That night, Marley couldn't sleep. Sure, Tessellated was divulging rhymes over a jazz-inspired beat into Marley's ears from noise-cancelling headphones, but it was the boy's thoughts that were much, much louder. His back against his mattress and his head deep-sunken into his pillow, Marley clutched the sheets up to the stomach of his bare chest. Sleeping in his boxers was normal for him, useful even, to help combat the heat but now he was beginning to imagine what Ava might have thought if she saw him like this.

Impressed? Disappointed? He wondered how the skin on the parts of their bodies that weren't hands would feel against each other? Would he over-think and make it awkward, or would his heart push his mind into the backseat of his subconscious and then hit the gas, driving his body into hers, thoughtless and all. Would she like that? Thoughts like these were a little more salacious when the moon was overhead, Marley knew, but the way he felt about her made the temptation feel right. The way he felt about Ava DeLoughery made him feel invincible.

Then Marley regrettably remembered his father's words. 'Yuh can say yuh love a person but neither of you will know how much or how little...until somebody leaves. Love real, Marley, but it is always unrequited.' He exhaled. The chipped paint cracking his ceiling was in the shape of her smile and Marley had to remind himself that this wasn't love. They weren't even dating. They were just hanging out. Marley kept Tessellated in his ears to prevent the silence from creeping in on him. He shut his eyes and pulled his sheets a little higher.

Full disclosure, he didn't know what he was getting himself into when he told Ava DeLoughery that tomorrow should be the day that they go to the beach, but it excited him. It made him forget all the things that were wrong in his life. Things like, the fact that he couldn't talk. That, he would never see his mother again. That, he was stuck in this tiny house whose ceiling kept his head from seeing too high above the clouds. He wanted Ava DeLoughery to feel that too. He wanted her to forget her boredom that drove her into the most foreign restaurant she could find, just so she wouldn't be recognized. Forget the beach house that she was brutally uninvited to. Forget Richard O'Riley. For now, that's all Marley Mason was allowing himself to think about: how he could make Ava DeLoughery happy, and, forget.

And it was all he could think about. Over and over again, until sleep eased him off.

Then the following day, it resumed.

Even despite her figure being absent from her booth, a new group of persons inhabiting it now, Marley still found himself doing things to try to make her happy. When he walked to and from tables, into the kitchen and back, there were no secret glances across the room; no matter how hard he wanted there to be. Nor was there anyone to give the plate of festivals he had accidentally made.

Jah-Jah's Jamaican Jerk Foods was quiet without Ava DeLoughery, and for the first time in too long, Marley Mason found the quiet unbearable.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Tafari Mason asked him once, stopping his son from briskly exiting the kitchen.

Marley huffed and shook his head. But before he could completely leave, his father spoke up again.

"Right. Sorry, not girlfriend. Your," he paused, and Marley knew there was a Cheshire smile carving his mouth open, "friend. How come she not here today?"

Marley shrugged nonchalantly. She'll be here.

Tafari watched the back of the boy he had raised and wondered how many things he didn't tell his father. How much of a stranger was he to his own father, and who was to blame? Because, right now, Tafari Mason could tell Marley wasn't telling him everything.

Marley exited the kitchen and waited for the song of a certain soul to re-enter his shuffled life.

*

Jah-Jah's Jamaican Jerk Foods was finally able to breathe after the waves of customers left. Jimmy barely waited five minutes before flipping their open sign on the door to 'closed'. He and Christina plopped down one of the tables and uncorked a water bottle before quickly downing it. "Tired already? The sun not even set yet." Tafari told them, laughing with himself from behind the counter.

Christina groaned. "Boss, I love jerk chicken and all, but today, I've cooked way too much. I want someone to make me some chicken now."

Jimmy leapt up. "Do you wanna order Popeyes?"

Christina swiped the sweat off her forehead and pulled the hairnet off her head, groaning, "Yes, please."

