They laid out their blankets and fold-out chairs. Joey quickly put down the ice chest in his hand and ran as fast as he could to the water.
“Ahh! Oh my God this water’s cold!!” he shrieked.
Everyone burst into laughter. Lance, who seemed to be zoned out from the rest of the world, kept watching Julie’s every move trying to find the best moment to talk to her. As everyone continued to be entertained by Joey’s stupidity, Julie walked away to get a soda from the ice chest.
Perfect! Lance thought to himself. He walked up to the ice chest and got a drink as well. Julie gave him a quick glance and started to walk away.
“Julie, wait,” Lance stopped her.
Julie turned and gave him a look that said he’d better talk fast cuz she didn’t want to listen.
“Um... I was wondering if we could go somewhere and talk,” Lance gave her a hopeful look.
Julie looked at Lance’s hands, which were shaking with nervousness. She figured that it probably took him a lot of courage just to ask her to talk, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.
“OK,” she sighed, “hold on a sec”
She walked over to Justin handing him her soda.
“Could you hang on to this for me? I’ll be back in a little bit. Lance wants to talk to me”
“He does?” Justin asked, looking over at Lance. Lance and Justin gave each other a nod as if they had come to an understanding.
“OK,” Justin told Julie, “Don’t be too long, you’ll miss out on the fun”
“Alright,” she replied kissing him softly. She walked up to Lance.
“OK?” Lance asked her.
Julie nodded. They walked off together in the direction of the pier.
“Jewels, I know you’re furious at me but please hear me out. The reason I’ve been such a jerk lately is because my thoughts have been so jumbled up. I mean, I cared for you so much and I wanted to be with you. But, I was confused about what to because you and Justin were together. Then, that night when we kissed, that was one of the happiest moments of my life. But then you told me you were staying with Justin and again I was confused about what to do. This whole week has been the most confusing and stressful one I’ve ever had. Yesterday, when I had you in my arms and when we kissed, it seemed as if all my problems just vanished. But, of course, they’re not really gone. In fact, now they’re bigger than ever. It’s just, seeing you with Justin... ugh.. it’s just...” Lance looked down at his feet.
“Just what? Lance, spit it out”
“It’s just hard,” Lance stopped walking and burst into tears. Julie hugged him and he began to cry on her shoulder.
“Lance, I know it’s hard for you, but you have to tell me what’s on your mind if you want us to continue to be friends. I mean, back at my place, when we were packing the stuff, we didn’t speak to each other, but we weren’t arguing either. We were being civil and were getting along. Didn’t that feel good?”
“Yeah,” Lance said pulling away and wiping his tears, “It was as if we were friends again and I liked it. It felt real good”
“See?” Julie put her hand on Lance’s arm, “I liked it too. But, we can’t be best friends again if we hold back our feelings. We have to be able to talk to each other about anything”
Lance nodded in agreement.
“Well,” Julie continued, “now that we agree on that, I want you to tell me exactly what’s on your mind”
“OK,” Lance took a deep breath and relaxed, “I wanted to apologize for everything I’ve done. I’ve just been a complete loser this whole time. I didn’t realize what a jerk I was being until you slapped me last night. Justin and I got to talking and I came to accept the fact that you two were an item until this morning when... when... oh man how do I say this?...”
“Lance relax,” Julie said, “C’mon, just say it”
“I went to your room this morning to wake you two up and I saw something that I probably shouldn’t have”
“Lance, WHAT?!”
“You were in Justin’s arms and... Justin always sleeps in his wife beater!!” Lance dropped to his knees and covered his face with his hands.
“Lance, what are trying to- Oh! Oh no, no, Lance it’s OK,” she kneeled down next to him hugging him once again.
“Lance, do you want to know what happened with us last night?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stomach it,” Lance replied
Julie began to giggle.
“Julie, this isn’t funny”
“I’m sorry,” she took a deep breath to make herself stop laughing, “Sorry. Lance, nothing happened last night. At least, not what you were thinking. We fell asleep in each other’s arms and it started to get a bit hot in that position but we didn’t want to move, so Justin took off his wife beater to cool off. That’s all,” Julie smiled at Lance’s worriment.
“That’s all?” Lance asked cracking a smile.
“That’s all,” Julie nodded.
“Heh.. that’s good,” Lance hugged Julie, “I was worried there for a second”
“Well I’m glad to see you so relieved but tell me, why were you so worried about it?”
Lance was slightly taken aback by her question. He pulled away from Julie and stood up. He started to walk away as quickly as possible. Julie stood up as well and started shouting out things she’d been wanting to say so badly for the past week.
