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She rolled her eyes as I took off for the water, diving headfirst into the first wave that came my way. Some of the salty water made its way into my mouth, and I spat it out as I took a deep breath, shaking my hair back on my head and turning toward the beach. Kristen was standing, stretching and then turning to run toward me.
She hit the water and splashed, swimming toward me until she reached me and could dig her feet in the sand. I wrapped my arms around her, and we kissed in the sunlight, a wave crashing into our backs and nearly knocking us over.
“It’s so cold,” she shouted as our lips broke apart.
“It warms up after a minute,” I said. “Or we could go see what’s happening farther down the beach.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes.
“All right, come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”
We trudged out of the ocean, half swimming, half walking through the waves until we were back on the beach. We grabbed our towels and quickly patted down, the sun baking us and doing the rest of the job of drying us off and set off for the party side of the beach.
Just a half-mile down, there were so many people. So many people and so little clothing. And so much beer. Really terrible stuff.
“The guys would be mortified to see me drink any of this stuff,” I said as we passed by some of the revelers with open cans of cheap beer.
“Mortified or proud?” she asked. “You said yourself you’re a beer nerd. They poke at you about it, don’t they?”
“They do,” I admitted.
“Camden?” a voice from nearby said, and we both turned to see a shirtless guy with short, spiky brown hair and a big goofy grin approaching us.
“Oh, wow, Faison!” I said, offering a hand for a shake.
Faison completely bypassed that and ran in for a bro hug, and I could smell the copious amounts of beer that he had already consumed wafting like a shadow around him.
“Yo, dude,” he said, pleased as he could be and swaying ever so slightly. “What are you doing here?”
“Enjoying break,” I said, smiling. “Faison, this is Kristen. Kristen, Faison. He also goes to Slater.”
“Oh, hi,” Kristen said.
Faison did a little wave, and I could see he was trying to pinpoint why she looked so familiar. Then his expression changed as he gave up and turned back to me.
“Dude, this place is nuts. You should come party with me. Both of you. I have some friends back here who are good dudes. Come on,” he said.
“Where are you guys partying at?” I asked.
Faison turned and pointed a little way down the beach where a canopy was up, and several revelers were outside of it, dancing to the music that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Near them stood a keg and a cadre of people milled around it. Suddenly one person went upside down, and I laughed, turning back to Kristen.
“What do you say?” I asked.
She shrugged, her lips pursed together and pushed in on one side.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly.
I put one finger up to ask Faison for a second, and he nodded, backing up a step or two to give us space.
“Look, I won’t pressure you to do anything,” I said. “If you are really uncomfortable, we don’t have to go, and if we do go and you want to bail, we will bail. Okay? I just know that you have helped me by teaching me that I don’t have to stick around the house all the time and have everything be the same all the time. I should get out and see and do stuff. Have experiences. This is an experience.”
“This is certainly an experience,” she said, laughing a little.
“It is,” I agreed. “One I never got to have growing up. And at the end of the day, it’s not a make-or-break thing, right? It’s just something I always told myself that if I got a chance to do, I’d do. Go be young, you know? I just didn’t have the courage to go do it until I met you.”
“Really?” she asked. I nodded.
“I stuck to the ranch and the farm,” I said. “Now look at me. Shirtless on a beach. Drinking fruity cocktails and presumably bad beer and having a great time doing it. Because of you. So if you don’t want to do this stuff, I get it. But I’d like to, and I’d like you to be with me.”
