Know Him

by Courtney Loney

  “As much as today started out with an unfortunate event I’m almost glad it happened,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Me too,” I replied nervously.

  “You’re really beautiful,” Luke said brushing his handle gently over my bruised temple. He sent chills down my spine.

  “Are you cold?” He asked, looking concerned. He lowered the drawstring bag off his back and pulled out a black Nike sweatshirt. “Here. It’s an excuse for you to see me again.” I pulled the sweatshirt over my head.“Looks good on you,” Luke said with one finger under my chin.

  “Thanks so much for coming,” I said with a genuine smile.

  “I would give you my number but my phone is kind of fucked right now. So you’ll have to come find me here.” I nodded and he put his arms out for a hug. My stomach filled with butterflies as he held me for a few seconds.

  I strolled down the rest of the boardwalk and I could feel Luke’s eyes still on me making sure I got to Reagan and Shane safely.

  “Oh my god Sutton could that have gone any better?” Reagan squealed, pulling me in for a hug. I couldn’t stop smiling but I did the best I could not to get my hopes up.

  “Ugh. I don’t know Reagan. This all seems too good to be true. He was probably just being nice. He doesn’t even have a phone. I probably won’t even see him again.” Reagan rolled her eyes and put one arm around my shoulder.

  “I know Sutton it’s so hard to believe you’re beautiful and you’re a catch,” Reagan said dramatically.

  The next day Shane, Reagan and I spent the whole morning at the beach. The strong sun beat down on us and we spent the entirety of the morning forced in a cycle of tanning on the beach and dipping in the ocean.

  Reagan insisted we have pizza for lunch, of course but this time I decided not to protest. We headed to the pizza shack where Luke was positioned behind the cash register. He noticed us right away and flashed that beautiful smile and waved. He welcomed us to the Pizza Shack and was reciting information about some “Pizza for Pyros” that included hot sauce and buffalo chicken. We all laughed.

  “Actually sounds good.” We agreed “And a large pitcher of Mountain Dew.” Shane added.

  “Got it,” Luke said, punching our order into the cash register. “$12.54,” He said. “Gave you my employee discount.” He whispered and winked at me. “Hey, what are you guys doing later today? Want to see a local treasure?”

  Reagan pinched my arm and I winced. “Definitely!” I replied before Reagan could injure me anymore.

  “Sweet. I’m off at 3 if you wanna meet me here. I should have a pair of trunks in my bag.”

  “We’ll see you then.” I smirked at him as his hand brushed against mine handing me my change.

  At 3 sharp we met Luke in front of the Pizza Shack. I thought I’d find him behind the register trying to sell some pyro pizzas but when we walked up he was nowhere to be found. I nervously adjusted my bikini top.

  “Sutton why don’t you think he’s going to show up?” Reagan said, fixing my hair. “He invited us. He’ll be here.” I took a deep breath, Reagan was always my voice of reason when I started overthinking.

  Just then Luke came out from the side door of the Pizza Shack. He was wearing hot pink swim trunks with green Gators on them. He was shirtless and had a towel hanging around his neck. Luke definitely looked like he spent some time in the gym. Reagan and I gulped at the same time and Shane looked at us disgusted.

  “Hey guys.” Luke flashed a big grin. “Are you ready for an adventure?”

  “Definitely.” Shane dapped him up.

  “So I’m letting you in on a local secret. Not many tourists know about this so keep it that way.” He winked, still smiling. “Follow me!” He started walking towards the south end of the boardwalk and we followed behind.

  When we got to the complete end of the boardwalk past the ice cream stand Luke hopped the rickety fence and held out his hand to help me over. We walked down the sand dunes and on a dirt path through a wooded area. Luke informed us we were almost there.

  In front of us were two large bushes with a small opening in between them. Luke reached back and grabbed my hand again leading me through the narrow space. When the bushes opened up, the space in front of us was wide open.

