Meet Me Halfway

JR

Have you ever had that moment where you wake up forgetting where you are? Thinking you were somewhere else? That’s exactly what happened to me. I opened my eyes after I felt the sun stare down at me and saw the red bleeding through my eyelids. For a moment I was frantic; bolting straight up and searching around the room for something back home, something familiar from my room. It took me a moment to realize I was in California at Lauren’s beach house.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment, gripping the edge of it and slowly taking in deep breaths. I cupped my face into my hands and rubbed my eyes to wake myself up. So yesterday wasn’t a dream. I am really here spending a whole month in Long Beach with Aubrey. That is if either of us could survive a whole week together first. I stood up and yawned as I stretched my arms over my head, releasing some minor tension.

My phone started to buzz on the bedside end table. I walked up to it and saw Incoming Call Ashley Flores. I let out a slight groan before answering it.

“Hello?” I answered with a hint of drowsiness.

“Hey babe. Sorry for calling kinda early; I forgot about the time difference right when you picked up,” she said in an apologetic tone with a little chuckle at the end.

“Oh that’s okay, I just got up actually. So, how’s your family? How’s Florida?” I asked taking a seat back on the bed.

“It’s so lovely and warm here and it’s great to see this side of the family. How’s Long Beach? You doing anything fun today?” It was more of a question to assure herself that I wasn’t off with other girls; though I told her not to worry.

“Mmm, you know I’m not too sure. I’ll probably go work out, head to the beach and maybe visit my old speed skating coach,” I replied, thinking that plan actually sounded good to me.

“Sounds like a good day to me. Well, I’ll let you go. Love you. Bye,” she said waiting for me to end the conversation.

“All right. Talk to you later. Bye.” I could just imagine the frown that was plastered on her lips right now.

We had been together nine months and I still hadn’t told her “I love you.” Don’t get me wrong. I care about her and all, but I just haven’t felt like I’m ready to tell her those three words yet.

My head perked up a little from a delectable smell coming from downstairs. I put on a white T-shirt and headed for the stairs as my curiosity got the best of me. As I landed on the last step, I saw where the smell was coming from. In the kitchen was Aubrey, who was singing and dancing while cooking breakfast. I could feel the corner of my lips form a smile as I watched her sway her hips and pretend the spatula was a microphone.

I cleared my throat and saw her immediately stop, slowly turning her head around to look at me. “How long have you’ve been there?” she asked fearing I had watched her the whole time she’d been singing and dancing.

I laughed a little giving her an assuring smile. “I just walked in right now. I smelt what you were cooking and came to see what it was.”

She turned off the stove and turned around to face me. I smiled at her appearance, a tank top and boy boxers, both stained with flour and her hair pulled up into a messy bun. She noticed my staring and looked down at the floor a little embarrassed.

“Um…if you’re hungry, I kinda made too much food for myself. Do you want a plate?” she asked shyly.

I arched an eyebrow a bit shocked that she was actually offering me food she made and that she was being dare I say…kind. Our conversations usually didn’t go this way, but I wasn’t going to complain about it.

I shrugged my shoulders and nodded, walking towards her to grab a plate. “Thanks. Everything looks great,” I commented giving her a small smile.

She returned one back as she served us both and then made our way to the dining room. We sat across from each other, at first not saying a word, just sitting in silence eating our breakfast.

I hated the awkward silence, so I broke the ice. “This is delicious. I didn’t know you could cook,” I complimented before shoving a piece of pancake in my mouth.

She placed her hand over her mouth to speak during mid-chew. “Thanks,” she said muffled by the food in her mouth. She finally was able to swallow. “I don’t cook actually, I kinda winged it. But I’m glad you liked it, I think it turned out pretty good too.”

Well, despite the fact she doesn’t know how to cook, she winged it pretty damn good. When I saw we were both through, I picked up our plates and placed them in the dishwasher. I turned back to the dining room and saw Aubrey leaning in the doorway.

“Have you opened your letter yet?” I didn’t know what she was talking about at first, but then it clicked. I felt stupid for forgetting so soon that Lauren had left us a letter for each day this month.

I shook my head no. “Have you?”

She made the same head motion. “I was waiting to see if you had opened yours. I guess we should now don’t ya think?”

I nodded my head in agreement and we both headed upstairs to our bedrooms. My eyes roamed around the bedroom, searching for the box of letters that were delivered yesterday. I found the box on top of the tall dresser and reached up to grab it. As I sat on my bed, I set it aside and opened it. I took out the first letter that had June 1st written on it and carefully opened the letter.

Well hello there JR =)

I hope Aubrey wasn’t terribly rude yesterday, I know she has her moments with you, but it’ll pass, you’ll see. I’m really glad you decided to come to Long Beach, otherwise the hand cramps and thirty letters would be a waste! Haha just kidding. Anyways, today is officially your first day in Long Beach for the whole month! I remember the first time we met each other was on the first of June on the beach. Remember? Today would’ve been six years of knowing each other. So, in the spirit of friendship, I hope you’d go to the beach and meet some new friends. I’m sure you probably had other plans for today, so whenever you want, go out to the beach, enjoy the water, and meet new people. I bet it’ll be easy for you, you’re just an approachable guy with a killer smile =)

P.S. I worry about Aubrey, so if you two plan to hang out with different crowds, I’d like it if you both didn’t separate from each other. She tends to gravitate towards the wrong people.

