The Boyfriend Pt. 59

The Boyfriend Part LVIX: Sandcastle

Liam

Liam let out a deep breath as he shoveled another armful of damp sand, out of the moat he was digging, placing it carefully atop the rest of the pile that would form the sea wall.

"Are you sure that's not getting too high?"

Liam looked over and nodded at Kiki, who was digging what would be the extension of the mode behind the sea wall around their little sand town and castle that they were building.

"We've left enough room to make it thick enough that it should be fine."

He glanced down at the surf, which had so far come within about a foot or two of their castle, but no closer. Yet.

He turned back to Kiki and smiled at her, "For now, at least."

She smiled back and returned to outlining the rest of the moat.

"You guys are such dorks."

Liam glanced up at Tasha, who lounged on one of the folding chairs they brought with them, head back, sweating drink in the cup holder, dark shades shielding her eyes from the thankfully warm sun overhead. The first few weeks hadn't really been beach weather, but it seemed that with Sara's arrival a few days ago, the sun had come out to try and give her the Southern California experience while she was here.

He glanced back out to the sea, where she and Matt floated on boogie boards, waiting for a good wave.

Apparently, Matt had suggested teaching her how to surf early this morning when there would be good waves and only a slight possibility of sharks. Thankfully, Sara had convinced him otherwise, I'm saying that boogie boarding would be a bit more fun. Plus, this way, Liam had an extra board to use as the foundation for the second level of his and Kiki's sand construction.

"You're the dork," Liam shot back, "Actually tanning at the beach. You can do that by a pool, or even just in your backyard, you know, right?"

Tasha wriggled around in her chair, as though getting a bit comfier, "But then I wouldn't have the ambience of the waves and the salty air and the slight breeze to keep the sun from getting too hot."

"And if there had been a bunch of screaming children here?" Kiki asked, shooting a grin at Liam.

"Then we would have gone farther down to the beach, or I would have talked Sara and Matt into going to Oxnard with us, where it's more private. Most of the kids are back in school now though, and I don't think they always realize that the beach is just as good during the winter as it is during the summer."

Liam snorted, "What would you have done at Oxnard? You'd be freezing there."

"Probably tease us," Kiki remarked, "These swimsuits are nice, but they definitely wouldn't be able to hide her nips if it's as cold as it usually gets there."

Liam laughed as Tasha scoffed, "Asshole."

"We're just trying to include you," Liam said, innocently, adding a bit more thickness to the front wall. It would need it for the tunnel he wanted to dig underneath.

He looked over at Tasha just in time to see her push her sunglasses down and glare at him over them.

"Uh huh."

When he continued to smirk at her, Tasha scoffed again, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not going to play in the sand with you guys. Unless I'm wearing a wet suit or some sort of spandex shorts or something, a little bit always manages to find its way between my legs and between my cheeks and getting it out is annoying as shit.

Liam's face went red, and Kiki laughed as Tasha continued.

"And it's a little bit too cold in the water for me to want to go boogie boarding with Matt and Sara."

She returned her shades to their original place and settled back in her chair.

"Plus, I don't want a third wheel. And if I did that, I'd be denying you two the view."

She shimmied her chest a bit for emphasis, and Liam rolled his eyes.

Kiki, he noticed did not look up or laugh at that. And he thought he caught a bit of extra color on her bronze cheeks.

Tasha did look incredible, but that wasn't necessarily anything new.

She was wearing a tie dye swimsuit today, the thin white cover up she'd worn on the way over bunched up in their bags on one of the towels. It covered more than the swimsuit she'd worn on New Year's, in that from what Liam had seen, it actually covered the decent part of her ass, and a lot more of her chest. The amount of skin Tasha did or didn't show, didn't really ever seem to make a difference in how good she looked though, as the wild colors on this one made it even more eye-catching.

Kiki was actually wearing the more revealing suit.

She wore a long sleeve, pink, red, and white cut off top--Liam had a hard time deciding whether or not it was a rash guard, or just a swimsuit top cut that way--covering her chest, but her bottoms didn't really cover much of anything. And Liam had to admit to himself, that he'd caught himself staring a few times. He didn't necessarily feel bad about it because he caught Tasha--and Matt and Sarah before they'd gone into the water--staring once or twice, and he was pretty sure Blake would have too, if she was here. Kiki just had an amazing ass.

It also didn't hurt that the bright colors contrasted very nicely with her dark, bronze skin.

He'd also noticed Kiki checking out Tasha quite a few times today. More than usual.

Taking the thought away for later--he hadn't yet decided if he was going to bring that up with Kiki, or Tasha, if at all--he went back to building his and Kiki's sandcastle.

By the time Matt and Sarah came back--Looking like they'd walked straight off a photo shoot or film set in the sleek wet suits that clung to their figures--Liam and Kiki had mostly finished the seawall, and the front inner wall for the town.

