"Wake up, nerd."

The sunlight blinds my eyes as I open them slightly. I see someone who looks like Zeke staring down at me. When I rub my eyes and look again, he's still there.

"Zeke?" I mumble as I sit up in my bed.

"Yes, Princess, you're not dreaming. I am actually here."

"What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"The door was unlocked and your Mom isn't here," he shrugs, "Now get up."

"Why?"

He walks over to my drawers and starts pulling out clothes. "Well, I was thinking about what you said about how I don't tell you anything about me and so you're not gonna tell me anything about you and blah blah blah, so today, my love, we are going to spend some time together."

I ignore the feeling inside I get when he says my love.

I'm going on a date with Mason tonight, damnit, I can't feel that way at something this asshole says.

He goes into my underwear drawer and pulls out bras, studying them.

I quickly get up and grab the bra from his hands and shut the drawer.

He smirks, "I guess i'll just need to wait until I see it on you."

"Where are we going?" I say, ignoring what he just said.

"The cliffside, oh and wear a bikini. Today, nerd, I am going to teach you how to live."

After showering, I brush out my wet hair and put it into a messy bun, then get dressed into my bikini, denim shorts and a white tank top.

Zeke is wearing swim shorts with a black vest top that has the Nike tick on it, showing off his beautiful arms that I've grown an obsession with.

"I don't know why i'm even agreeing to go with you today," I say as I exit the bathroom.

Zeke is sitting on my bed, probably looking at everything in my room – which i'm annoyed about because he's probably looked at all my pictures.

But when I look at him, he's staring at my legs, desire in his eyes.

What i've learned about Zeke is that, while i'm obsessed with arms and dimples, he's obsessed with girls' legs as he points them out every time he sees a blonde wearing shorts.

"You're drooling, Princess," I mock him from when he said it to me.

He meets my eye and scoffs. "Please, I was just thinking how i've seen tables with nicer looking legs than you."

I roll my eyes. What a jerk.

Going into my closet and grabbing a beach bag, I put a towel in it and some sunscreen, then head downstairs with Zeke following.

"Did you bring food?"

"Yeah, its hidden under my fucking T-shirt."

I realise that he walked here with nothing but a towel wrapped around his neck. "You seem very prepared."

"This is all I need, although food would be nice."

"What about sunscreen? You didn't bring that."

"I don't burn."

I quickly make us sandwiches and eat a handful of cereal from the box for my breakfast, then we leave.

+++

"I'm going to fall," I say as we walk down the rocky stairs from the cliff.

"Good," Zeke says from behind me.

"Asshole. I could die."

"No you won't."

I turn my head to look at him, "Actually-"

My foot slips and I lose my balance. Just as I'm about to fall, Zeke puts his hands around my waist, holding onto me.

"Watch where you're going, goddamnit, nerd," he says, sounding pissed off.

But all I can concentrate on is the feeling of his hands on me, they feel so warm and protective.

"Sorry," I mumble and continue walking down.

The tide is out, making there more room on the sand today. I lay my towel down neatly, whereas Zeke just dumps his then pulls his shirt off.

"Come on, nerd, let's go get wet," he winks and starts walking into the water.

I roll my eyes and fix his towel for him. I'm too OCD to let it sit like that. Once everything is perfect, I hesitantly pull off my t-shirt and shorts, leaving me in my favourite yellow bikini.

I know i'm not overweight, but i'm still nervous about Zeke seeing me so exposed. He's probably used to girls with much better bodies than mine, with bigger chests and bigger butts.

I walk slowly into the water, and when it touches my feet, I let out a screech.

"It's so cold!"

Zeke laughs from the water, where he's fully in. "Just because you have a pussy, doesn't mean you can act like one."

"Language!" I shout, then step back again when the water hits me.

Zeke walks over to me, about to say something but stopping and looking down my body.

Is he-? Is Zeke blushing?

I feel myself blushing too and put my arms over my chest to hide myself.

He slowly looks back up my body and meets my eyes.

"You're nervous?" He furrows his eyebrows.

I shrug.

"Why?"

I sigh and look away from him, out to the water. "A guy I once dated told me I have the body of a ten year old. And he was nerdy, you're the opposite so-"

"Whatever you're about to say, just don't," he interrupts, "that guy – he sounds like a real jackass."

I look down at my feet and kick some sand, feeling Zeke step closer to me. He puts his hands on each side of my face, forcing me to look into his eyes.

"You're the hottest nerd i've ever seen," he smirks.

My heart races in my chest, my knees go weak, and my skin tingles from where he's touching me.

This asshole turns me into a mess.

And I hate mess.

Zeke ruins the intense moment by scooping me up into his arms and throwing me in the water.

+++

"So how come your Mom let you go out today?"

We were now laying on our towels, drying off from our fun in the water and eating sandwiches.

"She didn't, but I think she's trusting me more now because she left for work this morning without asking you to come over," Zeke lies on his stomach, leaning on his elbows and running his fingers through the warm sand.

There is a comfortable moment of silence between us.

"Let's play twenty questions," Zeke says.

"Really? You'd actually answer my questions?"

He nods.

"Okay then, I'll start. You said your Dad's never around. Why?"

"He's in the army," he says with ease, as if he's known every question I'd ask and has practised how to answer them.

"My turn," he says, "Who are those people in the photos on your wall?"

I knew he'd look at them.

