A Love To Remember

It was four summers ago. I was in Montauk on vacation with my family and my best friend, Alyssa. As my family did every year since before I can remember, we stayed at the East Deck. The East Deck was a hidden gem in Montauk. The perfect beach motel. It was steps away from the beach on one side and steps away from a beautiful pool on the other side. Vacation had started to come to an end and reality was approaching. Back to work and back to my home town. On Wednesday I had woken up woken up with “end of vacation blues” because we were leaving early Friday morning, but when I woke up that Thursday, I felt different. I felt more awake and more alive in the most cliche way possible. I walked out of my room, down to the beach and watched the water glisten in the sun. It was the start of a great day.
Turns out, it was a fairly average day. I went to the beach with Alyssa and rinsed off in the pool. It was a great day, but something was missing. It felt like there was something else that was supposed to happen. After eating dinner at a local restaurant in the cute little town, Alyssa and I decided to go for a moonlit walk on the beach. My parents told us to be safe and keep in touch. We nodded them off in that typical teenage angsty way and headed out to the beach. I had no idea it would be a night to remember.
Alyssa and I were walking on the beach for what seemed like an hour to find a lifeguard stand we could sit on. Finally we found one and climbed to the top. As we were sitting up there listening to the waves crash one after another, we started to smell a bonfire…and then we started to hear voices.  “Hey! You guys need help getting down?” I heard a deep male voice but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. Being young girls we were hit with a rush of nervousness and excitement. It could have went pretty badly. Two young girls approached by strangers, on a pitch black beach, with only each other to look after one another. Fortunately for us, they were sane. We told them we didn’t need their help and climbed down the lifeguard stand. They had a flashlight so as we got closer I was able to put a face to the mysterious voice.  One of them was short, with dark hair and dark eyes. Then there was him. He stood probably 5 inches taller than me, his dirty blonde hair fell over the front of his face and through his hair I could see his mesmerizing emerald green eyes. To this day I can still feel the wind that rippled through his hair allowing me to see those beautiful eyes. “Hi, I’m Danny, he’s Brian.” Now I could put a face and a name to the voice. After we introduced ourselves we followed them over to the bonfire with the rest of their friends. Danny walked next to me and complimented my bright blue vans sneakers. My face reddened and I thanked him.
Alyssa and I sat down on the sand around the bonfire. I sat next to Danny, Alyssa next to Brian. Their other friends filled in the rest of the space around the fire. Danny was introducing us to everyone. He seemed like the ringleader of the group. He was charming and charismatic. With the fire lighting up the beach just enough to see the waves crash at the shore, It felt like a picture perfect summer night. Everyone was having little side conversations, including Danny and I. He asked where I was from and all the usual small talk. Except it wasn’t normal awkward small talk. It felt…natural. I was so at ease with him, which was not normal for me when it came to guys.
When Danny asked me to take a walk down to the water the butterflies in my stomach were becoming faster and I was glad it was dark enough to hide my face that was getting redder. He brought a flashlight thankfully and we stood by the shore letting the water douse my feet. He was telling me something about how the water is warmer at night. I couldn’t really focus because there I was, an awkward seventeen year old girl standing at the edge of the ocean on a cool summers night with a nice, charming, handsome guy. All I could think about was how things like this never happen to me. In the middle of his rambling about the water’s temperature I decided that this was it. This was the reason I felt different today, this was supposed to happen. It was because of him. So I just did it…I kissed him. I didn’t even know how to kiss someone but I somehow built up the courage to do so. We were so close I could feel his heart pumping as our lips touched. I remember the way his lips tasted like salt water and the way his dirty blonde hair swept over the front of his sun kissed face. I remember not being sure if the sweat that started to condense in the palm of my hands were his or mine as we interlocked fingers. When we pulled away we both stared at each other for a moment. I think he felt it too. We had such a strong, unexplainable connection. But, we each just gave a shy smile and walked back to the fire.
Eventually Alyssa and I had to go back to our motel room. I hugged Danny goodbye, not wanting to replace that kiss with another one. I wanted our first kiss to be our last so I could remember the exact feeling it had given me. Alyssa and I walked back to our motel room in silence. Just for ten more minutes I wanted to relive the kiss in my head before I told her about it. It was the perfect ending, to a perfect vacation. Although Danny and I never contacted each other again, he left me with a memory. The east end of Long Island forever reminding me of the love that I found that night.