Warnings: None

Word Count: 2219

Author's Note: Small disclaimer - I have never been to the Great Lakes and therefore know nothing about what they are actually like. The beach in this chapter is based on my experience with the actual ocean, so I apologize if it isn't entirely accurate! Anyway, I can't believe we're officially halfway through this series already. I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

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"My shorts!" you yelped as the wave splashed up and soaked the brim of your shorts.

"What did you expect to happen?" Tyler called from the safety of the coast. "You're up to your knees in water!"

"At least I'm having fun!"

Tyler sighed and crossed his arms, shooting you yet another disapproving look. You had spent the entire afternoon trying to get him to join you in the water, but he was indignant about staying on the dry sand.

Before the next wave hit, you started to wade back to shore. This, of course, involved a lot of awkward limb movement as you tried to fight against the tides flowing back towards the lake.

"Yeah, that looks like a blast," Tyler said as you joined him just out of reach of the waves.

"Tyler, we did not come all the way to the beach for you to watch me play in the water alone."

"I'm having a great time!"

You rolled your eyes, "You're wearing socks! And Vans! On the beach!"

"And?"

"Take them off."

"Excuse me?"

"You're coming in the water with me. Right now," you demanded.

"What if our stuff gets stolen?" he asked as he pulled off his socks.

"I would consider it a good thing, considering how beat up your shoes have gotten."

"They're my show shoes!"

"Then why are you wearing them at the beach?"

"Because they're also my only shoes." You laughed as Tyler placed his things in a neat little pile in the sand. "Ok. Take me away, water."

"Dork."

You grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the water alongside you. It took you awhile to convince him to get past water that was ankle-deep, but you made it happen. He actually seemed pretty happy in the lukewarm lake water.

"See? Is this so bad?" you asked, finally dropping his wrist from your grip.

"I guess not."

He turned to you with the all-too-familiar dorky grin on his face. You grabbed your phone from your pocket and opened up the camera.

"What was that for?" he asked as you reviewed the photo.

"I just like to document things that happen. Don't act like you don't know that," you smiled.

Tyler kicked idly at the water, creating little ripples that bumped into your leg. You turned out towards the horizon and watched a few boats that were cruising along the calm waters. It was peaceful.

That is, until Tyler decided to make sure it wasn't.

Water splashed along your side, almost completely soaking the fabric of your t-shirt. In an instant, you turned to see Tyler with his sleeves pushed up and a devilish smile on his face. He was preparing to splash another heap of water at you, but stopped when he noticed the expression on your face.

"Ty-ler!" you yelled. "You're going to pay for that!"

"Try me," he grinned, already jumping through the water away from you.

You chased after him, attempting to toss water at him whenever you got close. Most of your attempts were in vain, and running around in the water was only soaking your clothes even more than they had been. From the looks of it, Tyler was facing the same issue.

"My clothes are wet now," he frowned, pulling at his shorts a little.

"Serves you right."

He shook some water off his hands before turning to you, "Hey, the sun is starting to set. We should go get our pizza and grab our stuff from the car before it really kicks off."

"Good idea."

The two of you waded out of the water and headed back towards your favorite pizza place. When you were about halfway down the sand, the strap on your flip flop completely snapped.

"Aw man," you sighed. "That's an issue."

Tyler turned and started to walk backwards, "What?"

"My shoe. It's busted."

"I think I have a pair of Maddy's shoes in the back of my car. You could wear those, if you want."

"That's great, but how am I going to get to the car with a busted shoe?"

"I have an idea," Tyler grinned.

You started to ask what his plan was, but you stopped when Tyler bent down in front of you. With a laugh, you hopped onto his back and wrapped your arms around him.

"You know, I could probably make it down the rest of the beach without my shoes," you said as Tyler carried you along the sand.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't want the princess to hurt her poor feet."

You rolled your eyes, but decided not to make a comment since you were kind of relying on him for the time being. Besides, you weren't about to risk losing an opportunity to be this close to him.

Tyler left you on a bench outside the pizza place while he went inside and ordered pizzas. He couldn't have been gone for more than ten minutes before he was outside again, carrying two boxes.

"This is going to be a bit awkward," he said, looking between you and the boxes.

"Here, set the pizzas down," you instructed him.

He did as he was told. You then hopped onto his back and grabbed the pizza boxes, which may have involved Tyler nearly dropping you head-first onto the bench you had previously been sitting on. Thankfully, that didn't happen and the two of you were able to laugh about the entire situation. Now with pizzas in hand, you headed back towards the car to grab things for your little fire.

"Look who's wearing Vans at the beach now," Tyler grinned as he handed you a pair of Maddy's shoes.

"Not by choice!"

"I still don't want to hear another word from you about me wearing Vans at the beach."

"And socks!"

"Hey! What did I just say?"

"Sorry," you giggled.

"Come on, let's go claim a good spot on the beach before they're all taken."

Tyler grabbed a few things from the back of the car before slamming the trunk and leading the way back towards the beach. The sky was just barely beginning to turn pink, but you could already tell that the sunset was going to be gorgeous. You were so busy admiring the sky that you nearly tripped down the stairs that led to the sand.

