♡ ♡

Like always, Nico made lunch.

I watched him from the kitchen. Last night, we finished painting the living room. He was now painting the trimming white, and he demanded that it 'wasn't necessary' for me to help.

My phone rang against the counter. I picked it up quickly, hoping it would be Winter asking me to hang out.

But I frowned once I saw that it was my mom calling.

At first, I wasn't going to pick up. But then I started to worry, 'what if she's calling because something bad happened?'

So I picked up.

Before I could even get a 'hello' out of my mouth, I was met with something all too familiar.

"Maribelle," she spoke sternly. "I sure hope you've been taking this time to think about our last interaction."

My heart hurt a little that he didn't even bother asking me if I was okay after what happened.

She continued, "Are you ready to stop having one of your little tantrums, and come back home? I can arrange to have the Dean from Boston University-"

"I'm not having a tantrum, mom," I cut her off. "I'm trying to live my life."

"And how do you plan on living your life, exactly? Poor, with a shitty job? That man of yours surely isn't making more than Abel," she named one of her friends' sons, who was a doctor.

I rolled my eyes. She spoke again, "I just want a good life for you because I love you."

"You don't love me, mom. You love the idea that you could brag about stuff I do to other people," I argued back. "Fuel your own ego."

She went silent on the other end, my response clearly taking her by surprise. I took a deep breath, trying to gather up the courage to say what I wanted to say next.

"You didn't love me, so I found somebody who does."

My eyes turned to Nico as I said that. He was too far to hear me, but even just me saying it makes a euphoric feeling spread through my body. I never realized how love-deprived I was until I met Nico.

I ended the call before she could reply.

While I stared down at the black screen, Nico entered the kitchen.

"Who was that?" he asked while grabbing a glass of water.

I shook my head slightly, "Nobody."

The glass in his hand was now full, and I was expecting him to raise it to his lips, but he handed it out for me to take.

I smiled at the gesture. I took it, taking a long sip since I could tell how hot it was outside just by looking out of the window.

"I was thinking we could go somewhere today," he said while putting his hands on my waist.

I removed the now empty glass from my mouth, wiping my lips with the back of my hand. Once they were dry, I asked, "Where?"

"The beach," his words instantly made my face light up.

I set the glass down, probably almost breaking it with how fast I did it. Nico laughed slightly, "Careful."

"I haven't been to the beach in so long!" I said while tugging on his arm to follow me upstairs. "What if I don't remember how to swim anymore, and I drown and die?"

"Shit, if that's what Mercury being in retrograde wants," he shrugged.

My eyes narrowed on him and he smiled, "I'm just kidding. We can stop at Walmart and get you some Dora floaties if you want."

"I always liked Bratz more," I smiled back, matching his voice with the same amount of sarcasm.

I changed into a white bikini and put a dress over top of it. Nico put a pair of black swimming trunks on underneath a pair of joggers, and he turned to exit the room to leave.

I crossed my arms, "Nico Penelope Cross. You aren't going anywhere without sunscreen."

"What the fuck makes you think that my middle name is Penelope?" he asked while turning around in the doorway. I caught sight of the heart tattooed on his hand and smiled to myself.

I shrugged, "What is it, then?"

"I don't have one," he told me. "And what's yours?"

"Maral. It's my grandma's name on my moms' side," I told him while grabbing the bottle of sunscreen.

"Maribelle Maral Russo," he said my full name quietly, almost to himself.

I used the bottle of sunscreen to point at his shirt, "Take it off."

"No drinks first?" he teased while pulling it over his head.

I squeezed the sunscreen into my hand, distributing it before starting to rub it on his arms. He stared down at me and watched as I did this, my cheeks turning hot.

His arm is very hard. Way stronger than mine, even though I hate to admit it. I found myself admiring his tattoos as I put sunscreen on his other arm, his chest, and his back.

I paused once I finished putting it on his back. He had cursive writing down his spine, and I turned my head to read it.

