It took more than an agonizing hour for me to find Topher. He sat on the sand with his arm-wrapped knees against his forehead and his towel underneath him. He’d grabbed our stuff and moved it elsewhere with him that was a bit away from most of the visitors here. We were now far along the shoreline where only few people stayed. I couldn’t be angry with him about it, though. What I’d done was probably worse because it was major.
I approached him and knelt beside him. I swallowed the biggest lump ever because of my fear of losing him, even losing him as a friend. I caressed his back and rubbed it back and forth, trying to get back the air that had gone out of me. “I’m sorry, Topher. I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He didn’t say anything for a while. Then, he just blew hard with a face o
