Where the Wind Takes Us

Exam week comes and goes relatively quickly, for which I’m thankful for. English I know I’ve done alright in, since Colton and I had stayed up late on Skype a few nights ago to go over character analyses for the report we have to write. I make a point to thank Colton later for that, since they really helped me out heaps. Philosophy was honestly a mind fuck, and Maths I struggled a little but I think I’ve done enough to pass. Well. I hope I have. My Studio Art and Photography folios I stayed up almost every night to finish them, but I’ve finally handed them in and sent them off to their respective universities as well. I’ll find out in a week or two if my folio is good enough to warrant an interview with each university, but I won’t find out if I’ve gotten accepted until January.

It occurs to me while opening a piece of paper fallen on the ground that holy shit, I’m graduating in a week’s time. I stop what I’m doing immediately and send a text to the one person I know will be sharing the same feelings about this with me.

HOLY FUCK WE’RE GRADUATING IN A WEEK

I FUCKING KNOW I’LL BE AT YOUR HOUSE IN FIVE

ALSO I’M HUNGRY BRING FOOD PLS

I laugh. I grab the note that I was about to read and tuck it into the front of my shorts. My parents aren’t home at the moment as they’ve gone out shopping, so I leave a note on the counter that says ‘gone out with G’ and grab two icy poles from the freezer. Just as I walk out my front door, Georgia’s there with Barbs.

“What’s Colton doing tonight?” I ask her, sliding into the front seat of his car. “As in, why do you have his car and not yours?”

“I’m out of fuel and I was with Colton and Mick at the park when it occurred to me that holy fuck, we’re graduating and the boys were cool about it but I knew there would be only one person that would be freaking out on the same level as me,” Georgia says all in one breath. “So I told Colton I’d come to pick you up but I don’t feel like hanging out with them right now.”

“Good,” I tell her. “Because I have another idea in mind.”

Georgia’s eyebrows perk up. “Is it what I think it is?”

I smile. “Yeah.”



The plan was to go swimming in Georgia’s pool, but her parents are home and there’s no way we want to go swimming when they’re there. So instead, we drive about half an hour out of the way to the nearest beach. We’ve arrived at a time where the sunset’s just passed, so we have an hour or two to enjoy the weather before it gets a little chilly. Once Georgia parks Barbs, our first instinct is to race each other to the pier like we’ve done so many times before and almost immediately, strip off our clothes.

We’ve done this before. Skinny dipping, I mean. It’s something of a tradition of ours, ever since the first time in ninth grade when we finished for the year and I was having some self-esteem issues. She took me to the pier, explained that I was “hot as fuck” and said that when it came to our bodies, there was nothing we should ever be ashamed or embarrassed about. Then she proceeded to strip down and show me that her left boob was significantly bigger than her right boob. The thing about Georgia was that she was so unashamed of her body, and the fact that she didn’t even mind showing me her boobs, (I was blushing the whole time, but Georgia was just like, ‘whatever’ about it), showed me that girls as gorgeous as Georgia had their own insecurities and that I didn’t need to be insecure about my own body. Like, whatever I was going through, other people were going through that same shit too. There’s nothing more terrifying than shedding down to no clothes, but at least I was with someone who loved me for who I was, and best of all, didn’t care that I had pudgy thighs or whatever.

There’s something so freeing about being in the water and being comfortable in your own skin and for that, I have Georgia to thank forever. She’s probably the most awesome friend anyone could ever ask for.

With a loud squeal, Georgia and I run off the pier, landing in the water with a deep splash. I push my hair out of my eyes as I come up for air. Once we get in the water, G and I don’t really do anything. The water is deep enough that we can swim around by ourselves for a while, not going too far and always staying in each other’s sights. Neither of us are very good swimmers, so we don’t go out too far. After some time has passed, we swim back to the pier and dry off for a moment, before putting our clothes back on. They’re damp on our skin, but living in such a hot climate means that we’ll probably get warm in a half hour or so. We end up sitting on the pier, dangling our legs over the edge.

I know Georgia is being quiet on purpose because she’s waiting for me to talk about Josh, and as soon as I open my mouth, it all comes spilling out. How I worked on the portfolio with him last week and how I ran out on him, how I haven’t seen him since then and when I have, it’s been briefly at school as we’re completing our exams. We haven’t had a real conversation and it sucks.

