“Brian, stop!” I giggled as he began leaving another hickey on me. It had been almost a week since we dropped the bomb on Matt, and he hasn’t been around much. Either that was because he didn’t want to see Brian with me or because Gayle had kept him away. Either way, today we all decided to go to the beach, so that meant that Brian had to make me look diseased with two hickeys on my neck and now one under my collarbone. I pushed him off before it got too dark, so I could lie and say I hit myself there if I needed to.
“I want to make Matt as angry as possible,” Brian complained, pulling me closer to him by my waist. “And also the fact that you look really good in that swimsuit.”
“Thank you.” I blushed, looking up at him. “You look pretty fine in your suit as well.”
“Well that’s just cuz I’m always fine.” Brian answered smugly. I rolled my eyes and got on my tiptoes to give him a kiss.
“So do we have all of the shit we need?” I asked. Brian nodded and grabbed my hand as we began walking down his stairs.
“We were in charge of bringing the drinks and food, and I already packed them in the back.” Brian listed. I grinned and he returned it. He looked at the bag I had slung over my shoulder and raised an eyebrow.
“I have our towels in here, as well as an iPod dock, our sunglasses, and sunscreen.” I informed him. He nodded before sending me a smirk.
“Women, always packing more than they need.” Brian joked. I elbowed him and let go of his hand.
“Women, the ones who control whether or not you have sex.” I retorted. He rolled his eyes and I shrugged. “Unless of course you’re gay or, God forbid, you’re raping someone. But I swear to God, Bri, if you have ever raped someone I swear I’d-“
“Calm your tits, Kid.” Brian hushed, pulling me into a hug from behind. Jokingly he slid his hands onto my breasts and I smirked.
“Ha-ha, you’re funny.” I commented. Brian chuckled and let go of me and jumped into his car. We blasted music on our way to the beach, trying to out-sing each other for most songs.
“So do you think slut-face will be there?” Brian asked suddenly. I was taken back at the question, because I hadn’t even thought about it.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I mean, Matt seems pretty serious about making it seem like he’s giving Gayle a second chance. But who knows.” I shrugged. Brian nodded and I could tell he was irritated. I grabbed onto his arm and he looked over at me. “I know you hate her with your guts, but please try not to get into a fight with her. We’re supposed to pretend like we’re happy for Matt because that pisses Gayle off.”
“I’ll try. But no promises.” Brian grumbled. I smiled and turned my attention back to the road. A few minutes later we reached the Avenged beach, where everyone already was. Johnny and Emma were laying out towels for everyone, Zach and Jimmy were setting up a small fire pit for later, and Matt was emptying out all of the toys he brought for the guys to throw around while Gayle stood and watched. Brian and I slid out of the car and made our way to everyone, carrying coolers with us as we did so.
“Hey guys.” I greeted. Everyone greeted me in return, except for Matt and Gayle. I could feel Matt checking me out, his stare lingering on my neck.
“Wow, Kid, you and Brian have a little fun before you came here?” Johnny asked, his fingers going to my neck. I couldn’t help but blush a little bit; I was never one to proudly walk around with big purple blotches on my skin.
“Ha. He wishes.” I replied, throwing a look at Brian. Brian pretended to grimace.
“Yeah. Apparently she’d rather come hang out with you losers than to spend some quality time with me,” Brian pouted. Everyone snickered, especially Jimmy.
“That’s some quality time you guys must be having together,” Jimmy giggled. I rolled my eyes at Jimmy, who was giving me a cheesy smile.
“So why don’t we head out to the ocean?” Matt said suddenly, looking uncomfortable and quite flustered by our conversation. Everyone nodded and all ran toward the ocean, except for me. I took my time to lay out my towel and lay my bag across it before taking out the sunscreen. Sunscreen had never really worked for me, I’d always end up getting burned anyways, but the burn would hurt less whenever I put some on. I began on my legs and slowly went up my body until I was done with everything but my back. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t get my back on my own.
“Hey, Bri?” I called. He didn’t hear me, so I took in a bigger breath. “Brian!” He was too busy dunking Johnny into the waves, so I sighed loudly and threw the bottle to the ground, giving up. Of all things, I wanted to make sure my back got minimal burn.
