By The Seaside

The next morning, Camille stood motionless on the same spot she had met Aidan the night before. The spot she had no idea he had been staring at from his bedroom window after she left. She wanted to see him, to ask him why Jayden acted that way towards him. She wanted Aidan to be the one telling her about his life and not Jay nor anyone else.

Before going to bed, she explained the party’s events to Leilani and Melanie, who warned her about Aidan. Apparently the boy really did have a bad reputation and people didn’t seem to like him at all. Cam didn’t let Lei tell her what he had done to get this reputation, she wanted Aidan to tell her himself. Obviously there was a reason for why he acted the way he did, and she wanted him to be the one to tell her, because she knew there was something more behind his forest green eyes. She wanted to help him be better, while he helped her be worse. She didn’t really know why she wanted that, but she knew it was something she needed to do.

Camille had decided to start doing what she felt like doing and not what she had to do. But she needed help, and she knew that Aidan was the person who could help her let go. She needed someone reckless to be the one helping her, someone who didn’t care what others thought, and that was him. She didn’t expect him to accept to be her friend or even something more, but she hoped he would.

Cam looked up at the house in front of her from the sand. She had walked through the beach to his house, since she couldn’t ask Jay to take her there. Jayden didn’t even know she had gone out. They hadn’t talked since the fight. Cam had asked Mel and Lei for the directions from the beach, and, a bit hesitant, they had gave them to her. Camille thought she would know what to do once she got there, but, now that she was standing in front of Aidan’s house, Cam had no clue of what to do.

She sighed deeply and turned around, gazing at the infinite ocean that lay a few feet away. It was dancing softly for her. The soft waves moved with rhythm as Camille stared in awe at their magnificence. She had always loved the ocean. Every time she entered its deep blue waters, all her worries and problems would wash away and be replaced by calmness and peace. Cam watched the ocean with admiration. She couldn’t understand how something so powerful and strong could also be gentle and comforting.

She loved the smell of the water too. Its saltiness and the scent that traveled with the wind brought to her the vague remembrance of the long summer trips she used to take with her family to the beach when she was younger, when her uncle was still alive. The first summer after her uncle’s passing, the trip to the beach was replaced for helping her cousins pack up and move to Hope Beach.

Camille took off her sandals and started undressing. Her white v-neck shirt and jean shorts fell on top of her shoes, revealing the white bikini she was wearing underneath. She let her hair down, and the wind made it dance to the same rhythm as the waves that crashed on the shore.

Slowly, Cam made her way towards the ocean yearning its comfort and protection. She wanted all her worries to disappear at least for a few minutes. She desired peace and tranquility. Camille wanted to be emptied of problems and filled with the serenity of the sea.

When her toes finally touched the cold, salty water, a small smile formed across her face. She ventured into the water patiently, letting the waves roam her body as they welcomed her to calmness and peacefulness.

Camille closed her eyes and floated on the sea. She felt as if she was lying on a fluffy cloud up in heaven. Nothing could bother her now that Cam was free of the noise her own thoughts created on her head. Everything would work out. She decided to let things unfold by themselves.

Cam let her mind wondered, not controlling the thoughts that crossed her mind. She knew that the thoughts would be good ones filled with the tranquility and protection the ocean waters transferred to her body. Oddly enough, the only thought that ran through her head was an image taken from a memory captured by her grey-blue eyes. The face of a boy around her age with a scar that ran across his left eyebrow. His mesmerizing green eyes looked at her.

Aidan walked the beach with a cigarette between his lips, inhaling the smoke that calmed him easily. He had to face Jayden someday about what had happened the night before with Camille, and that made him nervous. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Jay, but the involvement of Cam in the fight got him thinking.

After having seen them kissing, Jayden had gotten really angry at Aidan. He actually didn’t care much if Jay hated him, but he was worried that Jay had done something to Cam after taking her away. The rage that Aidan had seen coming out of Jayden had been bigger than ever, and the thought of that rage being directed towards Camille worried him and filled him with nerves.

He wasn’t sure why he was so worried about a girl he barely knew, but he just was.
Aidan thought about her most of the lonely walk. Her long blonde hair dancing in the cold wind of the night emitted a sweet smell that reminded him of strawberries. Her bluish-grey eyes reminded him of the infinite sky above him that morning. Her lips and their taste reminded him of the sweets he used to eat when he was a kid without worries. Her smile reminded him of care, of hope, of friendship, of affection, of all the things he wanted and needed but pretended he didn’t.

Then a unique thought ran through his mind. A thought he and no one else would ever believed could cross his mind. It was the thought of being in an actual relationship with the blonde he met less than twenty four hours before. He discard the though quickly, believing it had been funny to even think of him doing such an action. He had never had a girlfriend, and he didn’t want one, or so he tried to convince himself.

Sure, Aidan had had many women in his life during his first two and a half years of high school, but they were just for pleasure. The girls didn’t mind being used by him, since most of them actually threw themselves at Aidan and he just enjoyed what he was offered. They were all sluts in his eyes, and he was a man-whore, but if it gave him pleasure there was no reason to object.

It was pretty obvious that Aidan loved women. He loved touching them, kissing them. He loved their bodies, the curves that formed their sexy figures. He loved that they tangled their finger in his hair, that they dug their long nails into his back and shoulders while having sex, that they moaned his name over and over again. He loved being pleasured by them, and he knew they were pleasured by him. Aidan loved women, but he had never loved a woman.

That’s why Camille would never be with him. He was a man of many girls, and it would be ridiculous to think that a girl as beautiful as her would believe a guy like him would actually be worth her time. She deserved to be loved, and he wasn’t capable of giving her something he barely knew about and many times doubted its existence. And, if it actually existed, he wouldn’t be able to offer it to her since commitment was a small fear he had always avoided.

Yes, she had kissed him, but he was sure she knew by now what had occurred to him and where he ended up during the last semester of school. With that knowledge no respectable girl would dare even talk to him. All she had felt the night before had been physical attraction and nothing else, he was sure of it.

Without ever realizing it, Aidan had turned around and began walking back towards his house. He became aware of this when he saw three figures near his home he didn’t want to ever see again, they were easy to recognize, but what really caught his eye was that there was a fourth person with them. His heart almost stopped when he realized who it was. Camille. And she was wearing nothing but a white bikini. He started to quicken his pace. This wasn’t going to be good.