I laid on a towel, sunscreen and sunglasses in place. It was a beautiful day in New Smyrna Beach; it was only about an hour and a half away from Orlando. I thought my mom was really enjoying herself. It had been awhile since she had been away, “So when am I going to get my present?” my mom asked
I looked over at her and grinned, “You want it?” I asked pulling the shorts of my two-piece down.
“Of course!”
I sat up and pulled my backpack into my lap. I dug thru it and pulled out the envelope, “Here ya go.”
“An Envelope, how suspicious.” She opened it and looked at the continence.
“What do you think?” I asked trying to read her expression
“I think it’s wonderful.” She said giving me a hug, “It’s so thoughtful.” She said wiping a tear away.
I grinned, “it’s original, just like me.”
“You are certainly that.” She said laughing
She looked behind me and then all of a sudden I was wet. I shrieked as the cold water hit me, “I’m sorry, I needed to squeeze my wet T-shirt out.” came a voice.
I squinted my eyes and tried to see even though the sun was in he way, I knew the owner of the voice, “What are you doing here?”
A.J. looked around, “it’s a public beach isn’t it.”
He sat down next to me, “it’s also an hour and a half away from Orlando, where you live.”
“You are excellent at geography.” He said grinning.
He was wet, had a silver hoop in his left ear and a pair of sunglasses on, he looked cute, but I didn’t let on. I stuck my tongue out at him, “If only you were as funny as you thought you were.”
“Oh but I am.” He said the smirk still in place. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to this lovely creature beside you?”
My mom looked over the rim of her sunglasses, I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but the line was lame. “A.J. this is my mother Ms. Dawton, mom this is A.J.”
“Hello Ms. Dawton it is nice to meet you.”
My mom smiled, “You can just call me Sandy, it’s nice to meet you.”
With that my mom laid back down and I glared at A.J., “Is there a reason you followed me?”
“Well, I have the day off, so I went to the store to see if you wanted to do something, and Cats”
“You mean Cathy?”
“Yeah, anyway, Cats told me you were here and I decided to come join you.”
I just looked at him, I had only met him a couple of days ago and he was already following me around. I thought he was insane, “You want to go play in the water?” he said breaking into my thoughts.
I was getting kind of hot anyway, “Okay.” I got up and followed him further down the beach. He stopped at the water’s edge put I walked further out. Before long we were splashing and dunking each other.
“Hey, look up here!” We heard my mom yell. I had him in a good headlock and looked up to see my mom holding my camera. She snapped several pictures before I let A.J. go. I started to turn but he grabbed me around the waist and flung me over his shoulder. I could hear my mom laughing as I beat on his back with my fist and yelled. He finally put me down and I glared at him hard. Then I turned and walked back to my towel. My mom was still laughing and A.J. was trying to keep the smile off of his face while he tried to apologize. I ignored him for a time but then we got into a conversation about fashion. My mom just picked up a book she was reading and tuned us out.
“So, what are you doing tomorrow?” A.J. asked
“We’re going to Disney World for mom’s birthday.”
“That sounds cool.” I could see the wheels turning in his head and knew what was coming, “We could meet you there.”
“We kemosabi, I don’t think so.”
Listen to me for a second. We can go together, to celebrate your mom’s birthday, you bring your mom an I’ll bring mine”
“And what is Marissa going to think about this?”
“We’re friends, she’ll understand.”
“I don’t want a P.O.ed girlfriend breathing down my neck, and when did we become friends?”
He thought for a minute “I think it was while you had me in a head lock.”
I laughed, “Well, I guess I can handle being friends.”
“So, how about I pick you guys up tomorrow.”
“How about we just meet you there.”
“Okay, what time?”
“Um, 9:00 o’clock front gate.”
“It’s a deal.” He said grinning.
