Message in a Bottle

Chapter Five:
Everyday I would go up the lighthouse that overlooked Cape Hatteras, searching for a sign of anything bobbing in the water or washed up on shore. I did find some bottles but just bottles from a couple kids from school who had a party the night before. Every time I would search the beach desperately I would ask myself why I was acting like such a love-struck moron. This wasn’t like me at all to go looking for love… or was it? Was this the old Morgan breaking through? The girl I’ve been hiding away for so long? I was yet to find out….
“Don’t give up, Morgan,” Emily pleaded as we sat on the deck in my backyard. The skies were nearly clear, the sun shining down, the waves were crashing down on the beach heavily, and the ocean breeze was tossing our hair around while we snacked on a bowl of grapes. “It’s only been two weeks. I’m pretty sure he already read the message and he’s sending out one right now to you.”
“Look at it this way, Emily. It took nine years for him to even get my message and reply to it. What does that tell you?” I plopped a grape into my mouth
“That tells me that you’re giving up because your impatient. Let the ocean do what it does best.”
“And that is?”
“I don’t know but it sounded cool when I thought it up in my head.”
“Just let it go, Emily,” I moaned. “That little two week romance between Morgan Clarke of Cape Hatteras and Carter Richards of Boston is over. Embrace that fact. Marinate in it. Absorb it into your head. That purple bottle will never, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever get to him, okay?” I retorted. “Romance and love is stupid anyways. I don’t even know why I ever believed it in the first place,” I grumbled.
Then Emily’s jaw dropped open with a pop, her facial expression in complete awe.
“What is it?” I asked, turning away from her to face the ocean.
Her arms slowly raised and her finger pointed out toward the beach where a couple of seagulls were beginning to land around the shore of the beach and pecking at something in the sand. Through a little crack in the seagulls legs I saw a white glass bottle.
“I’m sure it’s just another washed up piece of junk,” I said indifferently.
Emily jumped up from the chair and ran down to the beach, her flip flops falling off her feet and her thick caramel brown hair flying behind her. She got down to the water and ran straight through the birds, shooing them away. She picked up the bottle and peered into it.
“Oh my gosh!” Emily screamed. “Morgan, come over here. I think this is it! I think it’s from Carter!”
And the next thing I knew, I found myself running toward her as fast as my legs could bring me. She held out the bottle and I took it from her, scratching at the tightly screwed on cap anxiously.
“Here, give me this,” she said, taking it from my hands and unscrewing it with ease.
I took the bottle back from her and sat on a white log, turning the bottle upside as the message slipped out.
“What does it say? What does it say?!” Emily squealed.
I unrolled the scroll, skimming over the paper. “It’s from him! It really is!” I cried with pure joy.
“Read it for crying out loud!”
“Dear Morgan Clarke of Cape Hatteras,” I began, smiling at the opening line. “I was exceptionally elated when I found your message and it would be rude of me to not reply. I want to cut this message short because I’ve got some good news…. Well, if you think of me coming to North Carolina as good news then that’s great. But to make this seem less stalker-ish, I’m visiting my grandparents in Farmville, not too far from Cape Hatteras in three weeks…. And I was wondering that if it’s possible that we can hopefully, probably, maybe meet up and hang out? Meet me at the Cape Hatteras lighthouse on May twenty-eight. Your friend, Carter Richards of Boston. P.S. I’m not a creep-o. I promise. Aw, and he even put a smiley face at the end!” I crooned.
“Is that all you can really think about?” Emily asked, annoyed. “Hello, he’s coming to North Carolina! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?!”
I shrugged my shoulders. Emily pushed me and I laughed. “Of course that means something to me!” I cried. “I’m so excited! May twenty-eight is in four days!” I sighed and smiled. “I’ve never felt this way in so long, Emily. I really do hope this Carter Richards is something special. And I also hope he’s around my age.”
“Well, he’s not an old man, that’s for sure. He said he’s visiting his grandparents.”
“Might be his dead grandparents,” I laughed.
“What do you want to do to get ready for him? Go shopping? Get your hair done? Pedi? Mani? What?!”
“Surprisingly, I am in the mood to update my wardrobe and do something different to my hair. Carter Richards is definitely going to bring out the old Morgan.”
“And I love him for that,” Emily smiled. She took my hand and we ran back to the house for a little shopping trip.