He doubted that his dad missed him. Waiting for him? That’s for sure, but his dad didn’t miss him. His mom’s message hit him with a sharper shame than guilt, a reminder of how little he’d told either of them about this trip. He hadn’t told them about the journey they were on, hadn’tshared the mornings when the sun rose like fire over the waves, or the nights when the ocean whispered lullabies. He hadn’t shared how Adrian’s presence, quiet and constant, had begun to settle in the spaces between his thoughts, like the moon pulling the tide.
Logan swallowed, his fingers hovering over the keyboard as he fought the wave of emotions rising inside him.
I miss you too. I’m doing okay. Don’t worry, I’m being safe. I love you.
Logan swiped over to his chat with Jane, watching the stream of her messages pass by, each one more disconnected than the last, a patchwork of half-truths, vague updates, and empty words. They spoke often enough, but it never felt like they were really talking.
He wanted—no,needed—to say something real, to spill the storm that was brewing inside of him onto the screen, to find a way to speak the feelings that tangled in his chest. His hands flew over the screen, starting to type.
He wanted to tell her about Adrian—the way his presence had seeped into everything, the way his laugh echoed in Logan’s mind like the pulse of the ocean, the way Adrian’s smile could make the world feel both too big and too small at the same time. He wanted to say that, maybe, just maybe, there was something between them that went beyond the usual rhythms of friendship, something deeper, something that terrified and exhilarated him all at once.
This was not the time. This was not something he could share.
Not even with Jane.
He deleted the message, his thumb lingering over the empty space where he might have poured out his heart. Instead, he typed something else, something simpler, easier to say.
How are you sis? Miss you lots. I’m having the time of my life. It’s the best. Love you. Talked to mom. Sent a text to Ann. Call you later this week.
He snapped a quick selfie—grinning, a flash of bright white teeth—and attached it to the message, the image of his face a moment captured, a life suspended.
And yet, despite the message, despite the distance he put between himself and the ache in his chest, the room still hummed with the quiet tension between them. The weight of Adrian’s presence felt like the pulse of the ocean itself, constant, inevitable, and far too much for Logan to ignore.
As Logan hitsendon his message, a subtle shift in the room caught his attention. He glanced up from his phone and found Adrian’s eyes on him, steady, unwavering.
“Looks good,” Adrian said, his voice casual, but there was a hint of something behind it—a silent appreciation glistened in his eyes, paired with a lingering, wonder-filled gaze etched onto Logan.
Logan pressed his hand against his freshly-shaved jaw, feeling the smooth skin beneath his fingertips. “Thanks,” he muttered, the word slipping out almost absentmindedly. He didn’t trust his voice right now, too many thoughts, too many things left unsaid. He cleared his throat and asked, trying to fill the silence with something familiar, something safe. “Talked to your mom?”
“Yeah, earlier,” Adrian replied, his voice flowing like a gentle ocean breeze. “It was some friends of mine.” He approached the bed and picked up a towel from the stack of clean linens. Logan couldn’t take his eyes off him, yearning to see and hear Adrian. “By the way, my mom says hi.” The words lingered in the air, and Logan, for reasons he couldn’t quite understand, felt the heat of a blush rise to his cheeks. He nodded, trying to mask the flutter in his chest, that uninvited wave of warmth that threatened to pull him under.
Over the weeks they’d spent together, Adrian had told his parents about their travels, about the days spent riding the endless waves. His mom had even called a few times, checking in on them both, a tangle of care threading through the static of their video calls. Logan remembered one call vividly, the way Adrian had half-laughed, half-grinned at the camera, his voice carrying that familiar affection as he said, “This is Logan, the one I’ve been telling you about!” Logan had barely managed a weak hello, his voice shaky in the face of Adrian’s pride, his heart drumming wildly in his chest as Adrian’s parents—both of them—smiled warmly at him through the screen, their English accented and broken but full of kindness. It felt like too much, too fast, but still, Logan had smiled back, had nodded, had breathed through the moment.
But that moment had passed, and the room was now filled with a different tension—one Logan didn’t know how to navigate.
“My friends are here… they landed yesterday,” Adrian began, rubbing the back of his neck in that way that always seemed to stir something in Logan.
It makes sense, it’s a prime spot, always packed with surfers,Logan thought. “They’re heading out to Pacifico Beach tomorrow, it’s about twenty orthirty minutes away. They’ve got a ride set up. It’s supposed to be great.”
“Oh,” Logan said, the word barely escaping his lips, more a breath than a sound.Here it comes—that familiar, sharp edge of uncertainty. The question hung between them, unanswered, like the space between two waves just before they crashed. Was Adrian going to leave? Would he vanish into the crowd of his friends, the way people did, drifting away like foam caught on the tide?
Was this the end of the road for them?
A gnawing panic clawed at Logan’s chest. Should he help Adrian pack? Should he say goodbye with some weak hug, a parting phrase that meant nothing and everything? The thought of it made his skin crawl, made him wish for the comfort of the ocean’s roar to drown out the churn of his thoughts.
But before he could settle on any of that, Adrian’s voice broke through his spiraling thoughts. “So… um…” Adrian hesitated, as if unsure of his own words, his soft accent melting into a deeper, more familiar lilt with each day they spent together. “You coming? You coming with us? The waves are killer there!” he added with a smile, and there was something in his eyes—a flicker of hope—that made Logan’s breath catch in his throat. It was an invitation, simple and hesitant, and yet it felt like a lifeline.
Adrian’s heart hammered in his chest as he watched Logan, his eyes tracing every movement, every fleeting expression. He wanted Logan to come with him and his friends so badly it ached, but the uncertainty gnawed at him.Would he?He wasn’t sure. The thing about Logan was that he wasn’t like anyone Adrian had ever met. He was… unpredictable. While Adrian thrived in the energy of groups, reveling in the chaotic hum ofvoices and the rush of new experiences, Logan wasn’t so easily swayed by the currents of others.
Logan was keen on being with Adrian, but Adrian could feel it, that resistance in him when it came to anyone outside their small, tight-knit bubble. Logan didn’t open up easily. There were walls built around him, sturdy and thick, shaped by a solitude Adrian could only guess at. Over the past month, they had spent hours together, traveling between islands, surfing the same waves, sharing the same silence, laughter, and air. In all that time, Logan had barely mentioned his family. Not once had he spoken of friends, and when Adrian tried to ask, the conversations were always short, clipped. The way Logan retreated when the topic shifted to home made Adrian wonder if he truly was a loner, if perhaps the ocean was the only place he could breathe freely.
But despite all of that, Adrian knew.
They clicked.
It was something beyond logic, beyond explanation. It wasn’t just the way Logan’s sharp wit could leave him in fits of laughter, or how Adrian found himself endlessly captivated by the small shifts in Logan’s moods. It was everything, the way Logan’s quiet intensity steadied Adrian’s wandering mind, the way Logan’s spontaneity coaxed him out of his caution and into the world at its fullest. Their silences were never empty; they had the familiarity of people who could communicate wordlessly. Logan was a tangle of contradictions, open yet distant, impulsive yet guarded, and somehow, in all those fractures, Adrian found perfection.
“Yeah. Sure,” Logan murmured, the words slipping out without thought, the decision already made in his chest even if his mind couldn’tfully grasp it. Adrian’s face broke into a grin, bright and effortless, the kind of smile that could light up the darkest corners of the sea.
