Gracious Grace

So I'm in North Carolina for my summer. I get to spend time with my dad, brother, and stepmom, which is amazing. Summer's gon be lit.

Sorry for the late update but to be honest it was humorous watching you guys get all worked up and shit.

So how many big girls out there knows they're sexy and that you're the shit??? If not, you should start because I think all y'all are the shit. Work it biiiihhh!!!!!

**~**

"So how was your walk?" Richard asks with a large grin.

"Well, would you look at that. She's soaking wet," Kimberly says making the others snicker, including Arthur. I shoot him a look and he immediately stops. "Good work!" She beams at him.

Arthur thought it was a good idea to start messing around at the edge of the water. It was all fun and games until our legs got tangled somehow and we both fell into a huge wave that was in the middle of crashing. Now I'm walking around with my hair straight and puffy in weird places.

It's taking all my strength not to strangle him.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glare down at them. "This," I hiss, gesturing to my drenched clothing and dripping makeup, "is all your fault." I'm being unfair, sure. Whatever. But someone has to take the blame outside of Arthur. "If any of you were good friends, you'd put me in a headlock before you let me go anywhere with him." I wave off Arthur, wherever he is behind me. And I know he's behind me.

Kim giggles. "The bathroom's up the beach," is all she says. None of them feel the least bit of sympathy for me with all the suppressed amusement I'm seeing.

"And what am I gonna wear?"

"Since I was planning on dunking you, anyway," Kim says, batting her eyelashes with an innocent smile, "I brought some clothes that you'd left at my house last time. They're clean, in the bag over there." She nods to the black duffel bag sitting a few feet from her on the sand.

I've spent numerous sleepovers at Kimberly's house to the point where I even have my own wardrobe and vice versa. The same goes for the rest of the girls and even AJ. But I guess the latter is fairly obvious.

I narrow my eyes at her. I can't even be mad at what she'd planned because, in the end, she's at my rescue.

I huff. "Fine." I make my way around everyone and have the strap of the bag on my shoulder when I notice someone's missing. "Where's AJ?"

"Out picking up some food."

"Threatened him, didn't you?"

I know her well enough that's always the case in this scenario and that her threats may have to do with intimate things they do in private. I pretend not to know while the rest of our friends openly bring it up. When that happens, I block it all out and give anything else my attention.

Kim smirks, refusing to say anything and that's my answer.

I'm a few steps up the beach when I hear Arthur call, "Grace!" I hardly turn around before he's next to me. "How about I walk you..." He sounds hesitant. Almost... shy.

I almost coo out loud at how cute he is. I'm still not one hundred percent cool with him, so he won't catch me swooning over him intentionally any time soon.

Still... it's Arthur. There's something between us that doesn't seem to be going anywhere for a long time. Not unless we do something about it. Whatever that ends up being though, I'm not ready and we both know it.

It's nice to see him showing some humility. I wouldn't be able to stand him if he's so arrogant and cocky all the time. Though it makes it harder for me to say, "Go hang out with your friends, Arthur." My tone is soft but final. Going anywhere with him right now while it's dark out and I'm about to take my clothes off might not be the best decision.

He sees this too and smiles. Not in the know-it-all, suggestive way I know he can. It's small and warm as he nods. Then he watches me walk away.

**~**

I step out of the bathroom with a towel around my shoulders, catching the drops of water dripping from my fully curly hair that's already swelling in size with the humid night air.

Kimberly packed a light grey off-the-shoulder loose crop top, loose olive green shorts, a pair of sandals, underwear, and deodorant. The girl is so thoughtful, I almost forget what made her bring the clothes in the first place.

I feel like a fresh doll; my clothes smell like vanilla, and my pores are basically breathing right now.

I head back down the beach, almost cringing when I see that a cluster of people moved to the once-empty path that I'd taken. Pouting, I decide it's too crowded to walk around them and I don't want to take the longer route.

The strap of the duffel is now holding my wet clothes. I had to rinse all the salt water and sand out of them. I clutch the bag to my side as I maneuver the crowd. It's not hard but it's not easy either, given my build and height. Thankfully, no one seems too bothered by my brief presence.

I rake the dark-colored towel through my locks to rid some of the water as I weave through the grinding bodies sticking to each other like leeches.

"Hey, Grace!"

I glance at the brunette, Louise. She's dancing with what I'm assuming is a junior since I don't know him from our year. Then again, it's not like I know everyone. I grin and wave at her and she returns both gestures with more enthusiasm, telling me she's probably been drinking.

Along the way, I get a few more greetings and I'm reeling from all the attention. I honestly love these people, of course, there are the occasional haters that hate for no reason, but most of the people who talk to or even acknowledge me actually put a smile on my face. They like me because I'm nice, as they put it, and I like them because they return the favor. This is the main reason why senior year is going to be the best one yet.

I'm almost at the end of it all, I'm giddy with the thought, when I'm forced to a halt by a boy stepping into my path. I wait for a second for him to keep walking before realizing that's not what's happening.

"Grace." He smiles drunkenly and I have no clue who this person is. " You wanna dance?" He has dark hair but bright eyes. He's an inch or two shorter than me and buff enough to pass for a college kid. He probably is one...

I take a step back, not liking the closeness, and also to get away from his liquor-stained breath fanning my face.

He reaches out to touch my arm, stopping my backtrack with a smile on his lips. I try shrugging his hand off, frowning. I'm trying my best to find some familiarity in his face and can't. Even if I eventually do, we obviously not close enough for him to be touching me anyway.

"Uhh... no, thanks though," I reply as politely as I can.

"Oh come on. One dance!"

I almost roll my eyes. Now he thinks he's Drake, I think to myself, holding back a snicker.

