Page 16 of Just Try, Again and Again

The cooling sensation of the water feels like absolute bliss on my skin. With the sun shining as brightly as it does right now, I’m not in a rush to get out of here anytime soon. Haruki mustfeel the same, considering her head is submerged in the water. She has been swimming breaststroke in circles, looking at a family of rainbow-colored parrotfish under her.

Her head suddenly pops up and she floats next to me, her arms and legs dancing around underwater. Haruki puts her goggles on top of her head and gives me a water-coated kiss on the lips as she wraps her arms around my neck. “Thanks for this, Bryce. This is the most amazing thing ever.”

My hands grab her ass, something I have been itching to do ever since we took our clothes off on the beach before. “You’re the most amazing thing ever,” I tell her honestly. “And it’s going to kill me when you leave.”

“I’m sure we can come up with something.”

“And why would you do that for a holiday fling?” I ask, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Her eyes scan my face, as if she’s making sure I’m ready for what she’s about to say. My heart hammers inside my chest, scared that this is the moment where she tells me that she’s leaving the US soon, that we won’t see each other again after this trip, or that we’ll keep in contact as fucking friends.

“Because I think I’m in love with you, too, Bryce.”

13

Haruki - 18 years old

The skin on my back feels like it has been barbecued. I’ve never been caught on fire before, but I’d imagine this is what it would feel like after you get out of the flames. My head turns to the side so I can get a glimpse of the redness in the full-length mirror in our bungalow suite.

“Haruki, you have to stop touching it,” Bryce warns. “Just put on that aloe vera thing. You’ll be fine.”

I walk toward the dresser and squirt the clear gel out of the tube, rubbing it on my upper back. The cooling effect alleviates the sunburn immediately, a sensation I gladly welcome after spending the whole day in the scorching heat.

“I can’t believe you only got SPF 15,” I sneer. “And I can’t believe you look fine right now, while I look like a boiled crab.” Only a guy would buy sunscreen with an SPF that low.

Bryce just chuckles as we both make our way to the bed. It’s not even nighttime yet, but both of us are tired from all the swimming. If it were up to me, I would have slept in the car, but he seemed exhausted and I wanted to make sure that he wasdriving safely since Shark’s Cove is about one hour away from our resort.

“Lie down, let me give you a hand.” I oblige and lie on my stomach, resting my head on my arms and tilting my head to the side. His palms, coated in aloe vera gel, land on my shoulder. Bryce works the product in and rubs my shoulder and upper back.

Before I can say anything, I hear the sound of the tube squirting again and a few seconds later, his hands are back on me, this time on my lower back. Unlike before, when he gently put the product on me for burn relief, Bryce is now kneading my muscles. He presses my spine with his thumbs gently, moving upward, and I let out a small moan.

“How do you know how to do this?” I ask. “You don’t look like you’ve worked a day in your life. I doubt that you had a part-time job as a masseuse.”

I hear him laugh from behind me. “No, but I do get massages sometimes. We have a lot of seaside resorts in the area.”

His hands move from my back to my thighs, causing me to stiffen.He found my ticklish spot.I hold back my giggle as he massages my inner thigh, pressing it with his thumb. “Bryce.” I turn my body around and see the amused look on his face. “You’re tickling me.”

He gives me one of those lopsided smiles that tells me he doesn’t care. “Is that so?” he asks in a playful tone. Bryce proceeds to tickle both of my inner thighs over and over again, causing me to squeal as he laughs.

“Bryce, stop. Stop!” I yell. He’s still towering over me, but his hands stay still. I lay under him, trying to catch my breath from all the squirming and laughing, my back now damp from the gel sticking to the sheets. The mischievous look in his blue eyes has been replaced with something else. Something less playful and more primal. I stop smiling and swallow a breath when I realize.

I feel his right hand moving on my thigh again, but this time it’s different. With of our gazes still interlocked, Bryce caresses my skin softly before the feeling of his smooth palm moves up my body, going from my thigh, up to the bony part of my pelvis, and then to my stomach where my dress is all bunched up. He stops once he reaches my right breast. A moan escapes my mouth once he starts flicking my nipple with his finger.

“Fuck, I am so in love with you. How the fuck did this even happen?” he asks—to me or to himself, I’m not sure. Tingles take over my body, but it’s not because I’m ticklish. He’s repeated how he feels about me a few times now. I’m better at keeping a lid on my emotions, but inside I feel the exact same. Whoever coined the term “whirlwind romance” must have been talking about this. What we’re doing. What we have.

“I feel the same way, Bryce,” I admit. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Every word that escapes my mouth is accompanied by pants. Not only is my back sticking to the bedsheets because of the aloe vera gel, but my underwear is also sticking to me due to the wetness that’s seeping out.

“Yet you’re still going to leave.” His voice is gentle. Bryce is not angry; he’s just processing our reality out loud.

This was my biggest fear from the start. Bryce and I jumped straight into dangerous territory, diving headfirst into what I’m pretty sure will crash and burn soon. But that’s the thing with broken people—we latch onto the first thing that shows us affection. That shows us that we’re not just a decoration in the corner of a dusty room. A Christmas ornament that only gets taken out of its box once a year, or your grandmother’s lamp that you keep in the basement of the house because it doesn’t match the decor.

“You’re going to start college soon,” I say in between my moans as his hand moves to my pussy and he slides two fingers in. “It’s not like you can come with me and travel.”

“What if I want to?” he asks before putting one nipple in his mouth. His tongue moves in tandem with his fingers, causing my body to vibrate in ways I thought it couldn’t.

“We…we can always try long-distance,” I mumble, unable to focus on the conversation with the way he’s maneuvering his fingers in and out of me.

Bryce stops talking and starts putting all his focus on my body. He lifts his head to look me in the eye. Just as my moans get louder and I am about to reach climax, Bryce starts talking again. “I don’t want to be just some fucker that you remember from your time in the US, Haruki.”

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