Part 46: Together

Harvey was staying home while I and my friends are on our way to the beach. When we arrived there, we girls started to clean and prepare the food on our cottage table. We placed the fruits for display and wait for the boys to finish grilling the meat.

Briana elbowed me in the ribs, making me look at her with hurt. "Did you wear yours?" She said.

I nodded. "Yeah, underneath." I said. Our goal is to have an only girls group picture while wearing bikinis. It was Briana's request and we couldn't refuse it.

The boys came back and then we started to eat. There was a lot of food and it made us stuffed. After a few minutes of rest, they went to the water first and the other girls started to change into their bikinis.

I, on the other hand, am so insecure. I didn't take my shirt off yet.

Sinon courage me. "Come on, girl. Show off your skin!" She hyped me.

Briana nodded. "Come on, do it for me."

I sighed in defeat and took off my clothes. They cheered me. Tiffany whistled. "Damn girl! You lost weight too, I didn't even know."

In embarrassment, I bolted into the water and they laughed, running to the water as well.

The hot sunny day was overcome by the cool water. We played tag in the water just like we used to a few years back. It brought back so many memories. Deja vu kicked in and it hyped us all up.

When we got out of the water, a bonfire was made by the guys. We all sat in a circle and started to catch up on everything. How everyone was doing and how much has changed since then. Some of us grew taller, got skinnier, got bigger, got more confident, and some got together with someone.

There were so many smiles on our faces. I looked at everyone's faces and they were all laughing like there's no tomorrow. The class clown in our group cracked some old jokes that we used to tell and everybody joined by recalling old words and phrases that we used to say. It tugged a string in my heart when I saw Briana's pale face.

We all knew that she was tired but she told us all that there should be no mentioning of her illness. She wanted every one of us to be happy today and it happened. I feel so happy to preserve this memory of all of us laughing.

We took pictures and sang together as one of us played the guitar. This get-together almost made me forget the root cause was. I know that everyone knows deep inside their hearts what this was for, somehow we had a silent agreement to not mention it.

It was time to go and we start to pack all our stuff. We threw out all the plastics and the garbage, the leftover food, and bones were given to the dogs on the beach. We then took pictures together under some fairy lights, the warm light made our spot look like we were at another location.

Briana came up to me and tapped my shoulder. "Caro! Look at that fish!"

Caro pointed at the see and there was a shining red tail under the moonlight.

'Kole?'