Just the Way You Are


Oh how I am going to miss this. The blue water, smooth sand between my feet, the nature all around me and what I will miss the most is my friends. Lying out by the beach all day, going fishing with my family. Calling up Sophie and Jena in the middle of the night “to get the party started” we would all say.

It is the beginning of august and we only have a little less than a month to be with each other. “You guys I cannot believe that we are going to be going off to college in less than a month!” Sophie said. We all just laid there and thought for a moment.
I sit up looking at Sophie and Jena, “High school went by extremely fast, my brother was right it flashes right by. I never thought it would. It was freshmen year and I always thought oh great we’re all stuck in this hell hole for the next 4 years. I look back now and think wow it was a great 4 years.”

We all just lay there in the quiet hearing the birds chirp and the sound of the waves crashing up on the shore. Jena looks up and says “Sophie, Emma look at those four cuties walking down the beach lets go talk to them!”

I have never been much of a talker to new people. I am usually the one who just stands back, nods and smiles and let all my friends do the talking. I have only had a boyfriend one other time and that was back sophomore year for only three months. But these boys were very attractive. Sophie, Jena and I all get up and go pretend that we are going to go swimming. Even though none of us wanted to right now but we had to get the guys attention somehow.

The water is warm because it is the end of the summer and we live down in Florida so it pretty much stays warm year around. We start to walk closer to them and we catch their eyes. I see them whispering to each other and can tell that they are talking about us three. I cannot make out on what they are saying but they start to come towards us. I get nervous all the time when guys come to talk because I am so shy.

They start to walk towards us. Jena says, “Hey guys! What’s up?”

“Nothing just spending the day at the beach, enjoying our last few weeks before college starts again.” Said one of the guys.

“What are ya’ll names?”

“Well, I am Brady this is Jake, Lee, and Tyler. What are your names?”

“I am Jena.” She says.

“Hey I’m Sophie….and this is...” “Emma you have to talk, these guys are nice there is no need to be shy.” She whispers to me.

“Hey I’m Emma.” I say quietly sounding like a little mouse that nobody can hear. We all start walking down the beach together. Brady, Jake, Lee and Tyler are all up by Sophie and Jena and there is me straggling behind them kicking shells with my feet as I walk by.

It is around five o’clock and Jena, Sophie and I have to head home in an hour to go eat dinner. I let the girls know what time it is and they just shoo me off because their having a lot of fun. Brady starts to walk away from all the commotion and comes and sits right next to me.

“Hey Emma, What are you doing?” He’s looking at me with those dark brown eyes glistening in the sun, hair wisped back from him going swimming.
“Nothing really just sitting here waiting for the girls to be ready to go home.” I say staring out at the ocean not wanting to make eye contact with him.

“Well come on then let’s go take a dip. I’m getting pretty warm!” Brady said grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the water.

I can see out of the corner of my eye that Jena and Sophie are looking at us in disbelief that I am actually talking with a guy and making a conversation. Brady starts to swim out far and yells at me “Emma come on the water is nice and warm! Swim out to me!”

“Umm I’d rather stay close to shore and plus I can’t touch out there!” I yell back.

He stands up on a sand bar about 200 yards out, “You can touch just have to come swim out to me.” He says with a smile on his face showing his white teeth that just makes me melt inside.

“Alright fine I’ll come out there as long as I can touch!” I yell back while starting to swim out to him.

I swim out there and am so out of breath he reaches over and pulls me to him. His strong grip around me just makes me want to keep holding on to him. We are out there for thirty minutes and I hear Jena yell from the beach “Emma come on we have to start packing up to head home!”

I look at Brady and say, “We better head back her mom hates when we are later for supper.”

“No problem, hop on and I’ll pull you back to shore.” He says smiling. I hop on his back and he starts to swim back to shore.

We get back and all start to pack up our belongings to head home. Jena and Sophie go off with Tyler, Lee and Jake to say goodbye. Yet again it’s just Brady and I alone. He looks at me and smiles and says, “Well I wanted to ask you this earlier…but I was too nervous. Would you want to meet up sometime soon and get to know each other more?”

“YES!” I say a little too excited.

“Great! Here’s my number 608 225 2012.” He says grabbing my phone from me and typing it in. Just as I am starting to walk away he grabs me and pulls me into another of his bear hugs and yet again I get butterflies from it.

He finally lets go and says, “I better let you go so you’re not late but I’ll text you later tonight.”

“Sounds great to me!” I say, my face turning a light shade of red.

“Talk to you later Emma! Hey and also send Lee, Tyler and Jake back over here. We have to get going to.” He says waving and walking away.

“See you later! And yes I’ll do so.” I say smiling standing there frozen extremely happy until I hear Jena call again and tell me to come up to the car.

“Ooo Emma you and Brady Huh!” Sophie was saying and teasing me on the ride home.

As we pulled up into Jena’s house I hear my phone beep. My heart starts to race as I unlock my screen I see who has texted me. I get all smiley and Sophie turns around and says, “Oh Emma your man text you now?!” she says with a smirk on her face.

“Yes!” I say and smile.

We go inside and the smell of fresh baked cookies filled the air with a pan of ham, cheesy potatoes and corn on the table for dinner. All of us go wash our hands sit down and start to dive in. We are all starving because we haven’t eaten anything today except breakfast. After we get done eating and get cleaned up, Jena, Sophie and I all go collapse on the couch from stuffing our faces.


I leave and go home around ten o’clock at night. I hear my phone ring, I look at it and it says Brady Calling.

