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“There’s a hiking trail that has a great view of the ocean at the top. We can watch the sunset together.”
“Sounds romantic.”
This time Beckett was the one chugging water.
They cleaned up and washed their dishes. Before they left, Beckett pulled a hoodie over his head. It was dark red with their university logo embroidered on the breast, the words BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE underneath it.
Right. It would get cooler when the sun was down, but Miles hadn’t brought any outerwear. Oh well. It’d be fine. It didn’t matter that they were right near the ocean, where gusts of salty wind would slam into them, or that they were about to hike up a mountain, where the air would be colder.
Wait—they were going to hike! That was exercise, and exercise would definitely warm him up.
Once again, they set down the dirt road, weaving through the camping area. They continued down a path that cut between trees and weeds and passed over the same bridge they’d jumped off hours earlier. On the other side of Tidal River, the trail suddenly tilted upwards. After a few minutes, the thicket of trees to their left cleared, giving them a view of the campsite. It looked like a spiderweb with several roads interconnecting with each other.
About fifteen minutes later, they got another view, but this time it was of the beach. There were a few people walking on the sand, looking as tiny as ants.
As they walked, the sky turned from blue to an orange-tinged purple. The path suddenly became steeper, and as Miles walked, his feet knocked over tiny pebbles that rolled down. Sometimes he’d have to take large steps from rock to rock or clutch onto a tree trunk while taking a particularly sharp turn.
At the top of the trail were several large gray rocks that poked out the edge of the mountain. The smallest were the size of cars, but the largest one looked like it could fit Miles’s entire studio apartment inside it. There were already a few people there, sitting down and murmuring amongst themselves.
Beckett led Miles past them, and Miles peeked over the edge. Below, there were more rocks with smooth surfaces and thousands of trees. If he fell off, it wasn’t certain he’d die—there was a chance he might land nicely and roll to a stop on one of the stones. Still, he didn’t want to take his chances.
“Beckett,” he warned, voice higher than usual.
“It’s okay,” Beckett promised.
A step at a time, Miles followed Beckett, and then they sat down facing the ocean. Miles exhaled a deep breath and glanced at the people behind them. Most were couples, huddling together and holding hands, though there were some groups of three and four. All of them were wearing jackets or jumpers.
Miles shivered.
“The view’s pretty, isn’t it?” Beckett said.
Miles followed Beckett’s gaze. The sun was directly in front of them, glowing orange. It had lowered considerably but hadn’t yet touched the ocean. The waves below it looked like they were catching flame.
“Very,” Miles said.
He was joking before when he said that watching the sunset sounded romantic, but now that he was here, he could see how this was the perfect place for a kiss. Beckett should bring his girlfriend here.
Except Beckett didn’t have a girlfriend. In the entire time Miles had known him, he’d never had a girlfriend.
Miles shouldn’t be presumptuous—maybe Beckett simply didn’t like girls. But he’d never had a boyfriend either. He’d never had anyone. He never told the group about a crush or someone he asked out or even a hookup.
Whenever the six of them were hanging out together and the conversation turned to sex (which, thanks to Callum, happened quite frequently), Beckett’s mouth would clamp shut. It wasn’t that out of the ordinary—Beckett was a quiet person by nature, more of a listener than a talker. But Miles noticed.
Back in first year, Miles tried to broach the subject. He’d start by talking about some hot chick in one of his classes and wait for Beckett to contribute, to say, oh yeah there’s someone I like too. Beckett never did, simply feigning mild interest: oh, that’s cool, she sounds nice.
Another time, they were having a movie night, and Miles commented that the lead actor was hot. Beckett responded by asking Miles if he could pass the popcorn.
Then there was that time when they were still living together. Beckett had walked into Miles’s room one morning and found him naked in bed with a girl from the Biomedical Science Student Society. They hadn’t been doing anything—Miles had just woken up, and the girl was still asleep, but Beckett had recoiled and walked out. For the rest of that day, he avoided Miles. It was weird.
Anyway, after first year, Miles stopped bringing up sex and dating in front of Beckett. Maybe he’d solve the mystery eventually, maybe he never would. Privately, though, he did have a few theories.
Maybe Beckett was religious and disapproved of casual premarital sex. That theory was quickly discarded—Beckett explicitly said he wasn’t religious and had been raised in an agnostic family. He never expressed disapproval of Callum’s promiscuity or when Wesley invited pretty guys from the business department over for extremely long study sessions. With his bedroom door locked. And instructions not to be interrupted under any circumstances.
Now, Miles chuckled to himself. Those study sessions would infuriate Addison to no end. He’d stomp around the kitchen and mutter about how business students were stupid.
“Something funny?” Beckett asked.
“Just a funny memory,” Miles explained. He met Beckett’s hazel eyes and thought about the other theories he had.