Tafari turned to Marley and put his hand on his shoulder. "You see son," he pointed to the pair browsing the Popeyes menu from their phones, "watch the same people I pay to work here, order from a completely different restaurant instead of supporting me. Can't trust anyone these days."

Christina shrugged. "We love you and all, boss, but you just can't beat Popeyes."

There was an abrupt silence.

Marley snickered, knowing how far his father's jaw had just dropped.

Tafari laughed at his employees in ridicule. "Oh really? Seh bet," he tempted.

Christina and Jimmy shared a look and put their phones back down. "Bet," said Christina a little sheepishly.

"Alright," Tafari rubbed his palms together, "Yuh ever have Jamaican fried chicken before? Watch dis." The man tightened his apron and Marley watched the determination embolden him. Marley shook his head and giggled.

Jimmy laughed. "Okay, Tafari. Prove us wrong."

"Watch out," Tafari said, "Yuh taste buds bout fi explode."

They all laughed.

A knuckled fist wrapped against the glass of the front door.

Marley, his locs only slightly delayed, flicked up, and Ava DeLoughery was there standing behind the door peering into the dark restaurant where they were. She waved. He smiled.

Marley turned to look at Tafari who was already giving him a knowing look. They hadn't done their mop-ups and wipe-downs yet and there was still so much work to be done. So Marley Mason, feeling the weight of Ava's gaze on him, subtly insisted with his father. He had done so almost long, and earnestly enough for it to be considered begging before Tafari finally exhaled.

"Big man, eh?" Tafari looked at Ava (she waved back) and glanced back at Marley. In his son's eyes were things that Tafari almost recognised. They looked like memories fighting their way to the surface of a shadowy depth. But the most dangerous things lived in the deepest spaces. His lips set. "Fine," he said. "Gwaan."

Marley stifled the triumph bubbling up from within him and instead flashed a humble smile before heading into the back of the restaurant to grab his backpack. On his way out, he clasped his hands in thanks but Tafari only laughed and waved him off, even after his son had left him in the dark building.

"How was work?" Ava asked him on the outside.

Boring without y-No, Just boring. Boring. Same old, same old, he shrugged.

Ava nodded, adjusting her feet. "Well, lead the way. I don't even know where I'm going."

Marley paused. You've never been to the Bayside beach?

Ava chuckled at his faint disbelief. "Only once when I was small," she told him, "Guess my family's not really big on beaches."

Marley thought it was weird but he didn't question it. After all, his family was not into many things that other people from the Bayside area were big on. Like big houses, time to waste and personalities as vapid as air. He gave her a reassuring smile, the strongest he could, and began their trek down toward the ocean, Ava in his strides.

They didn't speak for most of the way, Marley, because he wanted to leave enough room for Ava to speak and say all the things that he knew she could in a way that was indigenous to her voice, and Ava, because she couldn't help but wonder if when she went on the sand she would be able to see Richie's beach house towering over her. It wasn't until they both made it to the edge of the slight plateau that hovered in the background of the Bayside beach that their focus centred on the same thing: the ocean.

Marley always thought it was weird that when people went to the beach they stayed on the sand. The played sports on the sand, got tanned on the sand, buried each other, and built pretend castles on the sand. When the beautiful thing about the beach was the large expanse of the world in blue, rushing waves stretching out before them. Where new creatures lived and no matter how hard you tried you could never swim straight across it. It was larger than life and unforgiving, as all spectacular things were supposed to be, yet in America everyone seemed so obsessed with staying on the sand.

Ava breathed, "Wow."

Marley glanced at her again, her lips now parted and her eyes reflecting more than just the ocean but all the confusing shades of the sky as well.

"It's bigger than I remember." Her eyes didn't scatter to try to take in everything because she didn't need them to. She could stare straight and soak it all in just the same. Then her eyes caught something. "It's closed?"

On the far left of their view stood a tall sign illustrating the times the beach was open. It had closed two hours ago. Taking notice of the landscape again, Marley realised that explained why the sand and the water were both empty. He frowned.

