Pocrescophobia

The next day, with the plan still fresh in my mind and a smile fresh on my face, I head to the beach. Oh, this is going to be so fun. I can already see the stupid look on Cyan’s face. Upon arrival, I notice that both Lauren and Cyan are already here, chatting happily against Cyan’s car. With a slight smirk, I slowly make my way over to the two friends.

“Hey, guys,” I greet lazily. They both respond in their own ways, and we start to walk over to an empty spot. Well, one of them. There’s not really a lot of people here, most likely because it’s been forecasted that it’s gonna rain today, and there are clouds hanging precariously over our heads, turning slightly darker as time passes. But going to the beach while it’s raining is actually surprisingly fun.

I mean, come on, you’re wet anyway from the ocean. What’s a little more water? Plus it’s really fun throwing the muddied sand at each other. Plus just the fact of nearly having the beach to ourselves is great enough. And once the rain starts, these last few will clear out. Speaking of leaving, I wonder when Cyan will make his predetermined escape.

And right at that moment, as Lauren and I sit down, Cyan looks at his phone and makes a total bullshit excuse about how he has to go, but Lauren and I should still hang out. With a sneaky look to each other, we start to protest.

“I don’t know, Cyan, it just won’t be the same without you here. I think I’m just gonna go home,” she says innocently, winking at me quickly. “Yeah, me too,” I tell him, loving the horrified look on his face.

“No, no, you guys, it’s cool really. I think you should just go ahead and hang out. Come on,” he pleads slightly. It’s taking everything inside me not to laugh. “Nah, I think I’m gonna head out,” I start, walking back to the car for a minute until he stops me.

“Come on, guys, just stay!” he begs. “Why are you so set on us staying here, Cyan?” Lauren asks, cocking an eyebrow cutely. “I-I’m not, I just thought it’d be a good chance for you to, y’know, get to know each other better and stuff.” Lauren gives out a little sigh, crossing her arms.

“Fine, Cyan, we’ll stay, just so you won’t have a heart attack,” she tells him, sighing dramatically. I can see Cyan visibly relax. “Okay, cool. So, I’ll just leave you to it!” he says happily before trotting off to the car. But he won’t be gone for long before he’ll be hiding somewhere and we can start our plan.

As the car finally pulls out of sight, Lauren and I burst into a fit of laughter, nearly falling to the ground. “Oh my god, that was so funny,” I choke out, holding my sides. “Imagine what his face would look like if we actually left,” I laugh, wiping a tear from my eye and forcing myself to calm down in attempts to have a real conversation before Cyan comes back.

Finally, we both calm down enough to be able to talk normally, so we sit next to each other peacefully, basking in the little sun that we’ll have until it rains. “Our first date,” I remind her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. We’ve wanted to go out for a while, but didn’t want to risk Cyan finding out. Lauren giggles, leaning into my side. “I know,” she replies serenely. So we sit there for a good ten minutes, making slow conversation until we finally hear a few small noises in the background that reveal the fact that Cyan is back and we’re ready to start the show.

“So, what do you want to do?” I ask Lauren. She shrugs. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t really know if I feel like it anymore. I might just head home,” she replies. We strain our ears to hear a small groaning noise within a close proximity. Great. That bit was just for confirmation that it was him. It would suck if we’d started and Cyan hadn’t even showed up yet.

“Nah, come on, it’ll be fun. Just stay for a little while,” I insist. “I don’t know…” she replies. “Lauren,” I counter, giving her a pointed look. “Ugh, fine. I’ll stay.”

“Word.” And with that, she takes off her shirt and shorts, revealing a damn nice swim suit. Man, I wish I could’ve pulled that shit off when I was a girl. Then again, no I don’t. But now I’m stuck with swim trunks and a t shirt. But I feel comfortable in it. So I just take off my shoes, pushing my toes in the sand and reveling in the feeling of warmth on my feet.

But, as I predicted, soon, the warmth was gone and in its place were drops of rain falling from the sky, causing the last few remaining to finally leave. Hah, now the fun part can start. I love being at the beach when it’s raining. Not necessarily in the water, but still. So the next hour or so is spent with us just hanging out, slinging mud sand, and being stupid together. But still, we had to be careful not to get too close because of the lurking Cyan. But then finally, the time came near the end of the rainstorm. As the two of us were laughing about something stupid, I suddenly gave her the sneaky wink as a signal and began to lean in slowly. We got closer and closer and closer and closer until we’re almost touching lips and then suddenly, I stand up, looking angry.

“I cannot BELIEVE you just said, Lauren! I can’t believe that you’re that kind of person. I thought… I thought you were better than that,” I yell, looking down dejectedly at the end. “I’m leaving, Lauren. Never talk to me again!” And from the near distance, I can hear a body fall into the sand with a dull thud. “Noooooo,” I hear faintly, muffled by the sand surely in his mouth.

“Shae, wait!” she yells, standing up and staring pleadingly at me. “I’m sorry, Shae, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! Come back!” But I just turn around, stomping off in the direction of the car.

“Baby come back! You can blame it all on me!” she sings at me. I back around, shaking my head. Dramatically, I stare up at the falling raindrops and looks back at her. “It’s too late to apologize, it’s too laaaaaate,” I sing back. This is even funner than I expected. “I’ll admit I was about everything, cause I’m high and I don’t wanna come down!”

“Easy to brush off despite your mood, call me a liar, I’ll show you a fake!” She gasps deeply, staring into my eyes from the distance. “Take me back to your bed, I love you so much that it hurts my head!” she sings strongly. I stare at her for a few seconds before replying, “When I say let’s keep in touch, I really mean I wish that you’d grow up!” With her last effort, she sings, “Don’t go, I can’t do this on my own! I’m sorry, Shae, I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s okay, Lauren. I forgive you,” I tell her simply. “Oh, Shae!” she shouts, starting to run towards me. I run back towards her as slowly as I can. “Lauren!” “Shae!” And we continue shouting each other’s names and running stupidly until we finally meet in the middle and kiss. After a few seconds, I hear Cyan shout “finally” and I chuckle into Lauren’s mouth.

“Come out, Cy, we know you’re there!” Lauren shouts after we part. Slowly, he does as advised. “Really? You knew I was there? The whole time? Why didn’t you fucking say anything?!” he demands, starting to get worked up. Oh, this is gonna be good. “Oh, and that’s not all,” I smirk.

“What?” Cyan asks. “We knew everything since the beginning. I heard you talking outside of the room that one day and we decided to get together but wait to tell you to see what you’d do. It was worth it though,” I reply happily. After a minute of silence, Cyan completely pales and lunges forward, grabbing me by the collar of my shirt and pushing me down.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! This was all a fucking joke?! I’m going to fucking kill you guys! Do you know how much time and effort it took for me and Arden to finally come up with a plan good enough and then you just-argh! You know what, fuck you guys,” he growls, getting up and storming off.

“Ah, that was fun. Will he be pissed at us for long?” I ask. Lauren shakes her head. “Nah, he’s got a temper, but he’ll be fine by tomorrow. He’ll just be a little more bitchy until he cools down. I think by now, he’s just annoyed but mostly relieved that we’re together and shit.” I grin at her. “Cool.”

She smiles back at me. “Cool.”