He Loves Him

by Tegan Fjerstad

  “You want me to take over driving?” Riker caught me off guard.

  “Yeah, if you’re up for it.”

  “Yeah, I’m good,” He said as Jake pushed his bag of chips over to him to finish off, Riker flashed him a smile before adding, “Jermaine you mind sitting in the back?”

  “Nah, I’m cool with whatever.”

  Riker drove the rest of the way to the beach house. It was nice and secluded, the nearest neighbor far enough away that we didn’t have to worry much about being loud, let alone privacy. We had stopped to pick up some pizza for dinner and all but collapsed on the living room floor first thing when we got there to eat it.

  “Right, I’m going to bed. I’ll see you boys in the morning,” Jermaine said as he grabbed his bag and headed upstairs.

  “I’m gonna walk the beach for a bit, if either of you want to join me,” Riker said.

  “Yeah, I’ll join,” Jake said.

  “Pass, I think I’m going to go to sleep also,” I said.

  Riker looked up at me and said, “I’ll be up in an hour.”

  “You can take as long as you want, Ri,” I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Have fun.”

  I watched both of them leave before I got up and carried both of our bags upstairs to the bedroom Riker had said was ours for the week. My breath was taken away the second I opened the door. One entire wall was a sliding glass door out onto a balcony overlooking the beach. There were curtains that could be drawn across all of it for privacy or pulled all the way back to let in an amazing amount of light. The bed was a king-size, which just looked amazingly comfortable. I changed and crawled into bed. Yep, it was the most comfortable bed on the planet.

  I looked at my phone for a split second before setting it down on the night stand, it was eleven pm. I could hear the waves crashing on the beach, and between that and the bed I was drifting off to sleep almost immediately. When I woke up in the pitch black later it was three in the morning and I was still alone in bed. When I checked my phone and didn’t have any messages, I dragged myself out of bed and to the balcony. Squinting out at the beach it was hard to see, but I was pretty sure there was a figure huddled just a few feet from the water.

  I pulled on my hoodie, slid some flip flops on, and worked my way downstairs and out onto the beach. Now that I was closer, I knew I was right, Riker was sitting on the beach with his knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs, and his head tilted up staring at the stars.

  I moved to sit down behind him, bracketing him in between my legs and pressing my chest to his back. He startled for a second before melting into me.

  “You know,” I said as I wrapped my arms loosely around him, “when I told you to take as long as you want, I didn’t mean for you to pull an all-nighter.”

  “Sorry, I kept you waiting. I was about to come up.”

  “You didn’t keep me waiting. I just woke up. You weren’t there, and I was somewhat worried.”

  “Sorry, we came back and I wanted to stay out and look at the stars for a little while. Turns out I couldn’t pull myself away,” he explained.

  I looked up at the sky. The stars were pretty amazing, there was way more of them out than we could ever see on campus. “They are beautiful, the second most beautiful thing out here right now.”

  “That’s a big compliment there, handsome. I don’t know if I like being more beautiful than the stars.”

  “Alright, how about you’re as beautiful as the stars. Equal beauty.”

  “Yeah, I like that one,” he conceded. “Thanks, Kit.”

  “You’re welcome. Now how much longer am I going to have to sit out here for before you come to bed?” I asked.

  He laughed and let his head fall back to my shoulder. “Fifteen more minutes.”

  Chapter 45 – Riker

  March 12th, 2017

  Our first morning at the house I went into the storage shed that supposedly housed a bunch of things for watersports and other beach activities that we were allowed to use. There were two bikes with sand tires that I was giving a wide birth. A net and ball for the sand volleyball court on the side of the house. That would be fun if I could convince all three of them to play at some point. A few other things I glanced over before my eyes landed on the surfboards on one of the walls.

  The shed door opened again and then Jake was speaking behind me, “What are you frowning at?”

  “Mark was supposed to teach me how to surf while we were here,” I said sadly. I had begged him for weeks to teach me before he had given in.

  “I can teach you,” Jake said.

  “What?” I asked turning finally to face him.

  “Yeah. I told you I used to spend summers at my aunt’s. It was only a couple hours from the beach so we would drive out there a lot when the weather was good. One of my older cousins was always surfing, taught me one summer. Still do it occasionally,” he said.

  “You’ll really teach me?” I asked hopefully.

  “Yeah why not? We aren’t doing anything right now if you’re up for it.”

  “I’m up for it,” I said with a little more excitement than was strictly necessary.

  “Great grab that board on the bottom there and let’s go.”

  I was practically bouncing with excitement as I grabbed the board and followed him back out to the beach. For the first thirty minutes he just had me in the sand practicing getting up on the board and how to stand on it. After that it was just thirty minutes of paddling in the water and riding the waves in while still lying down.

  “Right,” he said as he stood there in the water holding my board still while I was sitting on it, “you’re going to start trying to stand up now. I promise you that you will fall off at least a few times, and there’s a good chance it will be a good deal more than a few times.”