“The worst part is, is that he accused me of being in love with Mick and I had no response. I practically led him to believe that I still love him! And I don’t. I swear to God G, I have no feelings for Mick anymore.” I sigh. “I really, really like Josh, and it sucks that I’ve pretty much shot myself in the foot to ever try to explain to him that when he saw me kiss Mick on the cheek, it was pure friendliness.”

“So you’re gonna give up? Just like that?” Georgia asks.

“What else can I do? He doesn’t want to talk to me anymore.”

“You can show up at his house and demand to talk to him,” Georgia suggests. “And then you can tell him what you just told me.”

I ponder on her words and decide that she’s right. Though I’m not sure on whether I can just show up at his house. Would that be an intrusion? Would Brad and Judy be down for it? Would-

“Nat.” Georgia nudges my shoulder. “Stop thinking. I can see the frown lines messin’ up your forehead.”

“Ha ha,” I say sarcastically, but I know she’s right. “Let’s go. Before I change my mind.”

We get up to go when Georgia stops in her tracks and bends down to pick something up from the ground. “What’s this?” She asks. It’s that piece of paper I was reading earlier. It must have fallen out of my pocket.

I open up the paper and realise it’s from Josh. “Josh wrote me a letter.” It’s coming back to me. He wrote me a letter on my birthday and I didn’t read it then and it completely slipped my mind until now.

“Read it!” G urges, and I take the time to read it out loud.

“Hey Nat. Just a quick little note to say happy birthday and that I hope you have a wonderful birthday. I’m sure you had a great birthday because we kissed and as you’ve found out, I’m an excellent kisser.” I laugh. He knew we were going to kiss before he wrote the note. That’s super cute. “Even though we’ve only been friendly for a month, I feel like I’ve known you for ages and I think that’s cool that you can have that effect on me. I’m really happy that I’ve been able to get to know you this past month. Thanks for being my friend and probably my future girlfriend too. We’ll see how the rest of the night goes. Love, Josh.”

“Girlfriend?” Georgia wiggles her eyebrows at me. “How do you feel about that?”

I can’t help but grin, but that fades when I remember what’s recently transpired between us. “It’s sweet that he wanted me to be his girlfriend, but what if he’s changed his mind now?”

Georgia grabs my arm and pulls me to the direction of the parking lot. “Only one way to find out,” she declares.



We spend a forty minute car ride singing at the top of our lungs, windows down and losing our voice in the process. We stop briefly at Colton’s, returning his car in what we hope is in a stealthy manner, but Colton’s waiting at the end of the driveway with his arms crossed.

“You left me and Mick stranded at the park,” he tells Georgia. I sense that he’s pretty annoyed, so I climb into Georgia’s car (she parked her car there and then joined Mick and Colton in Barbs to the park) and wait for her in the passenger seat. Fortunately, I can hear everything.

“Sorry,” Georgia says sweetly, leaning up to kiss him. He accepts the kiss and you can tell that he still seems on edge judging by his stance, but I can see his shoulders drop from being tense. “Nat and I had our holy shit we’re freaking out from graduating moment so we went to go be ‘yolo’ and shit.”

Colton laughs. “I’ll forgive you if you don’t ever say yolo again.”

“Agreed.” Georgia giggles and kisses him again. I look away politely and return to rereading the letter that’s folded tightly in my hand.

When Georgia gets into her car, we drive silently another ten minutes until she pulls up in front of Josh’s house.

“You’re still thinking about that letter, aren’t you?” She asks quietly.

“It’s all I’ve thought about,” I reply honestly. A moment of silence passes until I decide that it’s time to confront Josh, even if it is past midnight and I’ll probably wake him up. I get out of the car and close the car door quietly.

“Hey,” Georgia starts. I turn around. “You should take him to the Laundromat.” When I look at her, confused, she goes on. “I know that place is important to you. When you explain that to him, he’ll feel special and shit. It’ll win you some points.”

I smile. “That’s a really good idea. Thanks, G.”

She smiles back at me. “Good luck.”

I know she’s not going to drive off until I knock on Josh’s door, so I walk up his driveway and knock on the door, not wanting to ring his bell. It occurs to me that I probably should have texted him instead of possibly waking up his whole family, but oh well.

After a moment or two, I hear someone from behind his door and when it opens, I’m happy to see who it is.

“Hey,” I tell Josh, who’s looking both sleepy and perplexed. It is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, but I need to focus on the mission at hand if I’m going to get anywhere. “Let’s go for a walk.”