Just Visiting

After the party my father sat in the den with some men, cigar smoke filled the room and brandy sat in their hands.
Avery and Abby were talking to some local girls, Annalise was debating the rebellion in Egypt with some random man I’ve never seen before, and Dill went to bed to work on some summer reading.
I found myself wandering down the marble front stairs onto the beach down below.
It was dark but the lights from the houses lit the beach up. The water crashed down and I walked to it’s edge, slipping off my high heels, letting the cold water hit my feet. I looked out at the moon, thinking of my mom.
A lot of pictures of her were always on the beach right below the house. I looked back up at the house, all the light warmed the beach and the house seemed full of laughter.
“Aren’t you cold?” a smooth voice came behind me.
I turned to see the boy from earlier, in his relaxed jeans, v-neck, and now a leather jacket.
“Na,” I said to him and he took a step toward me. I looked back at the moon.
“You know,” he started standing next to me, “Summer is starting when the moon hits the water right there,” he said as he pointed above the water.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yea, it’s been that way here my whole life,” he said and then I felt him looking at me. “I saw you earlier, on that terrace,” he said pointing to it.
“I am staying there for the summer,” I told him. “I haven’t been here since I was a little girl.”
“You’re not missing much.”
“I bet it’s nice, living near all of this,” I said gesturing to my surroundings. His icy eyes smiled warmly at me then looked sadly toward the ocean.
“It’s not everything you’d think,” he said.
We sat there in silence, two strangers, looking over at the water. I felt his body tense up next to me.
“ARIANNA!” I heard my name yelled from the house.
I looked back to see Abby calling my name and looking for me. I turned to him and smiled. He smiled back at me.
“I have to go,” I said getting up and leaving him there alone in the sand heading toward the beautiful house.

~*~
The next morning the sun woke me up, my hair stuck to my face and the night before came flooding back to my mind. Abby called me back home and my father was still in his den looking over paperwork and the boy from the beach, stuck clear in my mind. I looked over at my alarm clock. 9:50.
“Ar!” Annalise came in my room, “Can I borr- You’re not even up yet?” she said. Annalise’s blonde hair was down and she was in her waves, she had on board shorts and a bikini top over her non-existent A cup boobs.
I got out of bed immediately and headed for my dresser. I pulled out my bikini top for my over-existent boobs. I was a D-Cup for my tiny body.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “My alarm didn’t go off.”
She laughed, “Always a step behind. Where is your sunblock?” she asked.
“It’s in my bathroom cabinet,” I told her. She walked in there and came out.
“SPF 15? You’re a fish, Arianna,” She laughed before leaving.
I threw my bikini and a t-shirt on and put my bag together. I yanked my brush through my hair and piled it into a ponytail. I ran into the hallway right into Annalise.
“So, Abby and Avery went already since I waited for you and daddy is at some meeting,” she went on. “We can’t leave them there too long before they go missing.”
We walked through the house passing the people working and my father’s associates coming in and out before making our way onto the beach.
“Where are you guys?” Annalise said on her phone. “They’re supposedly waving at us,” she whispered to me. I looked around until I saw a bunch of guys kicking a soccer ball. Behind them, I saw my slender sister Avery raising her arms at us in a black monokini. Abby was talking to one muscular guy in her red bikini with her big floppy hat and red lipstick.
“There they are,” I pointed and we made our way over to them. For the beginning of June the sand was hot and the beach wasn’t too packed because of it being a private beach town.
“Heeeeey!” Avery said as she sat down in one of the beach chairs.
“Hi,” Annalise said looking at the guys around her. “Who are these guys?” she asked.
“Townies,” Avery said like it was no big deal.
Avery’s long skinny legs glistened in the sun and she sipped on her drink in her red cup.
“Ar, you look like you’re half asleep,” Abby said coming behind me. I realized that I was the only one standing and dressed. I smiled and took my t-shirt off and sat in one of the beach chairs. My sisters and I leaned into each other and stared at the guys playing soccer.
“Do you see the abs on that one?” Avery said.
“Look at his ass,” Abby said.
“I wonder what their GPA’s are,” Annalise said and the twins looked at her like she was insane.
After about ten minutes, I found myself walking toward the ocean. A little girl with brown hair was playing in the wet sand with a bucket, totally amused by the infinite amount of sand the beach held for her. Her mother was capturing every minute of it on her phone. I couldn’t help but smile at it.
“Beach girl,” I heard the same voice I heard last night. I turned to see the same boy with the dark brown hair. Now he was in a relaxed bathing suit, his tanned muscles were exposed, and he had Ray Bans on.
“Hi,” I said to him.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he said coming closer to me.
I laughed a little and put my arms around my stomach. “Yea it really is,” I said sarcastically.
“I never got your name,” he said to me.
“Arianna, my name is Arianna,” I told him.
“I’m-” he got interrupted.
“LIAM!” I heard my sister, Abby’s voice sing through the air.
He turned to look at her and his face lit up. My sister skipped over and held onto his arm.
“Hi Abby,” he said. “Do you know Ar-” he started.
“Arianna, I didn’t know that you and Liam are friends,” she said in a creepy high pitched voice.
“You two know each other?” he asked looking back and forth between us.
“She’s my sister,” I told him.
He looked at us again and and his mouth made an “o” shape.
Abby’s eyes widened and her head cocked back toward the chairs slightly. She was signalling for me to go back there. Abby was the type of girl that would do anything to get that guy. She even said at her graduation how she wants a hook up for the summer and she won’t stop at anything to get her final fling. The one thing my father didn’t know that she wasn’t a virgin, and hasn’t been since she was fourteen. She even flirted with some of his privates, hooked up with a few last year.
I took the hint and started to walk away.
“I’ll see you around Arianna,” Liam called after me.
I made my way back to the chairs where Annalise was reading.
“He’s cute,” she looked up from her book.
“He’s Abby’s,” I told her.
She looked over at me and arched her eyebrow, “Then why couldn’t he keep his eyes off of you?”