“You’re my brown eyed girl.” He grinned. “Come on, Half-Pint, I’ll walk you back to your house. It’s getting late.”
“Okay.”
He grabbed his board and we walked beside each other, barely talking the entire hike back to my house. He normally waited until I was on my front porch to leave. My house was three stories high and had a wooden deck leading to the front door. I slowly opened the door, but before I stepped into the foyer, I found myself doing something I never had before.
I turned around.
He was still there, watching me.
I shyly smiled and he waved goodbye. I ran up to my room, closing the door behind me, leaning against it. I caressed my lips one last time and then…
I licked them.
The same fluttering feeling I felt that entire afternoon stayed with me for the rest of the night.
A few days went by and then it was my 11th birthday. My parents threw an intimate birthday party for me at their restaurant, inviting close family and friends. I wasn’t one for big extravagant things. I learned later in life that I really was just a small town girl. All the boys spoiled me with gifts. I had more boy clothes than I knew what to do with, much to my mama’s dismay.
“Did you have a good birthday party, Half-Pint?” Dylan asked, putting his arm around my shoulder.
“I did.”
“My gift was the best, wasn’t it?” Jacob chimed in, tugging me away from Dylan.
I giggled. “I loved all of them.”
“It’s okay to be honest, Half-Pint, you can tell them that my gift was your favorite,” Austin added, smiling and throwing the football up in the air, Lucas intercepting it.
We threw the football for the next hour and soon it was time for everyone to go home. It was Sunday night and we all had school the following morning.
Lucas’ family was the last to leave, like always.
"Come on," he directed with a nod to follow him.
“You’re leaving.”
“My dad just opened up another beer, you know what that means.”
I trailed behind him to the same spot we were at the other day with the nervousness bubbling up from my belly to my throat.
Is he going to kiss me again?
He turned. “Here,” he said, handing me another wrapped present.
“I already opened your gift.”
“Nah, my mom got that. This one is from me. I bought it with the money I made from mowing lawns this past summer.”
“Oh.” I slowly unwrapped the long rectangle box and slid the lid off. “Bo,” I whispered out loud, surprised and looking back up at him.
He reached for the shark tooth necklace from the box and moved behind me. “I found it in Old Pa’s antique store. To be honest, I don’t even know why I went in there. I hate that store. Old Pa says it’s legit. It’s from a baby shark that got lost in the inlet a few years back. He saved the shark, but it left behind this tooth. He found it a few weeks ago in his nightstand, he completely forgot about it and decided to turn it into a necklace.” He paused. “Maybe it was the same shark that bumped my board so I had to get it for you.”
“Was it expensive?”
I could feel him smiling as he clasped the silver chain into place. It hung right in between my breastbone.
“Only you would ask that.” He spun me, placing his fingers on the tooth. It appeared smaller in his grasp. “The chain is white gold.” His knuckles brushed against my skin, making me feel warm all over.
What is happening to me?
It was my favorite gift. “I love it, thank you, Bo, I’ll never take it off.”
And I didn’t.
Until one day…
I did.
I spent all my money on that necklace and didn’t think twice about it. I wanted her to have it. I wish I could tell you why. All I knew was the moment I saw it, I had to make it hers. I chucked it up to the fact that it could have been the same shark that hit my board, not realizing that maybe it was because that same day we shared our first kiss and I wanted her to remember it, always.
Carry it around with her.
A memory ingrained.
The symbolism behind it wasn’t something I realized till I was older.
By that time, it was too late.
“I love you, Half-Pint, you’re my best friend,” was all I could say.
It was natural, normal. I wanted us to stay exactly that way. Losing her wasn’t an option for me and I knew that at thirteen years old.
Shit I knew it even before then.
She smiled, big and wide. “I love you, too.”
***
The rest of the school year went flying by, and it was once again summer, our favorite time of the year. The island was packed with tourists and the high season had begun. There were only two months out of the year where Oak Island was crowded with random people from all over the world. Living in a small Southern beach town, everyone knew everybody, you couldn’t walk anywhere without someone knowing your name. Town gossip ran rapid and everyone knew everyone’s drama and business, nothing stayed behind closed doors. I never paid any attention to it.
None of us did.
“Come on, Lucas, just take her out for a burger. She’s been fawning all over you since the beginning of the school year and that was almost a year ago. She’s hot. Why you keep ignoring her?” Jacob asked as we pedaled from the beach to Alex’s house.
“Because she’s dated every guy in our grade, the girl’s been ridden more than my damn bike.”
“That’s the point.”
“Not for me.”
“Lucas, don’t you want to do something? I mean your hand must be gettin’ tired,” he laughed.
I glared at him.
“Whatever, man, it’s your dick. I’m just trying to help you. That’s what friends do for each other. You know I got to third base with Lesley and Dylan is almost to second with Riley. Austin is still young but shit, man, he’s already tongue kissed a girl. What have you done, Lucas? Jack shit.”
My mind went to Alex, it wasn’t a tongue kiss, but it was still a kiss. I never told any of them what happened and neither did she. That should have been the first giveaway that it meant something, but how much can something mean when you’re that damn young?
Surfing, the boys, and Alex, that was my life. That’s all I understood. That’s all I knew.
It was the first time we hid something from them, but it definitely wouldn’t be the last. We never brought it up again either.
We didn’t have to.
The truth hung around her neck.
“How do you know that?” I asked, breaking away from my thoughts.
“Are you for real? Unless you done something with Alex that we don’t know about, then the only action you’ve seen is what you find in them nudie magazines. We all love Alex. You know that. But she’s a kid. You’re thirteen, not far from being fourteen. Man up!”
I sighed, annoyed with his stammer and the fact that he read my mind or maybe I was just paranoid. “I don’t want to ask her out. I don’t even like her. Why would I ask someone out if I don’t like them?”
He glared over at me like I’d grown four heads. “Bro, you do realize that you just sounded like a pussy, right? Please tell me you know that?
I rolled my eyes.
“You ask a girl like her out for one reason and one reason only. Do I have to spell it out for ya, Lucas?”
“I get it.”
“No I don’t think you do.”
“Shut your trap before I shut it for you,” I argued.
He laughed. “Awe, why so sensitive? Are you hiding something?”
“No.”
“What? Do you like Alex? Is that what this is about?”
“No,” I adamantly repeated.
“Good. She’s like our little sister. If you did, I might have to beat the living shit out of you. You know we all would. It’s not like that with her, for any of us,” he reminded me, adding to my confusion and insecurities of what Alex and I should be to one another.