"Kayla, want to go to the beach? The sun's a scorcher today, and the sand is burning my toes already," Brianna says to me with her ebony hair blowing in the ocean breeze. The sea air hits my nostrils and opens me up to the possibility of sailing. I've never been sailing, but the air today would be perfect, and I am up for anything..
The beach is a safe haven for me and always has been. My mother and father used to bring me here a long time ago, back when the world made sense. But the world is backward now because all my family are dead, consumed by the sea."Yes, why not. I could use a beach outing. I must warn you I am not much of a swimmer. I'll just read and get a tan while I'm at it."I've never been a strong swimmer; perhaps it's my uncoordinated legs. My legs have always been wobbly from the time I started walking. I was always falling upstairs instead of down them. Being a clutz has made my life miserable, and my weak ankles made swimming next to impossible. My heart murmur is another thing altogether, for that too weighs me down and makes my breath stagger.Brianna gets out of her car and puts her hair behind her ear the way she always does before she's about to relax. On the other hand, I am a disaster; relaxing doesn't come as naturally to me as it does for Brianna. Boys always liked her better, and all the boys notice when her sweat goes near her bikini line.Men would line up in flocks just to drink her sweat from a lemonade stand. But me, no one ever liked Kayla Lawson, and they shouldn't have to. Being mean is what I am known for to everyone other than Brianna Bryson. Brianna is a distant cousin of mine and tolerates my toxic traits more than she lets on."Seriously, do you have to be so boring? Come and swim with me. Come get your waist in. Don't just sit like a lump all day. Let's look for sea shells...""Bri, I am not in the mood. Jaxson and I just..."Oh, yeah, the break-up. I was supposed to tell her all about my lovely break-up with Jaxson Miles. There's not much to tell. He was fondling another woman's breast on his bed when I went to pick him up for our date last night. Some boyfriend he turned out to be, like his scumbag father before him. I should have seen the signs and learned that 'father-like son' was a phrase for a reason."What happened? Are you two fighting again? You guys always have issues. How bad can it be this time?" Brianna gets out of the water, and it drips down her back. Nearby men are already taking notice of her toned physique."Bri, he was about to fuck another woman. I caught him in the middle of the deed before our date last night. I dumped him on the spot. Can we drop this? There's nothing to say other than I am not in the mood to go swimming. Please let me read in peace."Bri dusts the sand from my shoulders and helps me spread the beach blanket on the sand. She sits on the blanket and gets a book out of her purse."I don't feel like swimming either. Let's just sit and read together."Good old Brianna knows I don't want to talk about it. She is willing to change her mind under the right circumstances, and I could always argue that a breakup is the right circumstance."Let's trade books, Kayla. The last thing you need is to drown your sorrows out with Pride and Prejudice.""But you're reading Interview with a Vampire. You know I don't believe in vampires, ghosts, or werewolves."She rips the book out of my hands and forces me to trade. I don't try to fight her off. She has a point. I need to clear my head of any romance. Jaxson and I would have celebrated our sixth-month anniversary today.We had the whole day planned before I caught him cheating. We were going to go on an early horseback riding date and have a picnic on the beach today. Then tonight, we were going to go dancing at our favorite dance club. But not anymore. Today, I am going to drown out my sorrows in puddles of ice cream and bad breakup songs."Just read the damn vampire novel. This will tell you what real vampires are like, not that girly romance fluff you usually read.""But I like my girly romance fluff," I replied attempting to deflect her judgment of me."Well, today, you don't care. Today read about vampires sucking blood. Anne Rice might change your mind about vampires. Just read the book and get your tan."I begin the book, and after ten pages of reading, I am hooked. Bri's right I needed to learn about vampires. Mr. Darcy will have to wait for me to heal.The beach is quiet, and my sunburn is setting in. I'm used to my shoulders becoming red like tomatoes this time of year. Brianna sprays my shoulders with sun lotion. I have a sunscreen that feels like bug spray when it is applied."What are you doing, woman?""You are burning. Just read the book and let me work," Brianna snaps and finishes spraying my back. She hands me the bottle without asking and turns around. I spray her back as two men walk by us. The last thing I want to see is a man. It's not their fault I was dumped, but just the site of a male makes me want to run into the sea.I return to the comforts of my vampire book as the two unwelcomed hoodlums stroll towards us. The first one is scrawny, like a