'What is gone, will be replaced.'

My eyebrows scrunched, wondering what that meant.

"Your turn, my love," he said as he turned around.

I beamed, "I already put mine on. My arms, back, stomach, and legs are covered."

"That pretty face of yours needs it, too," he said while grabbing the bottle from me.

He squeezed some onto his fingers, before gently putting it against my cheeks. He rubbed it in before putting some on my forehead, then my chin, then my nose last. He poked the tip of it after he was done and grabbed onto my hand, "Okay, now let's go."

Nico let me control the radio while we drove. I grabbed two water bottles out of the fridge for us, so that we could stay hydrated.

I played California Love as we drove, but I quickly turned it down once we approached the beach. It was crowded, hundreds of people were in the water and sitting on the sand.

"What's wrong?" Nico asked me.

I took a deep breath. I told him, "I've just never been around this many people before."

"Don't worry, baby. Just stay with me," he spoke in a reassuring voice.

I nodded and got out of the car, carrying both of our towels. The air was salty and even though I had socks on, keeping my feet from making direct contact with the sand, they still burned.

I lay both of our towels out, stepping onto mine before setting my shoes and water bottle down.

My dress dropped to my ankles, and my skin was met with the bright sun. Nico removed his clothes, too, until he was standing in just his swimming trunks.

"I hope you know that if any girl looks at you, they're dead," I told him, my voice turning deeper as I said the last word.

"And I hope you know that if any guy looks at you, they would actually be dead," he said as we took our first step into the semi-cold water.

I remembered a story that a girl in high school told me, about how her boyfriend didn't let her wear a bikini to the beach because it was 'too revealing.' I told Nico this, and he scoffed.

"What?" I asked as we were now up to our hips in the water.

"It's just pathetic. Who fuckin' cares if guys see you like that when only I see what's underneath it?" he said.

A smile formed on my face. More people should be like Nico.

We were now far enough in where we had to actually swim to stay above the surface. We just trod the water as we talked, the sun shining down on both of us.

"Watch out!" A child's voice called out before a beach ball hit Nicos' head, making me burst out laughing.

Tears were literally coming out of my eyes. I got transported back to when I was 9, throwing a ball at his head.

"Sorry," the kid laughed as they grabbed their ball back.

Nico muttered, "Little shit."

"Nico!" I said while laughing still. I took deep breaths, trying to control myself now. "Aren't kids great?"

"Nah. Not unless they're yours," he replied.

My laughing had completely stopped now. My eyes scanned around his face as I asked, "Do you want kids one day?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"Well, how many do you want? You're the one that will be carrying them."

I just got butterflies.

"Two," I told him. "A boy and a girl."

"Sounds perfect to me," he said while looking straight into my eyes.

I bit my bottom lip and turned my head to the left. I looked at the shore, watching two kids skipping rocks, which made an idea pop into my mind.

"Let's find rocks that remind us of each other," I suggested.

"Okay," he agreed, and we went our separate ways on the sand.

I looked around, collecting the ones that fit him in my hand. As the bright sun dried my skin, eventually, I had a beautiful collection of green and black rocks.

I held them behind my back as I walked over to where he was standing. He put his behind his back, too, but we both revealed them as I counted down from 3.

His hand was filled with dozens of different colors of rocks. Pink, blue, red, grey.

My eyebrows lowered, wondering why I reminded him of these rocks. He answered my question as if he could read my mind, "They may be all different colors, but they all have one thing in common. They're tiny, and they're fucking beautiful."

My heart warmed. I took them from him and said, "We need to keep these forever!"

"Don't worry, we will," he said before kissing my forehead.

I put the rocks safely on my towel before we headed back into the water.

Hours had gone by. As the sun now began to set and the dark blue water turned orange, I decided it was time for us to go home.

"Can I help you cook dinner tonight?" I asked him as we approached his car. I wish that I had my own car - I can't exactly take Romeo's whenever now.

