Page 63 of Almost

“Okay. Today I’ll do whatever you want. I can be chill,” I say. It doesn’t sound convincing, but it does make Thalia laugh.

“What do I get if you freak out when you aren’t in control of something?” she teases, trying to lighten the mood again.

“What do you want?”

“I’ll let you know when I think of it, but for now, turn your brain off, Bash. It’ll be good for you.”

Being around Thalia is good for me. That’s the only thing I’m certain of right now.

I act like I’m pushing a button on my head, causing her to grin. “Brain has been turned off. What’s next?”

Thalia shakes her head, trailing her fingers through the water. “You don’t get to know. I’m going to try to float while trying not to get water in my mouth.”

“I thought mermaids could breathe underwater?” I point out, chuckling as she tilts her head back, her body floating just underneath the surface of the water.

“Well, as much as I wish I could be a mermaid, I’m not one. As a human who is unfortunately forced to walk dry land every day, I do mind breathing in water,” Thalia sasses back. The waves in this area aren’t calm enough today to float, so the only thing she’s going to end up with is a mouthful of water. All I have to do is sit back and wait for it to happen.

I almost wish it took longer than thirty seconds for a wave to go over her face because in those thirty seconds, she looked serene. Lia sputters and coughs, finding her footing as I offer my arm for her to hold onto while she catches her breath. She doesn’t resemble a mermaid anymore, but instead a drowned rat. I can’t help laughing as I gently brush her hair out of her face. “How’d the water taste?”

Thalia makes a face as she continues coughing, trying to expel the saltwater from her windpipe. “Salty,” she croaks out. “If that’s what being waterboarded feels like, I never want to have that done.”

“It didn’t taste like fish pee?” I ask, finding this amusing as hell.

“I hate being reminded that fish pee, and you know it.”

I can’t resist smiling at her. “I’m just going with the flow, and that’s part of it.”

The look she gives me is priceless, and Thalia shoves me away as I laugh at her again. “I’m going to go take a drink of my water. I need to rinse my mouth out; all I can taste is thesalt and I think there’s a little sand in there too,” she grumbles.

“Don’t forget the fish pee,” I taunt, unable to resist the opportunity. She sticks her tongue out at me.

“Now you’re just being mean.”

Thalia walks back to where she’d dumped her stuff, and I take a minute to scan the beach instead of watching her walk away. It’s not like it was at Alec’s; that beach was private and this one isn’t. Granted it’s the middle of the day on a Thursday, and we’re three hours away from Charlotte, but still. Based on the last few weeks, I’m a little anxious that our quiet day will be interrupted by the chaos surrounding my life.

Except, I’m not allowed to be thinking about any of this. Besides, it’s not like Thalia and I are here making out in the sand or in the water. It’s innocent. We’re just friends. There’s no reason for anyone to notice us.

Truthfully, I hate being friends. Now that Lia’s back in my life, I want her in it the way she should have been all along. My feelings for Thalia never went away. I was only kidding myself when I thought if I suppressed them deep enough inside me that they’d eventually disappear.

I was so incredibly wrong about so many things.

When Thalia comes back out, she’s frowning. “I thought we said no thinking?”

I give her my most charming smile. “But what if I was thinking about you?”

“This is your final warning. No thinking, Sebastian, I mean it,” she threatens, fully intending to be intimidating, but I only find it endearing.

I smile at her, pulling Thalia back into deeper water with me as she shrieks in surprise.

~

I didn’t realize how much I needed today until it’s almost over. It’s getting late, and I’m dreading the drive home. I want to stay in this moment forever.

Thalia’s lying against my chest between my legs. She said it was to keep warm after the sun went down, but I know that despite all her talk about friends, Thalia wants to be with me too. Still, I went along with it.

As much as I’d love to be with her right now, I need time. It sucks admitting after I’ve been apart from Lia for so long already, especially when all I want to do is be with her…but I need to figure out who I amwithoutjumping into a relationship.

So for now I’m greedily living in the moment.

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