Scooby Doo character. He walks with his feet slightly pigeon-toed. His limp gives his bad posture away.The second is a long black-haired wonder. He is too chiseled for his own good. He must be a model or a robot. Or perhaps the Avengers are real, after all.My eyes betray me as I stare into his chest and toned muscles. A slight blush on my cheeks begins to form as the heat rises within my pours. A minor sexual attraction pulls me from my gaze, and embarrassment consumes me. It's not like I have a boyfriend to cheat on."Hello, ladies. You look like you could use the company," the scrawny blonde says as he sits next to Bri.Of course, he is sitting next to Bri; they all do. I just keep reading as I roll my eyes."Do you read vampire books often?" The tall Avenger-like male says to me."Stop hitting on me, and leave me alone. I am busy." A new man taking notice of me is both flattering and off-putting. It's not his fault, I am back on the market because Jaxson couldn't be bothered to stay faithful to me.Mr. Long-hair can go away and leave me be for all I care. I have already been fooled by one man. I don't need to be mind fucked with by another, thank you very much."I was just trying to be polite. What's your name? I'm Aiden Atkinson," he says as he holds his hand out to shake mine. I put the book down and shake his hand firmly. His grip is strong enough to pick a Christmas tree out of the ground with the roots still dangling."I'm Kayla Lawson. Well, now we've met. Enjoy your time at the beach." I drop his hand, it slams into the sand. I don't want to acknowledge that my mind finds his body attractive and divine.Aiden and his scrawny blonde friend go into the ocean. As I continue to read my book, I notice Aiden gazing up at me occasionally. It's confusing and forces me to turn my back on the ocean.Brianna turns around as well, and her tan starts to show. I only hope that Mr. Aiden doesn't return in search of something he can't have. I didn't come to this secluded beach to get hit on. I came here to hide. Hiding is the only place I feel safe from heartache. I continue to read my book and get lost in the vampire story beneath my gaze. Eventually, Aiden and his friend leave, and the ocean shore rises and falls with the tide and their footprints right along with it.In my dreams, my legs are missing. They are surrounded by water that turns them into scales. The scales of a fish of varying hues. Some are green, and others are teal. The voice of an angelic creature sings in the distance beneath the rocky sea cliffs beyond the fog. The mist hides the face of the songstress and I wake up thinking of mermaids.I've seen mermaids often in my daydreams and nightmares. They come to me, in the form of songs on the ocean air. Perhaps my mind has a hankering for a good old classic fantasy film, or perhaps it means something more. Mermaids aren't real we all know that. As a little girl, my parents would take me to Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. For those who don't know what that is it's a museum carrying various oddities and mysterious objects that have tall tales to go with them.Among the strange collection is a half-monkey half-fishtail, clearly sewn together to trick an ordinary uneducated fool. But I am no fool, as a child that display case looked f
The wind picks up as the ocean tide pulls me toward the water's edge. With each step out to sea, my footprints sink further and further into the sandbar. My feet create ripples every time a new step is taken. The moon is still out and comes and goes between the clouds. It hovers in the clouds with a soft brightness that only nocturnal creatures understand. Between the mist, the voice, and my desire to heed the message of the song, something or someone stops me from proceeding into the blackness of my destiny.A hand touches my shoulder. A large hand that can't belong to Brianna. The hand is firm, and strong clearly attached to a male member of the human species."Where are you going? I wouldn't follow the voices tonight, lass. The fog is no place for a nice girl like you," I recognize the voice and turn around.That's when I see Aiden's eyes as blue as they were the day we met on the beach. But why is he out here and topless no less? Not that I mind the view before my eyes, he's beaut
"Did you suddenly go deaf, Kayla?" Brianna says as I continue to cook to the sweet sounds of sizzling bacon, eggs, and sausage. I use the spatula to turn the food over and eventually, I dish it out onto a plate for Aiden to eat."I'll explain later. For now, Aiden is our guest. He's been through a trauma and needed a place to hang out for a while until he figures out where to stay."Aiden looks at me and I look back at him. It isn't a lie, but it isn't the truth either. Maybe he isn't in shock that he was banished, it sounded to me like he knew what the risks would be. Perhaps hearing me give permission to stay here is a relief. He doesn't have anywhere to stay as far as I can tell, and judging from his outward appearance he's going to need to go shopping."What happened to the blonde friend of yours you were walking with on the beach earlier," Brianna turns and asks Aiden. A question I wish I had thought of myself, but a good one nonetheless."He isn't exactly a friend. I was asking
