Spring Break Secret by Holly Rayner
Louisa
Louisa knew that Tom was headed back to Boston at the end of the week. She, too, had a plane ticket to Berkeley, planning to return once spring break was over. Her feelings for Tom were growing stronger, but she chided herself away from those daydreams, knowing that their time together was about to end.
Still, she couldn’t help but look forward to seeing Tom one last time before they both left for their respective colleges. He had invited her to a party he and his friends were throwing at their big rented beach house, and Louisa was standing in front of the mirror, trying to choose an outfit.
“You still here, squiddo?” Louisa’s dad asked, poking his head into her bedroom as she held up two different dresses, trying to figure out which color would look best with her hair. “I thought you had a party tonight.”
“I do, Dad,” Louisa sighed, still unable to choose. “But I can’t decide what to wear.”
“You know I think you look cute in everything,” her dad said, leaning against the doorframe.
“I know,” Louisa said. But it wasn’t her dad she was trying to impress. Eventually, she settled on a short, flirty white dress dotted with silver beads. She had worn it last to a beach bonfire, and it still smelled vaguely of wood smoke.
“All right, I’m headed out,” Louisa called to her parents as she closed the screen door behind her.
“Have fun!” Louisa’s mom waved at her with a wide smile.
It was a bit strange, being back home after spending time on her own at college, and she appreciated that her parents were treating her like an independent adult rather than a kid with a curfew.
Tom had given her directions to his beach rental, and Louisa found it easily. She knew La Vega well enough to know which houses were most frequently rented out to spring break visitors, and she wasn’t surprised to see the beachside mansion lit up from within, its white trimmed windows pounding with loud party music.
Someone who wasn’t Tom met her at the door, holding a red plastic cup and wearing oversized novelty sunglasses that said LIFE’S A BEACH.
“Hey! You must be Louisa!” The boy welcomed her in, and she saw a handful of local kids, as well as a bunch of spring breakers, spread out around the house’s broad front room, drinking and dancing. “I’m Kevin!”
Louisa blushed, wondering how this guy knew exactly who she was. Her red hair tended to give her away, but it meant that Tom had been talking about her with his friends.
“Hey, Nick!” Kevin turned and shouted at someone else, who Louisa recognized from the volleyball game that first day at the beach. “Come meet Louisa.”
“Turtle girl!” Nick yelled, grabbing Louisa’s hand in an overly enthusiastic gesture of welcome. His face was pink from the sun, and Louisa could tell that he had neglected to wear sunscreen all day. “You made it?”
“Turtle girl?” Louisa asked, unfamiliar with the nickname.
“Tom told us all about how you, like, rescue sea turtles and stuff! Way cool.”
“It is cool,” Louisa said, wondering just what Tom had shared about her. “Is Tom here?”
“I’ll let him know his lady love has arrived,” Kevin said, wandering off into the crowd. Louisa did her best to ignore that statement.
Tom appeared from a different room and immediately rushed to Louisa’s side. “Hi,” he said, looking rather embarrassed. “I hope my buddies didn’t give you too much trouble.”
“They’re fun,” Louisa said, not knowing what else to say. Kevin and his wacky sunglasses had disappeared again, but Nick still hovered, grinning at Louisa.
“So,” Nick said, “you’re the girl Tom won’t shut up about.”
“Nick!” Tom’s face turned bright red as he punched his friend in the shoulder. “Shut up.”
“Come on, bro.” Nick laughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve kept your massive crush a big old secret? Surely Turtle Girl here has seen those hearts floating around in your baby blue eyes.”
“They’re not baby blue,” Tom muttered.
“Tom’s always been the most romantic of our crew,” Nick explained to Louisa. “He can get kind of swoony when there’s a cute girl involved.”
“Thank you, Nick, that’s enough,” Tom said, having apparently recovered from the shock of his friend’s obnoxiousness. “Let me show Louisa the house.”
Louisa, for her part, had seen plenty of beach houses in her time growing up in La Vega, but she didn’t protest. Tom clearly wanted to get away from his friends and their teasing, so she let him take her by the arm and lead her into the kitchen, which was spread out with various drinks and snacks.
“Sorry about that,” Tom said, looking sheepish. “My friends can be…a lot.”
“I like them,” Louisa reassured. “They’re fun.”
“That’s for sure,” Tom agreed. As if to prove him right, a chorus of raucous cheers burst through from the living room, where it sounded like someone had just successfully completed a keg stand.
“Have you really been telling them about me?”
