Paint My Skies Black, I Never Wanna See The Sun Again

“So where are we going?” Matt asked from the backseat.

“I told you, it’s a surprise.” I told him for the umpteenth time in the span of ten minutes.

“Don’t mind Matt,” Rian said to me. He was sitting in the passenger seat because he got ready the quickest.

While we were waiting in the car he said, “Such pretty boys; they have to squeeze themselves into one of their many pairs of women’s jeans, then straighten their hair and make sure they don’t break a nail.”

“Hey, girl, hey!” Alex said coming out of the house and smacking Rian on the back of the head as he climbed into the backseat.

Rian continued, “Just because he’s the tour manager, he has problems relinquishing control over knowing where we’re going or not.”

“And I’m guessing you guys don’t really care?”

“Well, we never know where we are half the time anyways, so we figure, as long as there’s food-“

“And booze.” Jack cut in.

“-and booze, we don’t care.”

“You guys are so deep.” I remarked sarcastically.

____________________________________________________________________

“Sweet! A beach!” Jack screeched as soon as the water came in view. There was no turning the volume down on that boy.

“You never told us there was a beach around here.” Zack said looking more awake than he was five minutes ago.

“You never asked.”

“Good point.”

“We don’t have any of our stuff though.” Rian pointed out sadly.

“I didn’t graduate just based on my looks you know.” I said flippantly and obviously joking, “I’ve got the stuff in the trunk.”

“You got the stuff?”

“I got the stuff.”

We unloaded the car that I had packed late last night. A cooler, bags, umbrellas, towels – the usual – and set up on the sand.

_________________________________________________________________

“There’s a reason why people tell you to put sunscreen on, Alex.” I said trying not to laugh as he grimaced from my touch. I was in the process of rubbing aloe on his back.

“And there’s also a reason why people usually wake people when they fall asleep on a beach.” He responded scrunching up his nose.

“Well, you just looked so peaceful.” Cue the smile.

He rolled his eyes at me and smirked.

“Worse than that, I’m only burnt on my back so I look like a fool.”

“Don’t worry, you always look like a fool to me.” Jack said patting his back.

“Ow! Thanks.” He grumbled.

“Where’s Zack?” Rian asked.

“I don’t know.” Jack scanned the beach, “maybe he’s still surfing.”

“You think it’s just a reason to take his shirt off?” Matt suggested.

All three boys looked at each other simultaneously and nodded, “Probably.”

Matt turned to Jack and Rian “Let’s look for him. It’s getting late anyways, I think we should begin packing up; right Sunny?”

“Sure.” I replied giving him the reins for now. They ran off towards the water and I started to put things in the trunk.

Without a word, Alex began helping me. I looked at the expression on his face; thoughtful. He definitely had something on his mind.

“Sunny,”

I knew it!

“Are we okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you forgave me, but...I just wanted to know, before we leave, that everything is alright between us. I fucked up big time at the party, and I’m so sorry that you walked in when you did,”

A lance of pain shot through my heart thinking about that night. I was still trying to permanently delete it from my memory, but it was a part of me that I couldn’t just erase. It was that very night that I realized my feelings for him, and I didn’t want to forget that.

“But on the other hand,” he continued not noticing me having an internal conversation with myself, “I’m glad you walked in when you did, or else I don’t know if I’d have snapped out of it and kept, um, going.” He said the last part softly, and looked at me gauging my reaction.

“Likewise.” I said simply.

I didn’t even notice when I ended up in his arms, because the action felt so natural, so normal to us. Like to magnets, inseparable for the moment. That’s what Alex and I were; magnets.

So completely drawn to each other, it was crazy that I denied that attraction in the beginning. But just like magnets, if one was flipped around, they were repelled. Forcing the other to move away.

I was afraid of that analogy, because it so easily described us.

He pulled away, and looked at me. Like, really looked at me. Then I saw the decision in his eyes, giving me only a moment to take a breath. He leaned in and softly brushed his lips against mine. He tasted of saltwater and lemonade. He smelled like the aloe and the sun.

Fireworks erupted, flames spread like wildfire and I couldn’t help myself. My fingers tangled in his hair, his hands cupped the back of my neck, holding me close to him, fused together so that we were no longer to separate beings as much as a single solitary unit.

It was like an inevitable explosion of passion. I hadn’t known how long I’d been waiting to kiss him like this, but I knew that it was long enough, which was why I was surprised when he was the first one to break the lip lock.

And it was one heck of a lip lock.

“Sunny,” he sighed my name. I was so disoriented, “I really wish we weren’t leaving tomorrow.” He said with a sad look in his eyes.

That’s when I remembered as well.

They were leaving.