"Damn," Matt said, setting his boogie board down in the sand next to the towels, "You guys are really going all out on this, aren't you?"

Liam grinned up at Matt, " what's even the point of coming to the beach if you don't build the sandcastle?"

Kiki shot him a grin, "Exactly!"

Liam was very glad for her company. He usually did this whenever he, Kekoa, and Nalani came to the beach together. The two of them had been busy today, though making Liam especially glad that Kiki had wanted to come along with him, Tasha, and Matt and Sarah. When Kiki had first wanted to join him with the sandcastle, Liam had been worried that it might make Tasha feel like a fifth wheel, but she had proving that she was perfectly fine relaxing in the sun, occasionally engaging with them or poking fun at them.

Matt shook his head, unzipping the wet suit, well Sara laughed, doing the same. Liam had to occupy himself to avoid staring at Matt's girlfriend. He knew that Sara, like Tasha, didn't really care, He probably shouldn't regardless of Sara or Matt's feelings.

Thinking about that made it Liam miss Blake. For a moment, he stopped digging and let his mind wander, vision focusing on nothing as he imagined Blake here with him and his friends.

In his mind, she knelt between him and Kiki in the sand, pale legs covered in goosebumps, and standing out in stark contrast to the bright blue bikini bottoms she wore--the same color as her hair. She, like Kiki, wore a rash guard, though hers covered more since that needed to function like one because of her skin tone. In her gorgeous blue hair, even bigger than usual because of the humid, salty air curled around her face, occasionally floating in the wind. She would laugh and poke fun with him and his friends, and shriek at how cold the water was if Liam managed to get her to go in with him before they left.

"Liam?"

This sounded his name snapped him back to reality, and he glanced over at Kiki, who smirked at him.

"You all right, space cadet?"

He rolled at his eyes and nodded.

Tasha let out of amused sound from where she sat, "Ugh, why did you have to snap him out of it? It would have been funnier if a wave did that."

Liam glared at her, flipping her off, which made Kiki and Sarah laugh, then look back to Kiki, "What's up?"

She glanced at his seawall, "You ready to dig the tunnel?"

He grinned, "Let's do it!"

"Can I help?"

Liam glanced over at Matt, about to encourage his friend, who now had the wet suit mostly unzipped and bunched around his waist, just like his girlfriend, when Sarah touched Matt's arm.

"Actually, I was going to ask if you could come with me to get something from the car."

Matt blinked, but then nodded, "Sure, what do you need?"

Sara just smiled, taking his arm in one of hers, and picking up her sandals with her free hand.

"We'll be back in a bit," she said sweetly, mostly to Tasha, as she turned Matt and herself away from the water and started toward the parking lot.

Liam looked after them for a moment before exchanging a grin with Kiki as she moved a bit closer to be in a better digging position for the tunnel.

"They'll be gone for a while, I'm guessing."

"Oh, yeah," Tasha said, " I told her to make sure they parked somewhere secluded. She agreed after I told her how gross the bathrooms are."

They all made a face at that. You only use the bathrooms at Zuma if absolutely necessary. A lot of people would even walk all the way up the hill to the nearby office park to use theirs.

"And Matt probably hasn't realized that yet, has he?" Kiki observed.

Liam shook his head, "Not a chance."

Tasha scoffed, "It's still ridiculous to me that he can be that oblivious."

Kiki laughed, "That's because you've only known him a few months instead of five years."

"Or fifteen, in my case."

When no one said anything, Liam looked up to find Kiki gazing at him wide eyed, and Tasha peering at him over her shades.

"What?"

"I didn't realize you've known him that long," Kiki said.

Tasha nodded, " seriously. I knew you used to live across the street from him, but...damn. That's pretty much as long as you've known Kekoa and Nalani, isn't it?"

Liam shrugged as he began digging the tunnel. Kiki started doing the same from her end a moment later.

"I've known him for that long, but I definitely haven't spent as much time with Matt as I have Kekoa and Nalani. We've probably hung out just as consistently, but not as often, if that makes sense. Not until this year, at least. I'm glad we are though. Matt's always been a good friend."

"I'm surprised we didn't hang out with him over the summer," Tasha said, replacing her shades and settling back into her chair before taking a sip of her drink, "or that he didn't really come up at all. I honestly forgot that he lived nearby until the end of Thanksgiving break."

"Still a little jealous that I wasn't invited do any of that," Kiki said.

Liam rolled his eyes, about to respond, when Tasha cackled, "I know why you weren't."

Kiki between him and Tasha, eyes narrowed, while Liam glared at his brunette friend.

"Why?"

Liam pointed at Tasha, "Don't--"

But she was already shimmying her chest, fingers pointing at it as she grinned at the two of them before relaxing.

