It was currently 9pm but still bright and hot outside when you were sitting at the parking lot right next to your parents' car with Manny, painting the floor with colorful chalk. And even though it wasn’t late yet, you were exhausted.

You arrived at your camping spot at 9am and haven’t had a single minute for yourself or Rodrick since. It was like everyone wanted something from you. First you had to pitch your and your parents' tent, because they apparently couldn’t do it themselves, being way too busy living their best life's, not giving two shit’s about where they would sleep in later on.

Then your dad and Mr. Heffley insisted to take you on a 3 hours fishing trip. You hated fishing, especially regarding the fact that you’re vegetarian, but your dad taught you when you were younger and you never told him how you really felt about his hobby, afraid to make him sad.

After that Greg and Rowley asked you for your help building a fort with the wood laying on the ground. This one took you like 2 hours but you were really proud of how it turned out. It wasn’t only big but had a great design, green leaves and dandelions decorating it here and there. It turned out so great that the boys decided to sleep in there instead of their tent, which they originally would share with Rodrick, who was really grateful for what you did, since he didn’t want to share it with the two middle schoolers either.

He gave you a quick, thankful kiss on your cheek, completely ignoring your parents around watching you, your cheeks growing red as you watched their surprised looks. You never wanted them to know about your ‘relationship’, since it wasn’t real after all. But now there was definitely no way back. You had to tell them. Not the truth obviously, but just that you were dating and so you did. But of course, you made the wrong decision, your mom and Mrs. Heffley deciding to take you on a ladies-talk-walk after the both of you confirmed your relationship.

It wasn’t anything bad and they were both really happy for you, especially Susan. She kept telling you that you were such a great, talented, beautiful and smart girl who was almost too good for her son. But then of course there was the unpleasant part – the sex talk – led by your wonderful mum.

You honestly couldn’t remember when you were so embarrassed and confused the last time. Also, you didn’t quite understand why she had to do this in front of Mrs. Heffley, especially considering the fact that you had that talk like a million times before, but you decided to not say anything and just nod, hoping this nightmare would end as soon as possible. And it did - 7 miles later.

And now here you were. Sitting on the floor, painting different colorful flowers, the dust of the chalk covering your whole hands by now, your legs still hurting from that long 'ladies-walk' as you watched the little red-haired boy in front of you, drawing a green circle with an eye inside of it. And somehow, this was the first relaxing moment this day.

“I like your flowers” he suddenly said, taking you out of your thoughts. “Can you do a blue one as well?” he added, a small smile covering your face now as you nodded your head, too tired to get out another word. Realizing after a moment that this might have came around as rude, you decided to ask him about his own painting.

“I love yours though” you started, a smile immediately forming at his face. “Is that a monster?” you asked lowering your voice, giving it a spooky touch as he nodded his head in agreement. “It’s Mike Glotzkowski” he answered proudly as you let out an impressed gasp. “You mean the one from The Monsters Inc.? The one with his blue monster friend? How was his name again?” you asked, sincerely trying to remember but couldn’t. And as he was about to tell you, opening his mouth to respond, someone suddenly interrupted him.

“It’s Sulley” you’ve heard a familiar, low voice right behind you, looking up seeing your ‘boyfriend’ kneeling down right next to you, you gave him a soft smile.

“Mom made me watch that movie with him” he said innocently, putting his hands up in defense.

“Not true” Manny threw in immediately “You made me watch it” he said pissed off as you broke out in laughter, Rodricks cheeks growing red in embarrassment.

“It’s okay Rodrick” you said giving him a calm, soft smile. “I love that movie as well” you added as he rolled his eyes ironically, turning back to Manny.

“Wanna go back to mum dude?” he asked, the 5 years-old shaking his head in disagreement. “We’re painting” he said pointing with his finger on the monster he just drew.

“Come on men, I just wanna spend some time with my girlfriend. Is that too much to ask for?” he said now, his voice pleading as he let out a heavy sigh.

“But I wanna paint” Manny said getting angry, tears slowly filling his eyes. And that was when you remembered why you didn’t like little kids and didn’t want to have any yourself. Your mom always said that this would change when you’ll grow up, but now you were nearly 18 years old and your opinion still remained the same. Why would you turn your life inside out, stop doing what you love and instead stay at home taking care of a child who cries, eats and sleeps all day? Simply didn’t make any sense to you.

“Come on buddy” he said pulling his little brother up in his arms. “I’ll let you play with my game boy” he added, a smile appearing on his brothers' face washing away all of the anger from a second ago. “But you can’t say mum, or we’re screwed.” he added convincing the boy, picking up the chalk with his free hand.

“I’ll be right back” he whispered quietly to you, turning around heading to the camp, leaving you alone. And sitting alone at the parking lot you couldn’t help but think about how strange his relationship with Greg and Manny was. It was literally like a hate – love, something you just couldn’t understand since you didn’t have siblings yourself.

He came back a few minutes later, reaching for your hand, helping you to get up as you rubbed your eyes tiredly. “You’re exhausted, aren’t you?” he suddenly asked as you headed hand in hand in the opposite direction of your camp, nodding your head in response.

“Wanna go back to the camp then?” he added stopping, looking down at you, his eyes displaying concern as you shook your head. “I’m okay. Where do you wanna go?” you asked curiously, a smile appearing on his face.

“You’ll see” he answered calmly looking back up going straight ahead and you just took it this way. You were way too tired to pressure him about this right now anyway so you just followed him.

After a short 10 minutes' walk you reached a small lake, a blanket spread out on the grass two towels lying on it. You felt a smile growing on your face as you looked back up at Rodrick, feeling your fatigue washing away immediately. You loved swimming and would always find the energy for that and he knew it.

