I was suddenly woken up by my phone vibrating my whole bed. I fumbled around my pillow for a few moments before locating the source of the offending noise, hoping that it hadn’t woken my sister I was sharing a room with for our week at the beach. Eventually I was awake enough to not be blinded by the glow of my phone’s screen, and made out a text reading, “Come outside. There’s something you’ve got to see,” sent by someone I never expected to speak to again. After taking into account the fact that it was 3:38 AM, curiosity got the best of me, and I slid on my hoodie, stepped over the air mattress my sister was sleeping on and slipped out the bedroom door as quietly as possible.

I made it out the sliding glass door at the back of the living area without waking anyone and avoided all injuries besides a stubbed toe from one of the many toys left on the floor by my 4-year-old cousin. Before I walked down to the beach, something to my right gained my attention. And there he was, Caleb. When the gorgeous guy saw me, he motioned for me to follow him out to the now-deserted beach, the only sound being the waves crashing onto the wet sand we couldn’t see. It was another few minutes after we came together on the sand before either of us said a word.

I had noticed what he had originally brought me out here for, the bright white full moon surrounded by an otherwise pitch-black sky. The only other indicator of the orb was the line of white reflection on the calm waters, pointing directly to the 2 of us like it was a pathway we should walk down to escape this place.

“It really is beautiful, Kay. Just like you, you know,” He said this without looking away from the glowing object in the sky, his eyes illuminated even brighter than normal, his strong jawline just barely pointed upwards. The words came out almost like a whisper, and his typically confident exterior was showing slight indicators of anxiety.

While I was thinking about all of this, his expression started growing more defined, and he turned to look at me, the look in his eyes unidentifiable.

“You’re serious,” this was from me, the shock in my voice evident even to me. After my big confession to him this afternoon when I’d only known him for a few days, I had truthfully expected him to never speak to me again.

“Of course I am. It doesn’t matter to me in the slightest what's happened to you in your past, even if it's not something you'd readily share with the world. All I know is that when I look at you, like now, I see a beautiful girl. One with a big secret, but that doesn't negate the rest of you. It doesn’t define you, and just remember that, okay? Even if we never see eachother again after this week, don’t forget that you are more than your secrets.”

And with that, he returned to looking at the moon, and, realizing he had said what he wanted to say, I did, too.