  There was grass in front of us and a few feet away was a wide bridge. Kids of all ages surrounded it. Some were standing on the wooden railing; others were just hanging out nearby. There was a small beach area on the left side of the bridge and a few girls were laid out tanning. The kid from the ice cream shack the other day was one of the kids balanced on the railing. He turned around and noticed us.

  “Hey Luke’s here!” He said towards the girls tanning on the beach.

  Luke grinned and waved in his direction. One of the girls on the beach paid no attention to Luke, her face glued to her phone but the other girl pulled her sunglasses low on her nose and looked over at us. I could see she was looking Reagan and I up and down.

  A smile quickly developed on her face and she said, “hi Luke.”

  “Hiya!” He replied and turned to me only seconds later clearly uninterested. “Are you ready for this?” Before I could answer the girl shouted over to Luke.

  “Oh no, Lukey, you didn’t bring tourists here did you?” She rolled her eyes and I could hear Luke clenching his teeth. That was when I realized why she looked familiar. She was the same girl from the ticket booth the other night.

  “They’re my friends Bianca.” She let out a loud laugh.

  “Luke, the lone wolf brought friends here huh?” She said just loud enough for us to hear. Luke continued to ignore her and looked over at me again.

  “Should I show them how it’s done?” The ice cream kid yelled over to Luke.

  “Do it bud.” Luke walked a little closer to the bridge and motioned for the three of us to follow. His toes hung over the edge of the railing and he leaped into the air flipping. I peeked over the edge and heard myself gasp out loud. He whooped out loud and plugged twenty feet down into the water. I could hear Shane and Reagan laughing behind me.

  My heart was beating out of my chest. I watched in awe as children as young as Gia stood up on the edge of the railing and hopped right off like it was nothing. Suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my back.

  “You okay?” Luke asked, looking at me concerned.

  “Yes, I’m good,” I replied. “Can’t believe you said you were scared of heights.”

  Luke grinned. “Well ''heights'' was a vague term. It’s mostly just the swings. I just didn’t want to sound like too much of a loser but you’ve exposed me.” He chuckled.

  “This is so cool, Luke!” Reagan shrieked, running passed us pulling Shane by the hand.

  “We don’t have to jump,” Luke said. “Come sit over here with me.” He pulled the towel from around his neck and set it down on the grassy side of the bridge near the bush. We sat on the towel in silence. It was strange though because the silence wasn’t awkward.

  “Hey, Denny. Grandma said we have to be home to help set up for dinner at 4:30.” A little girl with red hair and a tie-dye bathing suit said standing in front of a little boy with white-blonde hair and a Mohawk.

  “Okay Lily. We can fit five more jumps in for sure.” He shouted over his shoulder climbing up onto the railing.

  He turned around and put his hand out for his sister. She grabbed it and climbed up alongside him. They sat on the edge, swinging their feet. “I wanted to see Willow so bad.” The little boy pouted.

  “You just saw her at field day two weeks ago!” Lily slapped him on the arm.

  “You’re in love with her.”

  “Am not!” Denny shouted back at his sister. Lily rolled her eyes and looked over in our direction.

  “Hi, Luke!” She grinned waving excitedly. Luke waved back immediately. “Would you tell Denny he’s in love with Willow? He has been since we were like 4. Am I right?” She yelled over to us.

  Luke giggled. “Hey Denny, there’s nothing wrong with having
a little crush.” He shouted back. “I can see you guys being class couple in 10 years.”

  “Really?” Denny asked, blushing. Luke gave him a thumbs up.

  “It’s so weird to me you all actually live here.” I blurted out.

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked me, picking the grass while he spoke.

  “Haha. Sorry, that probably sounded weird but it’s easy to forget that people actually live here year round like this is your home, this is their home.” I said pointing towards the bridge where Shane and Reagan were jumping for the third time.

  “Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah, it’s weird for me too. You should see how dead it is here on the off-seasons; it’s crazy. Kind of depressing actually.”

  “I’m surprised you don’t hate the tourists,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him.

  “I like to keep busy,” he replied. “They keep me busy.” He smiled in my direction. “I’m sorry this is a bust.” He added, shrugging his shoulders.

