Meet me at the water, where all your dreams come true Who: Jadyn and Kevin (NPC) Where: Salem, MA When: Summer of 1999
Once summer rolled around in Salem, tourists flocked to the town for one reason or another. Aunt Sally’s shop was always busy with people who had just left the witch museums, but out of the curious folk, only one or two of them would have been serious with wanting to learn magic. Jadyn couldn’t stand the people that wanted souvenirs to bring back home and had no true appreciation of the magical charms. They would end up in a closet somewhere come next year and then thrown out the one after that. Needless to say, her Aunt Sally wasn’t keen on having her niece work during the busy hours, even when they truly needed the extra hand. She was willing to let the place run wild without fear of Jadyn snapping at a customer over nothing.
“It’s a beautiful day out, Jade,” Sally had mentioned that morning. “Why don’t you take your father’s sailboat out and enjoy yourself?”
Hard to say no when her boss essentially told her to take the day off. And it was a gorgeous day. Blue skies with a few fluffy cloud here and there and the perfect wind for sailing. She couldn’t have asked for anything better. Dressing comfortably for the day, Jadyn filled one of her backpacks with everything she figured she’d need for the day: several bottles of water, a couple books on supernatural history, a packed lunch, and a little baggie of weed. The docks weren’t nearly as packed as the rest of the streets were. Salem wasn’t the go to spot for sailing; most people were willing to drive the extra hours to head down the Cape for that. A few of the regular dock workers were on shift when Jadyn arrived there, giving her a few friendly hellos before going back to work. One of the newer faces was dumb enough to ask why they were letting a nineteen-year-old take a boat on her own.
“You don’t know, do you?” The workers laughed amongst themselves. “That’s Ross’ girl right there. She does her own thing. Don’t worry ‘bout her. Jade’s got it under control.”
And she did. She might have been young when her father died, but she remembered the few times he took her out to sea. That and her time spent working on the docks from time to time were enough for her to know what the hell she was doing. She didn’t need any of the boys to tell her that. And above all, Jadyn was at home on the water. She had been late in the game of figuring out she was an elemental, but she was doing her best to catch up with it. At her age, any other experienced elemental would have been level five by now and Jadyn had just reached level three. The limitations of her powers didn’t hold her back, though; once she out in the open ocean, she felt at east with her element surrounding her.
Not too many other boats were out today, at least not as far out as Jadyn was. She liked it better that way; no one would interrupt her there. Once she was content with her location, Jadyn rolled up a joint for her self and laid back to enjoy both that and the solitude. The wind danced by on the occasion, along with the water lapping at the side of her boat. This was the best way to relax in her opinion. Eventually she would crack open one of her books and flip through that, but until then, Jadyn was zoned out and in her own world.
Which explained why she wasn’t alarmed by the sudden shouts that came into earshot later, though it was hard to ignore the sailboat suddenly colliding into something. Smothering her joint, she jolt up to a sitting position as her head whipped around. Being alert while riding out her high wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, but she tried her best. First thing Jadyn made sure was that her boat stopped rocking, quickly settling it down before she glanced around to see what had happened. It appeared there was another sailboat that drifted out here along with hers. The boy on the boat looked to be only a few years older than her and was far more frazzled than she was. Maybe it was a good thing she had that joint earlier.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” The other sailor was out of breath from frantically manning the boat on his own, but settled down once the worst was over. “I was just riding the wind out here and your boat drifted this way and I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Tried yelling, but uh... did I wake you up or something?” Jadyn was busy rubbing her eyes, mostly hoping they didn’t look too bloodshot. When she didn’t answer right away, he asked again, “Are you alright, miss?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Jadyn nodded with a shy smile. “A bit startled, but no damage done.” Seriously, this guy was lucky she wasn’t sober, or else she would have chewed him out twenty times by now. “Um,” she raised an eyebrow, “I guess I should be asking you the same.” Poor guy was more bent out of shape over the incident than she was. At least he let out a laugh, albeit a nervous one, before replying.
“Me? Yeah, I’m ok. It’s just... It’s my parents’ boat. Was taking it out for the day, but... yeah.”
She couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “Sneaking out with mommy and daddy’s toys?”
Jadyn couldn’t tell if she offended him or not, but right then she didn’t care. “...no, they know I took it out.”
“So then what’s the worry?”
“I didn’t say I was worried, just... it’s hard to explain, ok?” Jadyn looked away for a moment, playing with her hair as he spoke. Another timid reaction from the water elemental. “I’m sorry, I’m not used to this, that’s all.”
“Bumping into other boats?” She looked up again, brushing dark bangs out from her eyes.
She watched him smile widely and for a moment she swore he was blushing, though he looked away just when she tried to double check. “Yeah, you could say that.”
Walking over to the edge of her boat, Jadyn leaned over to inspect the other boat a bit more carefully. It looked scuffed up in the front, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. In comparison to her sailboat, his looked brand spanking new. Either that or he had the money to blow on maintenance after every time it was taken out to the ocean. She made a face over that thought. To her, boats were meant to have some wear and tear. Keeping it too pristine meant you couldn’t show off all the years of experience both you and the boat had.
