Simply Ordinary

Chapter 9

Sleep came easier than I expected and before I knew it, James was gently shaking me awake.

“Care? We're here.”

I opened my eye and I thought I was still dreaming. Out of the front windshield I see the silhouette of a lighthouse in front of the rising sun.

“A lighthouse? Wow, I was expecting something quite cliché from you.” I say and smile.

“I mean my family owns it, so I wouldn't have gone anywhere else.” He says with a false mocking expression.

“You're kidding. Your family owns this?” How much money does this guy really have?

“It's basically a historic landmark and they were planning on tearing it down unless they found a sponsor. I guess my dad figured he needed to do a little good in his life so he bought it and built a museum about it.”

“We can go all the way to the top?”

“Of course, but we have to go now if we want to be up there before it opens to the public.” He smirks.

“Well then I guess we better get going.” I smile.

James quickly gets out and basically runs around the car to open my door. He smiled down at me and motions his hand as if he were a royal escort. He closes the door behind me and intertwines his hand with mine. He leads me to the opening of the lighthouse and greets the guard who is already in place for the opening of the museum to the public. The main door is tall and elegant, like something out of a movie. I can already tell that this day is going to be a dream.

The door is opened and I see the beginning of a long spiral staircase. James glances at the the top, which seems to be about 4 stories up, and looks back at me.

“I'll race you to the top.” He says and before he has time to process, I take off up the stairs.

I quickly hear his footsteps echoing behind me.  I mean he's an athlete, what did I expect? Our giggles fill the space as we push towards the top. Finally, I reach the last step and turn around to face James. He jumps around me and quickly opens the door for me.

“Oh you're such a gentleman.” I attempt to joke and walk past him into the room surrounded with windows and a balcony.

I let myself be distracted by the beautiful scene. The sun is shining through the windows of the small room at the peak of the lighthouse. James follows closely behind me and closes the door.

“I like to come up here to clear my head, you know?” James mentions, while both of us keep our gaze on the horizon.

“You're lucky… I need to clear my head most of my life, but I don't have such a beautiful place to escape to.”

James strolls to the opposite side of the room and I hear a door creak open. The sound of waves crashing on the shore and seagulls cawing fills the miniscule room. The noise instantly attracts me and I practically skip to where James is. He had already stepped out onto the balcony and was resting his arms on the handrail. I stand next to him and mimic his position.

“You said that you come up here to clear your head, but what could possibly be troubling the most popular jock in school?”

“There's a little more to my life than sports and being ‘popular’.”

As we continue staring at the sun inching up the sky, I wonder how horrible his glorious life could possibly be. Maybe there’s a little more to this superficial jock that meets the eye. My curiosity overcomes me and I decide to press the subject. “What exactly do you mean by more?”

“I mean that my life isn’t as pretty as most of the student body seems to think. I’ve got my own problems at home.” He says and I can see how hard it was for him to do that.

“Want to talk about it?” I question, hoping I’m not being too nosey.

“It’s just that my dad seems to have a lot bigger things on his mind than his son and my mom has problems of her own. That’s all.” He says with finality that warns me that this conversation is over.

I decide that it’s better to change the subject and maybe distract him from what I brought into his mind. I slide over on the railing so that I can rest my head on his shoulder.

After a couple minutes of silence I say, “What should we do now?”

“There’s the beach…” He mentions and glances at me from the corner of his eye.

“There is no beach down there. It's like all rocks.” I mutter.

“No… There's a little sand cove just around that bend over there.” He points at the bend north of the lighthouse.

He turns around so quickly that my head nearly falls off his shoulder. I straighten up startled.

He turns around as he reaches the opening. “You coming or what?” He says with an excited smile.

We rush through the doors and down the spiral stairs. We burst through the main door of the lighthouse and race down to the long aisle of rocks that reach deeper into the ocean. As we continue parallel along the beach, James begins to strip off his clothing,  one by one. Shoes, socks, shirt. By the time we reach the relaxing sand cove, James is about ready to dive in.

I stop abruptly. “Wait. We're actually going swimming?”

He turns around and looks at me like I've lost it. “Well yeah. What else are we gonna do?” He asks rhetorically.

Part of me is saying that this is most likely not a very good idea. I ponder about it for a second and then decide against my conscience. I take off my shorts and shoes and James smirks for a second at me before launching himself into the water. I leave on my shirt and run after him. The sand is soft even in the deeper waters. Once I steady myself and stand, I realize that James is nowhere to be seen. I'm instantly suspicious and regretting my decision.

That's when something snags my ankle and pulls me under. I didn't feel any pain and that's how I knew it was thankfully not something with teeth. The thing releases me almost instantly and I shoot for the surface. I hear the deep laughter as soon as my head breaks through the surface. I whip my head around to find James cackling like an idiot.

“You almost lost it! I can't!” He shouts. At this point, I can't tell the difference between the tears of laughter streaming out of his eyes and the water left on his face from being submerged.

His laughter is contagious and I can't help myself from joining in. We spend the next couple minutes laughing and just enjoying being in the presence of each other. Once the giggles finally leave, I float on my back and admire the sky.

If only the sky would always look beautiful.