The evening returns to the shoreline. The stars appear above the remaining line of pink and purple, remnants of an amazing sunset that would have made for a fantastic date night if I do say so myself. But I don't have the luxury of date nights anymore, now that I am still healing from what he did to me. Jaxson Miles did a lot of things to me, he became my world and wrote songs for me on his guitar under the stars on nights like this. But all that's left now is my broken heart and the memory of his arms wrapped around another woman burning into my skull. The tide interrupts my tears, and my eyelashes catch tear drops the way leaves in the canopies collect rain. When I blink my eyelashes stick together and when I open them they are hard to pull apart like a pair of coupled hands. Hands are meant for holding, holding someone else's as an assurance that the world is safe and that all the darkness in the world isn't real. I sit on the rock with my sundress covering my knees. My legs are i
The middle of the night is stirring, stirring like a thousand hurricanes lost at sea. Aiden hasn't returned to the shed in our backyard. He needed to be alone and I know that. The focus of his frustration stems from his banishment which is an ever-present issue. Brianna and I pass the time by watching corny crime shows about cougar mothers who murder their young lovers. Nothing gives me the creeps more than that. The rain picks up and falls in a slanted pattern. Worrying about Aiden Atkinson is foolhardy at best, but I am not in my right head space at the moment. I am not myself right now. Everything about Aiden is mysterious and makes me wonder if he knows where my parents are. Something about his eyes changing color is off-putting and alarming. Like a nightmare consuming a soul for its victim. "Are you tired of watching the movie?" Brianna asks as she tosses a few stale popcorn pieces at my head. "No, I'm worried about Aiden. This storm is getting worse." "So what..he isn't our
"I'm a werewolf," he repeats like I didn't hear him clearly the first time. It's not every day a young man walks into your life, has his eyes change color, and proceeds to tell you he's a werewolf. Flashbacks of last night's cave rescue make their way back into my mind. He was bloody and had scratches everywhere. The blood from his sheets this morning proves that something indeed happened to him in the cave. Was it all self-inflicted? Did he do this to himself? Or is his tall tale true? Are there really men who walk among us and howl to the moon on a full night? I can hardly believe I am having this internal conversation. "A werewolf? Like the ones, I hear about in the movies? So do I need to buy a silver bullet then?" All jokes aside, he was afraid of one the moon the night be last before he went galavanting toward the cave. The moon was at its fullest last night, and his eyes turned with it. Could his story really be true? I am having a hard time believing it myself. But if he rea
Our lips are still touching as Aiden puts his arms around me. But for some reason, I pull away. It's not Aiden Atkinson's fault that he is sexy as hell and that I had to stop the spell from forming on his lips. No none of those things are his fault. When I try to pull away, however, Aiden won't let me. He's enjoying himself too much, and I relent and give him one more make-out sesh on the kitchen table. I can't believe how reckless I am being right now, it's simply ridiculous. It's ridiculous how quickly two kissing friends, (I refuse to say lovers because I don't love Aiden) can get wrapped up in each other. This time Aiden lets me go, but his eyes still stare at my mouth. I don't feel pretty, but I do feel sexy when he looks at my body up and down. There's nothing special about what I am wearing, I look like a farmer's helper heading off to collect chicken eggs for the morning breakfast, in my green plaid top. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have pulled you in like that. You kissed me t
It's the middle of the night and I can still hear Aiden's voice echoing in my mind. He called me a gorgeous woman. It didn't occur to me at the time but it was a very endearing compliment. I'm not used to compliments from men. When Jaxson dated me he would compliment other women except for me. It's not that I need the approval of a man but it's nice to have affirmation from someone who I haven't dated before. I have a feeling that my affection for Aiden will get deeper and deeper as time moves forward. The water is calm as I look out onto the beach. So calm in fact, that I can't help but think of nothing else but the sand between my toes. Aiden would give me a hard time if you wandered out onto the beach again in the middle of the night. But there's something about the beach at night that's more lovely than the daytime. Perhaps it's the night sky that makes the water calmer. Just the moon reflecting in the ocean as it rises from the horizon. Or maybe it's that it's quiet on the beach