  “I figured,” I said with a nod.

  “Good. Just don’t panic or anything if you go under for too long, or if the board pulls you around or any other reason you might have to panic when you fall. I’ll be right here to make sure you’re okay,” he said calmly.

  “How long did it take you to stand up on the board?” I asked him curiously.

  “A week, but I was ten and the waves were probably bigger than my cousin ever should’ve let me near. You should be up in half that time at the worst. Just, if it doesn’t feel right, don’t go for it okay? I don’t need you getting hurt and you don’t have anything to prove to me.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Alright, give it a go, then,” he said and gave my board a shove away from him.

  To say my first few attempts were failures would be an understatement. As soon as I got to a crouch I fell off. One time the board even smacked me for my troubles and left me with what would be a pretty spectacular bruise on my back. It wasn’t until probably the tenth try that I made it halfway between a crouch and standing. I felt like I was understanding it better, getting more balanced, but it just wasn’t working. So, after another couple dozen failed attempts, Jake finally called a stop. “You’re just wearing yourself out now. Even if you are getting better, you’re going to be too tired to actually do it.”

  I pouted at him.

  “Oh no. Don’t give me that look. Your muscles are tired, you are already bruised, and I don’t fancy dragging you in concussed and half drowned if the board hits you in the head next time. So let’s go do something else, we can pick this back up tomorrow.”

  I couldn’t argue with him on that point. I could, but I wouldn’t win. I thought that once we put the board away I’d just get back in the water and swim a bit, but once I was out of the water I realized I needed a snack. Besides it was getting late in the morning, Jermaine and Kit should have woken up. Maybe they’d want to do something fun. When we stepped back into the house though, Kit was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, but Jermaine was nowhere to be seen.

  “Is he still asleep?” Jake said. He sounded outraged.

  “Yeah, I believe so,�
�� Kit said.

  “I’m waking him up,” Jake said and proceeded to head straight upstairs. I made my way to the kitchen. Well I tried to.

  “Whoa,” Kit said, catching me by my hips as I walked by him and pulling me back into his lap. His fingers skimmed over my bruise. “This why you stopped?”

  My eyebrows drew together in confusion for a moment trying to figure out what he was talking about. It wasn’t until I twisted my head to look at him and caught a glimpse of the door out to the deck that I realized he must have been watching me try to surf.

  “No, that happened early on. We stopped because Jake made me. Thinks I’m running out of energy and wasn’t going to get anywhere at the moment,” I said.

  Kit scoffed, “You run out of energy? That’ll be the day.”

  I laughed, “I know, right? Now, I do need to get a snack, so if you could please release me.”

  It was his turn to laugh but he pushed at my hips, sliding me off his lap. “You should put some ice on that bruise.”

  I shrugged and headed for the fridge. “Eh, it’s fine. It doesn’t hurt really.”

  “I don’t believe you,” he said.

  I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him.

  Chapter 46 – Kit

  March 13th, 2017

  I grimaced as Riker wiped out yet again, this time looking extra painful. He was getting better but falling off the board was still a common occurrence. When he woke up, he had been sore from yesterday’s surfing attempt, but he insisted he wanted to try again. He was going to be so sore after this session that he would probably not want to move ever again. This time when he resurfaced, he didn’t climb back onto the board. He had a quick conversation with Jake before turning to head out of the water.

  Riker sluggishly made his way up the beach and onto the deck where he flopped down into the lounge chair next to me with a groan.

  “How you doing?” I asked slowly.

  “Dying,” he deadpanned.

  I snorted. He was so overdramatic when he wanted to be. “You’re getting better.”

  “You’ve been watching?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

  “It’s hard not to.”

  “I’m not sure if you just insulted me or not.”

  “What I meant was, you look good on a surfboard,” I lied. It was true, he did look good surfing, or at least trying to surf, but it wasn’t what I originally meant. It was hard not to watch when he wiped out so spectacularly every couple of minutes. He didn’t need to know that though.

  I glanced over and he was smiling softly at me. His eyes were only half opened and he was sprawled in such a way that said he was perfectly content not moving again.

  “Naptime?” I asked him softly.

  “Naptime,” he confirmed, letting his eyes slip shut and moving one arm just enough to prop his head on it. Briefly I realized he hadn’t had anything to drink for hours and he was probably in need of water, but I didn’t have the heart to wake him up and coerce him to drink something. He’d be fine, and when he did wake up, I’d make sure he drank something.

  I turned my eyes back to my laptop and inwardly groaned. Suddenly schoolwork was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. The problem was this part of the project was due as soon as break ended. Which was cruel on part of the professors. And it was too much work to just sit down and get done in one day, or even two. I had to keep working on it, even if I would much rather go for a swim and goof off with the others.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose then rubbed at my forehead. Nope, no I couldn’t keep it up, not as long as I originally intended to anyway. I’d push through and get as much done as I could while he was asleep, but once he woke up, I had to take a break, or my brain was going to be fried.

