Like No Other

I drove towards the shore still deeply engrossed in my thoughts. I found a parking place on the street and grabbed my purse slipping it over my shoulder. There were lots of people on the beach that day. Kids ran around, their parents watching their every move, making sure they didn’t get too deep in the water. Clusters of kids my age, some playing volleyball, using a torn net, others laid out, enjoying the sun’s rays. There were couples, some in the water, splashing each other playfully, some lying beside each other cuddling, whispering secrets in each other’s ears and laughing together.
I spotted Jack sitting a few feet away, Angie nowhere in sight. I walked over to him and set my bags down next to Angie’s.
“Where’s Ang?” I asked him looking around. Before he answered me, I spotted her. I took off my new shirt, laid it over our bags and ran out to the water where Angie was facing, away from the shore. I tackled her into the water. We went down together, laughing.
She got up quickly me still down, my knees touching the ocean floor. She jumped on top of me trying to dunk me under. I threw her skinny body off my back and ran out deeper into the water. She followed me. We kept splashing each other, and then she surprised me. In midst of the splashing we kept getting closer and closer to each other, so eventually she reached out and gave me a hug. I hugged her back hard.
“I miss you,” she said quietly into my ear. It felt like we were the only two on the beach. “I know I haven’t been the best sister to you, but I want to change that. Okay?”
I nodded into her shoulder. When we pulled back we saw Jack coming toward us. Angie and I took one look at each other, grinned mischievously, and ran toward him. Before he knew what was happening, we had tackled him down to the water. We stood above him high-fiving each other. He held both of his hands out to us laughing. We both grabbed a hand, but found ourselves right beside him in the water.
We wrestled around in the water for a couple more minutes, laughing and having fun. It felt so good to laugh again. We walked towards the sand, exhausted. When I got to our spot I collapsed on the purple beach towels. Angie and Jack followed hand-in-hand and took a seat next to me. I laid on my back my hands shielding the sun from my eyes.
“You guys want some ice cream?” Jack asked the two of us.
“Sure,” Angie and I replied at the same time.
He started to get up, but I jumped up offering to get it for him. He gave me some money and I took off toward the boardwalk where there were ice cream stands set up in front of some stores. I walked up to one that a Hispanic woman was running. I ordered three vanilla cones. We traded the ice cream and money. She thanked me in a strong Spanish accent and I returned it with a smile. I turned around and almost ran into a green shirt that said “My best friends are zombies”. It was Jeremy. I looked up at him, my stomach filling up with butterflies at being in his presence again.
“Woah,” he steadied me, “That would have been, what, the third time we’ve ran into each other?” he smiled.
“Yeah, I think so,” I agreed.
“If it happens a lot more, I’m going to think you’re doing it on purpose,” he winked at me.
I felt a coolness on my fingers and looked down to see the cones were already dripping from the blistering sun.
“Crap, I gotta get these to my sister.” I looked at him apologetically.
“Want me to help?” he offered, holding out his hand.
I passed him one of the cones I was juggling and we headed back over to Angie and Jack. They looked up, surprised to see me with Jeremy. I handed Jack and Angie theirs and turned to grab mine from Jeremy. I caught a trickle of ice cream trying to escape with my tongue.
“Who’s this?” Angie asked, looking at me with an odd expression on her face.
“Oh, this is Jeremy. He was just helping me bring these over here,” I said casually, trying to make no big deal about it. But from the look on my sister’s face, I knew she wanted a real explanation later. “We, uh, met at No Regrets last night. His band played there so, yeah..” I trailed off awkwardly.

“So what are you about to do?” Jack asked me, “Are you and Jeremy going to hang out?”
“Oh,” I was about to tell him no but Jeremy interrupted me.
“You want to?” he looked at me.
“Uh, sure,” I smiled back at him. I couldn’t help it. His smile was so contagious.
“Well, you kids have fun,” Jack said. I grabbed my bag tossing Angie’s keys back to her.
I started back towards the boardwalk but Jeremy pulled me in a different direction.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
“Just walk, don’t question me,” he flashed me a crooked smile.
“Fine,” I sighed dramatically.

We walked slowly, taking our time. I looked in the direction we were headed, trying to figure out where in the world this boy was taking me. There was a pier and a lighthouse. Not many options. Our hands brushed together. I looked up at him, smiling.

“What?” he asked me.
“I like your shirt.”
He looked down at it and laughed.
“I like your…” he looked down.