  “Don’t say that!” I said. “I might get the courage to do it. I’m just nervous.”

  “I totally get that,” Luke replied.

  “You should go jump,” I said. “Maybe watching you will help me.”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “I really wanted to go with you.” I felt my face flush.

  “I want to see you do it.” I smiled. “Then I’ll consider going with you.”

  “That’s good enough for me!” Luke replied, hopping up. As he walked to the bridge, the girl lying on the towel from earlier seemed to notice. She threw her sunglasses to the side and started to stand up. I suddenly felt sick.

  “What a rush!” Shane said as he and Reagan walked over to me. Reagan locked eyes with me and clearly could sense something was wrong. We both watched as the girl hurried over and squeezed in next to Luke who was climbing on the railing.

  “Let’s jump together!” She squealed. I tried to swallow the knot in my throat and hold back my tears. Calm down Sutton, you just met the guy. He’s no one to you. Don’t get invested so quickly. Luke looked over in my direction with a worried look on his face as Bianca wrapped her arm around him.

  “Sutton, he’s not into it at all. He’s clearly into you,” Reagan said in my ear. I just watched in silence as they plummeted into the water together. When they climbed up on the edge of the beach, they stood there for a minute and Bianca walked away in the other direction. Luke came back and sat next to me on the towel. He was dripping wet and his ringlet curls were completely straightened.

  “Our turn?” He asked, smirking at me. I took a deep breath and stood up.

  “Okay, it’s now or never.” Luke shot me a huge grin. “Hurry up before I change my mind!” I said scurrying onto the bridge.

  Luke climbed up first and carefully helped me climb up to a crouching position. He held my hand the whole time.“Okay, now when you’re ready slowly stand up.”

  “I’m never going to be ready.” Luke let go of my hand and put his hands on my hips. My skin tingled as he placed his palms against me, slowly raising me to a standing position. I looked around a little bit. Bianca was glaring at us and Reagan and Shane were watching us, smiling and whispering to each other.

  Luke put his hand out and I grabbed it. “Count us down from 3.”

  “3. 2. 1.” I said slowly. Luke and I both flew through the air and dropped down into the water.

  “You did it!” Luke said after we both came up to the surface pulling me in for a hug. I felt completely warm for the few seconds that his body was against mine. “This victory calls for milkshakes,” Luke said, flashing a cheesy smile at me again.

  We climbed back up to the grassy side of the bridge and found ourselves completely alone. “Wow, this place cleared out quickly,” I said looking around. “Where could Shane and Reagan have gone?” I asked, as Luke picked up his towel and started drying off. When he took the towel off of his head, little curls were starting to appear.

  “Usually does around dinner time.” I picked my phone up and read the text I had from Reagan.

  Just snuck off for some alone time. Enjoy yours ;).

  h8 you. I replied back. Then added xo..

  “So about those milkshakes?” Luke asked.

  We sat in Seaports with gigantic shakes in front of us. Luke plucked the cherry off the top of his mountain of whipped cream and plopped it in his mouth. “It’s dinner time. Thought you guys could use some food.” The waitress, an older woman in her 60’s said, bringing over a gigantic plate of fries and sitting them smack in the middle of the table.

  “Thank you so much Maple. You’re the sweetest.”

  “That’s what they call me, sugar. Hey, I’m off in 10 so if you need anything ask Heather.” She said winking and pointing at a girl not much older than me, who was clearly pregnant.

  “You really know everyone in this town huh?” I asked Luke, nibbling on a French fry.

  Luke shrugged his shoulders. “There aren’t a ton of locals. So yeah, I definitely know all the people who live here year-round. Maple is actually Lily and Denny’s grandmother. You know, from earlier? They live here with her year-round. Their mom took off when they were really young and she’s always been their caretaker and that’s Heather,” he said, darting his eyes towards the pregnant waitress. “She’s 22. Married already to her high school sweetheart Jimmy.” He said pointing to a booth in the corner where a young man sat. He had a baseball cap on and was covered in dirt, sipping a cup of coffee. His dad’s always been the town handyman and he’s on his way to taking over.”

