Ocean

"Bree," Liana complained again, pulling me out of my wandering thoughts for the umpteenth.

"Yes," I insisted through gritted teeth. "Dean is the hottest guy we know. Though technically we don't really know him." In one swift move, Liana leapt from her chair and pulled the pil- low I'd been leaning against out from under me. She aimed an at- tack straight at my face, but I dodged it, nearly toppling off her bed.

"Don't you ever say he's just a fictional character!" she shouted in jest. "You're ruining all the fun." She took another swat at me, but I quickly sank off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

"You're going to have to be faster than that if you're going to catch this girl," I giggled.

She jumped onto the bed and aimed the pillow at my face. I tucked my knees into my chest and rolled across the carpet just as the pillow made contact with the floor right where my head lay a split second ago.

"You're as slow as a sea horse," I teased. "Gah!" She shrieked and grabbed the pillow again to take another

shot at me. "Stop calling me a sea horse." She gritted her teeth, and I smiled in triumph as I dodged yet an- other one of her blows. I raced to the other side of the room, but she now had two pillows in her hands, which meant she was twice as likely to hit me. Though at her current success rate, that proba- bly didn't mean much.

I glanced around in search of my own weapon, but as soon as my gaze fell upon the ocean outside her window, the fight we were having suddenly didn't matter anymore. I froze in front of the window, staring out at the waves. My memories flickered back to the previous night, first to Tristan's green scales, then to the blue- green of his eyes, and then to my father telling me to go back home. To not tell anyone what I saw. Something hard smacked into the right side of my face. It was so unexpected that I tumbled to the ground. I caught myself with the palms of my hands. When I looked back up to see what had hap- pened, I found Liana standing above me, both pillows still in her hands, with a shocked expression on her face. "I am so sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard. Are you okay?" She dropped the pillows at her feet and of- fered her hand to help me up. I grumbled for show but took her hand anyway. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What were you looking at?" She narrowed her eyes out the win-dow, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

I shrugged. "Just the ocean."

She sighed softly. "It looks so peaceful out there." Her tone quickly became more upbeat. "Hey, want to go for a swim?" "I'm kind of tired," I admitted. The lack of sleep was really start- ing to get to me.

"Come on. A good swim will wake you up."

I turned to her with a smile. "You're right. I'd love to go for a swim."

Liana slipped into her swimming suit and had her beach bag packed within minutes. We made the short walk down the sand to my house, where I dressed in my own swimsuit and packed up my towel.

Liana inhaled a deep breath for show as we stepped out my back door. "It's such a nice day today." She spread her arms wide as if that would help her soak up the sun.

"It's just been a nice summer," I pointed out when we hit the sand.

And lucky for us that it was. It was the summer after high school,

probably the one summer we'd remember forever. I'll remember it for different reasons, though, I thought to myself. Liana squinted toward the crowded beach ahead. "Except last

night. Did that big crack of thunder wake you up?"

"That big crack of thunder?" I repeated. "You mean the two- hundred cracks of thunder?" I thought back to Tristan, how I'd walked this same path last night only to find him on the beach in front of me. It almost didn't seem like the same place. Last night, it was so quiet, so secluded. Now you could hardly see the sand through the crowd, and you could hear the laughter all the way from my house. It almost had me questioning if it all had been real. Almost.

Liana shrugged. "Whatever. I'm kind of looking forward to the summer being over. I just mean, I'm excited about college. Living with you in the dorms will be fun, don't you think?" I nodded. "Yeah, but I'm nervous for classes to start next week.

I'm so not ready for the summer to be over," "Well." She dragged out the word while wiggling her eyebrows at me. "We still have a week left. Let's make the most of it. Race you!" Before I could fully process her challenge, she had already taken off sprinting toward the beach.

"Not fair!" I called after her, racing just fast enough that she maintained a fair distance ahead. After calling her a sea horse ear- lier, I supposed I could spare her a win in the speed department.

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