Rhode Island, Block Island, New Shoreman

Ages Twelve

“Would you stop,” Brandon Ashe shouted after Ashley Anderson as she pedaled a little faster.

“How about you hurry up you slow poke.” She joked, glancing behind her briefly before skidding around a corner on her bike. Brandon sighed and pedaled faster to catch up with her. Why she was so fascinated by the whale that visited outside by the bay everyday around noon? Brandon couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but yet, he still followed her out every weekend.

“It’s just a whale,” He shouted coming up next to her as she stood, holding her bike steady watching the water beyond her.

“Brandon, it’s not just a whale.” She said, her eyes lighting up slightly as she spoke. “It’s a creature of the deep.” She said excitedly as he shook his head, breathing heavily from their long ride out to the ocean.

The beach that Ashley had always ridden too was about ten miles out of a very small town the two lived in, Block Island, New Shoreman, Rhode Island.

Ashley called it a beach, but it wasn’t much of one. Brandon mostly just saw rocks, and the current pathway they had taken stood out above very deep Ocean. Brandon loves the ocean just as much as anyone else in Block Island, but he believes Ashley is probably the only girl in the entire world that loves it more than anyone else.

“Well, where is it?” Brandon asked looking around as Ashley grabbed his arm firmly. For a twelve year old girl, she had a nice grip. Her eyes did not leave the waves below them. Brandon looked at her and waited for her to speak, but she said nothing. He watched her face as her lips formed an ‘oh’ shape. Then she pointed excitedly out into the water.

“There Brandon, there,” She said excitedly and pushed her bike to the ground. “Come on,” She shouted and began climbing down the rocks. Brandon shook his head and ran after her.

“Ashley, stop, the waters to deep,” Brandon shouted after her.

“Wow,” She said excitingly. Brandon followed her gaze when he finally reached the bottom of the rocks.

The whale that Ashley had been gushing about since last summer shot up from the water just as Brandon’s gaze landed where Ashley’s had been. It was the hugest thing Brandon had ever seen. His heart pounded loudly in his chest as he watched it soar in the air. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” She said breathlessly as Brandon glanced at her.

“Yeah,” He said, not averting his gaze from her for a few more seconds. Once his eyes land back on the water, he sees the end of the whale fall into the water, creating the hugest wave he had ever seen.

“Ashley, we got to go.” Brandon panicked as the wave closed in on them. Come on. He grabbed Ashley’s hand as they fought their way to the top. When the wave crashed the rock they had made it to the top, but so did the wave, spraying them with water and knocking Ashley down on top of him. She burst into laughter as Brandon laughed with her.

“That was so fun!” She exclaimed excitedly as Brandon shook his head.

“No it wasn’t. That wave almost took you away.” He scolded stubbornly as they sat up together. Ashley laughed and shook her head.

“Then whose milk would you steal?” She asked him with a smirk as she stood up and brushed herself off. She held her hand out to him and he took it willingly.

“We are never doing this again.” Brandon said pointing his finger at her as she laughed and grabbed her bike, bringing it up.

“As far as I’m concerned, my family hates your family, which means we hate each other. So you didn’t come out here with me.” She said shrugging and jumping on her bike. She stopped it and turned her head when he didn’t follow. “Are you coming?” She asked him with a smile as he returned it. He grabbed his bike and road with her home.

“You know, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be alive anymore, the sea would have you.” Brandon said as they stopped at the end of the road. She looked at him with a smile and shrugged.

“It’ll be our little secret. Thank you,” She said pushing him slightly as he smiled at her and nodded.

“I hate you,” He said as she laughed.

“I hate you more, goodnight.” She said riding off down the road first, when she was far enough ahead of him. He rode smiling his whole way home.

“Guess what day it is!?” Alissa starts shouting in Ashley’s ear. She jumps up and down excitedly next to her as they slowly move forward in the line of only twenty eight seniors. They didn’t necessarily have a high school. No, the town they lived in had only one school on the whole Island that had every grade.

“Only the first day of the last year of our childhood lives.” Selena says slowly, since she’s heard this constantly since the beginning of last summer. Alissa, sensing Selena’s sarcasm glares at her. Alissa is a short, long black haired girl with bright green eyes, and she was a ball of fire.

