Snippet #2740165

Duke watched the party from a distance, seeing Ajax take Andy away, the kisses exchanged in the spin the bottle circle, Trinity knock a guy down where he belonged, McKenna and Evelyn talk - if it could be called that, and Alex take Theo a few paces away pawing up and down his arm. Duke winced a little but let it be and averted his gaze. He wasn't her brother and she could make her own decisions.

When he looked forward, Duke found a girl sitting on her own by the shore. He had noticed her before, but to see her still in place and remain alone...Duke began to make his way over slowly, paying a final glance to McKenna while she was in peripheral then heading for the other red head who sat on the sand. Her hair wasn't red, he decided, it was less violent and fiery, it was a gentler shade. It might have been closer to what people counted as strawberry blonde but Duke wasn't a fan of that classification. Before he could make up his mind, he was a few steps away. "Hi there," he greeted as well as warned her to his presence. He slowly sunk to his knees beside her, at first his eyes on her offering a smile, then her structures of sand. "That's pretty impressive. Are you hoping to be an architect one day?" The question could have come off sarcastic, if not for the genuine quality of her creations, how effortless and careful they seemed at once.
Duke snapped himself out his trance and admiration for her work and dusted his hand off to the best of his ability and held it out towards her. "Sorry, I'm Duke. I like to think I have an eye for outstanding people and work." Duke smiled, hoping the girl wouldn't find him rude or intrusive. Even then he sounded like a salesman making fun of himself. "So are you not big on, uh, crowds?" He gestured back to the groups that were slowly dispersing from the game and fire. "Parties?" he guessed in general.