My Real-life Love Story

My Real-life Love Story
From where I sat I had a perfect view of the whole area. The condos, with people relaxing on their patios. The lake, far away, with teenagers on the waterbikes and their parents in the canoes. A couple people rode by on bikes, coming back after a long day of exploring trails. Little kids splashed in the pool a couple feet away, wearing their lifejackets and water-wings, as their mothers, mostly all young and blonde, chatted in the deck chairs, trying to get even more tan than they already were, before the sun slipped down behind the mountain, and the chill of nighttime at Giants Ridge set in.
As I sat with my feet in the hot-tub, I remembered all of my years of coming here, all the fun times with my family and friends, all the mistakes made and lessons learned. I remembered the year there was a really bad storm and our condo flooded. I remembered the time my brother flipped a water-bike, with Shanen on it, and having to drag it back behind the other water-bike, against the current, throats sore from screaming for help. I remembered all our little traditions, like root-beer floats, baking cookies, and eating both as we watched Bruce Almighty. I thought about how this year would be different. My dad not here, my brother not here, Shanens brother not here, and her friend Morgan here instead.
As I sat there with my feet in the hot tub, I hoped that that year would be fun, filled with new memories. So far it had been pretty chill, but maybe some excitement would crop up. Who knew?
I looked up from my reminiscing and realized that all the young families had left, and that Shanen and Morgan had both fallen asleep on me, Morgan leaning against me with my laptop in her lap, Shanen with her head in my lap. It was late, and the pool would be closing soon. I moved to wake them up so that we could go back inside, but then someone walked into the pool area. A worker, closing it up.
I still remember that moment when I first saw him. He wore a Giants Ridge forest-green employee shirt, and a hat, pulled down low over his face. I saw he was not wearing shoes. He noticed us. His eyes took in Shanen and Morgan, asleep. And then he saw me. Our eyes locked. His were a deep, dark chocolate brown. We sat there frozen in time for what felt like a lifetime, but was probably only a couple seconds.
“Pool’s closing,” he said. All I could do was nod, I was so breathless. He was hot. I was still feeling the connection, the energy, I had felt when I looked into his eyes. I went to shake my friends awake, but was interrupted again.
“What’s your name?” I looked up to see him looking at me as he pulled the cover over the pool.
“Celena. Yours?” I asked, my voice steadier than I had expected it to be.
“Zach. Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I said with a smile.
“Long day?” he asked, gesturing to Shanen and Morgan, who were still sound asleep. I laughed.
“Yeah. Long day of doing absolutely nothing. It’s pretty boring around here.”
He laughed. “Yeah, for girls like you I suppose it would be.”
“Girls like us? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” he said with a smile. “Nothing at all.”
“No, tell me.”
“Uh, rich. Beautiful. You know, the type of girl who spends her summers in places like these where guys like me have to clean up after you,” he said as he reached in the hot-tub and pulled out the three towels we had soaked for no apparent reason.
I blushed lightly. “We were going to get those out.”
“Sure you were,” he said with a smile. “Your friend’s awake, by the way.”
He walked over to the dirty towel bin and wheeled it closer to the door.
I looked down and saw that Shanens eyes were open wide and staring at me.
“Who’s that?!” she whispered.
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered back. She nodded and sat up, then went over and woke up Morgan.
“Come on, Morgan, wake up, we’re going back to the condo.” Morgan sat up, rubbed her eyes, and glanced around. When she saw Zach, her jaw dropped.
“Who’s the hottie?” she whispered to Shanen. Shanen shrugged.
“I don’t even know yet. Come on, let’s go.” Morgan winked at me and they walked out, leaving me alone with him.
He came over and sat down by me. He was pretty tall. Even sitting, the top of my head only came up to his chin.
“Can’t you get in trouble for this?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he replied. “But it’s worth it.” I smiled up at him. He reached over and brushed a lock of hair out of my face, and even though I had just met him, it wasn’t weird at all. It felt totally natural.
We talked for hours. When we did have to leave the pool area, we walked down to the beach. We learned many things about each other. He had two little sisters, and his mom was a single parent. His dad left when he was ten, which was why he had to work to support the family. He didn’t mind being the man of the family, but because of it he didn’t have much time for friends. He had a dog named Spot, which his dad had gotten him when he left. He said he hated the dog because it reminded him of his dad so much, but he loved the dog because it had been there at that time when he needed a friend the most. He cried then, and I cried for him.
I think it was seeing this side of him, the sensitive side, that made me fall so hard, so fast. He was the first guy I had felt like this for, and I never wanted it to end.
At midnight, he got a text from his mom saying he had to go home. As we walked back towards Shanens condo, there was silence for the first time that night. So I asked him what was wrong.
He replied, “Nothings wrong. It’s just…”
“What? You can tell me.”
He looked me straight in the eye, and said, “I know we just met, but I feel this connection, this bond, and see this?” He lifted up our interlocked fingers. I nodded, a smile growing on my face.
He pulled me to him, and interlocked both of his hands with mine.
“I never want to let go,” he whispered in my ear. I smiled, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him, barely a peck.
Then I pulled myself away and walked in the door. I looked back once and saw him still standing there watching me, with a small smile on his lips.
When I got inside, I was tackled by two very giddy teenagers.
“Oh my gosh! Where have you been it’s been like three hours!” Shanen shouted.
“Please tell me you didn’t… You know… Do anything. I mean, yeah he’s hot, but you just met him, and I don’t want you to ruin your life yet, I mean, you’re only fourteen, so I think you should save that for later,” Morgan rambled.
I laughed. “Nope, just one kiss. Leave him wanting more, you know?” I said as I flipped onto the bed. They flopped down on either side of me, and I recounted every minute of what had happened. They laughed at all the right places, and said, “Aww!” and “How cute!” in all the right places.
