Prove It

Chapter XLII

"It's so hot," Sofia whines, fanning herself with Jon's baseball cap.

"It's only 67 degrees outside," Mindy replies.

It may only be 67 degrees outside, but for Connecticut to be that temperature nearly a week after March is brutal for us. The sun is bright in the sky, and clouds are at a minimal, making it great for the first beach day of the year, but also a tough time to stay laying out for a long time.

"We should all go in the water," C.J says leaning down and lifting Mindy into his arms. She thrashes against his hold, squealing in protest.

"No, put me down! You're not putting me in that water!" she yells at him. We all laugh as he runs her down to the water, easily fighting off her struggles. I notice Jon also has a mischiveous look on his face, and apparently so does Sofia from the threatening look on her face when he comes up to her side.

"What is wrong with her, she doesn't know how to swim!" Georgia says with a shake of her head.

"She's fine," Jon responds from behind me.

C.J continues to swing her in his arms a few times near the edge of the ocean to mess with her, but I notice something's wrong when he sets her to the ground and crouches down with her.

In a panic we all run up to them to find Mindy in a full blown panic attack.

"Baby breathe, in through the nose, out through the mouth," C.J instructs her pleadingly. He has his left hand cupping her face, and his right hand moving slowly up and down her back as she struggles to suck in a breath.

"I can't it's not working!" she cries. There are tears streaming down her face, and I back up, not wanting to make her even more overwhelmed.

"Slow baby, please. In and out, in and out," he repeats over and over again, looking up at us with a questioning look I didn't know how to respond to. I knew she doesn't know how to swim, but she's never reacted this way before.

Mindy finally regains her breathing, gasping in gulps of air when she begins to relax again. Once she's fully okay again, she stands up and pushes C.J away from her, storming back up to her chair up on the sand.

"What the hell C.J you know she can't swim!" Georgia goes up to him and points a finger aggressively at him.

"It's shallow, she's usually fine here," he defends himself, but still looking distraught and guilty as he watches after his girlfriend.

"Well she usually isn't thrown into the water by another person," Georgia snaps. "And you know her cousin almost drowned in a bathtub, so the shallow water doesn't really matter."

He rubs his face with both hands and contines to stare after her. "She just left the gates. I'm gonna go see where she's going," he says and begins to run up the sand after her.

"I never knew her cousin almost drowned," Sofia says.

"Yeah, about two years ago he fell asleep and almost drowned himself."

Marcus comes up beside me and puts his arm around my shoulder. "So I'm guessing we're not going in today?" he asks. I elbow him for the comment.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to get a tan today," Sofia announces. She heads back up to the towels and we follow.

"Good luck tanning in the middle of April," Georiga calls to her.

"Shut up bitch, your face burns in the winter," she fires back behind her.

Sofia turns around and sits on the towel, straightening it lengthwise to fit her body. "If you can burn in February, I can tan in April."

She straightens out the towel one last time and lays back to crisp herself until we go back home.

I lay down on my towel, finally in peace to soak up some of the sun myself, but not before slathering myself in sunblock.

I don't care that I don't burn, I don't care that my parents don't burn, I still put on sunblock.

Marcus lays down beside me, but he's on his front while my face is up towards the sun.

"You know I would've put sunscreen on your back for you," he whispers and I slap his arm. I glare up at him through my sunglasses when he chuckles from my reaction.

"So how are things with Holden?" he asks and that's when my glare fades and I frown.

"I'm sorry, my parents they, don't want me talking to anyone about that anymore," I confess, hoping he doesn't take offense to it.

"Oh, that's alright, I just want to make sure you're alright," he explains and I wave my hand.

"I'm fine. Everything's going to be fine, you know?" A flashback from this morning came, his weekly/biweekly tantrum comes back into my thoughts but I shake it off.

"As long as you're okay, then that's fine. But if it gets too much tell your parents. I don't want you to start feeling anxious from keeping everything in."

He's too sweet. I want to kiss him but this place is a little too public for that. I'm not sure when I'm going to begin feeling alright with PDA, but I always start to entertain the idea when he's so irresistable like this.

What the hell.

I lean up to kiss him quickly on the lips. I don't even wait for him to kiss me back, but I don't really care. The urge was just too strong to not kiss him right then and there.

"Oh so kissing in public is allowed now?" he teases since usually I'm very adament about not showing that kind of affection in public.

"No I- I just couldn't help myself," I tell him and his grin grows bigger.

He leans down to kiss my shoulder, then my cheek and then my lips for more than a few seconds, but I can't bring myself to care. It feels too great to tell him to stop. I love his kisses. They make me feel all the good feelings.

When he pulls back he smirks above me and brushes his hair back out of his face.

"What was that for?" I ask.

"You were just so cute, I couldn't help myself," he echoes my words from earlier.

Mindy and C.J come back together from beyond the gate, and I'm relieved to see they're holding hands coming back down from the entrance. This would have been a hard day to get through with Mindy being upset with him. It's already a little awkward for both Aaron and Hannah to be here together.

The thought of the reason between the tension sends a heap of anxiety into my chest that I've been trying hard to push down. I cling to Marcus tighter when he takes ahold of my hand to kiss it. I look up at his beautiful face. I know the next time we're alone, I'm going to have to initiate the conversation no one wants to have.

I just pray he wants the same thing I do.