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I rolled my eyes. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I really am sorry about cutting things short. Once I get things rolling, we can try this again. Scout’s honor.” Drew held up three fingers.
I shook my head. “Sure.” I chuckled.
“What are you going to do?” Drew sat down next to me.
“I don’t know.” I glanced over to Charlee’s trailer. “I’m not ready to go back home yet. Maybe I’ll buy my own Airstream,” I joked.
“Why don’t you just borrow mine?”
He said it like it was an obvious solution. “Really?”
“Yeah, man. I can leave it here with you, and I can meet up with you when I can.”
I seriously contemplated the offer. Charlee elicited feelings in me that I hadn’t felt since my high school days. She made me nervous and tongue-tied and electrified my whole body when she was near. Just thinking about her sent sparks flying. She was closed off, but I felt like we were starting to build a real connection. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had met her before. I wasn’t ready to leave.
I sat back in my chair and chugged the last of my water. “You know what? I think I’ll take you up on that. Thanks, man.”
“No problem, dude. This makes us square.” He held out his hand to shake and I gladly took it.
He was the closest I had to a best friend these days, so holding a grudge would hurt me more than him. When I gave up my surf career, it meant giving up my friends, too. They were trouble, except for maybe one, and I didn’t want to get sucked back into that world again.
The surf was crap today, so Drew and I hung out and played cards on the porch and ate pizza. I didn’t see Charlee the rest of the day, which was disappointing because I wanted to tell her I wasn’t leaving, after all, but I still didn’t have the nerve to knock on her door.
I stayed up and read after Drew crashed for the night. I barely fit on the pull-out couch, so taking over the bedroom was going to be a luxury I would relish in. Bored with my book, I leaned to the window and peeked out the blinds to see if Charlee’s light was still on and stalled on a figure at the shore. It could be anyone, but the pull I got in my stomach whenever she was near was telling me it was Charlee.
I jumped out of bed, threw a sweatshirt on, and slipped on a pair of sweats. I quietly snuck out of the trailer and strolled a little closer to confirm if it was her. From the side, I recognized the upsweep of her hair in a messy bun, her light skin under the glow of the moon, and the way she stood with her arms wrapped tightly around her body.
She was unmoving, staring out to the ocean, mesmerized by something. The gloom had receded by sunset, displaying the great expanse of stars that lit up the night sky, dancing as reflections in the water. It was easy to see why Charlee had stayed at the campground so long. There was a certain kind of magic here that I couldn’t quite explain.
I startled when she suddenly tore off her sweater, letting it drop to the sand, and rushed to the water, screaming at the top of her lungs. The sound of the ocean drowned her out somewhat, so I couldn’t hear what she was yelling, but the anguish was substantial, cracking my chest open and pulling me toward her, but I stopped myself. Looking around the dark trailers, I wondered if others would wake, but no lights turned on and nobody emerged. She was safe from prying eyes.
Except for mine.
It felt wrong to watch her, but I couldn’t look away. Shin-deep now, she kicked the break, and her body leaned into the screams that continued. It went on for several minutes until she collapsed on her knees, folding into herself. I wasn’t close enough to see much, but the way her body arched I knew she was sobbing. I wanted to scoop her up into my arms and carry her back to her trailer, but I was paralyzed with fear of how she would react. She barely started talking to me, so my sudden intimacy might be jarring to her. I didn’t even know if she considered me a friend, so I stayed in the shadows of the night, keeping my eyes glued on her as she sucked me into her devastation.
Charlee wasn’t just broken. She was fragmented, the pieces scattered along the beach like the washed-up seashells, parts of her pulled out with the current, others left behind, leaving no hope for her to be whole again.
Fearing she would see me, I stepped back deeper into the darkness. When she stood and turned toward me, my heart stuttered as I waited to see if I had been discovered. She took a few steps up the beach out of the water, wrapping her sweater around her body and crumpling back down on her knees into a tight ball. I couldn’t leave her this way, so I sucked in a courageous breath and strolled slowly down the beach toward her. She snapped her neck up, her eyes finding mine, at first accusatory, but then as she stood and walked toward me, they shifted to something different. More intense.Hungry.
The way she drank me in, lit a fire inside me.
Her pace quickened and I matched it, tiny pinpricks of excitement dotting my skin, coating me with my own hunger, and when we met, she slammed her lips on mine, wrapping one of her hands tightly around my neck, digging her nails into my skin.
I let out a deep sound of pleasure as our tongues danced and our bodies melted together. I wanted this. I wanted her.This moment had played out in my head in so many different scenarios, but the feeling that tightened my muscles and clouded my judgment had been absent. I hadn’t expected the intensity that rushed between us.
I gripped her tightly to me, pushing into her kiss with equal desperation, not wanting to come up for air, desperate for her to pull me under and show me the depths of her soul, to point out the punctured holes, so I could suck out the pain that was suffocating her life and patch them with kisses. It felt wrong letting this happen, considering her state of mind just moments ago, and the guilt had me pulling away, but she only dug her nails in deeper to keep me where I was, in the depths of her soul.
Her fingers climbed up the nape of my neck, intertwining with my hair, sparking more fires in my veins. I lifted her up and she responded in kind by wrapping her legs around my waist. I gripped my hand under her, pulling her in as tight as I could.
She would never be close enough.
Her lips parted from mine, giving us a moment to catch our breaths.
She rested her hands on my cheeks and studied me. “Come back to my trailer,” she said with resolve.
I nodded once and she kissed me deeply again before sliding off me and leading me up to her trailer, pulling me by the hand.
