29. You don't know just how it feels.

I sat down on the curb outside the store and put my face in my hands. I heard the door open and footsteps coming towards me. Payton sat down next to me.



"I'm sorry." He said as he looked at me.



I didn't answer.



"I never really thought about your side of things."



I still didn't answer. My hands were still covering my face, and I didn't dare take them off, because he would've seen the tears.



He put his arm around my shoulder, and I just leaned my head on him.



"You should probably go back insisde."



"My shift is over." I turned away from him, and wiped my face.



"What are you going to do now?"



"Take a walk." I got up and walked towards the beach. I didn't care if I walked for hours, I just didn't care.

28. Everyone buried in wasteland

"Beach time." Payton came running into Barnes and Nobles.



"Haha. Again?" I said as I stacked the plates behind the counter.



"Don't start with that. Derek made friends with a guy who has a surfboard, and he's going to teach us."



"Sounds like um, fun."



"Come on, I thought you liked the beach now."



"Yeah, just not everyday. And besides, I have to get sunscreen."



"With what? Your good looks?"




"Very funny."




"But seriously, every cent we have is going towards food and rent."




"Every cent? So, how are you paying for gas everytime you go to the beach."




"Well, for one we don't drive TO the beach, we drive to a parking lot close by so we can walk to avoid paying to get in, and secondly, we only drive like 5 minutes."




"So why can't you just walk all the way?"



"Because it saves us like 10 minutes of walking?"



"It's excercise"




"It takes too long!"




"So you're saying it's not worth it?"




"What?"




"I'm just sick and tired of being the only one who actually gets paid, and you guys waste all my hard earned money on gas for going to the beach and such."



"I've only had to fill the tank up like 3 times since we've been here."



"Every drop counts."



"And, I HAVE a job."



"YOUR job only helps keep the rent lower than it should be."



"But it's helping!"



"Barely! And everyone else is too busy "celebrity hunting" instead of JOB HUNTING!"



"Do you want them to pull jobs out of thin air?"



"No, but I would feel better if they were actually trying to find jobs."



"They DID!"



"They didn't apply everywhere, only at the places that interested them. Such as, lifeguard, band member, shopping centers, and the like. Granted, Jade branched out more than the other two, but still."



"You know, you could have stayed in Virginia!"



"And where would you guys be? Living in the car still right?"



No answer.



"That's what I thought." I stormed out of the building.

27. Did I mention we are here to stay?

Around noon the next day, Mr. Mystery walked into Barnes and Nobles.


"Who is that?" I asked my coworker Kate while nodding to the blond guy.



"Oh, that's my brother," she said, filling a cup with coffee. "He's a freak."



"Ah." I said, quickly turning around. He was coming right towards us.



"Hey little sis." He said.



"I'm not your little sis. I'm your big sis. And don't you forget it." She said, flinging excess water from her hands on him.



"Yeah, but you're shorter than me, and I'm stronger, ergo I call you little sis," He flicked the water off his arm.



"I hate you."



"Love you too sis." He turned to me. "Hey mystery girl."



"Um, hi." I tried to act busy.



"I'm Blake," He extended his hand.



"I'm Jamie" I showed both my hands were holding cups.



He dropped his hand and laughed.

"So do you guys know each other?" Kate asked.

"No, we just kind of bumped into each other in a store yesterday." Blake answered. "Ever figure out that necklace?"

"No haha, I gave up."



"Haha. So, are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around before." He asked.



"I just moved here."

"Why? That is, if you don't mind my asking."



"I came here with friends. We wanted to have an adventure or something."



"Nice. So, do you hang around the beach much?"



"Um, not too much."



"Well, we'll make a beach bum out of you soon enough. Gotta go. Later!"



"See ya." Kate and I said.



Kate licked her finger and touched my shoulder. "Tss"



"Oh shut up Kate."

26. You're clouding up my mind

I put the necklace back on the shelf since I had no money to actually buy it. I poked around in the store a little longer, then went back out to the beach. Everyone was in the water, so I walked along the edge of the water. I scanned the crowds to see if the blond guy was there. Not that I was interested or anything, just curious.


He wasn't around.


"How were the shops?" Cameron asked, running up to me.


"Eh, fine." I threw a look over my shoulder.


"Are you looking for someone?"


"What?" I spun around, "No. Why?"


"You keep looking around."


"Well, I'm just observing people."


"Sounds pretty convincing," She laughed. "So seriously, what are you looking for?"


I figured she'd hound me till she found out anyways, so I spilled the beans.


"Holy crap! Jamie! You gotta find him! I wanna meet him!" She squealed.


Finders keepers. Not like he'd be interested in me anyways.


Cameron ran up to the rest of the gang who were just coming out of the water, "Haha, Jamie found a guy."


"I'll bet he'd not as good lookin' as me." Derek struck a goofy pose.


