The blanket underneath me protected me from the messy sand. I watched the clock on my phone as it ticked toward midnight. It was the evening before my best friend's birthday, and he had been born exactly at midnight, the seconds at zero and everything. That was part of the reasoning for what his parents named him.

"Laken, let's go into the ocean already," he begged.

"No, we're waiting until midnight like always," I told him, giggling. He rolled his eyes and laid his towel next to me as he stood up in his trunks. He slowly made his way to the ocean. "Don't you dare go in before midnight!" I warned him.

"You know I wouldn't," he smiled back at me as he inched closer.

"A minute left," I announced to him and walked toward him in my bathing suit on with my phone in-hand. As always, I had a water-proof case on it so I could track the time but run into the water with it as well.

Even when we were young kids, we would sneak out to the beach every June 17, the night before his birthday. Our parents had never caught us, and this was our tenth year doing it. We started on his ninth birthday. Now, he was turning eighteen.

"You're almost eighteen," I assured him. "Fifteen more seconds."

He looked at my phone with me as we stood a step away from the water as it rose and fell.

"Our tenth year, wow—" he started, but I interrupted.

"Ten...nine...eight..." I began, and my best friend joined in.

"Seven!...six!...five!...four!..." we chanted, "three!...two! ..."

We exclaimed, "One!" I dropped my phone there and yelled "You're eighteen! Happy birthday, Midnight," as we ran and ran, far into the water and dunked our entire bodies down until we were soaked. Our bodies surfaced quickly, and Midnight grabbed my waist and pulled me toward him. He kissed me softly and, after a second or two, pulled away suddenly.

He stared at me and bit his lip. He turned from me and awkwardly trotted away. Shocked at what had just happened, it took me a second to understand everything that was going on. "Midnight!" I screamed to him as he dropped down into the water. I ran toward him and fell beside him as his face emerged from the water.

"Please look at me," I begged. He turned his head toward me. I smiled at him and assured him, "It's okay."

"Laken, you are so amazing and beautiful," he whispered to me, and I couldn't help but blush. I was the one who kissed him this time, and I pulled away only to look into his eyes. There in his eyes, I saw the one thing that caused this night to change my life forever. What did I see, however? Without needing any three words to be said, I saw true love that I hadn't noticed before.