She smiled her sleepy smile and stretched her arms, doing a little squiggle. “And if you can’t sleep, I can’t sleep either?” she whispered.
“That’s right. Hurry – the sun is about to rise.”
She grinned, gazing up at me in her drowsy way, before reaching out her hand and swiping it playfully across my cheek. I’d never had anyone look at me the way she did. She genuinely enjoyed my company. Most girls viewed me as the opening act for the main attraction. They didn’t bother getting to know me because I wasn’t their final destination. Kenzie wanted to learn everything about me, as evidenced by the endless questions she asked me on a daily basis. Seriously, I had no idea I had that many interesting facts to give her, but damned if she didn’t come up with new things to ask me every day.
I gave Kenzie my best ‘come out and play’ look to entice her out of bed.
“All right, you win.”
We slipped on our shoes and walked down the beach. It was still dark. In a few minutes, the sun would rise from behind the sea, and I felt the fluttering of excitement in my chest. I’d never given stuff like this a second thought in the real world, but out here, in this dream existence, something as everyday as the sun making its first appearance of the morning held a sense of wonder in my expanding universe. Maybe Iwasevolving.
I found the rock on the edge of the waterline that Kenzie and I had used many times to hang out. She sat down as I stood beside her admiring the view. Neither of us spoke as we watched the orange sun peek out over the horizon. Slowly the darkness turned to light. I snuck a glance of Kenzie’s profile. Eyes closed, she’d dipped her head to the sun and wore the most content expression on her face. Her sun-streaked hair had caught the rays and sparkled in the light. Her long lashes curled upward, and as she smiled, the little crinkles in the corners of her eyes highlighted her sunny disposition. My own eyes did a double take as I realized what I was seeing. Damn, Kenzie was actually pretty damn attractive.
Perhaps sensing my eyes on her, she peaked one open and smiled. “What?”
“Nothing. You look happy.”
“I am,” she said. Those two words sounded so relaxed.
I kept staring at her.
“Stop,” she laughed. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing. I’d just never noticed before how pretty you are.”
Kenzie straightened herself up, peeking at me out from under her lashes as a flush crept across her cheeks. “Are you messing with me?”
“No. I’m giving you a compliment. Don’t get all weird about it.”
“I’m not,” she said, concentrating intensely on the rock she was sitting on. “And, uh… thank you… for the compliment.”
I shook my head, feeling suddenly embarrassed. “Way to make that awkward, Kenzie.”
She laughed softly and then shifted her gaze back up at the sky. Without looking in my direction, she asked, “So what’s your deal, Kyle? Why are you here?”
“My deal?” I asked, feeling unexpectedly defensive. I deflected the question back at her. “I don’t have a deal. What’s your deal?”
“I told you already: I need the money.”
“Why do you need it so badly?”
“It’s not that I need-need it. I just want it.”
I laughed. “We all just want it.”
“I guess.”
“You’re really not going to tell me?” I asked, shooing her with my hand to scoot over. Once she moved, I climbed onto the rock next to her.
“You’re expecting something earth-shattering. It’s not like that. We’ve just been struggling financially for a long time, and it would be nice not to have to worry for a change, you know what I mean?”
No, actually I didn’t really know what she meant. It’s not like I was a millionaire, far from it, but I made a better than average paycheck and all my expenses were taken care of, so I was far from struggling. Still, I wasn’t that far removed from reality that I didn’t understand people weren’t as fortunate as I am.
“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked.
“My dad and siblings.”
“Not your mom?”