“Is it that bad?” The boy was leaning over to check out the damage as well, about a foot or two away from Jadyn.
“Nah,” she shrugged. “Could use some paint and that’s it. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I’m not that worried about it.” There was a hint of cockiness in his tone. Jadyn almost wanted to point out that if he was that confident, then maybe he wouldn’t have rammed into her. “I think my parents will throw more of a fit than me.”
What he didn’t expect was for her to break out into laughter. Jadyn partially blamed it on the weed, but she truly was amused by how wound up this guy was over his parents and the boat. “Dude, relax! I doubt your parents are going to start the apocalypse over it.”
The poor guy couldn’t figure out whether or not she was laughing at him or with him. “You clearly don’t know my parents.” Still, she kept on laughing. “You’re easily amused, aren’t you?”
“No no! I’m not trying to be rude.” Jadyn snorted to herself. “I’ve just never bumped into someone before that was all worried and ‘I’m sorry!’ Most people out here would threaten to kill you over scratching up their baby.” Her laughter died down into giggles while she raised an eyebrow to him. “You’re so not from here, are you?”
“That obvious, huh?”
“Maybe.” She dragged out the word while looking away to inspect her own boat. It looked like she was the one who took the brunt of the damage, but she doubted she would suddenly start sinking.The guy, on the other hand, looked more upset about than Jadyn did.
“You know, I can make this up to you.”
“Oh really?” Wow, this guy was way more classy than anyone back at Salem. Everyone in town was rough around the edges, but who wasn’t in Massachusetts? “How do you plan on doing that?”
“I can pay for the damages.”
“Dude, you really don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.”
It wasn’t that Jadyn was inexperienced with men. She had plenty of that under her belt, thanks to all the one night stands and short-lived relationships she had been in, but someone doing something genuinely nice for her that didn’t involve getting in her pants? That had the dark-haired girl blushing.
“I work on the docks from time to time. Trust me, you don’t have to pay for anything. I can fix it for myself.”
He actually looked shocked to hear that. Jadyn wished she had a camera to take a picture of that. “Really?”
She mocked his expression, though added a smile onto it. “Really. Don’t worry about it. Or your parents. Or anything for that matter.” Maybe she could have offered him some of her weed and they’d call it a done deal. “Though I should be going. Need to get back to the dock sooner than later. I don’t plan on becoming a buoy.”
The girl was relatively quick to turn the sails about to point them in direction of the shore. With the wind picking up again, the sailboat went off and Jadyn nodded her good-byes to the stranger. What she didn’t expect was for him to follow her. The first time she glanced to the side, she figured another sailboat was just close by, but she recognized the color of the boat along with the sailor and just started laughing. No words were exchanged between the two of them, except for smiles and laughter. It turned into an unspoken race back to the docks, one that Jadyn didn’t mind who the winner was. She certainly wasn’t keeping track.
Back the the docks, she tied her boat up and came across the boy yet again. This time he was a lot closer and Jadyn had a chance to get a better look at him. He was a lot more cleaned up than most of the Salem boys and had a strong face. Definitely a face she would remember.
“You sure your boat’s going to be alright?”
At least he was persistent. “Yeah. I’ll get to work on it tomorrow and it’ll be good as ever.”
“You know,” he took a step closer, maybe too close, but Jadyn didn’t back off, “my offer still stands.”
“That’s nice,” she nodded with a shy smile.
Once he knew she wouldn’t budge, he let out a nervous laugh and then asked something she didn’t entirely expect. “So uh... what’s your name?”
“Wha?”
“Your name? You got one right?”
“Yeah,” her eyes narrowed down at him and gave him a suspicious look. “Why do you need to know?”
“Well, it’d be nice to remember you by something instead of ‘the pretty girl I crashed into that one day in Salem.’”
Jadyn bit down hard on her lower lip while looking away. Thank god her hair was long and messy enough to hide parts of her blushy face. She didn’t expect anything to come out of this. In fact, she was completely fine with walking away and forgetting him. After a pause, she decided that was what she was going to do. “I need to go now.”
“Oh come on, don’t make me guess it.”
“It was nice meeting you.”
“Kevin.”
“That’s not my-”
“No, it’s mine.”
Oh geez, you make this so hard... “Ok then.” Jadyn just couldn’t stop smiling. “Nice meeting you, Kevin.”
“Same to you, miss...?” Shaking her head, Jadyn resisted the need to laugh and began walking down the down. “Is it Kelly?” Jadyn ignored him. “Bethany? Megan? Tiffany? I know, it’s Jessica!”
He kept standing there and listing off names, but Jadyn kept walking. Aside from being partially annoying, it was rather sweet that he was trying. By the time she left the docks, she could no longer hear his voice, but she never stopped smiling.
“It’s Jadyn.”
Several thoughts ran through the young water elemental’s mind upon hearing that. First was to not spill her beer and the second was that the voice was strangely familiar. Turning enough in her seat to see who was talking to her brought on a third thought: how the hell did Kevin find her? There were plenty of pubs in Salem, which meant there were plenty for her to choose from and use her fake I.D. on. A typical summer night in her book. She just didn’t expect to have company with her as well.