Tom’s ears turned pink. “I mean,” he stammered, “yeah. I was excited about the turtle eggs, and then about all the cool stuff I learned from you, and the secret dune spot you showed me. They aren’t interested in hearing about any of that, though. They’re just convinced that I like you.”
Louisa couldn’t help her next question. “Do you?”
Tom looked startled. “Yes! That night on the boat, our kiss, and the sunrise on the dunes…you didn’t know?”
Louisa glanced around the kitchen, suddenly feeling very shy. “Those kisses were amazing,” she said, fidgeting with a toothpick on the countertop, “but I wasn’t sure. Some guys can kiss you and not mean anything by it.”
“Well,” Tom said, cupping Louisa’s cheek with his hand, “when I kiss someone, I mean it.”
Louisa stood on her tiptoes, her eyes fluttering closed as she prepared for another kiss.
Unfortunately, Kevin chose that moment to burst into the kitchen with another boy riding on his back, both boys shirtless and hollering. “All aboard the U.S.S. Kevin!” he yelled, then stopped short when he saw Tom and Louisa.
“Oh, crap.” He laughed. “Did I interrupt a romantic moment?”
“What are you doing?” Tom snapped, sounding annoyed.
“We need more hot dogs for the grill,” the boy on Kevin’s back said. “And we thought this room was for food, not make-out sessions.”
“Silly us,” joked Kevin.
“Here you go,” Louisa said, grabbing a package of hot dogs from the kitchen table and handing it over. “Fuel for the good ship Kevin.”
“See?” Kevin pointed at Louisa, waving the hot dogs around with his other hand. “She gets it.”
Clumsily and loudly, the two boys finally left the kitchen, arguing about whether Kevin would be a battleship or a tugboat.
“Are they always like that?” Louisa asked, enamored by the seemingly endless energy for shenanigans that Tom’s friends had.
Tom smiled, running a hand over his face in an exasperated gesture. “Most of the time.”
They stood for a moment, both silent, the interrupted kiss hanging in the air between them.
“Well,” Tom said, “do you want to see the upstairs balcony? It has a great view of the ocean.”
“Sure.” Louisa once again took Tom’s hand and allowed herself to be led through the rowdy crowd and up the beach house’s wide staircase. Upstairs, it was quieter, the noise of the party dulled by the thick, pale blue carpeting.
In the master bedroom, Louisa saw a huge bed, its fluffy duvet cover decorated with seafoam green stripes. A few pillows with seashell embroidery were tucked up by the headboard, and a suitcase was open on the floor, revealing a pile of T-shirts and swim trunks she recognized as Tom’s.
“Here.” Tom slid open the large glass door, stepping out onto the balcony.
Louisa could feel the ocean breeze in her hair and blowing gently around the hem of her dress. Tom wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her in close, leaning his head against hers as they both looked out at the water.
“You were right, back there,” Louisa said softly.
“About what?” Tom sounded confused.
“Your eyes aren’t baby blue. They’re darker, deeper. More like…ocean blue.”
“Ocean blue. I like that.” Tom’s thumb rubbed lazy circles on Louisa’s bare arm, sending shivers through her body. “Not sure Nick will ever stop teasing me about my baby blues, though.”
“No, probably not.”
As fun as Tom’s friends seemed, Louisa sensed that there was some softness in Tom that didn’t really have a place in the world he seemed to come from. She remembered the way his friends hadn’t cared about the sea turtle eggs, and how none of them had seemed remotely interested in accompanying Tom to the beach cleanup. And then there was everything he had said about his dad and his business class professors.
After a few seconds of quiet, during which Tom seemed to be thinking deeply about something, he spoke again.
“You never tease me,” he said. It was plainly spoken, just a simple observation.
“Why would I?” Louisa asked.
Tom shrugged, and Louisa felt the motion where their bodies were nestled up against one another. “When I didn’t know stuff about turtles, or when I suggested a touristy lunch spot, or…ever, really.”
“I did tell you that Mr. Furryback was a dumb name for a dog,” Louisa said.
Tom huffed a soft little laugh. “Somehow, that was…different.”
Louisa knew what he meant, even though she couldn’t put it into words. There was something between the two of them that was different. Different than what Louisa had found with other boys at college in Berkeley, different from the other flings she’d had with visiting tourists to her little town.
They stood together for a while longer, looking out over the ocean, letting the sounds of the party waft up to them occasionally. Louisa had no interest in returning downstairs to the chaos and silliness of Tom’s friends and their guests. She was right where she wanted to be, on the balcony with Tom.
And when he gently took her inside and laid her down on the plush bed, kissing her deeply, she was still perfectly, exactly, where she wanted to be.