Make Me Smile

I’m Sorry

The next week was excruciating. I played the scene on the beach over and over in my head, and I was still lost. What did it mean? After he had said all those ugly things to me, then he kisses me? Does he like me or not? I pondered these things one morning, lying back in my bed.

Unfortunately, I should have been listening to my best friend Natalie instead of thinking about my love troubles. She leaned forward in the chair that she had pulled up beside my bed and narrowed her eyes at me. “Hello? Earth to Chelsea! I asked you a question!”

“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled. “What was it?”

She sighed loudly. “Geez, you’re thinking about your moody cowboy again, aren’t you? I told you, don’t stress about it. He won’t be back on the island for four days, so there’s no way for you to get any answers until then. So stop obsessing about it. I know, I know, obsessing about him is what you do best, but you gotta chill out.”

I sat up, hugging my knees. “I know…I’m sorry. What were you asking me?”

She smiled slowly, and lowered her voice. “I said, what do you think about me making some chocolate covered strawberries and taking them over to Pierre tonight? Is that too forward?”

I buried my face in my knees. “No, I think it sounds gross,” came my muffled reply. “I don’t want to think about you doing sexy times with that toddler.”

She picked up my pillow and whomped me on the head with it. “Ooooh, you! I don’t judge your choice of man, so don’t judge mine!”

I picked up the other pillow on my bed and hit her with it. “Liar! You always judge my choice of man! ‘Moody cowboy’ this and ‘moody cowboy’ that!” She smacked me with the pillow again, and I quickly brought mine down on the top of her head. We traded insults about our boyfriends back and forth, and before long, it had dissolved into a mess of tears and giggles.

“Hah….hah…” Natalie wheezed, wiping her eyes. “You said…‘He’ll probably try to put his spoon in your…’” She broke down in a fit of giggles.

I gasped for breath. “And you said, ‘He probably makes animal noises in bed!’” I rolled with laughter.

We quickly agreed that our choices of men were equally ridiculous, but as long as we were fine with it, that was all that mattered.

For the next four days as I waited for Vaughn to return to the island, Natalie came looking for me at various points in the day to update me on the latest progress of her seducing of Pierre. I really, really did not want to know about it, but I had to be a good friend to her, so I nodded and oohed and aahed like I was supposed to. And was she ever full of updates. She’d come find me while I was weeding plants, or fishing, or wherever I was. Sometimes she knocked on my door first thing in the morning or last thing at night just to tell me some little detail. I was happy for her, but still couldn’t shake the feeling of repulsion, thinking about Pierre’s underage looking self.

So Wednesday morning, as I heard a pounding on my door while I was in the shower, I was sure that it was Natalie. I was almost done anyway, so I shut off the water, dried off my head the best that I could, and wrapped myself in a towel. The pounding started up again. “I’m coming! Geez, Natalie, hold your horses!” I yelled, making my way towards the door. I yanked it open with one hand, holding onto my towel with the other. Then I squeaked.

For there was Vaughn, holding a small white box and looking very surprised. His eyes flew down to my almost not big enough to cover everything towel, and I squeaked again. “Oh, I thought you were Natalie! Oh, um…hold on just a minute!” I shut the door in his face, and quickly hurried over to my dresser and pulled on some clothes. I glanced in the mirror and ran a brush through my wet hair, then returned to the door. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

But he was gone. I started to step out and see if he was somewhere nearby, but my toe nudged something. I looked down and there was the white box that he had been holding. I stooped down and picked it up in wonder. It had holes poked in it, and scrawled on it in pencil was, “I’m sorry.” I slowly opened it, and gasped when I saw the fluffy baby chick inside. It looked up at me and peeped. I smiled, scooping it up and holding it to my heart. I kissed it on the top of the head, then made my way to the chicken coop and placed it inside, doling out some chicken feed as well. “I’m going to call you Chichi,” I whispered to it, then went out to the fields to water my eggplants.

I returned to the house and washed up, then did my hair. I looked at the time and knew he would still be on the beach. I made my way there nervously. When I got there, my heart skipped a beat when I saw him standing on the shoreline, gazing out over the horizon, his back to me. Unfortunately, Denny skipped up at the same time. “Hey, Chelsea, wanna do some fishing?” I just opened my mouth, but nothing came out, and I looked from him to Vaughn, a stricken look on my face. Vaughn didn’t turn around, and Denny got the message. He winked at me and whispered, “Maybe another time,” then loudly called out to Charlie. “Come on, little buddy! I’m going to teach you how to fish in a stream!”

“All right!” Charlie cheered, running after Denny excitedly. They left the beach, and I thanked Denny silently for being so considerate.

I walked up beside Vaughn, standing next to him. “Thank you for the chicken,” I said quietly.

He cleared his throat, still looking out over the sea. “You’re welcome.”

We were silent for a few moments. Then he sighed and sat down on the sand, and I followed suit. He poked his fingers into the sand, looking down. “I’m sorry for all those things I said,” he whispered. I just shook my head and made a “mmm” sound. He continued. “It’s just that I really care about animals, and I get worked up pretty easy when I think they are being mistreated.” I stirred a little, and he quickly said, “But I was wrong in your case. I jumped to conclusions. And for that, I’m sorry.”

I played with a stray strand of my hair. “And I’m sorry for slapping you.” My cheeks got pink when I thought about what happened after the slap.

He cleared his throat again. “No, I deserved that.” He chuckled a little. I scooted a little closer to him, and laid my head on his shoulder. I heard him gasp lightly, but then he gave a little “Hmmph,” and worked his arm behind me, wrapping it around my back. I trembled happily. “Are you cold?” he whispered.

“N-no…” I managed to say. Nonetheless, I still moved in a little closer. We sat quietly for a while, and I had never felt so happy and content in my entire life.