“Where are you going?! Come back here you idiot!! Don’t you think I know how you feel about me?! Because I do know!! But I want to hear it from you! So quit being such a gutless coward and tell me how you feel!!”
Lance turned and ran back to Julie.
“I just don’t understand,” Julie continued, “Why won’t you tell me how you feel about m-”
Julie was interrupted mid-sentence by Lance. He kissed her deeply with all the passion he had hidden inside. He pulled away with his eyes remaining closed.
“Lance,” Julie whispered.
“I love you,” he said, opening his eyes and gazing into hers, “OK? I love you! I love you so much it drives me crazy!”
Lance’s words brought Julie to tears.
“No,” she shook her head, “No, no you don’t”
“Yes,” Lance said putting his forehead against hers, “Yes, I do. I love you. I love the way you talk, the way you walk, the way you laugh, the way you smile, the way you bite your bottom lip all the time, the way you twirl your hair when you’re nervous,” he grabbed a piece of her hair and started playing with it, “they way you make all those hand gestures when you get excited, I love it all. I love you. And nothing you say or do will ever change that”
He tried to kiss her again, but she stepped back. She started to cry uncontrollably.
“Julie,” Lance stepped towards her.
“Stop!” she screamed, “I don’t wanna hear it! I wish you would go away!”
She threw her hands over her ears and shut her eyes.
Lance took another step towards her and put his hands on hers. He slipped his fingers between hers causing her to bend her fingers and take his hands in hers. He kissed her hands and wrapped his arms around her.
“What am I gonna tell Justin?” she cried into his shirt, “I’ve already hurt him once. I just can’t bear to do it again”
“Julie, you told me to tell you how I felt about you. But, you still haven’t told me how you feel about me. Or Justin for that matter”
Julie looked up at Lance.
“I love Justin with all my heart. I don’t think that’ll ever change”
“And how do you feel about me?”
Julie didn’t know how to answer. So she said the first thing that came to mind.
“I’m afraid to answer that”
Lance pulled Julie away from his shirt.
“Jewels, no matter what you say or what you decide I will still be your best friend. I will always be here for you no matter what happens. Don’t ever forget that”
“I won’t. Don’t you see Lance? That’s just it. I know that no matter what I choose to do that you’ll always be there. And because of that, I need to stay with Justin. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing that I passed up a great relationship with someone and wonder in the back of my mind what would’ve happened if I had stayed with him. If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out. But I at least have to see it through. And if just completely blows up in my face and just comes crashing down at my feet and I have nowhere else to go, I know I can go to you”
“So, you mean I’m just a fallback guy?!” Lance yelled.
“No! Lance, you’re missing the whole point here”
“Well then what’s the point?”
“The point is, would I waste my breath talking to you if I knew I was going to turn you down flat?”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Lance sighed.
“That’s right, I wouldn’t,” Julie assured him.
“So…you’re saying..” Lance grinned, “...there’s a chance?”
Julie gave a small smile and nodded her head.
“Yeah, maybe,” she replied, “It all depends on what happens with Justin”
“You love me don’t you?” Lance asked with a big smile.
“Don’t push your luck pal!” she playfully pushed him.
They both started to crack up.
“Oh wow, we haven’t done that in a long time,” Lance said.
“Yeah, you’re right. It feels good to laugh with my best friend again,” Julie replied.
Lance looked over his shoulders.
“Where? I don’t see Kristina anywhere,” Lance joked.
Julie started to laugh again.
“Lance, you are such a dork!”
“I know,” Lance answered, calming down some.
“We should head back now,” Julie said, keeping herself from laughing, “Before Justin starts getting all uptight and needs some hair relaxer”
“He needs some anyway, have you seen his hair?!”
Lance’s comment caused them both to burst into a barrel of laughs. They somehow managed to settle down and get back to the rest of the group.
“What took you guys so long?” Justin asked
“Oh nothing,” Julie said, greeting him with a kiss, “We were just talking”
“So, is everything good between you two now?”
“Yup,” Lance answered, “Best friends again”
“Cool,” Justin turned to Julie, “Well, you wanna join the others in the water?”
“I can’t swim,” Julie whispered to Justin.
“What? First you can’t skate, now you can’t swim. What CAN you do?”
“Make you smile”
Julie leaned forward kissing him gently. She pulled away to see a huge smile appear on Justin’s face.
“See? Told ya,” she giggled.
“Works every time,” he grinned.