“Am I right?” Kevin grinned at her while she tucked her hair shyly behind her ears and faced him properly.
“Who told you?”
“Not going to give me enough credit for thinking it up on my own?” The snort Jadyn gave him was a valid response. “No, one of the dock workers told me your name.”
“Did they tell you to find me here, too?”
Kevin shook his head. “No, I did that one on my own.”
Oh really? “Dare I ask how many bars you had to go through before finding me?”
“Thirty-nine, to be exact.” Jadyn couldn’t help but laugh. “So, would it be alright to join you?”
She planned on spending the night with just her bottle of beer, but she couldn’t help but get all giggly in front of this Kevin. Jadyn pretended to look him over like he was some sketch ball, only to smile sweetly at him. “After walking around town for that long, you’ve earned your drink, sailor.” And she patted the stool next to her roughly, indicating to Kevin that he was free to join her.
And Jadyn didn’t regret having him join her. Most guys she met at bars couldn’t look her in the eyes the whole time, usually traveling down her body more often than fixing on her face. Kevin wasn’t like that. Actually, Kevin wasn’t like a lot of guys she was used to. He had an air about him that was filled with confidence and pride, yet he didn’t come off like a pompous douchebag, either. He treated Jadyn like a lady, something that even she didn’t consider herself to be.
They talked about the usual things that most people brought up in conversation: hometowns, family, schooling, work, all of that. She found out he was from Maine, which earned him the whole, ‘You’re from Maine, but you come to Salem to sail your damn boat?’ lecture, which was followed by Kevin’s lecture on his family had enough money to buy out all the docks in Salem if they really wanted to. Apparently he came from money - and fucking plenty of it - but he didn’t act like it. Not one bit. He told her about his sister and brother: Renee the perfect princess and Quentin the rebel at large. Jadyn wished she could have said the same, adoring comments about her family, but she settled with saying she lived with her aunt, who ran the local magic supply store. About two beers later, she confessed her mother and father died when she was younger, along with the tidbit that she never finished school. To her surprise, Kevin didn’t judge her. He didn’t treat her differently or smother her with sympathy - he treated her like a human being.
The two of them ended up closing the pub together, still talking up a storm. They had been in the middle of discussing boat types when they were asked to leave and that certainly didn’t stop them from spending time together. The pub had been right next to the rocky shore and Jadyn ended up dragging Kevin along to walk the beach with her. So what if it was late at night? She wasn’t ready to go home yet and was enjoying her time with him.
For the most part, there was less talking during the walk along the rocky shore and more running around in the water and chasing each other. Even when they got tired of that, they went about throwing pebbles into the rolling waves and searched for shells within the rocks. They stayed out on the shore until the sun rose, which they stayed to watch, curled up on a large rock together.
“Do you think your parents are freaking out over you not being home?” Jadyn teased while nudging into Kevin.
He returned the nudge while shaking his head. “Nah, I’m not worried. Besides...” Jadyn didn’t expect him to lean in and kiss her cheek, but she didn’t expect a lot of things to happen that night. “Worth it.”
Once the sun was lingering over the horizon, Kevin was kind enough to walk Jadyn home. Granted, it was a slow trek back, seeing that neither of them were eager to leave just yet. Jadyn could count several times she was out until the crack of dawn, some of them with a boy, but none of them were like this. It actually felt meaningful - she felt worthwhile to him. Halfway to her home, she felt his hand brushing up against her, eventually interlocking.
“So,” Kevin kept his voice quiet as they reached her front porch, “what are the chances of seeing you again?”
“Hmmm, that’s a good question,” Jadyn teased in return.
“Am I going to have to search every pub?”
She giggled at that. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Kevin pulled her into a hug, her back up against his chest as she continued to giggle. Jadyn wasn’t used to it, but she found herself liking it quickly and heaved out a content sigh. “I take it you’re not a kiss on the first date type of girl?”
“What makes you think tonight was a date?”
Now Kevin was laughing quietly. “Then I guess now would be a good time to ask you out on one?”
Jadyn swore her face was as red as a lobster when she heard those words. Breaking away from Kevin, she nodded in response. She might have been shy, but she wasn’t that hard to get. Besides, after visiting how many bars to find her? Kevin earned it. He smiled at her when she accepted, briskly setting up a time and place - dinner at some ritzy seafood place in town a couple nights from then.
So it was settled. They would meet up in the near future and enjoy each other’s company again. After wishing her good-night - which they laughed over for another minute when Jadyn pointed out it was technically morning - Kevin walked on off, only to keep looking over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of her. Jadyn eventually went inside, making sure to not let the screen door slam before she quietly shut the door. She had planned on going straight to bed with hopes of not waking her aunt up, but as she walked through the kitchen, she found out Aunt Sally was sitting there with her morning coffee and the newspaper.
“So,” she placed the newspaper down with a smile, “who is he?”
“He’s no one,” Jadyn retorted while nervously fidgeting. “Just a guy I met.”
Sally hummed to herself while fixing her glasses. “Whoever he is, I hope you keep him around.”
Jadyn just blinked and gave her aunt a look. “...why?”
“I haven’t seen you smile that much since your father was alive.”