Dark Eyed Dreamers

The post-graduation Excitement had worn off and reality was settling in. We’d been so comfortable with our lives together just the seven of us that change was never to be expected. I had so many plans for this summer. I was finally going to tell Jack about the feelings I’d had for him for the past three years. We were going to spend two weeks at the beach. We were going to have the best summer ever.

The little timer we had set went off and Mikayla glanced at me with a look of sheer horror.

“This is it.” my sister said.

“I-I can’t do it. Will you, Rae?” Mikayla asked.

What could I do? She was my best friend who needed my help. I wasn’t about to deny her.

I slowly walked to the counter where the little plastic wand of doom was laying. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My heart raced as my eyes opened to see the bright pink plus sign standing out on the plain white plastic. I picked it up and stared at it. I turned around, and looked up at my two best friends. Braelyn was sitting there, looking up at me with nervous eyes, and Mikayla with her head in her hands.

“Its positive, isn’t it?” she asked, her voice muffled by her palms, “It is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I-it is”

Mikayla broke down. She sobbed and sobbed, while I tried my best to fight my own tears, hugging her tightly as she drenched my favourite hoodie.

“Well I guess we should probably get you to a doctor, I mean, those things are wrong all the time. It could be a false alarm.” Brae said.

Two weeks and one doctors visit passed. The at-home test wasn’t a false alarm, like Braelyn had suggested. Mikayla made us swear not to tell anyone until she was ready. I couldn’t blame her, but keeping such a huge secret from the guys? It wasn’t Brae’s nor my secret to tell, though.

---

“Fuck you, Jordan. Fuck you Jordan, you make me sick.” my phone blared as Braelyn and I sat watching episodes of The OC.

“ ‘Ello?” I answered.

“Hey, uh, it’s Alex. Can we- Do you want to go to the beach?”

“Sure. When?”
“Now.”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you by the ice cream shop?”

“Okay.” with that he hung up.

“Who’s that?” Brae asked, not taking her attention off of the television.

“Alex. Ooh! This is my favourite part!”

“Hey! Maybe I don’t feel like shuckin’ these, okay? Maybe you should go and shuck ‘em yourself, old man!” Adam Brody’s character yelled.

I erupted in hysterical laughter, while Brae just smirked.

“Well I’m heading over to the beach. Alex seemed weird, he wants me to meet him.” I slipped on some flip-flops and headed

“Kay. Zack’s coming over soon.”

“Okay, in that case I’ll be gone for quite a while.” I yelled from the front door before slamming it behind me.

The walk to the beach was nice. The sun was warm, but not too hot. I was content in what I was wearing.

I saw Alex sitting on the bench by the ice cream shop as I approached it. He looked incredibly spacey, and as I plopped down next to him, he didn’t even look up from where his eyes were fixated on the boardwalk.

“Hey,” I said nudging him, “What’s going on?”

“You like Jack, don’t you?” he said quietly.

“What?” I said, taken aback by his bluntness.

“You like Jack. God, I can’t believe this. Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have made those plans, I would’ve saved myself a lot of trouble.”

“Alex, what are you talking about? What trouble?”
“I-I,” he sighed, “I booked a hotel up in Cape Cod for just us. I wanted to take you up there for a week and ask you to be my girlfriend, but you- you like Jack. I can’t believe I even thought-” he nearly shouted.

“Stop. Alex. Please. Yeah. I liked Jack, I liked him a lot, but some things came up and I’m not so sure how I feel anymore.”

I couldn’t believe he did that. He made plans for us for us. Alex never had a plan for anything.

“Really? I-I’m sorry for exploding like that. I just really, really like you, and I want to make you happy. When I found out about Jack I freaked out. I’m sorry.” he said, finally looking me straight in the eye.

“Its okay, I understand,” I said. We sat there for a minute before I said, “Come on, lets do something.” I grabbed his hand and headed down the boardwalk stairs onto the sand and to the water. The rest of the day I couldn’t stop thinking about what he said.

He liked me.