Thanks and Love, Lauren

Today would’ve been six years of friendship; of course, I knew Aubrey for seven years too, but I wouldn’t call what we have a friendship, in fact I didn’t know what to call it.

I heard a small knock on my door and saw Aubrey walk in. “So, I was thinking of heading out to the beach in an hour, if you wanted to join me,” she offered with a small smile.

“Sounds like a plan,” I replied.

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We headed down the steps that led to the beach and finally landed on the warm, soft sand. The afternoon was scourging hot and I could already feel my skin burning from the heat emitting from the sun. We were both finally able to agree on a spot to leave our belongings.

“What are you doing?” I asked Aubrey as she laid out a beach towel and sat down on it.

She gave me one of her looks and removed the cover up that hid her bikini. “What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped back.

My eyes lingered on her body longer than I had planned them to, but as a guy, I couldn’t help myself. Despite her mean character, she was beautiful.

“I don’t know, that’s why I asked,” I replied after trailing my eyes back to her face.

She rolled her eyes at me and leaned back, putting her weight on her forearms. “I’m gonna tan. You have a problem with that?”

“Seriously? Come on, come skim boarding with me,” I said grabbing her wrist and pulling her up.

“JR let go! I’m not gonna go skim boarding with you,” she said pulling her wrist out of my grip.

I tilted my head to the side and shook it. “How are you gonna make any friends, if you’re just laying here soaking up the rays?”

She smirked, placing her sunglasses on and leaned back on her forearms. “Just watch. I’ll make friends this way, don’t you worry.” I shrugged my shoulders and gave up trying to get her out into the water.

I felt my feet sink into the wet sand as the tide crashed against my shins. I inhaled the sweet ocean breeze and looked out into the horizon. It was a great day to be out on the beach.

As I was about to lay my board on the water, I heard someone call my name, “JR!” I turned around and saw a girl around my age wave at me.

Not wanting to be rude, I smiled and waved back, thinking she probably recognized me from the Olympics. “Hi,” I answered back.

“Wow, you sure don’t change much do you?” she said.

I studied her face, trying to remember if I knew her from somewhere, but nothing came to mind. “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

“No, no, I should apologize, I didn’t even introduce myself. I’m Kelly. We went to Lakewood together. I sat next to you in calculus.”

I nodded my head. “Oh okay. Yeah sorry, I don’t remember many people from Lakewood. It was a while back, but now that you mention it, you look familiar.”

“I figured, but I see you’re with Aubrey Trigo now. Everyone figured you two would get together.”

I gasped at her statement and quickly shook my head. “Oh God no. We’re not together. We just came here for Lauren; it was a final wish from her. No. Me and Aubrey, never gonna happen, besides I already have a girlfriend,” I explained, hoping that cleared the air.

I saw her look pass me towards Aubrey. “That makes sense now.” I turned my head around to see what she was talking about.

So that’s how she makes friends while tanning. There she was chatting away with some guy who was straddling her back and rubbing tanning oil all over her bare back. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes.

“Anyways, I saw that you skim board and was wondering if you’d like to join my friends and me. We skim board too.”

“Yeah, I’d um…I’d like that a lot. Thanks.”

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After skim boarding on the beach and making new friends, I was able to get in a quick work out and visit my old speed skating coach. It was an enjoyable day in Long Beach, that is until Aubrey and I got back to the beach house to discuss further plans for the night.

“Well, I don’t wanna go to their stupid party. I didn’t even talk to them in high school,” she said after I told her about Kelly’s party.

“And I don’t wanna go to that guy’s party. You don’t even know him and he looks like…” I paused trying to think of a polite term to call him.

“Like what?”

“Like bad news. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to go anywhere near him.”

She furrowed her eyebrows together and stared at me with hatred in her eyes. “Why do you even have to come with me to his party anyways? You weren’t even invited.”

“Aubrey I already told you. I’m not letting you wander off with people who seem sketchy and if you won’t come with me to Kelly’s party and I won’t go with you to that dude’s party, then we just won’t go out tonight.”

“Oh my God, this is freakin’ stupid. We’re not together, so we don’t have to go with each other to party’s!” she yelled.

“I’m not doing this just for you. I’m doing it because Lauren asked me to.” She looked taken aback and on the verge of tears, but it finally shut her up.

“Where you going now?” I asked as she got up from the couch.

“To take a shower. What? Do you wanna follow me to the bathroom because it seems sketchy?” she said sarcastically.

“Aubrey…”

“Whatever. Just leave me alone.” She held up her hand to silence anything I was going to say.

I placed my face in my hands and ran my fingers through my hair. Lauren, what have you gotten us into?