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“Go away, Heather,” Christine snapped, standing. “Just mind your own business.”

As she came closer to me, I didn’t smell any beer on her breath. She hadn’t had much then. Maybe none at all.

“I’m not going anywhere without you. Your dad will lose his mind if anything happens to you. So, I’m ending this party and taking you to him.”

She glared at me. “Who do you think you are? You don’t get to boss me around just because you’re sleeping with my dad.”

Her words were harsh, but I remembered what it was like to be a teenage girl. Angry at the world because you were scared of not fitting in or worried about college or crestfallen over the careless actions of boy.

I could see beyond Christine’s defensiveness. This was a girl that was trying to save face in front of four other teens. But I could tell she was uncomfortable with this situation.

If being mean to me helped her deal with that, I could take it. As long as she came with me.

I turned to the other teens, who were watching us like it was a soap opera playing out in real life.

“Do your parents know where you are?” I asked.

There was a pause before anyone spoke that was just a second too long.

“Yes,” the oldest one said.

“Yeah, I’m not buying that. And I doubt that any of your parents bought the alcohol either.

“I bought it. The legal drinking age is eighteen on the island.”

I glanced around at the others. “And you’re all eighteen?” None of them could hold my eyes. “That’s what I thought. And are you aware that Christine is only sixteen?”

Again, no eye contact.

“This section of beach belongs to the resort,” I said. I wasn’t sure if that was true, so I was putting my acting skills to the test. “So, Christine and I are going to leave, and then, I’m going to alert resort security that you’re here; a group of underage kids drinking on the beach and breaking glass bottles.”

That lit a fire under their asses, and it was funny to watch them gather their things in a rush. I stayed in place, watching until they were gone. The broken bottle pieces were still in the sand after the kids had left, so I promised myself I’d come back tomorrow during the day and collect them all to dispose of.

“Come on,” I said to Christine, somewhat surprised that she was still beside me instead of taking off with the others. “Let’s go to your dad’s bungalow.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, walking with her arms crossed over her chest and trying to stomp her feet, an effect that didn’t really land in the shifting sand. “It was so embarrassing.”

“Was it?” I shrugged. “Oh well. Why would I care what those random kids think? For that matter, why do you?”

She shot me a dirty look but said nothing.

“I get it. I used to care what everyone thought of me when I was your age too, but I wish I’d realized then what I know now.”

I paused, waiting. The quiet between us felt heavy, but I refused to break it.

“What?” she finally asked in a surly voice. “What do you know now?”

I bit back the urge to smile. “It really doesn’t matter what others think of you. The world is big, Christine. And it’s full of people. Billions of them, in fact. So, who gives a shit if four teenagers on a beach that you will probably never see again after this vacation like you or not? Why would you care to impress them when you can find other people in the world that will like you for who you really are? And not just those four. It applies to everyone. The kids you go to school with seem like such important people at your age, but I swear, if you don’t want to, you never have to see any of them again after graduation. You can meet new people. More accepting, more interesting, people. Defining yourself by what other’s think is pointless because their opinions should hold no weight for you.”

Christine was quiet when I stopped speaking, and I glanced over at her. She looked like she was thinking hard about something. I remembered what she looked like sitting on that rock with that boy so close.

“You know, you don’t ever have to hang out with someone that makes you uncomfortable.”

“I wasn’t uncomfortable,” she said quickly.

“Good. Because some guys can come on too strong and make you feel like you can’t set boundaries. But you always can.”

She looked out over the water, toward the sunset. “I… I didn’t know there would be boys there. The girl, Shelly, is the one that invited me. She just said some friends of hers were having a party. She didn’t tell me about the drinking either.”