“I hope you get that teacher that smells like cottage cheese for Law.” Alissa snaps unpleasantly. Selena only returns her gaze with indifference, her bright powdery blue eyes shining with boredom. Selena was a normal height for a girl; she had mid-back length black hair as well. She was skinny and sarcastic.

“Please guys, the day just started.” Laura protests, popping up next to them and cuts in line. Laura was the tallest of the girls, but not by much. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes, but like the ocean blue, not powdery like Selena’s. Her hair was just past her shoulders, and she was a bit on the breasty side. She got a lot of shit for it from the boys in school.

“You know, one of these days’ people will protest to your evil cutting habits.” Christina interjects unhappily now standing behind Laura. Christina was the second tallest in the group, with the longest length of hair that went just past her mid-back above her petite butt. It was a mix of brown and blonde, and her eyes were an emerald green color… The kind you are jealous of. She had a skinny figure, long legs, and she was extremely smart. She also had a knack for knowing all the girls secrets, because she was the most trustworthy, though they were all five extremely close.

“You guys spent way too much time together this summer.” Ashley says starting to giggle as they moved up again in the line. Ashley was funny easy going one of the group. She had long brown hair that was the same length as Selena’s, and her eyes were a soft doughy brown color. She had a curvy figure, and was average in height, but had nice long legs. She had a big smile, and a kind heart, but a big secret.

“Where’s your locker Ash?” Christina says, bending out of the line to look in Ashley’s direction. Ashley gives Christina one of her warm smiles and looks down at her blue index card with her locker number on it and gives off a shrug.

“It says twenty nine, probably next to Brandon again.” She says, adding a dramatic snarl to his name as she says it. Laura responds by scrunches up her face and shaking her head.

“What a nightmare for you. That would be the fourth year in a row.” Selena adds with a shake to her head. Her powdery blue eyes seemed to be looking for something around the cafeteria.

“That’s what happens when your names are so close together in the alphabet.” Ashley says with a sigh, moving up with the line.

“Maybe he died this summer.” Alissa interjected hopefully as Ashley rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face. She secretly hoped not.

“You’re last name please?” The older lady, who everyone usually called Lucinda, asks Ashley with a bright smile for her.

“Anderson,” Ashley smiles in reply.

“Oh, I already know sweetie, I’m just teasing, here.” Lucinda hands over Ashley’s schedule with a giggle.

“Thanks,” Ashley glances over her schedule as she moves out of the way. She however doesn’t make a move for her locker but instead waits on her friends to get there schedules as well.

A moment later, as she watched her friend, she felt her lower back grazed by fingers. “Morning,” Nick said, his smile brighter than ever. Nicholas Herrington was Brandon’s best friend, but he was known around school more than that. He was easily one of the most attractive boys at the school, who kept up his figure and attitude to basically rule the place… But he wasn’t a bad guy, in fact, he probably did so well in high school because he was an extremely good guy. He had dark chocolate brown piercing eyes, curly black hair, and a contagiously confident attitude. He also towered over all the girls easily with a height of 6’2.

“Nicholas, how was your summer?” Ashley asked as he shrugged nonchalantly. His eyes moved past Ashley to someone behind her, but she didn’t bother to look.

“Eh, you know.” He moved his hand back and forth to emphasize his point. “I wonder if she’s told you.” He says with a wink as Ashley’s face scrunches up in confusion. She looks at him curiously and is about to ask until Selena interrupts their conversation.

“Um no,” Selena says immediately, popping up next to Ashley with her schedule in her hand. She is glaring at Nick, almost the same way you’d look at your least favorite food. Her fingers balling up into a fist on the schedule in her hand. Ashley stares at her curiously. She knew Nick and Selena had a rough history, and Selena normally got irritated when Nick came around, but something about this was different.

“What? Tell me what?” Ashley finally voices, cutting her gaze away from Selena’s distressful looking face to look at Nick who was grinning from ear to ear as he stared at Selena. Some kind of hidden mischief in his eyes.

“Tell you what?” Alissa says coming up next to Ashley on her other side now.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing!” Selena exclaims, acting very unlike herself. She begins dragging Ashley away from Nick now as he chuckles after them, tilting his head back pleasantly, looking creepily happy.

