Chapter Twenty

I found a picture of Morgan and I sitting on a towel at the beach, the sun glaring down on our skin. I had been with him for almost seven months, and not one time had he ever gotten jealous of my closeness with anyone back home. This day was different. Maybe it was because nobody had paid particular attention to me back at school, but that day, a guy was flirting with me as I tanned. Morgan had been playing with Kendall in the water, and as he started moving towards us, I could see something lingering in his blue eyes. I had never seen him green with jealousy before until that moment.

He stood beside us, talking to the guy about what he was doing. When the guy talked about thinking I was cute and wondering if he was my older brother, Morgan gave him a death glare as he told him we were dating. The guy left and apologized, but Morgan just stared him down, watching him reunite with his friends down the beach. As he lay down next to me, wrapping an arm protectively around my waist, I couldn't help but feel proud that Morgan would get jealous over someone. For the first time in my life, I actually felt wanted.

The sun was shining down on me as I lay, sprawled out on the beach towel. It’s rays were  welcomed and maybe I could give myself a slight tan before summer was over. I just wanted to be a darker shade of pale. As I lay on the beach towel, I felt a shadow blocking out my sun, and l look up expecting to see Morgan. I was caught off guard when a young man stood smiling down at me instead. I just smiled back, wondering what he was doing.

"Hey there, cutie. My name's Jason, what's yours?"

I just continued to look up at him, oblivious to his advances, "I'm Mattie."

Sitting next to me, this Jason kid kept talking, I was just trying to get a tan, "Do you have a cottage up here? My family owns one across the lake, but this beach is much better than ours, so we just swim over here. I hate seaweed, and the people over here make sure there is none in the water. How old are you? You look like you're still in high school. I'm twenty-one."

I was trying to ignore him, but he didn't seem to get the drift. Where was Morgan when you needed him?

"Are you the silent type? Don't be nervous, I'm just super excited to see another cute guy around here. I mean, unless you're straight then that would be super awkward. Are you straight?"

Before I could answer, I felt another shadow looming over me. I sighed as I looked up, expecting one of this guy’s friends to come and try and have a conversation. Instead, I looked into the eyes of an extremely pissed off Morgan. I took a deep breath, smiling at him.

"Oh hey, Babe. Done with the kid already? I hope you wore him out, I don't think I can handle another night of puzzles."

"Who's this?" He didn't even respond to my question. Was it sick of me to think he was cute when he was jealous?

"Hi! My name's Jason and you are?" Standing up, Jason was actually a lot shorter than I had noticed, standing a whole foot below Morgan. I could tell he was double thinking his decision to talk to me now with my boyfriend towering over him.

"I'm Morgan and this is my boyfriend. Are you a friend of his?" He already knew the answer to his question, but I guess he wanted to confirm it. Maybe this guy was a long lost friend or something.

"No, I was just striking up a conversation with someone I saw, but I see I made a mistake, so I'm going to find my friends and maybe go for a fire. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye." Walking off quickly and tripping over the sand, Jason moved back to his friends.

I was internally laughing as I looked up at Morgan, "Hello, jealous monster."

Lying down next to me, Morgan wrapped a protective arm around my waist as he sighed; "I'm sorry, I just knew he was up to no good. I used to go to school with him before he transferred to the private sector. He's used to getting everything he wants, and I knew by the look in his eye he wanted you."

I just started laughing, and I don't really know why. Maybe it was the fact Morgan was getting so defensive about me or maybe it was the look he was giving me when telling his little story. I didn't know, all I knew is that it was hilarious.

"Seriously, Morgan? You think I'm going to leave you for a prep school jerk who probably would use me and move on?" I continued to laugh, trying to speak at the same time, "M-morgan... you... are..."

I didn't get to finish my sentence as Morgan pulled my head into his hands and kissed me gently on the lips. "Just shut up, please." I was still mentally laughing, even as he kissed me on the beach.

A few hours later we were packing up our things when deep dark clouds rolled in from the east side of the beach, bringing with it a whole bunch of rain and thunder. We ran screaming like little children to the cottage, running inside laughing as we dried ourselves off.

"Hey, Mattieboy, wanna try another game of monopoly?" Morgan smirked as he pulled out the board game, and I knew exactly where this was going. "It'll be fun, maybe I can be the banker this time."

Julian swiped the box out of Morgan's hands, "No! For some reason, every time we play you always seem to magically have more fifty thousand dollar bills than the rest of us. I think your mother will be the banker."

We played board games for a few hours until Morgan fell asleep with his head on my shoulder.