“So, what do you say?” he asked nervously looking down at you, scared that you wouldn’t like his idea.

“I say that I’ll definitely be in there first” you said smirking at him before quickly undressing, throwing your clothes at the blanket, revealing your swimsuit, quickly running towards the lake feeling Rodrick catching up with you within a second.

You knew that you were definitely acting way too childish and should probably care about whether Rodrick liked your suit or your body. You should probably care about how he looked without his shirt on, but honestly? You didn’t give a flying fuck. You liked yourself, your body, Rodrick. And you certainly were way too competitive to care about this more than about jumping in the water first.

And as you were just about to jump in there, you felt his arms wrapping around your waist pulling you back, preventing you from jumping in and winning that most important contest of your life. By pulling you aside he managed to jump in first followed by you 2 seconds later, the lukewarm water splashing all around you.

“Unfair” you said diving back up facing Rodrick who was smiling proudly, running one hand through his wet hair, pulling the strands out if his eyes “You cheated.”

“I couldn’t cheat, there weren’t any rules” he answered quickly with a cocky grin, knowing exactly that he was right.

“Oh, shut up” you said rolling your eyes, splashing water at his face making his hair fall in his eyes once again, diving back down, scared of revenge.

You opened your eyes as you were diving through the crystal-clear water exploring it. You liked that it was so clean and that it wasn’t too deep so you could see the ground. It was really important to you and you wouldn’t have jumped in there if this wasn’t the case, since you were suffering from Thalassophobia, which meant that you were scared of being in deep bodies of water, of the vast emptiness of the sea, of being distanced from the land. But you were sure that every sane person was as well, so you simply enjoyed being in here.

You couldn’t see any fishes or animals but there were many beautiful shells there, one especially catching your attention. It was that really big oval white shell that you could hear sea noise from each time you put it to your ear. But what did it do here? Was it normal to find these in lakes? You didn’t know, but you decided to dive in deeper to get it, attempting to give it to Rodrick later.

And after diving back up to the surface with the shell in your left hand, you realized that you’ve unconsciously swam to the other end of the lake, away from where Rodrick was standing, a scared look covering his face as he seemed to search for something in the water. Or was it someone?

“Rodrick!” you shouted his name waving at him, your hands up in the air as he turned around to face you. He immediately swam across the lake and as he was finally there, he quickly took you into a tight hug, holding you close letting out a relieved sigh, your head resting against his chest as you looked up at him confused.

“Uhm...Are you okay Rod?” you asked confused.

“Don’t you ever do this again to me, okay?” he said his voice shaking. You couldn’t tell whether he was scared or just cold since the temperature went down a little.

“Uhh...What?” you questioned still not knowing what he was talking about.

“You were down there for like 2 minutes. I thought-” he started, raising his voice slightly but cutting himself off letting you go. “It doesn’t matter what I thought okay?” he added leaving the lake wrapping himself in a towel, throwing you yours as you followed him still confused by his attitude.

You decided to ignore his behavior and dried yourself, put your clothes back on and sat down next to him on the blanket, but even then he still looked pissed and didn't even bother to look at you. And that’s when you felt yourself losing your temper.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” you eventually asked trying to stay as calm as possible, done with his mood swings. “First, you’re acting super sweet, planning all this but then you suddenly turn into the most moody bitch for no fucking reason and make me feel like I’m the worst person on this planet. I don’t understand” you added as he finally looked down at you, a mix of anger and sadness displaying in his eyes.

“Well, I guess that’s who I am then” he answered through gritted teeth, turning away from you letting out a heavy sigh as you rolled your eyes “A moody bitch.”

“Fine” you said quietly after a few moments of silence passed and you regained your cool. “I’ll just head back to camp and give you some time to be alone, okay?” you asked already standing up not waiting for his answer, convinced that this would be the best solution. But as you were already a few steps away you’ve suddenly heard him saying something, too quiet for you to understand.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get that” you said turning back around, facing the emo boy, who now was also standing looking you straight in the eyes.

“I said that I’m fucking sorry, okay? Don’t make me say it again” he said now louder, his arms crossed over his chest. “I was worried that something has happened to you. I didn’t mean to overreact but you scared the shit out of me” he added now pointing his finger accusative at you, your eyes going wide open.

“Fine!” you shouted at him now angrily “I’m sorry then. I didn’t mean to fucking scare you either, you overprotective asshole.”

“Okay. I guess we’re good then” he said lowering his voice as you nodded your head slowly heading back to the blanket sitting down, Rodrick doing the same.

And there you were again, sitting together but not looking at each other, the silence surrounding you another time. But this time it was different. It was that calming silence that you wouldn’t want to interrupt. Yet you did.

“Look what I found” you said silently, pulling out the shell you found in the lake handing it to Rodrick who looked at you surprised. “You can hear the sound of the sea if you put it to your ear.”

“Wow” he whispered quietly putting it to his ear, listening to the calming sound of waves crashing on a distant beach, looking sincerely impressed. “How long does it take for the sound to disappear?” he asked you as you as you shrugged your shoulders.

“Honestly I don’t think it ever does” you said softly. “It’s like no matter where she is, she’ll always remind you where she came from.”

“Well, that’s pretty sad” he said suddenly as you looked up at him surprised. “It’s like she’s always stuck in the past. I mean don’t get me wrong, you should never forget where you came from but in the end the thing that counts is where you’re heading to” he said inspecting the seashell closely looking back up at you.

“I’m pretty sure you intended to give it to me but honestly, I think you should keep it. It fits you way better than it does fit me” he said giving it back to you, a soft smile on his face, a hundred thoughts running through your head.