“Umm... sorry to interrupt but I think I’ll go swimming now if that’s alright with you two”
“Yeah sure,” they said together.
Lance rolled his eyes and removed his shirt. He ran down into the water where Kris, JC, and Joey were swimming.
“You wanna do something else then? Go for a walk or something?” Justin tried to think of something for them to do so that Julie wouldn’t be left out.
“That’s OK Justin, if you wanna go swimming don’t let me stop you. I can just sit back and relax over here,” she pointed to the blanket.
“You’re not stopping me from doing anything. I don’t want to leave you alone doing nothing while I’m having fun”
“You’re so sweet,” she smiled, “Well, you taught me how to skate so I guess you could teach me how to swim too”
“Sure, why not,” he said kissing her sweetly on the cheek. He removed his shirt while Julie took off her overalls. Justin took her by the hand and led her down to the shallow water. For about an hour he took the time to try to get Julie to swim. After a while, she was able to get the hang of it but she still avoided the deep water. After about a half an hour more of swimming, the group returned to their blanket and chairs for a late lunch. It was nearing 2:30 and they were starving.
Kristina and Julie handed out the sandwiches while the guys helped themselves to the chips, cookies, and any other junk food Joey might have packed. Once everyone had a sandwich, Kristina took one for herself and sat herself next to JC. Julie took her sandwich and sat between Lance and Justin.
The y ate quietly for a little bit but were soon discussing random topics. Throughout the conversation, Julie couldn’t help but keep looking over in Lance’s direction. She kept watch on him through the corner of her eye, making sure Justin wouldn’t catch her.
Wow! He looks so good without his shirt on and his hair wet! Oh Wow!, Julie kept thinking, Did I make the right decision by staying with Justin?
She looked over at Justin who returned her glance by smiling and moving closer to her to put his arm around her.
Y es, Julie told her herself, I have made the right decision
JC and Kris were having a ball with their lunches. They were doing silly things like mixing the different flavored chips, cookies, and drinks and daring each other to try their creations.
“Oh gross!” JC was referring to Kristina’s mixture of Dr. Pepper, Sprite, water, mustard, and mayonnaise, “I’m not drinking that!”
“I drank yours!” Kris shot back.
“Well, mine didn’t have mayonnaise and mustard in it!”
“Ugh,” Kristina replied, “That’s not fair!” She threw an Oreo at him, hitting him in the forehead making a ring of crumbs. Kristina and Joey started cracking up. The others looked over at JC to see what the commotion was about. They also started to crack up at the sight of him.
JC sat there quietly as he lifted his hand to wipe away the crumbs. He looked at everyone laughing at him and yelled, “FOOD FIGHT!”
Suddenly everyone was on their feet and food was flying everywhere. Once they their plates were empty they, they stopped.
“I have chips in my hair!” Justin yelled
“Well, you better get them out before a squirrel jumps in there trying to eat them and then ends up building a home,” Julie said, sarcastically.
“Hi! I’m Chippy the Squirrel!” Joey said in a high-pitched voice. He started to dance around while singing.
“Stop that!” Justin screamed
They all laughed as Joey pouted and stopped his little dance.
“How are we gonna get cleaned up?” Lance asked, looking down at himself covered with an orange powder from the Cheetos Julie threw at him. “I’ve got an idea,” JC said, “Come here Kris”
He lead her down to the pier as everyone followed close behind. When they got to the edge, JC looked at Kris.
“Forgive me,” he said solemnly
“For what?” Kris asked
“For this”
JC lifted up Kristina and threw her into the water.
“Ahh!!” Kris shrieked when she surfaced, “JC I’m gonna kill you!!”
JC took a few steps back, ran, and jumped into the water.
“You do that to me, and you’re dead,” Julie told Justin.
“Don’t worry I won’t,” he smiled, “But Lance will”
“He wouldn’t dare,” she said looking over at Lance. They looked at each other for a moment and then both looked over at Justin and smiled.
“Oh no you don’t,” Justin shook his head, “No way. I don’t think so”
“Get him!” Julie screamed. Justin took off like a shot. Unfortunately for him however, Lance was a faster runner so he was able to quickly catch up with Julie right behind him. They each took one of his arms and dragged him to the edge. They counted to three and soon Justin was in the water.
“Yes!” Julie gave Lance a high five, “We got him! Oh wait! I forgot something”
Wh at?”
Julie pushed Lance into the water.
“You’re not supposed to stand so close to the edge!” she yelled down at him, “AHH!”
