The One Where...They Go to the Beach

"Sunshine in England? It's a bloody miracle!" That was the wakeup call I was given early one Saturday morning, courtesy of one Kier Kemp.

"Urgh!" I groaned into my pillow, trying to shield my eyes from the sunlight that was now streaming in through the window, thanks to Kier throwing open our curtains while waking up the whole block of flats with his exclamations. Why did he have to bother Drew and I in the morning? Surely he could just roll over and bug Laurence, or clamber out of bed and bounce on Luke? That said though, he's probably already woken Laurence up and Luke's generally an early riser anyway. Still though...

I was about to lift my head up and groan at the clearly caffeinated boy when Drew beat me to it.

"Really, Kemp? It's like, 10 in the morning! Go away!" He grumbled, frowning at Kier who was now trying to shake me awake enough that I would get out of bed.

"Come on, Shaneyyyyyyy!" he moaned exasperatedly, trying to pull me up by my arms so I was in a sitting position. Even though I let myself go dead weight he still managed to yank me up, damn my small frame!

"Since it's sunny, we're all going out!" he cheered, clambering onto the bed with us like a small child on Christmas morning.

I saw Drew lift his head up slightly in mild interest; man, he's so adorable in the morning with his bed hair going every which way!

"Oh God, who came up with this plan?" He asked cautiously, wiping a hand across his eyes before running his fingers through his ruffled hair.

"Me, of course!" He said, rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. This made both Drew and I listen a little more carefully. Kier coming up with plans was a scary thing.

"What is this plan?" I asked cautiously, genuinly interested now.

"Well, I thought since it's warm in England for once, we could go to the beach! We'll have to drive for a bit but it'll be fun!"

Actually, that wasn't a half bad idea! I turned to look at Drew, to see what he thought, when I saw him looking anxious.

"Yeah, sure" he agreed, though he didn't sound like he was sure. When Kier turned to me, I nodded. It actually sounded fun; why did Drew look unsure though? I would ask him when Kier left.

Thankfully, that didn't take long at all. He bounced off shortly after to go jump on Laurence until he made him coffee or something. Like the boy needed more caffeine!

While Drew and I started to get dressed, I took the opportunity to ask him why he seemed so down about Kier's plan, but the response I got was weak and vague. Still, he obviously didn't have a massive problem or he would have told me, or made an excuse not to come.

Why did he look uncertain though?

*****

It's safe to say that any car drive over thirty minutes long when you have a hyper Kier in the car, is enough to make you want to request a break just so you can take a minute outside without Kier talking about his favourite nail polishes or some shit, I don't know, I wasn't really listening. Laurence had his earphones in before we even set off, clever guy, wish I'd thought of that! Don’t get me wrong, I love Kier to pieces, but Laurence needed to make a point of either switching Kier’s coffee to decaffeinated or hiding all of the Kenco in the apartment.

As we finally pulled up at the car park reserved for beach users, I let out a sigh of relief; I could finally get out of the stuffy car! Damn our van and it's non-functioning air conditioner!

Once we'd laid down our towels on the sand and dropped our bag with sun cream and water bottles in, we all shed our t-shirts, leaving us in our swimming trunks. Luke, Laurence and Kier ran straight down to the water’s edge - not waiting to see who was following - and jumped straight into the water, laughing and screaming like children as they did. They didn't get that far out until they all had to stop trying to run in the water and start swimming; it was one of those beaches were the sea got deeper very quickly, meaning it was too deep for us to stand in even at twenty five metres out. I was about to run after them when I saw that the scared and anxious look had returned to Drew's face. Immediately, any thoughts of running into the water vanished and were replaced by concern for my timid. What was wrong?

"Drew, there's definitely something wrong, no matter how much you denied it earlier. What's bothering you?" I squeezed his arm gently, stepping close enough that I had to tilt my head down slightly to see him and he had to look up.

"It'-It's nothing, Shane" he murmured, resting his hand on my waist and looking down slightly.

"It's not though, seriously, Drew. You can tell me anything, you know that. Please tell me what's making you upset!" I practically begged, gently tilting his chin up so that he was looking into my eyes rather than at the sand beneath our feet.

"Um, I can't swim..." he mumbled, looking to the side this time since he couldn't look down.

"Aw, Drew! You should have said something! Is it because you don't like going in water?" I asked, curiously.

"No, my parents just never taught me how..." he whispered, clearly anxious about anyone overhearing him. The sadness was obvious in his voice, and well, I couldn't have that, could I? I won't stand by and let my timid be upset!

"Drew, it's okay, you'll learn" I encourages, hugging him.

"Oh yeah, who's going to teach me?" He sounded so sad and hopeless, it broke my heart.

I smiled at him though, knowing I could fix this problem.

"I will."

*****

Drew was fine for the first couple of metres into the sea, while the water was still around his knees. It was when it started to get deeper rapidly that I saw him start to panic.

"Shane!" Drew grabbed desperately at my hand under the water once it started to rise above his waist. It didn't help that he was short, it was still only at the top of my legs but for him it was a lot deeper. He stopped moving, clearly afraid that moving any further forward would result in him sinking under. I couldn't really teach him in this shallower water though, but he seemed reluctant to move on his own. Luckily though, I had a plan.

"Come here, Drew, I got you" I reached out under the warm water and grasped his waist gently before pulling him over to me and lifting him up slightly, so that he could wrap his legs tightly around my waist. He immediately grinned at me; he was now that same height as me and could hold on to me as well. Satisfied that he felt safer now, I started moving further into the water, deep enough that it was nearly at my shoulders. I could see Kier and Laurence play fighting in the water about twenty five metres across from us, while Luke was trying to avoid getting splashed by the water they were sending flying everywhere.

