- Hawaii lust - Jenna Ortega

019

After spending another hour swimming, they decide to go back to the beach since they're already getting tired, and it's an hour-long trip back anyway. So they get out-their skin pruned up from the water-and put their clothes back on. Jenna ties her hair up, and then takes the lead on the trail to get them back. Like so many other things Dahlia hate to admit to her, she feels more at ease when she's in charge. It means that she doesn't have to be.

"You know, you never answered my question earlier about why you're lying to your mom," Dahlia tells her, noticing her avoid eye contact as she holds back a branch for her.

"That was on purpose, Dahlia, take a hint," Jenna sighs, shaking her head.

"Why?" She presses, and she groans.

"God, because you're right?" Jenna turns around, huffing in annoyance as she crosses her arms, blocking her path. "As disgusting as that is to say, you're right, okay? Happy?"

Then she turns around and keeps going, now walking faster to purposely leave Dahlia behind. But she jogs to catch up and grabs her arm, turning her around.

"No, I'm not happy," Dahlia scoffs, now crossing her own arms. She rolls her eyes. "Don't you want to talk about this?"

"Not with you," Jenna replies flatly, and she breathes in, pretending that didn't sting.

"Fine, then pretend I'm someone else," Dahlia tells her, shrugging it off. "Because you have no other friends, and your whole family is believing this lie, so I'm the only person here that you can talk to."

"Quick of you to assume we're friends," she retorts, doing that thing she always does when she doesn't want to talk about her feelings: be horribly mean. She knows it's just a coping mechanism, so she tries not to take it personally.

"If we weren't, I wouldn't be here," Dahlia quips, just as confident as she is now. "So just tell me the truth: why are you lying to your mom if you don't even believe you need a girlfriend to be happy?"

Jenna looks at her, still angry and annoyed, beforeeventually giving in and relaxing her body from it's tense stance.

"Because...there's a small part of me that still wants her approval," she breathes out, clenching and unclenching her fists as she looks down at the ground. "She's drilled this shit in my head since I was a kid, and it's just hard to get out of that sometimes. And I thought bringing you would work, and telling her that I have straight A's would work, but now I know that nothing I can do couldever be enough for her. There's always more, always bigger, always better. So once I realized that, it just made me want to piss her off. Immature, yeah, but I don't care. If I have to be here for six more days, then I might as well enjoy it."

"Doesn't that feel better to get off your chest?" Dahlia asks, smiling supportively.

"Thinking about my chest, Dahli?" she raises an eyebrow, and she sighs. "Fine, yes. Sort of."

"For the record, I think your mom is wrong. No, you don't live this huge, extravagant life, but I can see you're much happier than she is-someone who does live that life," Dahlia shrugs, trying her best to comfort her. They don't really do this sort of thing, so she doesn't exactly know what to say. "Just saying-she's wrong, and I agree with you."

"Thanks, Dahlia," she nods, and so does she. "Now I'm going to cut this heart-to-heart thing short and start moving again."

"Good idea," she nods, laughing uncomfortably. "God, do you even know what time it is? I don't think I've known all day-not even when we woke up."

"Me neither, actually," she shrugs, laughing. "I assume around four or five, though, from the sun."

"Really? That must be why I'm so hungry," Dahlia whines pitifully, rubbing her stomach. Then, without warning, another granola bar hits her in the head, and she looks up to see Jenna closing her bag. She just smiles and opens it, scarfing it down.

"Okay, I'm not sure if I'm, like, hallucinating, but I really feel like I smell steak right now," Dahlia sniffs, as they finally make it back to the beach around forty-five minutes later.

"No hallucinations, surprisingly," Jenna sighs, holding her shoes in her hand as they walk across the sand. "Looks like we're having a family barbecue tonight. How fun."

"My God, that smells good," Dahlia laughs, squinting her eyes to see as they get closer.

When they finally get there, the three of them are sitting around a fire pit in front of the ocean with wine glasses in their hands. They've actually hired someone to cook at the grill for them.

"Just in time-the chef just started grilling the food!" her aunt smiles, happy to see them.

"Well, I hope you two don't think you're going to eat with us right now after going on a hike," her mom looks them over, and Dahlia squirms. "Go shower."

"Good to see you too, mom," Jenna rolls her eyes, grabbing Dahlia's arm and leading her to the dock. "I guess me and Dahlia will just take a shower together so we can be back in time!"

They can hear her mom take in an annoyed breath as they walk away, and they both grin. It even gives Dahlia enough of a boost to add: "I don't know, Jenna, I think that might end up taking much longer than separate showers, if you know what I mean."

Jenna's mouth drops open at her comment, and it takes everything in her to keep from laughing. She's proud of her.

They can hear her mom talking to her aunt in an annoyed voice, but they just walk in their bungalow then, happy they succeeded.

"Damn, Dahlia, I didn't think you had it in you," she laughs, pushing her playfully. "That was a nice touch."

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve," Dahlia shrugs, smiling proudly. To be honest, even she didn't think she had that in her. But Jenna's mom was just being such a jerk, and it made her so happy to see her pissed off at Jenna's comment that she just couldn't help herself.

"You can go ahead and take a shower-I'll wait outside," she tells her, but she steps in front of her before she can go to the door.

"Unless you want to watch," Jenna says, slowly unbuttoning her shirt.

"You're, like, the biggest pervert of all time, you know that?" Dahlia laughs, shaking her head and pushing past her.

"Yeah, yeah, you love it," she replies proudly, as she sighs and shuts the door behind her, plopping down to watch the sunset on their porch.

"Your turn," Jenna walks outside twenty minutes later, standing in the doorway. She's wearing this white see-through crochet sundress, and her black bikini beneath it. Then she has some sandals, an anklet, and her wet, wavy hair let down. "The sunset is amazing through the glass, so you better hurry up to not miss it."

"Wow," Dahlia laughs, looking at her and standing up. "Nice dress."

"Only because it's almost completely see-through, creep," she pushes her shoulder, laughing as she walks past her into the bungalow. The orange sunset is shining on her as she stands there, her sunkissed skinactually looking like it's glowing.

"I saw you in just your bikini all day today," Dahlia explains, digging through her suitcase for clean clothes. "The dress just suits you, is all I meant."

Jenna hesitates a moment, wanting to reply something mean to her compliment but coming up short. So, as she closes the door, she says, "just go take your shower."

Dahlia laughs as she gathers her things, then takes her turn in the shower.