.

      She brings the drinks out and takes our orders. After she sashays away, I glance around the café. It's a quaint little European style design, with an unlit fireplace in the corner.

      Carson kicks my feet under the table, and I kick his back. He smiles conspiratorially at me. I place my feet against his, the soles of my flip-flops against the soles of his sandals. We're so caught up in this that we miss Blair's question.

      "Lexi, Carson," Nate prods. "Does that sound good?"

      We both look up abruptly. "What?"

    "I said," Blair grins. "We should go to the giant flip-flops down the boardwalk after this. The ones you put your face in?"

    "Oh," I say. "Yeah those. Um, I'm a little double-dated out. Maybe we can go back and do something with the group?"

     "Alright," Nate says. "I heard they were headed for Rocky Beach, on the other side of town. We can do that."

    Our food arrives and we eat. We order dessert too, milkshakes to share. Carson leans forward, his face and straw inches from mine. We're in this aura of happiness, like we just started dating for the first time again. The spark we had lost during the whole thing was lit again, brighter than ever.

~*~*~

We took the open air bus across town, reaching Rocky Beach around 2:30.

The rest of the group is already there, and we stroll over and drop our stuff on the blanket. Bryce gets up from where he's sitting. "Hey you four! How was your date?"

"It was great," Carson says with a grin. "This place is cool."

I rotate slowly, taking in the whole beach. It's really hard to describe, but I'll do my best.