When I finished we were all half asleep. Right before I drifted off, I heard Shanen say, “He sounds perfect.”
I smiled and said, “Yeah. He is.”
The next few days passed in a blur, hanging out with the girls all day, and occasionally running into Zach while he was working. When ever that happened we would sit and chat for a while, and sometimes we would help him with his work so he would be done faster. At night, all four of us would lay on the beach under the stars, talking about the future, and what we wanted to be. He admitted his dreams of being a family psychiatrist, to help kids put in the same position he had been in when his dad left.
I lived for those nights, those chances to learn more about him. I loved how he wasn’t like other guys, he wasn’t afraid to show how he really felt.
That night, we went down to the usual spot on the beach. But when we got there, it wasn’t exactly what we expected. Instead of just Zach, there were more kids our age. I counted about seven people. I caught Zach’s eye and gestured for him to come over.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He gave me that smile I went crazy about and pointed across the lake to the island. “We’re going out there. You coming?”
As if he even had to ask. “Love to.”
As we climbed into the boat, I had a brief moment of fear, which I always have whenever I step onto a boat or rollercoaster. It’s a fear I’ve had for my whole life. In the end I enjoy it, but while it’s happening I feel like I’m going to die. Shanen and Morgan knew that, and they held onto me as we went towards a seat in the back of the boat. Zach saw the look on my face and came over.
“You ok?” he asked. I could only nod.
“She’s afraid of boats and drowning,” Morgan said.
His eyes filled with sympathy, and he sat down and pulled me into his lap. He held me close, and immediately I felt safer, more secure.
As we sped along, the wind blowing through my hair, I noticed just how choppy the water was. I looked up and saw the dark clouds.
“Is it going to rain?” I asked, even though the answer was kind of obvious.
“Honey, I could’ve guessed that, and I’m the blond,” Shanen said. Everyone laughed.
“I’m just trying to say that it’s going to be raining while we’re on the island. We’re going to get wet.” I said.
“Who cares,” said a girl I didn’t know, and never did learn the name of.
I shrugged. “Alright, cool with me.” I still didn’t like the look of those clouds.
When we reached the island, we all got out of the boat, and immediately my fears cleared. The clouds didn’t seem as scary when I wasn’t bobbing in the middle of the lake, at the mercy of Poseidon.
We climbed up the hill, Zachs hand in mine. We reached the top, and looked out over the lake. The view was incredible. The waves were choppy, with whitecaps. The trees on the mainland were blowing in the wind, and in the distance, there was a flash of lightning. I looked up at the clouds to see which direction they were moving in. The lightning we had just seen was coming towards us. Fast.
Zachs hand dropped from mine as he went to talk to the guy who had driven the boat over here, Jason, I think. I heard them discussing something in a low tone. I walked over.
“It’d be dangerous to stay here,” Zach said. “And there’s no way any of these girls will agree to it.”
“Well it’d be even more dangerous not to. If we leave, any number of things could happen. We could drown, we could capsize, we could get hit by lightning. I’m not going out there, and I’m not giving the keys to my boat to anyone else,” Jason said. “The girls are going to have to tough it out.”
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Both boys turn to me.
“We didn’t know the storm was this bad. If we leave the island, we might not make it back. Zach says we should just go and try our hardest to make it back, but I say we stay here and wait it out,” Jason tells me.
“Well, let’s take a vote,” I suggest. The boys nod, so I call everyone over. The situation is explained, and I watch as fear coats every girls face, and all the guys put on false fronts of bravery.
“So we decided to vote on it,” Jason finished. “What do you guys think? Stay?” About three hands went up, including his. He sighed.
“Alright, we go, but if we die, no blaming me.”
We went back down to the boat, and just then the rain started, little drops at first, but soon it was a downpour. If it hadn’t been for Zachs hand in mine, I would’ve felt completely lost. We climbed into the boat, and got as low down as we could. Jason started it up, and we drove away.
“I can’t see a thing!” I heard Jason shout from the front. Thunder clapped around us, and lightning struck as the rain poured down in a solid sheet. I was soaked to the bone, wrapped up in Zachs arms, holding Shanens hand as she huddled up against us, Morgan next to her. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed. I hoped to make it out of this alive.
I felt the boat hit something. I screamed, I thought we were crashing.
“Relax, babe, it’s just the beach. Come on,” Zach said as he guided me out of the boat onto solid ground. Jason had run the boat onto the beach.
We ran as fast as we could back to our cars or condos. Then the sirens started. I almost fainted at the thought of being on the water during a tornado. I managed to get up the stairs and into the bathroom, where I changed out of my soaking wet clothes. I came out and saw that Zach had stayed to make sure I was ok before leaving to change.
I walked over and hugged him, getting my clothes wet again, but I could live with it.
“I’m so sorry. You could’ve died. We all could’ve,” he said to me.
“It’s ok. I shouldn’t have gone, I had a bad feeling from the start, I should’ve listened to it,” I said. I felt him shiver in my arms.
“You should go change, you could get hypothermia,” I said, smiling up at him.
He nodded, kissed me deeply, and walked out the door. That was the last time I ever saw him. After his mom heard what had happened, and how he had gone out in the storm even though he knew how dangerous thing to do, she grounded him and wouldn’t even let him work anymore. We left two days after that. Sure, we texted for a while afterwards, but it wasn’t the same. The connection was gone, we had grown apart.
He was my first love, and I will never forget him or our death-defying adventure. And I guess I did find adventure that year, even without the usual crew. The memories of last summer will never leave me, for as long as I live. Because no one ever forgets their first love, their first kiss, or their first brush with death.