I just realized how bare I really was. I blushed slightly, self-conscious. I looked up at him to find him blushing too.
By that time, we had reached the pier. He walked ahead of me, climbing on top of one of the big black rocks under the pier. He patted the spot beside him, inviting me to join him. I laid my bag down in the sand, grabbing my shirt and laying it down so I wouldn’t cut myself on the rock. I sat down next to him.

“So, how do you like Bridgeport so far?” he asked me. I tried not to notice the fact that our knees were touching.
“It’s okay I guess. I met this really weird group last night though.” I said sarcastically, giving him a devilish grin.
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, there was this one guy in particular who gave me the creeps,” I said nudging him.

He just chuckled. He looked out at the waves. His eyes got that far-away look in them again.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked him softly.
“Everything,” he replied shrugging and shaking his head, as if to clear it of his thoughts.
“You know, you really shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,” I told him.

He just smiled at me. I shivered as the wind brought in a gust of cold air.

“Oh, you cold?” he asked, getting up and helping me down the massive rock. “Let’s go.” He nodded towards the light house a couple of yards away.
“Are we even allowed in there?” I said eyeing it hesitantly.
“Probably not, but who cares?” he shrugged. “Race ya?”

I jetted off in front of him, but he and his long legs didn’t take very long to catch up with me. As we got closer to the lighthouse I ran faster, speeding off only a few inches ahead of him. I touched the lighthouse first, laughing as he cursed and collapsed in the sand. I started over to him but he tripped me and I landed on top of him, still laughing.
Our laughter died down and we saw that we were face-to-face. So close our faces almost touched. I could smell his minty breath as it tickled my face. He lifted his hand and touched it gently to my face. I leaned my head into his wrist. We looked into each other’s eyes again, before I made myself get off of him.
I disappeared into the lighthouse, not bothering to wait on him to get up and follow. There were spiral steps which I ran up two at a time. I could hear his footsteps behind mine. When I made it to the top I was out of breath, but the view was worth it. You could see the whole beach and the city of Bridgeport from up there. He came up behind me, staring at the town. His hand slipped into mine in our own little world, as we watched the people down below us.
We stayed up in that lighthouse for a couple of hours, talking about anything and everything. He told me about his life here in Bridgeport. He grew up here and had known Travis, Marcus, and Drake practically his whole life. He talked through his awkward stages in middle school. The many girls he dated in high school. He had good stories.
I loved the one about him and this girl named Danielle, who he had finally worked up the nerve to ask out after a year of crushing on her. He had just turned 16 at the time and had received his license the week before. He asked his dad if he could borrow the car for the night, hoping to impress Danielle.
“She was pretty impressed, until I ran out of gas in the middle of the street,” he shook his head. “We had to push it a mile up the road to the gas station.”
“Oh my gosh, how did she react?” I asked him laughing, trying to picture this scene in my head.
“She wasn’t too happy. She went back and told everyone at school what had happened. The guys still tease me about it till this day,” he chuckled at the memory.
We were sitting on the floor at the very top of the lighthouse. It was dark and dusty in there and the boards didn’t look very sturdy around us, cracked and uneven.

“I still don’t know anything about you,” he said after a while.
“What’s there to tell? My life is pretty boring,” I replied.
“C’mon, there must be something,” he urged me.
“Well what do you want to know?”
“Everything, you’re sister, parents, anything about your life,” he smiled.

My heart skipped a beat. Why did he want to know? I wondered silently to myself.
I told him about Angie and our crazy relationship that finally felt like it was going to be right. I told him about my mom and dad, who I realized I missed quite a bit.
I even told him about Gabby and Mikey, not the part about them being dead because of me of course, but I told him how they were my best friends and shared with him memories of us, the Three Musketeers. I told him how this one time on Gabby’s sixteenth birthday, I stayed up all night with her, fixing this big cake, only to have Mikey come over and shove it both in our faces. It turned into this huge food fight with about thirty people in Gabby’s backyard. We laughed so hard that night, eating the cake off of each other. I smiled at the memory.
I told him how one year, Mikey’s date to the prom cancelled and I went with him. It was awkward around our parents but when we got there, we danced and danced all night. I missed them both so much.
Why? Why did I live? I started to think but I pushed back those all too familiar thoughts to the back of my mind.
“They’re lucky to have a friend like you,” he said smiling at me.

If only he knew what I could never tell him…