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My cheeks were pink. I looked up at the sky like the sun was the culprit.

“Do you want me to get your back?” he asked.

One finger along my temple had set my face on fire. I couldn’t imagine what his hands on my back would do. I turned anyway, passing him the sunblock over my shoulder.You can’t like him, Wren, you are living a lie.

I stared out at the glistening water in front of us. A girl on a sailboat unfurled the sail, revealing large colorful fabric. Asher’s hands ran along my back, strong but gentle, massaging the lotion in. I hugged my knees to my chest. “Ilikehow open you are,” I said. “It’s rare. It’s nice.”

“You’renice,” he said.

“I’m really not.”

“You have me fooled.”

“I think I do,” I said.

He finished, capped the lotion, and tossed it onto the towel. I turned back toward him. His cheeks looked a little pink now too, but maybe it was just the blasted sun. I stole his hat off his head, freeing his beautiful mess of auburn hair, and put it on mine.

“That looks cute on you,” he said, leaning back on one elbow.

He poked my side and I giggled, a rare occurrence for me. I dropped down to my elbows so we were more level. I wanted to tell him who I was, or more accurately, who I wasn’t. Why did I want to tell him so bad and yet was so scared to do just that?

“Do you need some sunblock?” I asked.

His eyes dropped to the bottle between us and then back to me. He swallowed and then nodded, turning his back to me. I sat up and took a deep breath. Had I ever applied sunblock to another person in my life? Sometimes I’d use the spray kind on my sister’sback, but this seemed different. Itwasdifferent. I squeezed way too much sunblock into my hand. Asher’s back was hot; the sun had been beating down on it for the past fifteen minutes or so. I pushed his hat, which was still on my head, up with the back of my wrist so I could see better. I ran my hands along his back and he shivered, then laughed.

“Sorry,” I said.

“No, it’s, no…”

Something cold and slimy landed on my leg and I looked down to see a long green squirming thing. I screamed, kicking and pushing it off, a dark memory pulling at the corners of my mind.

A loud laugh rang out.

“It’s just seaweed,” I heard a calm voice say. “Wren.”

“What?” My eyes locked with Asher’s.

“It’s off.”

“It’s off,” I repeated, my heart beating in my throat.

Dale and Kamala were walking toward us with their boards. Dale had obviously slung that piece of seaweed on me. He was still laughing that obnoxious laugh of his, the one that had motivated me to start this whole lie to begin with. He was wearing his helmet with the antenna on top and looked like the biggest goof.

“You okay?” Asher asked.

I nodded.

“Your turn,” Dale said, dropping his board in front of us, water and sand splattering onto my legs.

Oh, right. No, I wasn’t okay. “You’re a jerk,” I said, kicking the seaweed in his direction.

“Yes, I am.”

Asher got up right away and grabbed his board. I stared at the one I was supposed to use like the enemy it was.

Kamala plopped down beside me. “Look,” she said in a low voice. “I didn’t even get wet.”

“But you’ve done it before,” I responded in a voice equally as low. There was leftover sunblock on my hands and I wiped them along my legs.