"It's me and my Dad. He died when I was eleven," I look at the sky, trying to ignore the lump in my throat at the mention of my Dad.

I look back at Zeke. There is sympathy in his eyes as he watches me, something i've never seen from him before.

"What do you want to do when you leave school?"

Zeke sighs and runs his hand through his damp hair, "I have no idea."

I raise my eyebrows, indicating for him to go on.

"I just, I don't know. There's nothing that I like doing. Maybe i'll just become a prostitute."

"There must be something you like – what's your favourite school subject?"

"Hmm, probably P.E; because I get to look at chicks in skimpy outfits," he smiles to himself, "That was another question, so now I get two."

He takes a bite of his sandwich before asking, "What about you? What do you wanna do when you leave school?"

"I want to go to Stanford and study chemistry, or art. I love the idea of creating things. It's like we have superpowers to create anything. Any pattern, any colour," I paused, turning around and expecting to find Zeke laughing at me, instead he was looking at me with real interest in what I was saying.

"Right now..." he trails off, "You seem so open. Your eyes are telling me the same thing your mouth is. Usually you say something and I look in your eyes, and find something completely different."

Wow.

"Why do you do that? Why do you never say what you want to say?"

I sigh, taking in everything he just said. No ones ever said anything like that to me before.

"I have a little bit of trust issues, and some overthinking issues."

"Why?"

I hesitate, trying to work out if I should trust him or not.

"Freshman year; I caught my best friend kissing my boyfriend. That girl – my best friend – I had known her my whole life. I trusted her with everything. And she did that. They both said some really mean things to me when I caught them, as if I was the one who backstabbed them."

"What did they say?" Zeke sits up, looking angry.

"Stuff about my Dad. He died from lung cancer, caused by smoking. They said it was my fault because I led him to smoking. That I made him hate his life."

Zeke screws up his face and clenches his fists. "That's fucking messed up," he says loudly.

"Yeah... And after that I just sort of stopped trusting people. I learned to think about every move I made, thinking that everyone was always going to hurt me, even the people i'd least expect to."

"I'm so sorry," Zeke says before standing up and holding his hand out to help me up. "Come on."

I take his hand, half expecting him to drop me, but he doesn't. He doesn't let me fall.

"Where are we going?"

"The top of the cliff. We're going to jump off."

I stand next to Zeke at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the water.

"What if-"

"Stop. Stop saying what if," Zeke takes my hand and squeezes it. "Just jump. Don't overthink it. I'll go first okay? And i'll be there at the bottom in case you get your leg pulled under by a shark, like you said," he chuckles.

I smile, "Okay."

Then, he let's go of my hand and jumps.

At the bottom, I see his head come up, so I take a step closer to the edge and release a breath I didn't realise I was holding.

Am I actually going to do this?

Zeke got me to talk about things I've never told anyone, not even Zoey, and I felt so comfortable doing it. And now he's got me on the edge of a cliff, about to jump.

And not in the suicide way, although he'd probably have me doing that soon enough.

"Come on, nerd! You can do it!"

He's right; I can do this. He makes me believe that I can.

Without another thought, I push off the cliff.

Every vein in my body was telling me not to do it, but here I am, falling through the air.

My body collides with the cold water and I go far under. All I see darkness. This seems like the perfect place to die; I should be terrified. But i'm not.

I feel amazing, I feel wide awake... I feel alive.

Something grabs my arm and pulls me up. As I surface, I take a deep breath and am met with a wide-eyed Zeke who has the biggest smile on his face. I realise I must look like that too.

"You did it!"

"I did it! I did it!" I shout, laughing from happiness. "It felt amazing, Zeke. It was like- It was like I was flying!"

Zeke laughs, nodding.

I put my hand on his shoulders – careful not to put too much of my weight on him in case I drown him – and look into his dark brown eyes.

"Thank you. Thank you for taking me here today. And for making me do this."

"No problem," he smiles, his eyes going from my lips to my eyes.

Our bodies were touching in the cold water; he felt warm. The air between us was electric, all I wanted to do was close the gap.

What the hell am I saying? I can't have feelings for Zeke; he's a player, and an asshole. I shouldn't be this desperate to kiss him, to feel his beautiful pink lips on me.

I should feel that way about Mason.

Mason.

"Crap!" I yell, startling him. "I need to go."

I swim as fast as I can to the shore and rush to my towel, checking the time on my phone. It read 5:24pm. Mason was picking me up at seven, and I still need to shower and get all the salt water out of my hair, and get ready, and it would take at least twenty minutes to get home.

"What's wrong?" Zeke says, coming out of the water and wiping his face with his towel.

"I have a date tonight," I start putting stuff into my beach bag and dry off my body.

"That hurts you know, going on a date with me during the day, then going out with someone else at night. You're such a player, nerd," Zeke says sarcastically with his hand on his heart.

"This wasn't a date," I start putting on my shorts and t-shirt over my wet bikini.

"Whatevs," he says in a girly tone. "You know there was a shark in there? Don't worry though, I sucker punched that fucker right in the jaw. It swam for its life, screaming and warning its friends about a hotty with a neat throw."

I laugh, "Wow, my hero."

"Yeah, and don't you forget it."

+++

ahhhh some fresh Zarnie for you shippers

what'd you think of that intense moment in the water?

i just couldn't stop thinking about francisco lachowski all wet and shirtless tbh.. 😏💦

😂 anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, please remember to vote if you did! 💞

teaser: Aubrey Winters...

- e