“Nothing what, Selena?” Ashley says with a curious head turn, turning around a corner to be greeted with lots of grungy looking yellow lockers on each side of them.

“Nothing, it’s not important.” Selena protests, her face growing red with something to hide. Ashley begins to smile as she raises an eyebrow curiously at her friend.

“Nothing important, huh?” Ashley teases as Selena grows even redder.

“Just, no. Shut up.” She turns away from Ashley sharply, looks down at her blue index card with her locker combination and number on it and starts stomping off down the hall.  She turns a corner out of sight.  Alissa and Ashley watch her for a bit before they both burst into laughter next to each other.

“Nothing, my ass.” Alissa says with laughter.

“Thanks for waiting guys, I really appreciate that.” Christina says, leaning against the lockers next to Ashley. Ashley and Alissa were still laughing so they only shrugged off Christina’s sarcasm.

“Woo, my locker!” Ashley says in an excited manor, letting going of Selena’s awkward attitude for the moment. She was still giggling little bit as she crosses the hall to number twenty nine.

“I’m down a few from you.” Christina says, walking across the hall toward Ashley with Alissa and Laura to follow.

“Well, we’ve got nothing to put in it at the moment, so I guess it doesn’t matter.” Ashley says, still giggling as she shrugs her shoulders. Ashley looks down the hall where Selena had gone and then looks at Christina.

“Do you know anything about her and Nick? What that was back there?” Ashley asks her as Christina shrugs.

“No, I’m sure it’s not a big deal or anything. Probably something really small.” Christina looks down at her shoes as she kicks them back and forth slightly before looking back up at Ashley who shrugs it off.

“Let’s go find her,” Ashley says and begins to make her way down the hall. The rest of the girls follow without protest

“Brandon, dude, I just saw Anderson’s posy. Looks like she’s got locker twenty nine.” Xander says, appearing next to Brandon as he looks down at his schedule. Xander was another super good friend of Brandon’s. He was playful and funny, with a kind heart. He had light blonde hair a boyish blue eyes. He was always the most easy going of his friends. Brandon pushes aside his schedule; he looks over at his note card with his locker number and combination on it.

“Thirty,” Brandon says, rolling his eyes slightly. Brandon is tall, like his friends, and he has soft brown hair that he spikes up in the front. He had hazel eyes, the kind that starts off brown with green sprouting around the black of his pupil fading into the brown. He’s well put together with nice style, and has a sarcastic confident attitude.

“Every year dude,” Xander says with a shake to his head.

“Yeah, last names.” Brandon leans back in his seat and pushes his notecard to the side. When he looks up he smirks as the girls enter the cafeteria and allows his eyes to trail along the nice long legs of one girl in particular.

“You know, if you get your parents in, they could probably get it changed.” Brandon waves his hand at Xander dismissing his comment. His eyes have traveled to her mid-body now, savoring every second.

“I’ll be right back Xander.” He says, pushing back on the table and stands. He watches as the girls take a seat, giggling most likely about nothing. One thing he’s learned about Ashley’s group. They do a whole lot of giggling about absolutely nothing important. He didn’t mind though, he found it quite entertaining.

He begins walking toward the table and as he gets closer to their table he can hear their conversation. “Ugh, I have Mr. Jonathan first.” He hears Alissa complain. He watched as Ashley peeked over Alissa’s shoulder. He bit his lip as she tossed her brown hair back from her face.

“I had him last year, sucker.” Ashley teased, sticking her tongue out. Brandon only smirked wider as he got closer to the table.

“If you were just smart like us, you would have taken that class already.” Selena adds in, making the group yet again, yeah you guessed it, giggle.

“Oh fuck,” Laura says, spotting Brandon as he comes up close to them now. “Ashe is on his way.” She rolls her eyes as the group glances in his direction. They all looked away immediately except for Ashley. No, instead she allowed her eyes to meet with Brandon’s in almost a challenging way it.

He breathed a bit different when her eyes locked with his, shivering as she challenged him with her eyes. He bit his bottom lip as he examined her face before locking with her eyes again. “Ladies,” Brandon said, pretending they deserved a bow. He kept his smirk on Ashley as she cocked her head to the right, her eyes still full of challenge, and something else he can’t quite put his finger on.

