Summer Skin.

The house isn't small by any means. It's actually big, with slate gray siding, raised on those beach house stilts in case of hurricanes, and wide windows covered the front. It is just the beach in a nutshell.

As everyone piles out of the van, I look back at Mia and Jack, hands clasped, stumbling over bags and shoes and fast food cartons. Jack looks up, to get a bearing probably, and I catch his eye. Eric is still pulling my arm forward, so I'm doing an awkward side-step. I nod my head towards the beach, Jack smiles, I look at Eric and he nods. Before I turn to run, I see Jack whisper something in Mia's ear, then he lets go of her hand and joins us.

My flip-flops slip on the gravel and I almost fall, but both Jack and Eric reach out to me, pulling me along. The rest of the guys don't yell out to us, most likely they are just standing behind us shaking their heads. The house is right on the beach, so we make it to the walkway to the sand in ten seconds. I take the stairs with Eric, while Jack scales it, then makes a dash down the runway and ultimately jumps over the furthest barrier, landing in the sand. Eric and I sprint towards him. I pull my flip-flops off before hitting the sand, which I'm sure is hot, but I'm just going too fast and thinking of anything but it to notice. The sky is cloudy, and I hope we have our first beach thunderstorm of the trip on the first night.

I'm out of breath, pulling my feet out of the loose deep sand, until I get to the packed in, wet sand. Soon the frothy water is lapping at my ankles, but I keep going. Jack has already jumped in, having shed is shirt back by the deck. Eric is right on my heels.

He tackles me into an oncoming wave and I go under so I don't get killed. The water feels so good.

"The water feels so good." Always on the same wave-length, I swear. Jack yells this from in front of us as he pushes the wet strands of his hair out of his tan face. Eric circles his arms around my waist.

"It's weird how familiar it is," he says, looking up at the sky, resting his chin of my head while I try to fix my soaked shirt. "You know? Like we've been coming here every year since 4th grade, us three, and it feels like home."

I look back to see the rest of everyone coming down the path to the sand.

I just sigh. "I was so great when it was just us. No drama. Just swimming from the minute we got up until the minute our moms called us in for dinner."

Jack, Eric, and I have been best friends since as long as I can remember and had been coming to the Cape together since at least 4th grade. Ever since the first time we came we've been running straight out of the car when we got here and getting in the water in all of our clothes. It's just tradition. Eric's parents own the house we always stay at, and now that we've graduated our parents all thought it'd be OK if we came down alone this year. But it just didn't feel the same.

"If feels strange not having our moms watching us, reading, or telling us to come put more sunscreen on or not to go too far out," Jack starts getting out of the water, wringing his shorts with his hands.

As Mia and all of the others get closer we get out, too, our wet feet picking up sand.

"What was all that about?" Mia asks Jack as he hugs her, getting her all wet and she squeals.

"Ahh, nothing. We do it every year," he answers.

"Some things never change, I guess," Eric says as he leads us back up to the house to get unpacked and ready for the rest of the summer.