"Okay, now I definitely want to swim." She dashed forward, jumping over the loose chain intended to block people from entering and made her way onto the sand. Closer to where the waves came rushing toward her feet, Ava DeLoughery discarded her shirt up and over her head before doing the same with her shorts down her legs. Then she was gone, into the deep ocean without fear and allowing it to swallow her whole. For a few seconds.

When she reemerged, soaked and happy like a child in the rain, she was searching for Marley. "Marley! Come on! The water's good!" Her voice echoed across to him and he couldn't believe there was no one else here. Looking behind him once more at the deserted path they took here, he laughed. Then, when his eyes reconnected with Ava in the ocean, he took off.

He ran just like she did, following her footsteps over the chains and into the sand where he cast away all his clothes. And then, he went dashing in. Marley Mason sent water scattering all around him when he made his rushed entrance. Like other things they went flying out from him, far enough for him to forget they existed and for his eyes to centre on the girl waiting for him giggling and shielding her face from his splashes.

When he finally got to her he embraced her, albeit a little too roughly, and they both went sinking beneath the waves, their laughs finally muted together. They did other ridiculous things like that all evening.

Ava went on Marley's shoulders and he carried her as far as he could away from the sand. Their bodies sprawled atop the water as it carried them away. Marley snagged Ava's foot when she tried to dive. They held their breath for as long as possible. Swimming, or trying their best to, in harsh tides they did everything. Vanished, twisted, drowned and laughed so loud the earth beneath them had certainly adjusted and a tsunami was about to let loose.

By the time they were stumbling back onto the sand, the sun was tipping downward and the ocean was mirroring the darker colours of the sky. "Oh my god," Ava said between huffs slipping against Marley's shoulder when her right foot lost its ground in the wet sand, "I haven't had that much fun since..."

Marley held her up.

Until, his tired muscles couldn't anymore and they both tumbled onto the sand. And, they must have been swimming in glue because atop the boy, Ava did not get up. At first, he could tell she wanted to; her hands went to prop herself up but the moment their eyes found each other her arm went limp.

All breathing stopped.

And, the waves behind them were violent.

Marley could look and look and look as her entire body was flushed against his, partially because he could do nothing but look when her face was so close to his, but mostly because he wanted to be quiet enough for Ava to speak herself. But, Ava DeLoughery was not one to talk when actions could say more.

She took his lips between hers. Left them there too, just gently, for a few seconds.

But the whole time, Marley's eyes were open. Caught off guard, he watched her lean up again; but before she could open her eyes he returned the favour.

Locking his eyes tightly, Marley made sure his lips traced all the beautiful things he thought of her. He tongued all of them to her and Ava DeLoughery swallowed them willingly, sinking her entire body into the heat of Marley Mason. His hands, craving every inch of her, began to outline her shape too, stopping just at the area that made her suck in a breath.

Sightless and groaning, Ava reached behind her and undid the clasp over her spine, removing whatever wasn't water and heat to exist between them. Bare chests and wet skin lit Marley ablaze and it was the beginning of the discarding of clothes and louder whispers of desire. Their fingers interlocked, despite the harsh grains of the sand and when Ava DeLoughery told Marley what she wanted, he finally gave it to her. Marley Mason guided himself into the damp warmth of Ava DeLoughery and he felt their connection pulse, throb and ache until it superseded physicality and the soulful parts of him coveted the soulful parts of her. The pair hugged, stretched, kissed, and bit until the ocean washed out the sun and the sky was dark with tranquillity.

Did you lose your mind yet?

This week's dedication HAS to go to because she thought I wouldn't reply to her comments because I'm a celebrity. Lol guys! Hell no! You guys are my readers and I always want to talk to you. Some of you dm me all the time and we talk so comments are simple! I'll always try my best to reply to comments and I think I pretty much get around to most of them. Thank you for your support and beautiful comments. I appreciate it for real! Remember, readers, if you guys and , the next dedication could literally be you!

So, what did you guys think? I've never written anything like this and it was a little intimidating at first but I think it fits the book perfectly. Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!