Julie plunged into the water. She looked up at the pier to see Joey laughing his head off.
“JOEY!!”
Joey jumped into the water. They all washed off as best they could and headed back to their stuff. They cleaned everything up from lunch and put all chairs and blankets back in the car. They decided to check out the few shops they had passed by near the pier.
Kristina and JC walked around the souvenir shop while Joey and Lance headed straight for the arcade and midway games. Julie, who loved candles, automatically went for the candle shop dragging Justin along with her. They were having fun looking around and smelling all the different scents of each candle.
“Ooh, Jewels, come here I like this one,” Justin called her over.
“That smells like my shampoo,” Julie said with a chuckle.
“I know,” Justin replied, seriously, “It smells like you when you just get out of the shower”
Justin closed his eyes and smelled the candle again. Julie watched him wondering how she ended up with someone so sweet and caring. He treated her right; something a guy had never done before. She wondered how she could’ve ever thought about leaving him for someone else and she scolded herself for it.
“I can’t believe I’m leaving you tomorrow,” he said opening his eyes. Julie could see the pain in his eyes when he looked at her.
“It’s OK,” Julie said rubbing her hand along his cheek, “It’ll be alright. We’ll still be able to call each other and email each other. It’s not like we’ll be completely isolated from one another”
“I know, but it’s different. It’s not the same as holding you and kissing you and being here with you. It’s just not the same,” his voice started to shake. Julie immediately recognized the voice as the one he makes before he’s about to cry and hugged him tightly, whispering in his ear.
“I know it’s not the same, but we’ll get through it. I’ll wait for you to come back again, OK? I’ll wait as long as I have to for you. That’s a promise”
Justin gave a Julie a kiss.
“You wanna go down to the arcade?” Justin asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
“Sure,” Julie replied, “You go ahead I’ll meet you there in a minute”
“OK,” Justin gave her a quick peck and left the shop.
He found Joey and Lance at the basketball booth. He joined them and soon they were competing over who could win the biggest prize. After all the shots were made, Justin won by a landslide.
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Lance complained.
“Yes it is,” Justin teased him, “I even gave you the benefit of the doubt and added Joey’s shots to yours and I still made more shots than you. Just face it, Lance, you can’t play basketball”
“Whatever,” Lance rolled his eyes.
Just then Kristina, JC, and Julie came in, meeting up with the guys.
“Hey guys, check this out,” Kristina said reaching into her bag. She pulled out two keychains. One of them said ‘Kristina’ and the other said ‘JC’ and when you put them together they made the shape of a Pokeball.
“Aren’t they the coolest? It’s a way to remember each other while JC’s away”
Everyone just stared at them as if they were utterly insane. The sun was starting to set so they decided to head back home. When they returned home they all took turns showering to get the ocean water out of their hair. When they were done, they sat down to eat.
Dinner was a lot quieter than lunch had been. They were all exhausted from all the fun they had. As they slowly finished their meal and cleaned up, they made their way to the living room to enjoy their last night of television together. Chris walked in from his day out around 8:30 looking a bit upset.
“What’s the matter Chris?” Julie asked, concerned.
“Oh nothing,” he answered softly, “My girlfriend and I broke up”
“No way, really? Oh I’m so sorry”
“I’ll be fine. She couldn’t handle not seeing me that much, so we called it quits. She just wasn’t the one I guess,” he sat on the floor next to Joey.
“Jewels,” Justin whispered
“What?” she whispered back
“I got it”
“Got what?”
“What we can do alone before I leave”
“Isn’t it kinda late to do anything now?”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. We’re gonna have to go to bed soon though if we wanna be able to do”
“Do what?”
“It’s a surprise. Just trust on this OK?”
“OK,” she smiled.
Around 9:30 Justin motioned to Julie to follow him to her room. The two of them went down the hall and once they were in the room, Julie started to wonder what he was up to.
“Justin? What exactly did you have in mind?”
“Like I said, I can’t tell you that. It’s a surprise. But, I can tell you that what we’re doing requires us to wake up very, very early so we’re going to have to go to bed now”
“I still think this is kinda weird but alright,” Julie replied. She found her pajamas and went into the bathroom to change. Meanwhile, Justin went back to the living to tell the group that he and Julie were going to sleep.
When he returned to Julie’s room, Julie was lying in bed watching TV. She shut it off when he came in.
“Umm... do you want me to sleep down there or-”
“With me is fine,” she said before he could finish his question.
Justin grinned as he turned out the light and got in bed next to Julie and taking her in his arms as he had the night before.
To Be Continued…