Lovely

4. I think you've breathed too much city air

We biked. Each kid had their own, while I used my mother's. Kahlo and I biked behind the others for safety reasons but the younger ones knew where they were going. It was really close to mum's house, close indeed, so we weren't pedalling for long. Despite this, Kahlo still found an opportunity to tease when I'd fallen a meter behind the pack. "Keep up, you snail!"

Once I had finished rolling my eyes, we veered off to the left. I could smell the sea. The calls of the seagulls made me pedal faster. Our bikes approached a small grass hill. We were to leave our bikes there, not take them onto the sand, I wasn't to worry. No one would take them. I set the rickety old bike down and took note of the additional 3 bikes that were only a small way away. The little ones raced over the hill, clothes and shoes and hats flying everywhere. Kahlo and I followed. I was surprised to see that on the other side of the hill stood a small drop off. There wasn't a large distance between where I was on the top of the hill to the sand of the shore but it was enough to make me hesitate. Kahlo leaped down first, and didn't take off running after the others like I expected him to. He turned to me and held out his hand. A rough, slightly calloused hand. That told me many things about him, things I wouldn't have asked on my own. I took it without thinking and leaped down after him. We ambled closer to the water, to where all of the kids towels were dumped and even some of their clothes. He never let go of my hand, I never let go of his. This was nice. Holding his hand created a safety net around me. It was like clinging to a rock in rough waters. We watched over the kids as if we were an old married couple reminiscing about our youth. Smiling over the happy memories, laughing over the silly ones. Every time I peered up at him, he stared back. No shame, no embarrassment. He wanted to stare at me and so he did. It was simple. Life was simple. He was strong and never faltered and he didn't mind me knowing he was staring. And something in me didn't mind him soaking up the blush that tainted my cheeks every time I felt like I had stared for too long. I was flustered, not shameful. Looking into anyone's eyes were hard for me, and Kahlo's were so much harder. They were icy, and deep, and hypnotic. When I wanted to keep looking into them, but couldn't get myself to, I would let my eyes travel to his mouth. Sculpted lips that would stretch into a crooked smile every time he noticed where my eyes were. Then they would travel over his freckles and nose and eyelashes and then to his hair. The curls that sprouted from his head were looser and lighter than my own, and could coax anyone into brushing them out of his face.

After what seemed like long days of comfortable bliss and golden sand, but was only around 20 minutes, 3 unfamiliar people came running onto the sand. A boy first, then 2 teenagers. They looked our age. The boy ran into the water and I heard all of Kahlo's siblings scream out in joy. Swimming their way to him, the kids continue to scream and yell and call out what I could only assume was the boy's name. The group shared hugs with him. I saw Callista hesitate, but quickly hug him and duck under water only to resurface a large distance away from him. The strangers slowed down their pace and walked over to Kahlo and I. He let go of my hand to wave to them as he finished removing his shirt with the other. "Celia! Ash! I saw your bikes, where were you?"

I sat cross legged as I watched the boy and the girl eventually reach our spot. "We were picking some fruit!" the boy called out. That was when I noticed a woven bag in the girl's hands. "Peaches," she added. Kahlo stood up to embrace them both, then turned around to help me stand. "Aurora, this is Ash," he gestured to the boy that advanced to kiss my cheek, "and this is Celia," the girl wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into her body. "I'm going to swim, ok?" Kahlo looked down at me. I wondered when we had gotten to the stage of needing to ask permission from each other before doing things. I nodded and smiled. He threw a casual smile over his shoulder as he walked over to the waves. "Wait up!" Ash called, running after him. The sheen of sweat on their backs glistened in the sun, and I bit my lip as I studied every muscle of Kahlo's back, every dip and dimple.

"So it's just us, then," interrupted Celia. My attention moved to her. Her ginger hair didn't seem very intimidating in the waterfall it was in, no piece even slightly wavy, dead straight. The freckles all over her body were prominent and so plentiful that if I were to take the juice of one of the peaches in her bag and connect them, she would be entirely covered in the sticky substance. Her eyes weren't like Kahlo's. They weren't piercing or harsh like his, they were soft and welcoming, and the green coupled with the shade of her hair so deliciously that I almost lost my breath. Instead I smiled. With a shift of her long limbs she was sitting, and I followed. Celia opened the bag, the contents spilling out onto the towel under us. In her hand she held one and her eyes asked me if I wanted it. A polite smile, reaching out. Abruptly, she grazed the skin of the fruit along my lips. My hand stopped moving and my mouth opened for her to push it in between my teeth. She did. I grabbed it from my mouth after sinking my teeth into it and whilst I chewed the mouthful, I couldn't help but wonder if the skin of Kahlo's shoulder or of Celia's inner thigh would feel the same on my lips as the peach had.

I must have been making a face.

"I take it the fruit is good?" She herself was happily eating away at one. "The best I've ever had."

Was that too obvious? Am I being weird?

"You mustn't be from here, I've never seen you before," she stated. Clearing my throat, I explained. "I'm not. I'm staying with my mother for the summer and truthfully, this is my first time here. I've never been anywhere like it." Celia's eyebrows raised in curiosity. "Who's your mother?" I muttered the name, doubtful that she would know it. "May? She's my next door neighbor! She's still quite new here." That was my queue to explain about the beach house. "I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Sure, I'm at the beach right now, but it isn't the same. A part of me just wants to go home." Celia listened closely and nodded her head as I talked. It was silent for a short time before she opened her mouth to break the silence. "I think this place is better than a silly old beach house. You sound pretty isolated there, and 5 weeks with nothing but your mum, the beach and nail polish? How boring!" My eyebrows instantly threaded together. Had the universe given her that saying? Or had she used it her whole life, had we been connected by how boring all this time?

"I know. I'll show you the beauty of this place, I'll show you all the places no one sees, we can do things that no one else thinks to do. I'll help you enjoy it. I'll show you that this place truly is better than that beach house." Quiet, I stayed. I was going over her offer, taking it apart, trying to decipher it. She hit my shoulder playfully. "I think you've breathed too much city air." I giggled in response to the harmless jab at my hesitance. "I have not!" I threw at her. "Let go, loosen up, explore somewhere new. You've never been to a place like this, I know, but I'll be here. You won't fall. I promise I'll catch you."

The waves crashed and the others cheered in moments of amusement from their place in the ocean. The seagulls seemed less like they were calling, and more like they were laughing at the way my heart beat picked up when Celia said this to me. Even more so when her thumb swiped away the stream of juice dripping down my chin. And if it was possible, even more still, especially when my cheeks caught fire and I hurriedly looked away at the sight of Celia cleaning the juice from her thumb with her tongue.