  “Wow,” I replied. “How about that girl Bianca from the bridge?” I asked, matter of factly. Luke sighed.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about her if she was rude. She’s always had a thing for me. She used to only visit for the summers. So I don’t know why she’s making comments about tourists. Her dad hit the lottery and cheated on her mom. He bought a huge mansion in California and bought Bianca and her mom a house here.” He rolled his eyes and snarled. I breathed a sigh of relief and took the last few sips of my milkshake.

  “I’m gonna head back to the Pizza Shack Sutton. Can I walk you home first?” Luke said, the bells on the door chiming behind us.

  “You don’t have to do that!” I replied but we were already walking in the direction of Aunt Helen’s house.

  Chapter 3:

  The next week was one big blur. I had mixed emotions. It mostly felt like the days were all intertwined but it also felt like time was standing still. It was filled with boardwalk food, beach days, and adventures with our group of four. Each night ended with big bear hugs and forehead kisses from Luke. He even went down to the store in town and bought a cheap phone just so he could talk to me. I had constant butterflies and spent every night wondering when it would be time for me to wake up from this dream. I tried to keep the thought out of my head that I was only here for another month and a half.

  “I can’t believe you guys have to leave. I feel like you just got here.” I sulked holding my best friend tight.

  “Believe me, if it were up to me, I would stay here forever; or at least until you and Luke were official.” I lightly slapped Reagan on the shoulder. She laughed.“No, but seriously, if I don’t come home now my mom will kill me.”

  “What she means is that she’ll kill me,” Shane said, throwing the last duffle bag in the back of the van.

  “I guess I have to understand considering you kind of took this trip without telling or asking your mom.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I thought we’d make it a little longer than a week before she started with the death threats.”

  “Alright, well I guess it’s time to get on the road,” Shane said, pulling the van’s door closed with a creek. I gave Reagan one last squeeze and that was interrupted by a bike skidding to a stop right in front of us.

  “Hey, guys. I saw your text, Sutton. You guys are leaving like now?” Luke pulled his hat off his head and scratched it. He had beads of sweat dripping down his face. He pulled up his shirt an
d his abs peeked out as he wiped his forehead with his shirt.

  “Sadly, my mom will have my head on a platter if we don’t.” Reagan complained.

  “Well I have a little surprise before you go and I think Sutton might enjoy it too.” Luke grinned and held my hands. “Sutton Rae I have had the absolute best week with you and I know this might be kind of quick but I want to spend every moment possible I can with you from now on. You make me feel a way I have never felt before. Will you go out with me?” Goosebumps took over my arms and I felt my heart skip a beat.

  “I would love to go out with you, Luke,” I said, throwing myself into his arms.

  Luke titled me and kissed me for the first time. I was so focused on the kiss I barely recognized the faint sound of Reagan squealing. It was muffled and sounded like she was miles away. His lips pressed against mine. They were warm. An aroma of peppermint surrounded me. In reality, the kiss only lasted about five seconds but in that moment, time stood still. Towards the end of the kiss, I felt Luke smile. I felt myself smiling too and we ended it bursting into laughter.

  Reagan thanked Luke and told us how we made all her dreams come true. Then she and Shane hopped in the old van and started it up, and drove down the road until they were out of sight.

  “Just us now, huh?” “Luke said gazing towards me.

  “Just us,” I replied.

  “I have exactly 1 minute until I have to haul ass out of here and get back to work.”

  “Or... you could leave now so you don’t have to “haul ass.” I joked.

  “But then I wouldn’t be able to do this.” He said softly kissing my lips once more. Then he hopped back on his bike and zipped back down the road until he was out of sight.

  ..

  “You never hang out with me anymore.” Gia pouted, arms crossed tightly across her chest, looking at me with a mean mug on her face.

  “Gia, it’s literally only been two days since Shane and Reagan left and you know I only get to see her once a year.”

  “Well I love Reagan too you know and I only got to hang out with you guys like once.” I sighed as Gia continued to pout.