Sunshiner

“I changed my mind,” Candace said glumly. She was standing at the edge of the dock, staring morosely into the water as it lapped at her feet. “The water looks cold. I don’t want to go swimming.”

But as she was saying this, I was swiftly and silently taking off my shirt, leaving me in just my swim shorts. I was thankful that I didn’t need to waste time taking my shoes off; I was always barefoot in the summer. “Do you have your cell phone on you?” I asked her.

I could see her frown even though she didn’t turn around to look at me. “No,” she answered.

“Good.”

And then I ran at her, grabbing her by the waist as I hurled both of us off of the edge of the dock and into the crispy water.

“Kasey Ray!” she screeched as she surfaced, pushing her tangled hair out of her eyes. “I hate you!” But I could barely hear her since I was laughing so hard. She splashed water in my face but that did nothing to stop my laughter.

“Aw, lighten up,” I chuckled and splashed her a bit in return. “It’s not that bad.”

“It’s freezing.”

“Cry about it,” I shrugged and let out another short laugh. I flicked my head to the side to get my way-too-long hair out of my eyes so I could get a better look at Candace. Fortunately for her she was wearing no makeup so none of it was ruined by the water. I had only seen her wearing makeup a few times, at the party at Devil’s as well as the first day of summer, but I liked it better if she wore none. I was more used to it, I guess, since she had grown up being such a tomboy. Besides (not that I would ever tell her this), she looked prettier without it. More natural. And it was unjust for her freckles to be hidden under an inch of foundation.

Most of the other girls in Dayton – for whatever reason – always loved to load on the eyeliner. I always wondered how hideous they would look if they ever went swimming with all of that makeup on, but then again they never went swimming that much at all. I guess they wanted to stay dry and pretty and everything, which I just found blatantly stupid because it was impossible to survive the heat of Dayton without the occasional dip in the Lake. Candace, on the other hand, was constantly swimming or doing “boy activities” that didn’t require looking dainty and lady-like.

She just sighed in response to my comment. “You could have given me a heads up, you know.”

“And ruin all the fun? I don’t think so,” I retorted, shaking my head. “At least I asked if you had your phone with you. I would feel bad if I got it wet and broke it.” Every single teenager at Dayton had lost a phone to the Lake, myself included. It was like an accidental tradition. When we spent so much time near the water or partying on islands or hanging out in boats, it was just inevitable.

“Well now my clothes are all wet!” she complained and then proceeded to take off her shirt and shorts, leaving herself in her familiar red-and-white striped bikini. She tossed her sopping wet clothes onto the dock so she could “let the damn things dry out in the sun,” as she had grumbled, which would “probably take three fucking hours.”

“Here, let me help you with that,” I said, smirking from ear to ear as I reached out and grabbed the string to her bikini. With a quick pull I had successfully untied the knot.

“You asshole!” she screamed and hastily used her hands to cover herself up. I had started laughing hysterically again, trying not to make it too obvious that I was definitely trying to catch a peek at her now completely-exposed breasts. The best part was that now she couldn’t splash me since her hands were preoccupied as a replacement bikini top.

“You are such a typical boy,” she seethed, rolling her eyes. “You’re perverted and rude and just plain annoying. And will you stop laughing! If I wasn’t using my hands for something else right now I’d totally punch you.” At that she began to wade through the water, towards the shore and away from me, ripples radiating off of her curves with each movement.

“Come on, you know I’m just messing around,” I said, careful not to make my voice sound too taunting otherwise she would become angrier. Before she could get too far away from me, I wrapped both of my arms around her waist and held her to me. She stiffened under my touch and I wasn’t sure whether I should take that as a good sign or a bad one.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured into her neck as the tip of my nose just barely grazed her skin. I looked down at her arms and pleasantly noticed that she had goose bumps. Ha. So my charm worked on her too, then. I was glad she was turned away from me because now I didn’t have to worry about hiding my triumphant grin.

“Let me go.” Her voice had lost all of the authority that it usually carried. Now it was weak and shaky. I absolutely loved the affect I had on her. And I was well aware of the fact that she was still very topless.

“You can go whenever you want,” I replied, my lips grazing her jaw line. To prove my point, I loosened my grip on her a bit. “But the question is, do you really want to?”

She made no movement; if anything, she may have leaned into me a little bit. Damn, I was good.

She tilted her face up towards mine so that our lips were barely touching. “Kasey…” she said in hardly a whisper, and that’s when I realized that she was about to kiss me.
She was about to kiss me.

Something was pounding violently in my chest and I realized it was my heart. With Candace so close to me, I wondered if she could feel it too. I secretly hoped not. I was always calm and collected when I was around girls, and just because Candace was different didn’t mean that I wanted her to know that.

Suddenly it seemed that the only thing I could look at were these small details of hers, as if my eyes couldn’t handle more than one tiny thing at a time. I noticed the roundness of her lips and the way that her eyes captured tiny flecks of sunlight. I noticed the golden freckles on her chest. The softness of her skin. The way the arc of her back fit so perfectly to my body.

I noticed everything and nothing at the same time. Every detail, every flaw, every perfection was right before my eyes and yet I couldn’t seem to grasp the impossible idea that all of it could belong to just one simple girl. But Candace couldn’t be this girl. She couldn’t be the only one that made my heart race out of the dozens of other girls that I had been with. Not my Candace. Not the friend, not the old-time enemy, not the tomboy. This wasn’t real.

But the sound of her voice made me realize that this was indeed real. Very real. “You know, I’ve been meaning to tell you something for a while now,” she went on in the same soft voice that made me tighten my grip around her waist and pull her into me.

“What?” I asked huskily, eager to hear whatever secret she had to tell me.

“Two things, actually,” she went on and her breath hit my face, smelling of the sweet blueberry pancakes we had just had for breakfast. “First of all, I’m not the sort of girl that you can just strip down and take advantage of. The charming smile and the sweet talking just aren’t going to work this time.”

Her tone had gone from sweet to sour in a millisecond and I had absolutely no time to react. If she was about to slap me – well, actually, Candace was more of the punching type, which was even worse for me – I wouldn’t have been able to move out of the way in time. I barely even had time to register the fact that I was being rejected. It was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, come on. Me? Rejected? By a sort-of-boy? When the fuck did God decide to hate me?

“Second of all,” she went on in an acidic voice and she tore herself away from me, “you’re not the type of boy I go for anyway. Valliant effort, though.”

She turned away from me to tie her bathing suit and then wasted no time to get out of the water. She grabbed her clothes and without looking back once she began to walk through the path in the woods, leaving me standing in the water with my mouth still hanging wide open.