“Do you need help?” A voice asked quietly from behind me. I was utterly shocked when I saw Matt standing behind me with a small smile on his face. I honestly thought he was out in the ocean since he was the one who offered, but I guess I didn’t see him go in there. I repressed a smirk as I nodded, handing him the bottle. “You need your whole back?” I nodded and he returned it before opening the bottle and pouring a decent glob in his hands. I flinched when his hands touched my back, but it wasn’t just because of the cold sunscreen on my already hot-as-hell skin. Whenever Matt touched me, my inner fan girl came out, and it felt like I was being electrocuted. I had never felt that with any of the others after the concert, since I never had any serious feelings for them. You could say I felt a slight shock with Brian, but no doubt that was because of our casual making out and sorts.
“Thank you.” I said as Matt continued to rub in the sunscreen lotion.
“No problem.” He answered, his breath going down my neck. I shivered a little as how close he was to me, and he let out a small laugh. He slowly rubbed in the lotion all over my back, taking extra caution on my lower back and hips. My face flushed and I was embarrassed that I was blushing when I was supposed to be dating Brian. Matt took notice of my color, but gave me a sly smirk before rubbing my cheek with his thumb. “You’re burned on your face already?”
“Uh, yeah. My face always burns.” I chuckled nervously. Matt’s smirk widened and I was about to say something when suddenly cold water splashed on me. I screamed and looked over to see Brian holding a pail, laughing his ass off. I looked over at Matt, who was also soaked. “Oh no you did not!”
“Uh, yeah, I think I did.” Brian roared, dropping the bucket as he doubled over.
“You are dead meat.” Matt yelled. He looked over at me with a determined look and we both nodded before screaming “It’s on!” Immediately Brian began running along the edge of the water, with Matt and I chasing closely behind him. Matt and I kept a steady pace as we sped up so we were right on Brian’s heels. I took the initiative and lunged at Brian, managing to cling myself onto his back. He stumbled a little but continued running, not slowing down his pace.
“You are dead!” I yelled in his ear. As I looked back, Matt was losing speed, and soon he’d lose him completely. “C’mon Matt, I can’t take down this giant on my own!”
“Trip him!” Matt replied, his speed picking up. My eyes widened and I shook my head.
“Are you kidding me? I’ll get squashed!” I protested.
“No you won’t. Just trust me.” Matt shouted. I gave him a worried look before looking back at Brian. “Trip him!” I closed my eyes as I stuck my legs down, which soon got tangled in between Brian’s legs. Brian began falling while I flew into the air, destined to meet my death. Just as I was about to touch ground, strong arms wrapped around me protectively and my head snapped back as Matt slid across the sand, completely cushioning my fall.
“Holy shit this burns!” Brian screamed as he sat up, inspecting the places he got sand-burned. He looked over at me with appalled eyes, his mouth open wide. “You traitor! You’re my girlfriend!”
“You splashed me with freezing water!” I replied, unable to control my laughing. Matt was laughing too, his arms still holding me protectively to his body. Brian pretended to pout and I sent him a goofy grin. “Aw, I’m sorry baby. Do you want me to kiss your boo-boos?”
“Damn right I want you to kiss my boo-boos!” Brian retorted. I let out another laugh and watched as Zach and Jimmy came jogging up to us, both cackling like crazy.
“Dude, that was amazing.” Zach called. He walked over to me and Matt and gave Matt a high-five. “It looks like those years of catching a foam football paid off, eh?”
“Hell yeah it did.” Matt chuckled, reluctantly taking his arms away from me.
“Well thanks for saving my little sister. She looked like she would have broken her head.” Zach said, sticking his hand out to Matt. Matt took it and stood up so Zach could bring him into a bro-hug.
“No problem. I’m just glad she trusted me enough.” Matt commented, sending me a soft smile. I returned it before crawling over to Brian, who was rubbing his knees.
“I’m sorry, Bri. Are you okay?” I asked, leaning over to kiss his knees. He immediately pointed his elbows at me so I could kiss them, and then pointed out other places that hurt. I happily kissed all of the sand-burned areas, since it was my fault that he got them.
