Page 21 of Along Came Summer

“See, Wy, I told you she was fine.” I hear Lexi chiding him. By the time I kick off my flip-flops, they both appear in front of me, looking like two overcooked tomatoes.

“Oh my…” I mumble, gaping at them both in utter shock. “Uh, yeah, I'm doing all right, but what on earth happened to the two of you?” I question them, taking in their sunburnt appearances. They’re red from head to toe… both donning goggle tans around their eyes in the shape of their sunglasses. “What did the two of you have against the sun?” I joke, trying to lighten the mood and Wyatt shoots Lexi a death stare, and she merely shrugs in response.

“It’s all her fault!” Wyatt exclaims, pointing an angry finger at Lexi. “Use this cream, trust me, Wy, you’ll be a bronzed god by the end of the day!” his voice intonation high as he parrots Lexi's words. “Do I look like a bronzed God right now? No! I look like I traded my skin for a lobster suit, and you, you look like a twizzler with arms and legs!”

Lexi’s eyes narrow, and she glares back at Wyatt and holds up a gold and black bottle of suntan lotion. “The bottle says, be a bronzed babe in four hours! How the hell was I supposed to know the fucking thing would cook us!”

I press my lips together to smother my laughter while the two continue to bicker.

“You read the back, Lex. This…” Wyatt snatches the bottle from Lexi and waves it in her face, “isn’t sun lotion. It’s a tan accelerator. It’s no better than slapping on baby oil and sitting in a microwave. There isn’t a drop of protection in this thing… nothing!”

“You’re not the only one who is burnt here, you know. At least you’ve got a nice, even tan. Look at me, I’m fifty shades of red!”

Wyatt huffs and tosses the bottle of lotion on the sofa to the left of the living room. “A nice, even tan? This…” Wyatt gestures to himself, “isn’t a tan. This is me looking like a sizzling strip of bacon. I’m basically a walking billboard for sunscreen right now. I look ridiculous. How am I supposed to go out in public looking like this!”

Lexi rolls her eyes, “Don’t be such a baby, Wy, by tomorrow the redness will go and you’ll be nice and bronze.”

Wy points a finger in her face, “Oh, you better hope so, because if I get skin cancer, I’m taking yours!”

Lexi smacks his hand out of her face, scowling and Wyatt hisses, rubbing the raw flesh on his arm. “Get your finger out of my face. I didn’t force you to use the damn thing, you seemed perfectly happy while I was slapping it on all over you at the time. We both fucked up and so if you get skin cancer from this guess what, dimwit, so will I!”

“Hey, will you idiots both shut up. No one is going to get skin cancer, okay? It’s likely a second-degree burn.” I interject and they both turn their gazes to look at me. “You’re going to stay out of the sun for a couple of days and you’ll be both be fine. Now, first we need to keep your skin cool. I have some aloe gel in my room and then I’m going to call room service to get some plain natural yogurt up here.” I say ushering them both toward my bedroom.

“Yogurt?” Lexi asks, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

I nod, “Yes, yogurt contains healthy enzymes and probiotics that work wonders on the skin. My mum used it on me a lot growing up whenever I got sunburnt.” I explain and gently poke Wyatt’s shoulder, wincing. “Does it hurt?”

“Argh! Yes, it bloody hurts, Peach.” Wyatt hisses, jumping away from me and twisting his head to blow on his shoulder. “I’m fucking cooked over here.”

Shaking my head, I walk over to the dressing table in my bedroom and pick up the bottle of aloe gel while Lexi and Wyatt sit on my bed. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you two alone. What the hell were you both thinking?”

“This is the last time I trust her word for shit, I can promise you that.” Wyatt carps as I move over to him, squeezing a generous amount of aloe in the centre of my palm.

Lexi rolls her eyes as she crawls up on the bed and lets a low groan of discomfort. “Ouch, I’m not exactly fairing much better than you, Wy. We’re in the same stinking boat, so stop bitching.”

“Bloody hell, Wy, the heat that’s coming off you, you’re like a damn furnace. You’ll be lucky if you don’t blister,” I say, gently working the aloe into Wyatt’s muscular shoulders and back. His skin is hot to the touch, and I feel him flinch and grunt in pain with every brush of my fingers over his scorched skin.

Wyatt closes his eyes, sighing. “Oh, perfect, because having to walk around looking like a baboon’s rear end for the next few days isn’t bad enough. We can throw ugly puss-filled boils into the mix too.”

“Ugh, hello, your other, prettier bestie is turning into beef jerky over here!” Lexi groans, fanning her black crop top away from her chest. “If you're about done mollycoddling Bruce the Spruce over there, could you maybe make your way over here and rub some of that gel on me too? Preferably,beforeI burst into flames.”

“Oh, good grief, someone get the violin,Slexiis at it again. Don’t you ever tire of being the sour grapes of the bunch? When will you start accepting the fact that Mira and I are soulmates, and she just loves me more than you?” Wyatt teases, wrapping his brawny arms around my midsection and trapping me between his legs just to get a rise out of her.

I lovebothWy and Lexi dearly, but Wy does have a teeny tiny edge. If ever there was a perfect man for me, it would be Wyatt James. I’m convinced he is my soulmate. And no, that doesn’t mean I’m in love with him. He's practically my twin made of testosterone. We have so many similarities, one of them being our mutual attraction tomen.

Wyatt's never been shy of letting me and everyone else know that if he were straight, he would have married me in a heartbeat, and we would have a bunch of mini-Wyatt and Mira’s running around.

Although Lex may sometimes indirectly but jokingly express jealous feelings, I know deep down that she feels like the subsidiary friend, which isn't true at all because they both mean everything to me and I make sure to tell them that… constantly. But whatever I do, I can't seem to completely diminish that modicum of tension that continues to linger between the two of them.

Lexi sits cross-legged on the bed, her long blonde hair piled up on top of her head in a messy bun while she fans herself with her hands to keep her skin cool.

“Ow!” Wyatt grunts when I playfully swat his shoulder.

“Stop being a knobhead. As much you’re both idiots, you're both my best friends and lucky for you, my heart is big enough to love you the same.” I scold him as I step out of his hold and climb onto the bed to rub some aloe over Lexi’s back and shoulders. “Wy, here, take this and rub some on her legs.” I hand the bottle to a scowling Wyatt, who takes it from me, shifting to help rub the gel on her legs when she stretches them out in front of her.

As I massage the gel into her shoulders and back, I observe the two. Wyatt is still angry but gently rubs aloe onto her burnt skin. After a few seconds of silence, Lex twitches her right leg to get Wyatt’s attention.

“I’m sorry,” she apologises when his stormy brown eyes meet hers. I smile and shake my head. As mad as they get at one another, I know they both love each other just as much as I love them. Perhaps without knowing it, they share their own special relationship. Wyatt’s gaze softens; all of his irritation melts away, leaving his eyes like pools of warm, gooey chocolate.

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