Due to my internal jokes, I manage to slip a genuine smile that he takes as an invitation. His hand on my arm starts to slide up to my wrist. My hand is still around the towel that's resting over my shoulder. I tighten my fingers on it. "Sorry. I have to get back to my friends." I try letting him down easily.

"They can wait." He waves aimlessly with his free hand, his words sloppy. The other reaches my wrist and tightens. He starts to turn, pulling me toward the crowd.

My anger is boiling beneath my skin and it takes everything for me not to step on him like the insect he is. I plant myself in place, my right eye twitching when I narrow my gaze on him. One of the best things about me is if I don't want to move I can easily become an anchor. It's one of my greatest quirks and it comes in handy quite often. And in times of emergency.

"Listen, here buddy, maybe you should slow down on the drinks, " I say lowly. I don't know who he thinks he is but when a girl says no, she means no. "I don't want to dance. And you're not going to force me to." I emphasize each word slowly and clearly enough for him to get that I'm more of a threat to him than he is to me. That I'm not scared to defend myself and that I'm able to if he pushes this farther than it needs to go. "You understand me?"

He sobers up when my words and expression carry the message I'm sending through his foggy brain. "Oh, sorry," he stutters and drops his hand. He's embarrassed and flustered. Good. "I just-"

"Do we have a problem here?"

Rodney's standing next to me and I recognize a few of the faces that follow him. Rodney's a Puerto Rican guy, taller than me with a low cut, dark brown eyes, and studs in his ears that make him so much more attractive than he already is. The dim lighting on the beach makes his light brown complexion glow almost.

The guy across from us is nervous now from the five sets of eyes glaring at him. Now it's much more obvious that he's not a senior since he doesn't know how we seniors stick together like glue these days. A part of me produces pity for him so fast that it's almost pathetic. I don't know where I get this trait from but I know it's not from either of my parents. With how much they hold grudges? Yeah, no.

"Everything's fine, Rey," I tell him easily, glancing around at his friends.

"You sure?" He looks down at me, eyebrows raised, and I nod with a reassuring smile. He eyes me in a way that says he doesn't believe me, then turns to the boy who's taken several steps back and has his eyes on the sand. He looks seconds away from taking off.

"Better watch it, kid," Rodney warns him before giving me a brief hug and walking away. His friends follow soon after, a few of them still eyeing the both of us cautiously, then disappearing into the crowd.

"Thanks." The guy's still there, staring at me apologetically. He runs a hand over his bare chest. "And sorry again." He sounds sincere and that's enough for me.

A small smile slips onto my lips now that I don't try to hide. "Just tone it down on the beers..." I trail off, silently asking for his name.

He smiles. "Danny."

"Danny. I'm Grace." I introduce myself, our misunderstanding already fading with the warm breeze.

"I know. I hear your name quite a lot." He chuckles nervously.

I wrinkle my nose. It's not that much. I have been told that my name is quite the thing going around sometimes. Who even knows why.

Eventually, I shrug. "I really should be getting back to my friends."

"Yeah. Sorry again for... y'know..."

I nod and give him a light pat on the shoulder as I maneuver my way around him. "Just ease up on the drinking."

I'm basically at the end of the rave when I spotted a group of guys that I'm very familiar with. I met them about a year ago when I was walking through the gym, they'd been playing basketball and asked if I wanted to take a shot. Little did they know, I grew up playing the sport with my dad.

The guys and I got closer throughout the year and I must say they're a whole lotta fun. If anyone's in the mood to reenact The Notebook scene when the man and woman are laying in the middle of the road, they're our go-to guys.

I almost bulldoze my way toward them, throwing my arms around Shawn's shoulders from behind. "Shawny!" I chirp in his ear and he chuckles.

"Sup, shawty?" Once I'm off of his back, he pulls me in front of him, and brings his phone up to my face, already recording for his Instagram story. "We're making a shitload of videos tonight, so talk to the people, baby."

I suddenly feel like a diva. Something about cameras do that to me. I stare into the camera but I'm mostly checking myself out. I start fisting my hair, trying to get it under some kind of control. I actually look crazy.

"The names Grace," I say with a pout, framing my face with the stray curls in the front that keep whipping away with the light breeze. I ignore Shawn's amused snickering and start talking again. "First day being a confirmed senior. I'm single, so you know..." I trail off, grinning into the camera. "Don't hit me up. I prefer it that way." I grin, throwing up a cheesy piece sign right next to my eye.

"Whoop, there you have it people. One of the few who doesn't need a man to rock her shit!" Shawn says, just as the red circle beneath his thumb meets its other end.

"Yeah! Rock that shit!" Deran - one of Shawn's friends in the group - fist pumps with a large grin on his face. He's so drunk.

I stay with them for a little while, talking about anything and everything but mostly laughing my butt off every three seconds. Even tell them about the little incident I found myself in not long before I came over. After refusing to tell them who the guy is, seeing as they insisted they just "want to talk", I bid them farewell. I'm really doing everything but getting back to my friends. It's fine though, I'm sure they aren't missing me much and they know my attention span can be all over the place sometimes.

So when I finally reach the edge of the relocated party, I notice the addition of people that joined our small group. My grin gets wider and wider by the second because I love my people and I'm excited to hop into whatever madness they got going on.

Until several things become clear to me and my grin dwindles down to a confused frown.

**~**

I really forgot how many people were in this damn book. I apologize. Don't even try to keep track of them if you don't want to lol.

Also, if you haven't followed my Instagram (myqueens.32), I'm posting upcoming updates on my page and on my story for anyone who needs to know beforehand. I do announcements and shit too and I'm trying to be more consistent. Like I used to back in the day. So follow me if you want!