“Did you have a good summer slut?” She asked pleasantly, as if normal people exchange this way all the time. Well, when it comes to Brandon and Ashley, this is a very common exchange.

“It would have been great had I not had to see your face every day.” He smiles pleasantly and sarcastically, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“I know it’s a bitch to only be able to stare at what you want, but never be able to have it.” Ashley continued with her challenging stare as something in the air shifted. Something in the air always shifted between them. It always caused the uncomfortable beating of his heart, the sucking in of his breath, the grinding of his teeth as he grew frustrated with his attraction for her.

The tension becomes a cloud, surrounding them and everyone around them. “Cocky as ever Miss Anderson, I trust your summer was well, annoying my family through most of it.” He challenged back, his throat drying slightly. He hid it well though; no one at this table could guess the feelings going through him as he stared at her.

“You’re the ones who barged in on our Fourth of July party.” Ashley interjected, folding her hands together on top of the table as she raised one of her thin and perfect eyebrows at him.

“Well, had your family not been obnoxious as they normally are, we wouldn’t have had problems, now would we?” He said, cocking his head to the side now. His smirk stayed on his lips as he leaned forward slightly.

“Well, see you in Calculus sweetheart. I’ve got better things do now.” She winked at him teasingly as she stood with her friends.

“Adios whore,” He called to her as she turned her back to him. He chuckled allowing his eyes to revert to her ass, where he bite his bottom lip and stared at it for only a couple of seconds before turning to go back to his table.

“Brandon,” Christina said, coming up next to him now as her group made their way out of the cafeteria.

“Christina, hey.” Brandon said pleasantly. He and Christina had a friendship do to last year’s mix up. She dated a guy on the football team with Brandon who was kind of a dick, and Brandon caught him slap her one day, so Brandon took care of him for her. Ever since they’ve just got along. She’s the only girl whose friends with Ashley who approves of him, though she pretends not to when she’s with the group.

“What’s your locker number?” She asked curiously, one of her eyebrows creasing in a worried way. He furrows his together curiously.

“Thirty, why?” He asked as she shook her head.

“No reason, I just needed to know. See you in Calculus.” She said waving at him as he nodded. Calculus was one period and one class, so everyone who had Calculus had it together.

“Yeah, okay.” He waved and slightly confused, made his way back to his table group, Nick and Xander. When he made it back to the table they were both in a heated debate about a new television show Brandon had, had no time to watch this summer.

“Well, Selena’s on my side so…” Xander shrugged at Nick who only glared at him in response. Brandon raised a thick eyebrow at them.

“Selena?” He asked curiously as Nick shot his head to Brandon. Brandon knew he wasn’t going to get filled in on why Selena was even mentioned by the look of panic in Nick’s eyes. He swished his head toward Xander and smacked him upside the head before Xander could say anything.

“Shut up, idiot.” Nick said, grinding his teeth slightly. “She’s still not talking to me really because of you.” Nick bounced his leg up and down slightly as he further glared at Xander who only rolled his eyes.

“Please, she’s talking to you fine.” Brandon plopped down in the plastic blue chair at the table, giving up on the conversation. His mind travelled back to Ashley, and where her group was walking at this moment, what she was thinking, how good she looked compared to the last time he had laid eyes on her. Too bad their families were in such a feud; otherwise he’d have taken her a long time ago rather than becoming sexually frustrated every time he came around her.

She was probably so good at it too. She had the confidence, he was sure she knew how attractive she was, how easily she could rule over a man. With a body like hers, it wouldn’t be hard. All she’s got to do is tip her hips in a certain way and it sends him over the edge. He bits his lip; maybe he’ll try her once before the end of the year. One time couldn’t hurt him. He shakes the thought from his mind, no. He shouldn’t be thinking like that, it’s only all more appealing to him because it’s forbidden. Besides, he’s got a pretty and sweet girlfriend he can focus on now that he just started dating. Perhaps it’s because he was set up by his parents, and he was trying to get his mind of Ashley, but it is his girlfriend nonetheless.

He smirks… Ashley probably tastes so sweet though.