Lovely

8. He was persistent in wanting to drown me

"Want to head to the beach in 5?"

Kahlo was standing in my doorway, leaning against the frame.

"Sure," I shot at him before getting up. I threw on my bikini and a T-shirt, slipped into the pair of sandals by my door and headed down the stairs. On the way down I grabbed the towel I had hung over the baluster to dry yesterday, and passed Delilah before I got out of the door. She must have realised what my towel meant. "Are you going to the beach?" She asked, a bunch of flowers laying in her arms where Theo normally was. The white petals and yellow centre complemented the blue shirt she was wearing. "Kahlo and I are going to go since we didn't this morning." She nodded in understanding. With a kiss on the cheek, she continued on her mission for a vase. "Have fun sweetie!"

"Thanks, Del!" I called as I made my way in the opposite direction. Kahlo was waiting by the bikes. Before he had the chance to make yet another joke about waiting on me, I blurted out "I swear it's only been 3 minutes!" He chuckled, grabbing the handle of the bike to stand it up for me. "Just get on this, you. We're wasting precious day light!" I tossed my towel into the basket hanging off the front of the bike, pecked Kahlo's cheek and took off down the driveway. Perhaps my kiss startled him, for I had ridden a fair way down the road before he caught up with me. Biting my lip, wind in his curls, rickety old bike. At that point I had grown a small love for biking. My mother's beach house only required 8 steps to reach the sand, but biking was much better. This way I could work for the reward, see the landscape, watch the tears that the wind caused gather in Kahlo's eyes and almost escape.

I wasn't desperate to get in the water. Neither was he. Instead of jumping onto the sand, I hopped onto his back. He carried me further down the shore, spinning randomly to get a yelp out of me. I clung onto him, scared he would drop me, but all the while knowing that he wouldn't dare. Maybe he knew that I wasn't desperate for water, I was desperate for skin. Maybe he knew this, maybe that was why he took his top off as soon as he threw his bike down. And then as I let my fingers explore his shoulders and dips between the muscles in his back, I wished I had taken my T-shirt off as well.

No sooner had we sat down, than heard a scream. Both of our heads lazily turned to see Celia, her white dress flapping around her legs, bolting towards us. Behind her was Ash with a half full drink bottle in his hands. We saw Ash flick the water bottle upwards, with the intention of hitting Celia with the water, and then we understood why she was running from him with such speed. "Help!" She yelled loudly, but only half meant. Kahlo chuckled, the movement of his stomach causing my head to bob up and down. I sat up because I couldn't see much from where my head had laid on his stomach. I also meant it as a weak gesture, intended to show Celia I acknowledged what she said but didn't care for it that much. She reached us and hid behind me. Her hands gripped my shoulders and she kneeled behind me. My body stiffened. Not only had I wished to distance myself from her, because I was uncomfortable with her power to break me apart so easily, but my body naturally reacted like that to her touch and her distance. With the very few breaths that I could take in I learnt that today she smelt more of rose than anything else.

Kahlo came to my rescue because by the murderous look on Ash's face I could tell that a barrier wouldn't stop him from attempting to dump the remaining contents on his friend. Kahlo jumped to his feet and wrestled the bottle out of his hands. He then proceeded to dump it on Ash, who yelled obscenities above Kahlo's manic laughter. The pair sobered up quickly, but that wasn't the end of the affair. Before I could comprehend what was happening, I had been picked up. Luckily I managed to rip my T-shirt off and discard it on the sand before Ash plunged into the ocean with me in his arms. Of course I had shrieked in surprise, but it turned into laughter when we surfaced and heard not only the two on the shore laughing but also Ash.

"I was enjoying the sun!" I pronounced. Ash simply laughed more and tried to grab me again. For another 10 minutes, I had to outswim him. He was persistent about wanting to drown me. Ash gave up eventually and we began to float together in harmony. "So....Kahlo," he started. "So....Celia," I counteracted. He got the point and didn't push it.

"Are you enjoying it here?"

I continued to stare up at the sky as I floated on the surface of the water. "Why does everyone want me to enjoy it so much?"

"Because it's a beautiful place," he said. "It's a given that we want visitors to see it's beauty."

I thought about my mum's villa, about baby Theo, about the sunlight that streamed into my room every morning, about the peaches I ate with Celia, about the cracked leather seat of the bike I rode, about the constant fragrance of rosemary. And I thought about how I didn't get any of that at the beach house.

"I am."

Satisfied, Ash returned his feet to the ground. He grabbed my hand and led me out of the water. We sauntered over to the others who were lying on their backs, looking up at the sky, just like we had been doing in the water. Ash squeezed my hand before letting go and finding a spot beside Kahlo. A few moments passed and he began to roll over Kahlo, sprinkling wet sand and water drops all over him. "Don't get me wet!" Kahlo yelled in protest. "I thought you wanted to swim."

"I didn't really. But you did, so I came with you."

I was throughly flustered.

"Now sit down, you weirdo."

The appropriate place to sit, and the place where everyone would expect me to sit, was beside Celia. There was an empty spot right in front of me, beside her. But I didn't sit there. If I did, it would be so easy for my eyes to sneak over to her dress and gape at the way it hugged her curves, I would see her skin in such definition and I would have time to fantasise about it, her body would be close to mine. I knew that she offered to be my friend, and I knew that I had silently taken that offer. Yet, I couldn't push myself. I vowed to stay as far away from her as I could.

I sat down on the spot, at everyone's feet.