If I close my eyes, I can see that day clearly. The scene was idyllic: it was a hot, clear January day, with only the slightest breeze, and the beach was crowded with tourists and locals alike. Against the backdrop of the jetties, the sea was calm. These jetties were always a surprise for newcomers. They are an artificial creation: heaps and heaps of boulders and rocks of different sizes and materials on both sides of the beach, that open into the water just like a T. Each arm is meant to keep the sand from being washed away by the tides and currents of the South Atlantic Ocean, as well as being helpful to reduce the danger of swimmers being dragged by the current. However, they are designed in such a way that they create an excellent walking and climbing surface, and as such it is not uncommon to find groups of people lying around, enjoying the sun or simply watching the waves and the surfers who ride them.

I was with my sister, cousins and some of our friends sitting close to the end of the walk able surface, basking in the sun as we watched my little cousin's surf lesson. She was in a collective class, with two instructors and four classmates. Camille and I knew the two teachers from years of having had lessons with them, but this was only Lynn’s third class, so she greatly depended on John or Mark to push her board with every incoming wave. As I remember, I was lying on a rock quite close to the water, because I wanted to wash my feet, but also because I would be closer to Mark, who was about thirty yards away in the water.

I was being silly, I knew, but I could not help it, for I was way too attracted to him. I had fallen for him the previous summer, but as the weeks passed and I heard not a word from him, I quickly forgot him. Yet as I came back to the beach town, and saw him again, I could not help but remember. This, coupled with my cousin's learning to surf directly from him, and her begging for me to come see her every single lesson were enough to make him a constant presence in my thoughts. Of course, his teasing and bantering about the color of my glasses -it was a very eye catching baby blue-did nothing but increase the pull I felt towards him, even though I had the feeling he was not into me at all.

Camille said something to me right then, and all I heard as I looked back towards the higher rocks were she was, was something about eating m&m's . She and Leila and Beth were laughing, and the guys were smiling too, so I guessed that the nature of the comment was addressed at me. Beth, my sis, Camille, my cousin, and Leila, one of my bff's, had come up with the nickname "m&m" whenever they wanted to tease me about Mark: Mark and Meg. They could not believe I had fallen for Mark, again. To them, he was just another boy, but I could not expect them to understand the way I felt about him. Maybe Leila might, if I told her everything. She was as smitten as I was, only her crush was my cousin's best friend, and, although he had a girlfriend, Charlie and Juliet were not precisely a couple in paradise, so that gave Leila all the hope she needed to actually chat and joke and play in the water with him every now and then. I wished I had that closeness with Mark, or some sort of friendship that gave me the cover to text him…that is, of course, assuming I had his number.

Anyways, as I dipped my feet in a pool of foam and water between the rocks, I looked ahead to see Mark and Lynn looking at the waves as they formed and reshaped themselves. I smiled, remembering how Beth, Camille and I had done the exact same thing summer after summer, until waking up at 9 A.M. was not an option if we partied until dawn every night. Julian, Lucas and Ryan had been our teachers back then, and while all six of us waited for the waves to roll in, our favourite pastime would be to try to think of older girls they could go out with. Needless to say, we failed epically.