"Dork." Cameron pushed him.


"What? Cameron no. I only said I said "hi" to a guy who was laughing at me. We didn't exchange names or phone numbers or anything."


"Whatev. It's still something to talk about." She grinned. "Where's Payton?"


"He was just here." Jade said, looking around. "Oh, there he is. Back at our stuff."


The conversation moved to other things. They started planning out tomorrow. Celebrity hunting or something. I wasn't really paying attention.

25. You talk a good game

My skin was getting a little pink.


"Hey does anyone have some sun screen?" I asked.


"Why would we have that?" Cameron laughed, "We want to get TAN!"


"Well, I'd like to get a little color, but I don't want skin cancer. I'm already a little pink, and I don't want to be a tomato."


"Do you want to go?" Payton asked.


"Well, you guys can stay. I'm gonna go into one of the shops." I got up and started brushing sand off my legs.


"Alright. Catch up with you later." He said.


I found a store that looked interesting and went inside. I started poking around, looking at random stuff. I picked up a shell necklace and was trying to figure out how they wove the shells together. I heard laughing behind me, so I turned to see who it was. The guy couldn't have been older than twenty. He had medium length wavy blond hair, was tall, and very tan. He looked like a surfer, and probably was. He had a twinkle in his eye as he smiled at me.


"What's so funny?" I asked.


"You are." His smile got wider. "You're looking at that necklace like there's a secret code written on it, and you're trying to decode it."


"Well, you're not too far off. I'm trying to figure out how they made it."


"Is that so?"


"Yeah. I'm wierd like that."


"No. It's cool." He at the time on his phone. "Well I gotta go. See you around?"


"Sure, probably" I said.


"Later." He walked out the door and out to a jeep with a surfboard in the back seat.


Go figure.

24. We are still just kids

I really don't know why I hate beaches so much. I mean, yeah the sun's nice, but you can get sun anywhere right?


"I wonder who invented beaches?" Cameron saids



Wow. That was impressively stupid.



"Nobody invented beaches, dummy." Derek threw some sand on her legs



"Hey, cut it out!" She threw a nice sized handful right back.



In order to escape what was inevitably going to turn into a sand fight, I escaped to the water's edge. I decided to walk along the shore and let the waves tickle my legs. The sand was so pretty. It had tiny gold specks in it. The beaches on the east coast didn't have sand like this. I reached down to pick up a shell in the sand. When I came up, I forceful wave hit me and I struggled for balance. Suddenly I felt an arm steady me. I looked up. Payton.



"Thanks." I muttered.



"No prob."



"How's the sand fight?" I reached down for another shell.



"They took it to the water. People around us were getting irritated." He turned around to see if Derek and Cameron were still flinging sand.



"Sand hurts." Jade said, coming up to us.




"No. Really?" I said, laughing at her.




"Just be thankful you weren't in the direct line of fire."



"Why don't you guys actually go in the water?" Payton asked



"I want to, but I don't like going by myself." Jade replied



"Jamie, why don't you go in?" He turned to me.



"She doesn't like to swim." Jade laughed.



"She doesn't, eh?"



"Nope." I said and reached for another shell. All of a sudden I was laying in the water. "Wha?"



Jade and Payton were laughing at me.



"He did it." She said, pointing at him.



"Did he now?" I got up and with Jade's help threw him in the water.



"Oh you guys are gonna so gonna get it." He yelled.



Derek and Cameron joined us, and it turned into a mess of arms and legs. Who knew beaches were so fun?

23. They're up to date with the latest trends

When the song did end, everyone clapped and praised Payton. I kind of wished that he'd do another song, but I didn't say anything.



"Let's go to the beach!" Derek said. And to my dismay, everyone else agreed. I STILL don't have a bathing suit, but I dumbly followed the girls to the bedroom.


Cameron waived a bathing suit in the air, "Look at this cute bathing suit I bought before we left." It was pink and had tiny little XOXOs all over it.


"Very cute." Jade said while taking out a black tankini with white hearts on it.


"Yeah it's cute." I said sitting on the floor picking at my nails.


"Where's yours?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.


"Uh, I don't have one."


"WHAT? You're joking right?"


"No." I chewed my lower lip. "I don't really swim. I mean I know how to swim, but I don't know...I just don't swim."


"That's dumb. Here, you can wear my other one." Cameron said, flinging a blue and red striped bikini towards me.


"Ok? Um, thanks." I made my way towards the bathroom.


I hated changing in front of other people. Gym was murder in high school. I never did get used to the locker room. After I put on the bathing suit, I looked in the mirror and sighed. Thankfully the bikini fit, but I still didn't like the way it looked on me. I opened the door to go back for some clothes to throw over it, and Payton was waiting. He already had his suit on and I saw him eyeing mine. I knew he was probably wondering where I got it so I blurted out, "It's Cameron's" and ran back to the room.