Darcy changed after that day, she calmed down a little, she treated me differently, like… she was worried she’d upset me. It didn’t annoy me, I found it endearing that she cared, but I didn’t want to be treated like a broken case. I wasn’t broken just… still trying to heal I guess.

“Zacky’s got his head in the clouds again” Jimmy laughed.

“He’s thinking of her ” Brian laughed.

“Oh shut up guys” I groaned. Matt laughed and threw the football at me.

“Come on that was uncalled for” I laughed throwing it back.

“Then come back down to earth space cadet” He said tossing it to me again. I didn’t catch it and he snickered.

“Oh shut up I play baseball not football”

“Oooh look at me I’m Zachary Baker and I play baseball” He laughed in a girly voice. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah and I’m Matt Sanders and I think I’m a hard man because I can play football grrr” Jimmy roared with laughter as I flexed.

“I’m Johnny and I’m short shit” Jimmy said grinning.

“That’s unfair! I’m not short!”

“Yes you are Johnny” Brian said.

We were at the beach, it was really warm today and we’d all taken our shirts off. The sun was hot on my back and I picked up my beer from the ground.

“Well I’m going in the water” Brian said

“Ooh no me first!” Jimmy yelled scrambling up off the ground and hurtling towards the water.
Brian laughed and went after him. I laughed and stood up brushing the sand off my butt. I followed them down the beach to the water and dived in.

I came up to the surface and saw Jimmy and Brian wrestling with each other. Well Jimmy was trying to dunk Brian and he was fighting back cos’ he didn’t want to get his hair wet. I snuck up behind them and put a finger to my lips to signal Jimmy needed to stay quiet. And then I put my hand on Brian’s shoulder and shoved down hard causing Brian to be pushed well below the water line. He fought back and I let him back up. He came up coughing and spluttering.

“What the fuck?!” He glared angrily at me before storming out of the water. I heard someone giggling from the shore. I turned to see none other than Darcy standing there in a black and white bikini, I had to take a minute to pick my jaw up off the floor, she looked smokin’.

“That wasn’t very nice” She said moving her sunglasses to the top of her head.

“It was harmless fun” I said to her, she smiled and swayed, her flip flops in her hand.

“You coming in?”

“Nah I don’t really wanna”

“Oh come one” I said walking to her, I saw Jimmy going back to the shore too.

“I don’t wanna get wet” She said, I snorted. “Oh grow up” She said, but she was grinning.

“Come on” I said moving a little bit closer to her.

“Zack no”

“Are you sure you won’t be going in?”

“Yes”

“Absolutely sure?”

“Yes” I looked at her, a grin on my lips. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s not gonna work”

“You don’t know what I’m thinking” I said scooping her up. She screamed and wriggled around, dropping her flip flops on the floor. I carried her through the sea to where I was about waist deep, she had her arm around my shoulders and her face buried in my neck.

“Zacky please don’t” She said looking at me.

“You’ve got no idea what I’m gonna do”

“Yes I do, you’re gonna drop me” She wailed slapping my chest.

“Okay so you do” And then I kicked my legs out from underneath me so that we both went
under the water. She came up before me, she was coughing and spluttering and pushing her hair out of her face. I grinned at her but she was glaring at me.

“I told you not to do that?” She said

“Yeah but you knew I was going to”

“You’re an asshole”

“Come on Darce” I said moving nearer to her “You know you’re not really mad at me” I said grinning at her. She was trying to carry on glaring at me but she couldn’t keep it up and she snorted with laugher before splashing me. “Oh now how is this fair!” I splashed her back, we got engaged in a full on water fight until I grabbed ahold of her and lifted her up. She shrieked and kicked her legs out.

“Zacky let me go” She said elbowing me in the ribs. I laughed and span her round.

“No”

“Connor will get mad” She said

“Why?”

“Because he get possessive”

“Is everything okay with him?”

“Yeah why?”

“Because that bruise on your shoulder doesn’t look like you got it from walking into a door” I
said pushing a loose curl out of her face.

“It wasn’t Connor if that’s what you’re thinking, Matt dropped me the other day” She rolled
her eyes.

“He dropped you?”

“Yeah he didn’t mean to”

“Okay”

“I need to get out” She said “I look like a prune” She held her hand up.

“Ew old lady”

“Oh shut up”