Melting Hearts

chapter 2 - him

She sees him sitting under one of the few pavilions, looking at his phone, but the second she realizes who it is, it was already too late. It was Tanner, her brother's best friend. Julia didn't know very much about him, but what she did know was that he was a playboy and, despite his great looks, she knew she shouldn't mess around with him. Tanner was tall, with chocolate brown hair that flowed to the side, and eyes that reminded Julia of a clear, blue summer sky. When they made direct eye contact, Julia froze dead in her tracks, but soon realized what she was doing and turned to her right and began walking.

Julia catches up with her cousin and they set their belongings down on two chairs against a wall, which ironically was across the pool yard facing Tanner. Piper wanted to get into the water right away, but Julia wanted to take a few minutes to ground herself, because only she knew what the consequences were if she didn't. Piper was kind enough to not leave Julia's side, even though she didn't understand why Julia was waiting to get into the cold water. Julia is so focused on calming herself down, that when she comes back to reality, she finds herself and Tanner staring at each other from across the pool yard....again. Only this time, Tanner is waving his phone around in the air, implying to Julia that she should look at her phone. Julia was confused because she didn't think that Tanner had a way of contacting her, but when she looked at her phone she saw that she had a message from him. Instead of opening it right away, she looked back up at Tanner, and he was still pushing for her to open his message.

Piper was confused about what was going on because she was a few years younger than Julia, but that didn't matter because Piper was keeping her promise of staying with Jules. Julia finally took a deep, calming breath and thought to herself, "It can't be that bad, he's probably just asking where my brother is." But deep down, Julia wanted it to be a message for her because even though Tanner was bad news, she couldn't help herself from wanting to get in his head because she knew his method of getting girls to give themselves up to him. Julia just wanted to be different and show him that not every girl is obsessed with him, (when she was really just lying to herself).

When Julia opened the message, her excitement dropped to the ground because the text wasn't, "you look really good" or "we should hangout sometime" no, the simple text was Tanner asking if Julia had a phone charger he could barrow. Julia was disappointed but also relieved because, honestly, she didn't know how she would react. Still, Julia wanted to mess with him a little bit just for fun, so she responded and said "Yes, but you'll have to come over her to get it." She looked up to watch Tanners reaction so she could see how far to take it. He looked at her, then smiled, and looked back down at his phone to start texting her back. Julia also looked at her phone, which ended up being a little game they were playing, trying to get into each other's heads to see who would c***k first. Tanner said, "yeah, that's not gonna happen. You're going to bring it over to me." Julia giggled and responded with, "nah, i don't feel like walking the whole way over there." She watched Tanner to see if he was getting frustrated, but he was smiling at his phone like an i***t. Julia was giving Tanner one last chance to walk over to her so that he could borrow her charger, but Tanner only begged Julia to bring him the charger. She had enough fun for the time being, and felt bad that Piper was waiting for her, so she looked up at Tanner who was still watching her, turned her phone off and tossed it on her chair, then walked away to get into the pool with Piper.

Julia didn't really want to get in the water yet, so she decided to sit on the side of the pool with her legs in which she watched Piper do all kinds of flips, handstands, etc. After a few minutes, Julia felt like she should just go give Tanner the charger because she had her fun, so Piper got out of the pool and followed Julia over to their things on the chairs. Julia looked up and Tanner was still sitting in the same spot looking down at his phone. She texted him and asked what percent his phone was at. "13, can I please borrow the charger? I promise I'll give it back as soon as I'm done with it." Tanner said. Julia could feel the energy wasn't like how it was before, so she got up, grabbed her charger, and started walking towards Tanner. He saw her coming and when she was only a few feet away from him, he reached his hand out and said, "Thank you." But, Julia wasn't done with her games, she stopped walking and looked at him with a confused expression, "What are you thanking me for? I came over to charge my phone." she smiled. Tanner asked what her phone percent was, so she plugged it in and showed that it was at 80 percent. "That's not fair!!!!" replied Tanner. "I don't beg people for anything, but can I please barrow it?" Julia laughed and gave him the charger. "thank you, I swear I'll give it back" Tanner said greatfully. Julia said it was no problem at all and walked away with Piper, pleased with herself that she had Tanner all frazzled. Piper and Jules walked back over to where they were swimming, but Julia still didn't want to get in yet, so again, she sat on the edge with her legs in. Julia had always had a little crush on Tanner, but she never thought anything of it, since he never talked to her and he was only looking for one thing, any girl that would please him. Julia sat on that ledge daydreaming about Tanner, thinking to herself, "Was he flirting just so I would give him my charger??" and "What if he thinks I could be attractive? Well, that only means he wants one thing from me. Do I really care though? I mean, I'm not gonna give it to him, I'll just have a little fun giving him a taste of his own medicine. That is, if he ever talks to me again..." When all of a sudden, Piper comes up from underwater and yells to Julia, "Look out!!" Before Julia could even think to turn around, she was pushed into the water. When she came up, Tanner was standing there giggling to himself. "That's my bad, you looked hot so i thought the water might help." Julia is stunned. She can't believe he just did that, but then it hits her....she can't believe he came back after she had given him the phone charger. Julia thinks quickly as to how she's going to play it off, but shes so distracted by Tanner that she forgets to stay calm. She feels the intensity of the emotions and realizes if she doesn't calm down, everyone there will find out about her secret. She took a big breath and went underwater in hopes it would calm her down, which it did by the time she came back up. Tanner apologized and stuck his hand out to help Julia out of the water. She knew she shouldn't grab his hand because its just another one of his tricks, but she couldn't help herself. S aswehe grabbed his hand, and nonetheless, he started pulling her out and let go of her, with gravity pulling her back into the water. This time when she came up, he offered to help her again but she denied and pulled herself out.

Piper continues swimming in the pool, while Julia and Tanner are standing outside of the pool, Jules is back further than Tanner in case he tried something he would later regret. She looks at him, "Why are you still bothering me? You got what you wanted now go away." Tanner looks a little insulted but plays it cool and says, "I don't know, you looked lonely." "Are you sure it's me who looks lonely? I haven't seen you with anyone since I've been here." Julia says while she walks away in hope that he would follow. when he finally caught up with her he started flirting with her. Julia's body was buzzing with adrenaline because Tanner is still there following her, wanting to talk. Piper now catches up to them and they all walk over to the pavilion where Tanner had his stuff, they all talked and laughed for about an hour and then Tanner had to leave. He gave Julia one last look, but it wasn't just a look, it was a deep, passionate, lustful look, and then he smiled and rode off on his bike. Julia had a feeling that this wasn't over though. She could see it in his eyes, but she didn't know when he would be back. All she knew was that he would be.

After that encounter, Julia thought about Tanner nonstop, all day everyday, but after a few weeks she lets him go and moves on with her life. eventually getting to the point where he never crossed her mind. But then there he was again, a few years later.....