He couldn’t figure out which was louder, her chewing, or the cool ocean waves. Or maybe it was his heart beat. It was thumping in his ears, and his chest, and his throat. He knew it was all science and the ‘butterflies’ in his stomach was just adrenaline and muscle contractions. But his body went into fight or flight mode every time he looked at her.

He wanted to speak but he feared he would vomit if he opened his mouth, so he just watched her. It was quite possible he looked like a maniac, sitting there, staring at her face. Watching her crush grapes in between her lips for a solid twenty minutes.

By the time she started talking she had him wrapped around her finger. Hanging onto every word.

She wasn’t even that pretty, in the conventional sense. Her hair wasn’t long and beautiful. She had cut it herself, just above the shoulder; it was curly and got frizzy when she went outside. If you looked close enough it was also uneven. Her nose was almost a Disney princess button nose, except the bridge was crooked. The crookedness was actually a result of her and her sister fighting over the front seat as kids. Her lips were out of proportion from her nose and eyes; they were short but full making them look like someone had squished them together.

He watched as her eyes fell upon a couple, sitting in an almost identical position. They were stretched out on a blanket, shoes scattered and sinking into the sand. The girl had her toes buried halfway, wiggling the visible ones. She was giggling and rambling on. For a minute the guy just looked at her with complete content. He looked like he couldn’t believe she was here with him. That was something both  the guys had in common.

The girl had looked up at the guy, giving him a flutter of her eyelashes, then a small giggle before looking back down at her toes. He proceeded to pull her by her waist onto his lap, kissing her cheek and resting his head on her shoulder.

He away looked from the couple and back at her. She was still popping grapes into her mouth.
“So” she spoke with curiosity “What do you think they’re talking about”
He had to think for a minute. “I don’t know. Maybe love or something. They seem to be quite friendly with each out.”
They continued sitting for a few moments. He kept looking between the ocean and her, then at the sand, and then at her.  He watched her continue to stare at the couple.

“I wonder how they met”

           
He thought about it for a moment. How do these story book couples actually meet?

“Well, it was Friday night, beginning of December. There wasn’t much going on. He was in one of the more prominent Frat houses. She was just a normal girl trying to get through college” His voice moved up and down through each word. “Her friends dragged her to the house party. Parties in general weren’t her thing, and especially the kinds of the Frat variety. So when she walks in this guy, a total tool, sees her and is like, ‘Man she is totally smoking hot’.  So he goes up to her with a c***y smirk and asked her out. Having a bit of brains she tells him no. He follows her around the party. She ends up yelling at him, he begs more. She’s so sick and tired of it she says yes to get him off her case.”

She picked up the love story where he left off “So, he took her to some completely cheesy restaurant. Like white tablecloths, red flower petals, candles, and all the works. And by the flicker of the candle light she thought to herself that maybe, just maybe, she could really truly love a frat boy after all. They dated throughout the entire year, and were the ‘it’ couple of the campus, and after graduation they both moved into a two bedroom apartment together. Oh, and see that dog over there? That was her birthday present last year.”

They both giggled quietly over the story, letting the laughter die to silence again.

“Maybe they’re talking about us”

“That couple over there” she laughed imitating what they might sound like.

He gave her a small awkward laugh, “yeah, that’d be nuts”