'I can't believe that a trip to the beach could be this much fun. This is by far the best time I've had skipping school.' Jack thinks as he tries to catch his breath.
Iona turns standing up after getting knocked by a rolling wave, 'I hope this never ends.' She tries to take in everything, doing her best to commit this sun-soaked day to memory. 'This is what happiness feels like.'
They're running through the spring tide, splashing each other with the saltwater. Laughing all the way up and down the beach. She floats on the crest of a wave to the edge of the shore. Noticing that he's close behind her she scrambles to her feet but she's too slow. He finally catches up to her and picks her up around her waist.
"Put me down!" she shouts at me.
"The Lady doth protest too much." He responds to her laughter-filled cries.
"I'm serious, I'm too heavy. Put me down now!"
"Nope." He carries her deeper into the ocean refusing to give in to her objections. At least not yet.
"Come on. Put me down."
"Are you sure you want me to do that?" He asks her hoping she'll take her time in answering so he can hold her a little longer. Unfortunately, there's no such luck.
"Yes." Her giggles and smile almost make him rethink what he's about to do, only to remember how she splashed him. 'Too bad a guy has to do what I guy has to do.'
"Okay," and with that, he drops her into the oncoming wave and jumps a few paces back.
Her face is priceless as she comes up again, and not for the first time today he has to burst out laughing at her. Then suddenly something happens and she falls. She's gone under again. This time she doesn't resurface.
There's no explanation for the fear that consumes Jack's body. 'Did she hit her head when I dropped her? Has she really been feeling sick this whole time? Why hasn't she come up yet!?'
He runs to where she went under and another wave suddenly hits him. He's looking through the water trying to find her, but he can't see anything through the sand that's been kicked up.
The next thing he knows he's pulled down under the water as a wave crashes over his head. It tumbles him around carrying him in. He gasps for air as he pulls his head above the water. It takes him a second to find his bearings only to that the wave must have brought him right in because he's sitting on the edge of the breakers. He whips his head around at the sound of someone else being close behind him.
She's standing a little way in laughing her head off at him, "You should see your face. That was priceless. You were so busy rushing to my rescue that you didn't see me come and sneak up behind you."
He can feel his heart calming down now that he knows she's safe. Then it clicks that she was safe the whole time, and she probably rode the same wave to where the waves kiss the shore.
"Oh no you don't," He says getting up to chase her up the beach." You're going to get it now. No more Mr. Nice Guy."
"Well you can try but I don't think you can catch me." She taunts as she picks up her towel and runs around him.
He reaches out his arm to grab her but she spins and he misses.
"I'll get you and then you'll be sorry." He runs straight at her this time. She turns, dancing around him she manages to dodge him two more times before he finally catches her.
Once he's caught her he spins her around and they end up falling on the soft sand. Him on his back and her on top of him. They laugh looking up at the endless blue now dotted with a few white clouds. He tickles her sides and she squirms and ends up falling to the side.
"No more! No more!" She pleads between, you guessed it more laughter. What can I say, they're very happy people today.
'This is defiantly the best day I've had in a very long time.' They both think at the same time as their laughter dies down. They both freeze. Take a deep breath believing that the other must have heard what they were thinking. They fall back down settling into the silence that's fallen between them.
They spent the rest of the morning into the early afternoon on the beach playing in the water and lying in the sun talking. This was when they find out that their younger brothers have birthdays in the same month. Iona learns that he hates spicy food almost as much as he likes rock music. Jack learns that Iona is on the fence about if sci-fi or high fantasy is better. He laughs as her playlist changes from metal to Welsh-indie to Paganini, which she quickly skips because judging from his posters she doesn't think he'll appreciate.
"No put it back on," he laughs at how quickly she'd picked up her phone to change it, "I liked it."
She sends him a look but puts it back on before lying back down on her towel, going back to playing with the sunbaked sand in front of her.
"Soooo," She starts seeing the grains falling in front of her, "Truth or dare?"
"Are we playing now?" He questions trying not to look at her.
She turns her head and looks up into his eyes, "Why not?"
He lies down on his towel next to her thinking about it, he settles down before answering," Okay, fair enough. Truth."
She seems pleased at his choice, "Alright, would you rather be blind or deaf?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"A normal kind."
He shakes his head, "No it's not."
"Yes, it is." She protests, "Besides even if it's not it's, truth so you have to answer."
"Aaaa fine...deaf."
"Why?"
"'Cause then I don't have to hear your dumb questions." He teases.
"Ouch." She laughs taking it in stride. "Truth."
"I didn't ask you yet."
"Yeah, but you were going to. So I pick truth." She rolls over and looks up at the sky.
Jack can't help but marvel at her general attitude towards life. It's like she knows everything and is somehow in control of every detail. Iona on the other hand can't help but wonder how long it's going to take him to find out that she has no idea what she's doing.
Jack turns his head allowing himself to take in everything about the tanned girl next to him. Without much thought, he asks her, "So would you rather be deaf or blind?"
"No. No no no, you can't just steal my question."
"But what if I want to know."
"No, it doesn't work that way. You need to come up with your own question." She sticks her tongue out at him. The thought of just kissing her crosses his mind again, but he just sticks his tongue out back at her.
"Truth?" He thinks for a minute or rather tries to not think about pulling her closer to him. "Why did you change your mind about bunking school for the day?"
"You talked me into it." She brushes the question off.
"And why do I have the feeling that you're lying?"
"I don't know."
"You don't really seem like the person who lets anyone talk her into something she doesn't want to do." He thinks out loud.
She tries not to sound too defensive, "Well you were pretty convincing." She says not wanting to tell him that she was curious about him. That she wants to find out more about him, and since last night she hasn't been able to get him out of her head. So to avoid telling him this, she doesn't explain further.
Some or other seabird flies overhead bring them both back from the tangents their minds were taking them on. It's about midday now and getting too hot to stay out in the sun.
Iona sits up, fascinated by the sand that's dried to her legs, "Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
She grins at him, "I dare you to buy me lunch." Right on cue, his stomach growls. "I'm sure it's passed lunchtime already, and I didn't really get to eat breakfast this morning."
He laughs, "Well I guess I'm bound by the universal rules of Truth or Dare, to buy you lunch."
He's not wrong. The rules of Truth or Dare are clear and carved in stone. Besides that, the idea of getting out of the sun and getting something to eat from one of the multiple restaurants that line the other side of the road across from the beach seems like a very good idea right now. "So where do you want to go? Do you know anywhere good?"
He offers her his hand to help her up and pulls her to her feet.
"I'm not really sure I don't often eat out and I don't really come to these types of places," she says gesturing to the places across the street.
"Well then we'll just have to pick one and hope it's good," He says as they walk towards the lifeguard house so that he can get his wallet to buy them some food.
"Sounds good to me." She smiles falling into step with him.
'The best part is that I haven't seen Mike around at all' he thinks as they leave to go pick a place to have lunch, 'and I've had the whole day to spend getting to know her. By far the best day I've had in forever.'