The Girl in the Striped Bikini

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Kendal Bryce

That night, as I stare silently out my window, I can still feel Cale's kiss lingering on my lips. Rememering the slow and gentle way he kissed me, my fingers graze my bottom lip as if to evoke a stronger memory. They way he made me feel when he kissed me, I had never felt that before. It was as if it electrified my entire body.

Right after our kiss broke, Cale asked me if I was still confused. The answer is no. I'm not confused. After a kiss like that, how could I be? But, when he asked, I couldn't give him answer. Not yet. Not with the mess with Jude still out there. I had other peoples feelings to consider here. I can't just one day show up at the beach with Cale and announce that we are together. That would crush Jude. I can't do that to him. He's been my friend for a long time and I can't just throw that away over a romance with a boy I met over the summer. Because that boy will be leaving at the end of the summer. Whose to say that our relationship will survive that?

Sighing to myself, I turn away from the window. Maybe I'm just over thinking this entire thing. Making it more complicated than it actually is. Maybe I just need to go with the flow and see what happens. The last thing I need to do is assume our relationship is going to fail before I even give it a chance.

I just need to let myself be happy for once. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Just be happy.

As I go to lay down, I let that thought wash over me. But as drowsiness started to take over my body, a single image popped into my mind again. Jude.

Well, I thought, I'll let myself be happy. Once I take care of Jude. And with that thought, I allowed myself to roll over and finally get some much needed sleep.

* * *

Saturday morning, I awoke bright and early. Probably a little too early, but I was wide awake, and once I'm wide awake, there's no going back to sleep.

Unlike my mother, my father is an early riser. So, when I stepped into the kitchen to get some breakfast, it didn't surprise me to see him sitting at the kitchen table sipping on his coffee and reading his paper like he does every morning.

"Morning sweetie," he says when he notices me enter. "Want some breakfast? I was just thinking that I could really go for some French toast and bacon right now."

Smiling at him, I nod eagerly. 

You can say I'm a daddy's girl. I always have been. Even before my mom got into writing. My dad and I have always had a special kind of bond. When I was a kid, my dad used to always take me to the Blue Oyster in the the morning during the summer and on the weekends during the school year. That's how I first met Frankie. She and her husband had just reopened the restaurant after years of it being closed. Frankie's father had first opened the place back in the sixties, and it had stayed closed for years after his death. But just after I turned four, Frankie finally dusted the cobwebs off the old place and turned it around. She always told me she had felt an obligation to reopen the place for her father. To keep his memory alive. She had been a daddy's girl too.

"What are you doing up so early anyways?" my dad asks me over a pan of frying bacon. "You do realize it's six in the morning, right?" He laughs.

I look at the clock curiously. Actually, I hadn't realized that. I knew it was early, but I didn't think it was that early.

"No," I laugh. "I thought it was a little later than that. At least eight. But when I woke up I was wide awake."

He simply nods and continues cooking. My dad wasn't big on conversation, which I've never minded. We just seemed to be content with just being around each other. Like some nights, if I come home early enough, I can find my dad sitting in his recliner watching The History Channel. He always invites me to join him. I don't always enjoy some of the shows he watches, but I always watch them with him. I know he enjoys the company since my mom is always working on her book and my brother hates watching it, he thinks it's boring. He's a big history buff though, that's all he really watches on television other than his fishing shows and American Pickers.