  “Christ, Kit, take a break,” Jake said. He sat down on the other side of me, having finally put the surfboards safely back in the shed.

  “Hey, you’re a business major, this’ll be you soon,” I pointed out.

  He groaned, “Don’t remind me. And I’m a double major, I’m going to die.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t already.”

  “It’s a miracle really,” he said then closed his eyes.

  Great, they were both asleep. I was starting to feel like I was a kindergarten teacher and it was naptime. Neither of them so much as twitched in their sleep for half an hour. I pushed through a fair chunk of my work in that time, enough to make me happy with stopping for the day when Jermaine showed back up.

  “It’s like they’re in preschool,” he said when he walked onto the deck and saw them.

  “What does that make us? Their babysitters or their parents?” I asked.

  “I’ve been their babysitter for ages now.”

  I laughed and decided to change the subject. “How was the run?”

  “Relaxing, but there are some dark clouds on the other side of the house headed our direction. So, we might need to wake them up,” he said.

  I looked at the two of them again. They were so peacefully asleep, and I hated the idea of waking them up especially after how much energy they must’ve spent surfing. “Eh, we’ll get them inside before it starts, let them sleep for now. Want to pull something together for lunch?”

  “Yes! I am starving,” Jermaine exclaimed, though not loudly enough to wake up the two.

  We moved into the kitchen, leaving the door to the deck open. While we assembled ourselves some sandwiches and piles of chips to go with it, I kept glancing out to see if Riker would wake up.

  “Huh,” Jermaine said like he had just discovered something new.

  “What?” I asked curiously.

  “You look at him like he’s the most important thing in the entire world.”

  “To me, he is,” I answered simply.

  “Good response,” he said, nodding seriously.

  I turned slowly to face Jermaine. “Why is this coming up?”

  “What, I’m not allowed to question my friend’s boyfriend?”

  “You are, you just never have before.” The part I didn’t say was that I expected random statements and questions like that from Jake, but never from him.

  He sighed and said, “This last girlfriend I really wanted it to work out. I really did like her. But here I am, single again. I guess I just want to know how you knew Riker was worth that look.”

  “I can’t answer that question, because I don’t know how. I only know that one day I woke up next to him and I realized I wanted to always wake up next to him and that I would step in front of a bullet for him. I don’t think you ever know how to tell if someone is that person for you. You just find someone you genuinely want to try with and hope it turns into that one day.”

  “Then I must be doing something else wrong because that method doesn’t seem to work for me.”

  “I’ve never met any of your girlfriends, Jermaine, and surprisingly Riker hasn’t told me anything about your relationships.”

  “No, I know, but Riker and I don’t ever talk to each other about this kind of stuff and Jake’s more hopeless than I am. Mark just keeps telling me it’ll happen eventually, which is useless.”

  “And I’m the only other person around.”

  “At the moment, yeah. I know you and I don’t really know each other very much though, so I can just stop talking about it now.”

  “If you want to talk about it, we can talk about it, but I can’t promise how helpful I’ll be.”

  That started an hour-long conversation in which I learned more about Jermaine than I ever thought I’d know. For as much joking as Jake and Riker always did about Jermaine’s relationships, he really did seem to care about all of them and want them to succeed, or at least he did with the last few. His problem might actually have been that he tried too hard, or that he wanted a relationship to work out so much that he was almost blind to the other person screwing him over.

  “So, you think I’m too naïve?”

  “I think maybe you need to take some time off from dating. You’re t
rying too hard. Just be single for a while and let your next relationship come to you and when it does take it easy.”

  His face turned into one of serious thought. “I guess if I’m single the hooligans out there can’t crack jokes anymore.”

  “There is that,” I said.

  He cursed suddenly and when I looked back over to him, he was looking out to the deck where a few raindrops had started falling. We both scrambled to wake the other two up.

  Chapter 47 – Kit

  March 15th, 2017

  “No, no, no,” I said, latching onto Riker’s legs and pulling him back against my side before he could get out of bed.

  He chuckled and turned to nudge his head against my shoulder. “Aren’t you the one that always tells me to get out of bed?”

  “Normally, but not today.” I ducked my head down to bump my nose to his. “I’m calling in condition number two. Just you and me today?”

  He looked up through his lashes at me. “Sounds good,” he said.

  I put my hand on his cheek and kissed him for half a second. “Stay here for another hour, then go out and track down somewhere to eat breakfast?”

  “Walk on the beach for a bit afterwards?” he asked softly.

  “Obviously,” I said with another kiss.

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know. Haven’t thought that far ahead.”

  “Winging things. What I do best,” he said with a happy smirk playing across his face.

  “Maybe it’s in the top five.” I stroked my knuckles up and down his cheek.

  “So you’re saying I’m amazing at five things?” And yep, now the smirk was getting bigger.

  “At least,” I said deciding to play along with his ego.

  “Well Romeo, for that we can do whatever you want after my walk on the beach.”

  “Oh can we?” I chuckled.