Luke was also and avid follower of the "ignore the emotions and hope that they resolve themselves and/or go away" philosophy, but that hadn't served him so well in the past, either. Not that he was about the rethink that strategy, since everything other than ignoring the emotions seemed like it would be much, much harder. And as much as Luke tried to brush things off, he couldn't ignore that tone in Mao's voice. It concerned him. Genuinely.
"Mao..." he began, but he was interrupted by Mao's snap-decision to get up and swim. Luke tensed involuntarily as he saw the other boy wading into the water, thoughts of thunder brutal waves and sail-ripping winds and cold, cold water running over his makeshift deck filling his head. He sat there indecisively for a few moments before reluctantly inching a a few inches closer to the water that lapped around his ankles. He didn't go in any farther, though. Considering what happened during their last ice cream social, Luke didn't want to take any chances of getting his dry clothes wet, so he'd decided to wear trunks, but that definitely didn't mean that he was going to go swimming. In fact, the way things were going right now, he didn't ever want to swim in that bay again. "You have fun with that," Luke called, picking up another handful of sand to manipulate between his fingers.