"Because, as hard as Liam was crushing on Marie over the summer, he is also a boy, and I don't cover these up a lot during the summer. So, I'm pretty sure he wanted some alone time with them, just in case anything went his way. Even though he knew I was attached at the time."

Liam rolled his eyes, cheeks hot as Kiki gave him a flat look, and glared at Tasha again, "That is one-hundred percent not the reason, and you know it. Thanks for making me sound like an absolute creep."

Tasha burst into a giggle fit, "Well, it's harder to mess with you now that being with Blake has set the bar a bit higher and you have boyfriend-confidence. Your subconscious was probably thinking at least a little bit of that, though. But, I'd be insulted if it hadn't."

She glanced at Kiki, expression sobering just a bit "Don't be jealous. I was having a rough time, and didn't really know anyone else from school that lived out here except Liam, and he actually knew what I was going through. We didn't even hang out with Kekoa or Nalani."

Kiki blinked, looking between them and a hint of a frown pulled the corner of her mouth down as she put the pieces together.

Liam gave her a sympathetic frown, nodding, and push those feelings away. Kiki's eyes went wide, and she looked over at Tasha.

"What--"

"I'll tell you about it later," Tasha's the voice was friendly, but firm, "You and I can hang out together while we give Matt and Sarah some alone time. More alone time. Knowing Sara, she'll just need more after today."

Kiki's cheeks grew a little red, "I get that."

Tasha laughed, "I bet you do."

Which, only made Kiki's cheeks darkened further.

Liam peered between her and Tasha for a moment, then decided to try and ease the tension a little bit.

"That, is also why you weren't invited to anything with her over the summer. Having one hot girl who very blatantly was not interested in me but was still teasing me and messing with me every chance she got was confusing enough. I didn't wanna add another one to that or see what you two would do if you combined your efforts."

Liam kept digging for a bit longer, careful Not to take too much sand at once and risk collapsing the wall above, before the silence made him look up at his friends again. Both of them were smirking at him.

"So," Kiki said, "you think we're hot?"

Liam rolled his eyes calmed and glared at both of them, "You know it has nothing to do with what I think. Both of you spend enough time in the gym to be objectively hot, Tasha makes it known wherever she goes--"

He leveled the star at Kiki, "And you can't wear bottoms like that and not be very aware of how nice your ass is. I'm pretty sure Tasha's been staring at that more than she has at the ocean or the insides of her eyelids. That's part of why she's wearing the shades."

Kiki's cheeks went bright red, then she whipped her head around to Tasha.

Before she could even ask anything, Tasha just shrugged, "What? Your ass is really fucking nice. And it's been facing me pretty much this whole time."

Liam laughed at that, and Kiki through a chunk of sand past him in response.

He shot her a flat look, then glanced at Tasha again before grinning at Kiki, "See what I mean?"

Kiki rolled her eyes, "I guess so."

Liam noticed that she didn't make any effort to move out of Tasha's view, though. They're glance up at Tasha and the slight smirk on her full lips totally on that Tasha had noticed that too.

He almost said something in an attempt to tease Tasha, more than Kiki, but the sand giving way before his fingers took his attention. His cold, sandy fingertips met Kiki's, and they shared a grin before each taking a side of the tunnel and clearing away more and more sand until Liam's fist could fit through.

When they got there, they took each other 's hands, then pulled back just enough so that only their fingers were touching and wiggled them.

"Wiggidy, wiggidy, wiggidy," they both said simultaneously before pulling their hands back and laughing.

"You guys are such dorks," Tasha said, though Liam could hear the grin in her voice.

"What? Are you telling me you never watched rocket power?" Kiki asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Just because I watched it doesn't mean I remember it enough to remember things about it or make those references so many years later. Like I said, you two are a couple of dorks."

"Mhm," Kiki said smugly, "and I'm pretty sure the growing collection of spicy fairy books you're accumulating is something only a dork would do."

Tasha gaped, leaning forward, then stuck her tongue out, "Rude!"

Liam laughed, surprised to see a hint of redness in Tasha's cheeks that he was pretty sure wasn't just from the sun.

Tasha folded her arms over her chest as she settled back into her chair, "I'm tempted to step on your sandcastle for that."

Liam gaped at Tasha this time. He exchanged a look with Kiki, who wore a similar expression, then level to look at Tasha.

"You realize that I can literally throw you over my shoulder and carry you into the ocean, right?" Kiki pointed out.

"And that with both of us here," Liam added, "we can throw you into the water."

Tasha stiffened, "You wouldn't fucking dare."

Liam raised an eyebrow at her, meeting her sparkling eyes over the shades.

Then he glanced at Kiki, who nodded.

When they both rose into a crouch, Tasha leapt from her chair and started running down the beach.

Liam laughed as he and Kiki took after her.

A/N: This chapter might be a bit indulgent, but I hope you guys like it.