"If you want, but I was thinking we could get food on the way home?" he suggested, and my stomach rumbled right when he said 'food.'

He didn't even wait for my response. The second that he heard my stomach, he turned in the direction of all of the food places.

He told me that I could pick where we went, so I decided on going through the In-n-out drive-thru. I didn't want Nico going hungry, so I told him to park the car so that he could eat too, before resuming the drive home.

Because I should be a pro basketball player, once we were done eating, I tossed the food into the nearby garbage can. But then I missed so I had to shamefully get out and put it in myself while Nico laughed at me.

I yawned when we started driving again. Being in the sun all day always makes me tired.

I used my hand to shield myself from the sun until Nico pulled down the thing in front of me that blocks my face from the sun, and he moved it to the side.

I kept yawning as we drove home. I could still smell the salty water on my tanned skin, and my hair was wavy from it getting wet.

We pulled into our driveway at peak sunset time. I observed, "The sunset is so beautiful."

"Do you want to watch it?" he asked me.

My lips spread into a smile, and I nodded my head.

I followed him into the backyard. I didn't put my shoes on, so my socks were pressing against the dark green grass.

Nico put his hands on my waist and helped me to jump up and sit on the balcony fence. Once I was seated, he jumped up beside me.

I looked down at my feet as I kicked them. Even though my socks were white, they looked orange from the sunset.

"What's your favorite kind of sunset?" Nico asked me, making me lift my head up to look at him.

His clear and pale skin looked tan from the sunset's glow. His pupils were small, showing a lot of his dark green eyes.

I bit the inside of my mouth while I thought. I shrugged, "I don't know. Do you have one?"

"Mhm," he hummed, and I used my head to motion for him to tell me. "Pink."

"Pink?" I said, my eyebrows raising slightly. "How come?"

He turned his head to look at the sunset, and I did the same.

"Pink and brown have become my favorite colors since meeting you. You just feel like pink to me, if that makes sense. So whenever I see a pink sunset, I think of your fuckin' cute face," he told me as I turned to look at him, watching his side profile.

My lips formed a smile as my heart warmed in my chest. He turned to look at me, the warm summer breeze hitting us and blowing our hair back.

I put my hand over top of his as I thought out loud, "I wish summer never had to end."

"How come?" his head tilted slightly.

I blew a raspberry. I took a second to think before replying, "Because, after summer, I need to start getting my life together. Decide on a career path."

"And what options are you considering?"

"I want to do something that helps people. Impact people's lives in a positive way," I shared. "Like how you teach people how to defend themselves - I want to do something like that."

He nodded, the birds chirping filling the silence while he thought.

"You could become a self-defense teacher," he told me.

I shook my head, "I don't think that's what I want to do. I want to feel a connection to what I'm doing. I'm sure my brain will think of something, and I will trust it."

"Let's go walk around Boston University tomorrow," he said while giving my hand a squeeze. "Maybe something will pop into your brain."

"Not tomorrow. I'm going to go tell Rio tomorrow that his tattoo is for the next day," I spoke excitedly. "I can't wait for you to see what he's getting tattooed. How about we go the day after he gets his tattoo?"

"Sure," he agreed.

We both stared out at the sunset. It was orange, and less than half of the sun was visible now. Pretty clouds were dotted around in the sky, and as bright as the sun was, the dinner-time breeze prevented me from getting too hot.

"Isn't so weird how we managed to find each other again after all of those years?" I spoke up. "It's so weird when you think about how many things had to happen for us to meet again that day."

Me getting attacked, my appointment at the college being at that specific time, Nico's sister passing and making him want to become a self-defense teacher, him just so happening to have an opening the day that I called.

"I don't think it's that weird," he shook his head.

My eyebrows lowered, "What? Why?"

His green eyes looked away from the sunset and locked on mine. He didn't speak for a moment, my ears only being met with the sound of the breeze and the chirping birds.

"I think it's because we're soulmates," he replied.