“I don’t know about you, but I think my lips got burned too,” Brian said, puckering his lips. I giggled and gave him a small kiss before standing up. I turned to help him up, but was suddenly shooting into the air. I screamed until I realized Brian had put me on his shoulders, in which I calmed down immediately. “Now, why don’t we all go swimming now?” Everyone nodded and I watched as everyone went into the water, including Gayle and Matt. Matt kept sending looks to me, which made me blush. Brian carried me out a little distance so we were still near the group but just far enough that they couldn’t hear our conversation.
“Hey, you’re not really mad at me, right?” I asked worriedly. Brian chuckled and shook his head.
“Are you kidding me? That was amazing.” Brian exclaimed.
“I can’t believe he caught me. Did you see how tightly he was holding onto me?” I asked, still dazed by all that had happened. I didn’t really know if I could trust Matt after all that he put me through, but something inside me told me to do it.
“This plan is working out way better than expected.” Brian stated. He looked up at me and saw my confused look, which automatically made a smirk cross his face. “We all saw him putting sunscreen on your back. The only reason I splashed you was because if I didn’t he probably would have kissed you and I don’t want to have to pretend to be devastated.”
“Well that makes sense.” I nodded.
“You wanna know what else makes sense?” Brian asked. I gave him a look and he smiled wickedly. “This.” With that, he grabbed onto my legs and pushed me off of his shoulders into the freezing ocean. The last thing I heard before I went under the water was all of the guys’ yells.
~
Yet another wonderful day at the beach was coming to an end and, like before, I was the last one out of the ocean. I loved it so much, I never wanted to leave. People kept yelling for me but, like before, I completely ignored them. I swam against the waves, soaking up as much of the wonderfully cold sea water as I could. When I reappeared, I looked over at the fire to see that Brian stood up, ready to get me. I waited for him to begin walking, but then he was stopped. Matt was now standing up and saying something to Brian, who just nodded and sat back down. Matt began walking towards me and I knew that he had talked Brian into letting him come get me. I made myself float on my back, listening to the waves, until Matt was next to me.
“I don’t think people want to come to the beach with you anymore,” Matt snickered. I raised an eyebrow and flicked water at him.
“And why is that?” I questioned, dunking myself as a wave came by.
“Because someone always has to fish you out of the ocean at the end of the day.” Matt explained. I rolled my eyes and threw water at him.
“That’s because I love swimming and Florida beaches weren’t as nice as this one,” I grumbled, readying myself to begin swimming away. As I dived towards the water, Matt’s arms went around my waist and pulled me away from the water and to his body. “Well, you sure do like to catch me, don’t you?”
“Of course,” He muttered. I held back a shiver and looked at him. He was staring at me with soft eyes, and I’ve never felt more confused in my whole life.
“So why did you tell Bri to stay back?” I questioned, honestly curious for his reason. I knew he probably wanted to have some alone time with me, but I mean we were in public, so he wouldn’t get that far.
“I said this is the beginning of a tradition for us,” Matt answered simply. I raised an eyebrow and he smirked. “Every time we go to the beach, I’m the one that fishes you out of the ocean at the end of the day.”
“I can see how that will become a tradition,” I commented, letting a sly smirk cross my face. Matt rolled his eyes and before I knew it, I was thrown over his shoulder and he was walking back.
“Best be getting back to the others,” Matt mused. My head poked in between his arm and I smirked even more at him.
“Your grammar is superb.” I said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and took his attention away from me.
“You’re smirking too much,” Matt chuckled. “You’ve obviously been around Brian too long.”
“Actually, Mr. Know-It-All, you all smirk more than normal people do,” I retorted, smirking to myself. “And I mean, Brian is my boyfriend, so…”
“That he is,” Matt mumbled sullenly. At that I grinned, because I knew that our plan was working. As we neared the fire, I decided to be weird, so I leaned down a little and bit Matt’s butt, which was in my face the whole damn time. He let out a yelp and jumped. “What the fuck?!” I burst out laughing and he brought me over to Brian, dropping me in his lap. “Your female just bit my butt. You need to put her into obedience school.”
“Good job, Kid,” Brian laughed, giving me a high five. “My female is well-behaved, maybe you were just provoking her with your butt.”
“He was.” I shot in, sending a joking look at Matt.
“You know you enjoyed my butt in your face,” Matt said mockingly. I grinned and rolled my eyes as Jimmy passed out the food, sending a wink to me as he passed. Today was a good day.