I felt Drew's arms tighten around me as he realised that we were now far enough into the water that he would be submerged if I put him down due to the height difference. This panicked him.

"Don't put me down, Shane! It's really deep! I can't!" He cried, breathing slightly heavier into the crook of my neck where he'd buried his face.

"Sshh, hush, Drew, it’s okay, I won't let you go, I swear. You do have to come off of my waist though, or you won't be able to swim. I'll still hold you though, I promise" I rushed to re-assure him, I wanted him to feel safe. It obviously worked as he carefully lifted his head up and slowly started to release the tight grip his legs had my waist in. Slowly, I lifted him away from my body, still making sure to hold his waist though.

"Okay, Drew, I'm going to turn you around so that you're facing away from me and the first thing you're going to do is to push your arms out like this. This is generally known as butterfly stroke. You can dip your head under and then back out of the water again, but I don't think we'll try that now. Just focus on moving your arms like this" I drew him close to my side with one arm and wrapped it fully around his tiny waist, so he was secure at my side while I demonstrated what I meant with my free arm. "Do you think you can do that?" I asked, hugging him in the water when he nodded. "Great!"

I rotated him in my arms so that he was facing away from me with his back to my chest. He repeated my actions exactly but with both arms and soon got into a steady rhythm of pushing the water out the way with his arms.

"Well done, Drew! That's excellent!" I cheered, happy that he seemed to get it pretty much straight off the bat.

"What am I meant to do with my legs?" He asked, shifting back in my arms so he could look at me again, waiting for me to explain.

"Well, there are two ways. One is like a frog, where you move your legs out and in and back at the same time, but that's harder. So we'll stick with the easier and more commonly used one which is where you basically just kick your feet" Because I had to keep a hold of Drew, I couldn't demonstrate this, so I was just hoping that with my guidance he would get it.

I had my hands wrapped around each other his upper arms while he did the same to me, creating a strong link between us. With a little prompting from me, he lifted his legs up behind him and started to kick. Due to nervousness and slight panic though, he was kicking too fast, and not floating properly.

"Try it a bit slower, Wooly, and don't try and make your feet come out the water, they'll naturally come out slightly when you swim properly. This time, his pace was much better and was much more in time to the arm movements he was showing earlier. Confident that Drew was nearly there, I decided to try something harder.

"Okay, Drew, here's what we are going to do. I'm going to put my arms out in front of me, okay? And you're going to lie across them, so both your arms and legs are free to move, is that okay?" After a small moment of hesitation, he nodded. He was clearly determined, which was very good, he would learn a whole lot faster that way.

It took a while for him to settle on my arms, he was worried his head was going to go under if he lay flat, but I soon explained that his legs would be slightly lower than his head, and that it would stay out the water. Little by little, he relaxed and after about fifteen minutes of practicing, he could move both his legs and arms together in a steady beat. With my arms guiding him underneath, he could actually start to move about. I was definitely confident that he could have this nailed by the end of our trip; he could do this, he just had to believe that he could.

"Are you ready to try without my arms?" I asked, frowning slightly when he started to shake his head almost immediately.

"No, what if I sink! You're holding me up at the moment, if you let go, I'll fall under!"

At that moment, I had the desire to do something which crossed all the boundaries we had as friends and took us into new territory completely. Yet, it felt like something I needed to do. I pulled Drew close to me, holding him against my body in the water so that I could look into his pretty brown eyes.

"Drew, you can so do this, I believe in you. Besides, I'll be right here to catch you if you start to sink, I promise. I will never let you fall" I murmured, just centimetres from his lips. I took the leap and closed the gap, pressing our lips together in a sweet kiss. Not one full of lust and want, but one that conveyed that I believed he could do this, that I had faith in him, that he was safe.

I smiled against his lips as I felt him kiss back. As much as I could have spent all day kissing him, there came a time when we had to pull apart, breathless and grinning.

"Shane?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I can do this" he beamed at me, making my expression match his.

Slowly but surely, he moved away from my arms and started to move on his own. He only moved a few metres but he still did it, and it made pride swell in my heart.

"Drew! You did it!" I cheered. Laughing and cuddling him in the warm water while he celebrated his achievement with 'Woot!'s and 'Hell yeah!'s.

"Yeah, I guess I did" he giggled. "I never thought I'd be able to do this, thank you so much, Shane! Even if it's only a little way I can improve on this, I know what I’m doing now!"

I couldn't help but tilt my head and peck his lips again, he just looked so damn happy.

"Don’t worry about it, besides, you help me all the time. We keep each other afloat and stop each other sinking" I grinned, nuzzling my nose into his wet hair. During our little celebration session, Laurence swam over to us, red faced from all the play fighting, shouting and most probably because he always forgets to put sun cream on his face.

"You two alright?" he asked, smirking as he looked over his shoulder to see Kier trying to climb onto Luke's shoulders.

"More than alright" Drew answered, barely containing his glee.

"Good, 'cause this is awesome fun, and since the weather's meant to be nice next Saturday as well, we talked about coming down here again. That sound good to you?" He asked, moving a piece of his wet black hair out the way of his eyes.

Just like this morning, I looked at Drew and he looked at me, this time though, he didn't look anxious or scared.

"Definitely." We both agreed together.