“Hello” I say in a quiet voice.

“Hey Emma! I’m glad you answered I didn’t think you were going to pick up.”

We just keep talking about our day and how much fun it was, then he asked, “So Emma you like the outdoors?”

“Yeah I do! I love fishing hunting and everything. My dad always takes me out fishing every weekend in the summer because it’s the best time the fish bite.” But I never told him how I am actually scared of the outdoors, yeah I like hunting and fishing but I do not like touching the fish or if I shoot a deer I make my dad gut it out.

“Awesome! I love it too! We should go together…maybe tomorrow?” He asked. I can hear the pleading in his voice that he really wants me to go with him.

“That sounds great to me!” I say with a touch of excitement.

“Sweet! Well I have to get going to bed; I will pick you up at nine tomorrow morning?”

“Sounds good, I’ll be ready by then. Have a goodnight and see you tomorrow Brady.” I say yawning and wanting to go to bed too.

“Goodnight to you too Emma. Oh and where do you live so I don’t get lost?” He says in a teasing voice.

“Oh yeah! It is 3156 Valley View Road.” I say.

“Okay great! See you tomorrow!” he says and at that we both hang up the phone.

I call Sophie and Jena right away and tell them the noose. They are both very excited for me and tell me they are proud that I finally came out of my shell and am going to go have fun for once with a guy. I go lay in bed and as soon as my head hits the pillow I crash.

It’s the next morning and I hear my alarm clock going off. I roll over and smack the snooze button like I do every other morning. After five extra minutes I realize, oh s*** today is the day that Brady and I are hanging out. I look at the time and see it is eight o’clock; he will be here in an hour.

I hurry get in the shower and do my hair and make up. I run downstairs to eat a quick breakfast and then I hear his truck coming up. I yell to my mom “Brady is here I do not know what time I will be home. If you need anything just give me a call!”
“Okay bye honey, have fun! Be careful and call me if you need anything as well!” she yells back from the kitchen.
I walk out my front door and see Brady standing there holding the door open to help me up into his truck. The truck is a dodge Cummins and since I am short I have a hard time getting up into it.
“Hey Emma!” he says smiling and giving me a kiss on the cheek and a hug before hoisting me up into his truck.
“Hey Brady!” I say all jelly like. On the ride to where we are going to go fish we just talk about what we like to do about our life and what we want to do after we get out of college.
We arrive at the river and I help him unpack all of the poles, worms and tackle. Then he goes into the back seat and pulls out a basket and says, “I thought we could have a picnic later while we are out here.”
“Sounds like a great idea!” I say smiling and walking down to the shore.
We set all of our stuff down and he starts to put the worm on his hook and puts it in the water. He looks at me, “Emma here’s the worms just hook one on and plop it in the water.” He says.
I Look at Brady and out at the water again. He comes over and says, “Emma what is wrong?”
“Well…” I trail off not wanting to look at him. Feeling ashamed I did not tell him the truth. “…well I don’t really like the nature, like…I mean I like it but I hate bugs, worms and cannot stand touching the fish. I have always had my dad do that stuff for me. I didn’t want to tell you because I thought you would be like oh she is a wimp and cannot handle stuff like this. I like the nature just not the bug part and also to tell you the truth I was nervous telling you that I like hunting and fishing because most guys I know like the city girls which I am the complete opposite.”

Brady grabs me and pulls me into a hug. The feel of his bared tanned skin is smooth and warm then he does that thing that I love when guys grab your chin gently and make you look up at them. He says, “Emma I could care less if you did not like touching fish, putting your worm on your hook, gutting deer out or that you are a country girl. I like you for who you are on the inside. I like you for you and that you are real and not a fake like most girls that I know. Those things don’t even matter to me so you keep that smile on your face and let’s get back and see who can catch the biggest fish.” He says kissing me and smiles as he goes back to his fishing spot.

We fish in quiet for a little while just enjoying the warmth of the sun hitting us and the sounds of the birds chirping. I am just thinking to myself that it feels extremely good to get that off my chest and now I don’t have to worry about anything else because I have told him what nobody knows about me. People think I am a nature freak and am all about bugs and everything but really I am not.

It is late afternoon and we quit fishing because we have only caught a couple small fish. I spread the blanket out and put the food down and we eat and talk for about an hour and Brady gets all quiet all of a sudden and looks at me and says, “Emma I have been thinking the past two days it has just been me and you and you are the only girl I can be myself around and I do not have to worry about what you think of me and I was thinking that we could keep talking and get to know each other more. I am really starting to like you and have not felt like this for another girl. I feel like in the future we would make a great couple. We both like the same things and we get along extremely well. ”

“I feel the same way Brady. Yes I would love to keep talking to you even though we are both going off to college we can still make things work out with each other and I agree with you on being a couple in the future.” I say leaning over and giving him a kiss.

We pack up and head back to my house. On the car ride home I could not stop thinking on how this afternoon was a very eventful day and fun. We pull up into my driveway and he gets out and comes and helps me down and walks me to my door. We stand there for a moment then he leans in gives me a kiss and picks me up in one of his bear hugs. “I will see you in a couple of days.” He says smiling at me.

“I cannot wait, and today was fun thank you for taking me.” I say.

He puts me down and gives me one last kiss and hug and says, “Remember don’t worry about anything that we talked about today you are perfect just the way you are, never change that.” And at that he walks away turns around and winks at me and I wave goodbye. Standing there frozen for a few moments extremely happy and have butterflies. I walk into my house and am thankful for what a great day that I had with him and many more to come I think to myself.