Keep your friends close and your enemies, closer

I woke up to the sun shining on my face. I blinked at the glaring light that was shone on my face. Why did it feel as if the sun was directly above my head? I mean, I was in bed right now.

Wasn’t I?

I turned away from the sun and rolled on to my stomach, narrowing my eyes. I looked around my surrounding. There was sand all around me, except I was lying on a mat, and there was something covering me.

I used my hands to push me off of the ground and peeked under the blanket I was wrapped in. I came face to face (or body) with my naked body. I wasn’t wearing anything, and I had no other covering besides the blanket that was on my body.

I sat up and started screaming. Where were my clothes? Why was I nude in a beach?!

A movement from my left startled me. I whipped my head around to find James giving me lazy smile. He wasn’t wearing anything either.

It also absolutely did not help that the bottom half of his body was under my blanket. I had a really bad feeling he was totally naked there too.

He squinted at me and gave me a sleepy grin. “’Morning babe.” He leaned up on his elbows to look at me better. “Did you have fun last night?”

I frowned at him. Now, what was he talking about, our date?

“No, not our date exactly.” He wiggled his eyebrows, as if he was sharing some secret with me.

I widened my eyes as soon as the realization of what he was implying began to dawn on me. But I had to make sure. I opened the blanket a little and peeked at what was under it again, except this time I was checking James’ side of the blanket.

My eyes got wider and I clamped my hand over my mouth. Goddamn it, James was naked! It was a good thing that because he was on his stomach, I only saw his butt.

That could only mean one thing, besides the fact that James looked terribly hot naked. It meant that James and I had…

I screamed again.

~

I woke up screaming. I instantly sat up as soon as I was awake and made sure I was fully clothed (I was). I looked around me. I was still at the beach, but the sun wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It was as dark as it was before I went to sleep, if not darker.

“What, what?” James groggily lifted his head up from the sand after I screamed. I snapped my head around to look at him. I literally sighed with relief seeing him not naked.

“Nothing. I just had the weirdest dream.” I lay back down next to James and rested my hands behind my head.

He turned to his side and supported his head on his hand as he lifted it up to look at me. “Oh? What happened?”

I looked at him and blushed. There was absolutely no way I was going to tell him about my dream. “It was nothing. What time is it anyway?”

He twisted his wrist around to check out his watch. “About three.”

“In the morning?” I exclaimed, turning to my side to face him.

“Yeah. Your parents don’t seem to mind having their daughter stay out so late.” He inferred, staring down at me.

I shrugged. He didn’t have to know nobody was at home. “How about yours? Don’t they mind?”

“Nah. Dad doesn’t really care what I do.”

“What about your mom?”

He looked at me, stared at my expression for a little while, and then he frowned. “Mom left us three years ago.”

I widened my eyes in response. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…” I left my sentence hanging because I didn’t know what to say.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “No kidding? I thought the whole school knew about it.” He chuckled. “Guess that’s just me.”

He seemed cool enough about the matter that he was able to joke about it. I gave a small smile before continuing. “So, you’re okay with it now?”

James shrugged. “It was three years ago. And even if I’m not okay with it, what’s there to do? Nothing will make her come back.”

That was so sad. At that moment, as I was staring into his eyes, I could see how insecure he really was. People always thought he had the easy life. It seemed they were wrong, very wrong.

I sat up and opened my arms for him. He cocked his head to one side, confused. I rolled my eyes at him. “You need to be comforted. What’s better than to be hugged, right? But it’s hard to hug when you’re on the floor. So, get up.”

He got up into a sitting position slowly, frowning at me as if I was mentally retarded. He didn’t move; he just sat there staring at me. I rolled my eyes again and moved nearer to him, wrapping my arms around his torso.

He hesitantly embraced me and covered his face with my hair. “You do know that I’m fine, right? I mean, I had three years to get used to living without a mom. I’m really fine.”

I hugged him tighter to me. “Doesn’t matter. You still need to be comforted.”

I could feel him taking a strand of my hair and casually twisting it around his finger. “You sure that isn’t just your excuse to touch me?” I sensed him smirking as he said it.

I automatically pulled away and looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Your ego needs surgery.” I stood up and started walking away from him.

“Aw, where’re you going?” He complained, jogging over to walk next to me. “You’re not sulking because of what I said, are you?”

I shook my head at him. “You’re unbelievably egoistic, you know that?”

He chuckled and popped his collar, like they used to do in those old sitcoms. “Like I said, if you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

I rolled my eyes.

James stopped in his track, and held my hand to stop me from going any further too. “Where are we even going?”

“To your car. Where did you think?”

He gave me his innocent puppy-dog look. You know, the one with the widened eyes and adorable scrunched up pair of eyebrows. “You want to go home?”

It was my turn to stare at him as if he was retarded. “It’s three in the morning. Of course I want to go home.”

He pulled my hand so that we were facing each other. He used his other hand to play with my hair. “Don’t go home yet. I really like being around you. I don’t want the date to end just yet.”

I smiled and almost ‘aww-ed’ at what he said, but I didn’t. That would just be embarrassing. I used my other hand to push back his hair, and randomly just combing through it.

We stayed there, just playing with each other’s hair, for quite a moment, not saying anything to each other. I broke the silence, saying something incredibly lame. “You’re sweet.”

Once I realized what I had just said, I gave myself a Look. The a-boobie-could-have-phrased-that-much-better Look.

“Okay, I’ve got it.” James started, still twirling strands of my hair over and over.

“Got what?” His hair was so soft. I wondered if he used a conditioner.

“A solution.”

“To what?” What conditioner could he possible use?

“Never mind, just hear me out.”

“So talk to me.” I should probably use the same product he’s using.

“Will you go out with me again tomorrow, or today? Whatever day it’s supposed to be.”

I blinked at him. “Where do you want to go?”

“There’s going to be party here at eight in the evening later. Is that enough time for you to rest and go with me?”

I pulled my hand away from his hair and placed a finger on my cheek. Should I go or should I not? Ranger and the folks would be back the day after. Might as well enjoy the freedom as much as possible before they stop me.

I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

James gave me a sweet smile and took his hand away from my hair as he placed his thumb and forefinger on my chin.

“Hey, Ashlynn.” He gently pulled my chin to motion me forwards.

“What, James?” He moved his face closer to mine so that our lips were nearly inches apart.

“I think…” His cool breath blew on my face, making me blink.

“What do you think?” I felt the need to whisper, even though I didn’t know why.

“I think you’re doing something to me.” He smirked before softly pressing his lips to mine.