"Careful," Tyler laughed, holding out a hand to keep you from falling over entirely. "I don't want you destroying the most precious thing on this beach right now."

"Aww, Ty," you smiled.

"I meant the pizzas."

"Ty!" You lightly smacked his arm.

"But I guess it would be pretty bad if you got destroyed too."

"Oh, wow, thanks."

You found a good spot a decent distance from the water that was sheltered by a log. The wind protection would make starting a fire on the beach a whole lot easier. Tyler wasted no time in dumping all of his materials out into the sand and beginning to construct a little fire.

"How does that look?" Tyler asked, gesturing to his little pile of sticks.

"Like an unlit fire."

Tyler shot you a look as he dug the small box of matches out of his sweatshirt pocket. You munched on a piece of pizza while he attempted to light the newspaper he had used for kindling.

"Is that working?" he asked, leaning down a little closer to the tiny flame.

"Careful!" you said, using your free hand to grab at his shoulder. "Or you're going to singe an eyebrow."

"That might be a good look."

"It most definitely would not be."

The fire slowly continued to grow larger until it was burning steadily. Tyler, now happy with his creation, sat back on the sand next to you and grabbed his pizza box. The sun was much lower in the sky now, turning most of the clouds shades of pink and orange.

"Thanks for building a fire, Ty," you said, turning to look at him.

"No problem."

Golden light was shining over him, highlighting all of his features. He looked absolutely perfect as he ate his pizza in the dimming light. You couldn't resist pulling out your phone to take a picture of him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, noticing your camera in his peripheral vision.

"The light on you is really nice right now. I just wanted to capture the moment."

Tyler made a cheesy face at you, but you simply sighed and shook your head. Gently, you reached out and pushed his chin so that he was looking out towards the lake again.

"Just stay like that," you said, taking a moment to find the perfect angle.

After taking a couple pictures, you scrolled through them just to make sure they weren't blurry. They had turned out looking almost as good as Tyler did sitting right next to you.

"Wow, you're perfect," you muttered, followed by the immediate realization that you had said that out loud. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud."

"I take it the pictures turned out well?" he grinned.

"Um, yeah."

"Take one of me eating pizza!"

Your face was still burning as you took pictures of Tyler eating pizza. He had a slice stuck partly in his mouth, but he was looking at the camera with the best puppy dog eyes that he could muster. You giggled the entire time you were taking photos.

"That's definitely going on Instagram," Tyler said as he looked over the pictures. "Look at that smolder."

"You did not just say that."

"I did and I'm proud of it."

You sighed and stuck your phone back into your pocket. Right now, you wanted to focus on the sunset and spending time with Tyler. This was the most at peace with everything in your life that you had felt for awhile and you didn't want to waste a second of it.

You finished your pizza just as the sun was disappearing below the horizon. Next to you, Tyler was warming his hands by the fire. He turned to look at you.

"Was your pizza good?" he asked.

You nodded. "Yours?"

"Great. I wish the pizza places in Columbus were that good."

"But now this pizza is special when we come to the beach."

Tyler sighed and leaned back on his hands. You pulled your knees a little closer to your chest and held your hands towards the fire. The sun going down had significantly dropped the temperature on the beach and you were suddenly very glad Tyler had built a fire for the two of you to sit around.

"Oh, hey," Tyler suddenly said, reaching for his backpack. "I have a song for you."

"For me?"

"Well, for you to hear. I didn't write it specifically for you."

Your stomach sank a little bit, but you were still happy that Tyler wanted to play a song for you. He carefully pulled his ukulele out of his bag and began to tune it.

"Have you been carrying that around all day?" you asked.

"Uh, yeah," he grinned. He took a few more moments to finish tuning his ukulele, then turned to you. "Ready?"

"Yes."

The melody that he played was slow and simple, but it made you smile nonetheless. After the short instrumental intro, Tyler began to sing.

"I do not know why I would go in front of you and hide my soul."

You didn't recognize the song, so you were hanging on to every word just in case Tyler decided never to play it for you again. Despite the fact that Tyler had told you the song wasn't for you, you couldn't help but feel like he was trying to send you a message.

No, that was just you getting ahead of yourself.

"What did you think?" Tyler asked as he strummed the last note.

"I loved it," you smiled. "What is it called?"

"Screen. It's something that I wrote for the next album that Josh and I are working on."

"If that's anything like the rest of the songs, I can't wait to hear it."

Tyler smiled, "I can't wait to play the rest of them for you."

The two of you spent the rest of the evening sitting on the beach and enjoying the warm fire. Tyler played more songs for you, although most of them were ones that you had heard before or covers of songs that the two of you liked. Eventually, it started to get late and your fire was hardly more than a few embers.

"We should go," you yawned. "My parents are going to start worrying."

"Agreed."

Tyler packed up his things while you kicked a bit of sand over the fire to finish it off. Although you could no longer see the lake, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore was still audible.

"Good idea to come to the beach," Tyler said as you started to walk back towards the car.

"Thanks for coming with me," you smiled. "It was a nice way to start spring break."

Tyler wrapped an arm around you and pulled you into a side hug, which ended up being a bit awkward with all of the stuff that the two of you were carrying. Even still, you appreciated the gesture.

If only more days could be like today.