She hurried the last few yards and Dylan found herself in the shade of the umbrellas. Jaime and Alex had already secured a spot in the shade, while Jordan and Johnny staked the second umbrella and left to take a dip in the rolling surf. By the time she had unpacked her towels, dug out her book and settled down, the boys were already climbing back up the beach. Lying on her stomach, she leafed through the pages while watching Jordan walk towards her. She felt another attack of the What-Ifs when she noticed the clinginess of his board shorts and how the water seemed to drip down the dark skin of his long arms and legs.
“Will you look at those hot men?” Alex exclaimed loudly and whistled at them when the brothers got closer. She nudged Dylan in the arm. Although it was meant in jest and Dylan was certain it had little to do with their conversation, she still felt the hot flush of embarrassment in her cheeks. Even Jaime glanced curiously at the girls, her interest instantly piqued.
“Shut up, Alex.” Dylan’s retort carried on the wind to the approaching boys.
Without catching the undertone of the comments, Jordan defended Alex vehemently. “Don’t get on her. She’s just admiring perfection when she sees it. Now, come here and give Mr. Right a kiss.”
Jordan dropped to his knees and crawled over to where Alex was sitting, his lips puckering sloppily at her.
“Ewww. Get away. Boys are bad.” She protested with a laugh and a smile, keeping him at bay with her hands as he leaned in to her. The play-kissing lasted for a moment before Jordan lost his balance and fell over in a tangle of arms and towels. All of them broke out in a fit of laughter as he righted himself and retreated back to his brother.
The chuckles died off after a few moments and Dylan watched as her friends settled into the comfortable rhythm of banter and insults. She flipped through the pages of her book to find her place, happily listening to them and realizing she would never do anything to screw this up, no matter how boy crazy she might be.
The morning wore on, slipping into the ease of early afternoon. Several classmates stopped to chat. A few waved at members of the group from a distance as they walked by. Two umbrellas over, several of the girls had gotten up and starting dancing to the new Ariana Grande song, while the boys with them rolled their eyes, trying to act all cool.
Over the top of her book, Dylan watched as a smaller group of football players were generously dumping the contents of a stolen liquor bottle into their huge cooler and started passing out red Solo cups. Another couple started making out under the shade of their own umbrella and she saw it was Victoria Becks. Dylan really didn’t think that Reverend Becks would get a kick out of seeing where his little girl’s hands were right now.
Feeling like a voyeur, Dylan averted her eyes from the scene that was becoming more graphic every minute and gaining an audience of perverts. The other girls all took turns coating each other with sun block, but not without a few crude innuendoes and comments from the guys. Their vulgarity was flung back at them with rumors about their sexual prowess, or lack thereof, until everyone finally laughed at it all.
By the time that afternoon was in full swing and the sun was high overhead, Dylan was firmly gripped in the ghosts of the Overlook and the madness that slowly consumes Jack Torrance. Only a dozen yards away, Jordan and Johnny had ensconced themselves into a volleyball game that Alex and Jaime were watching intently from their towels, Jaime a little more so than Alex. Carrie and Derrick had wandered off again and she imagined that they were off doing what Carrie did best. She tried her best not to think about it.
Taking a break from the Overlook, Dylan grabbed her can of now-warm Diet Coke and took a swig before replacing it into the circular groove she had made in the sand to hold it. Pushing her sunglasses up the bridge of her sweaty nose, she watched as the cliques had all gathered in their respective groups.
The jocks were all gathered around the volleyball nets or playing Frisbee or trying to surf in the small chop of the ocean. The cheerleaders were either working on their tans or cheering on the guys. The nerds had brought their laptops and smartphones, engaged in their twittering and Facebooking. The stoners and drinkers had long ago disappeared. There were a few kids that tended to belong to more than one group and would visit each little congregation like a politician crossing party lines.
The senior class president was one of these. Dressed in board shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, perfectly coiffed Brook Anders waved cheerily at Dylan from two umbrellas down. Kicking up sand as he walked, he immediately made a beeline for her, grinning ear to ear, and she barely contained an aggravated groan, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes and dig herself a grave in the sand.
Both of them knew each other from Dylan’s brief stint in the student council back in her sophomore year. She had discovered what an arrogant, insufferable bore he was and he had developed a major flame for her. No matter how frosty she was towards him or how often she had extinguished his bonfire, he still kept at her. He was a persistent little…
“Hey, Brook.” She said as he got closer. She grinned back at him warily, wondering what he wanted. His flip flops stopped mere inches from her face and he crouched down on his haunches in front of her.
“Hey, Dylan. Whassup?” He asked with the smooth practice of a future Senator in training. His gleaming white teeth beamed at her and he kept that relaxed look like he cared about everything, but nothing at the same time.
“Not much. How’s it going with you?”
“Everything is five by five. Just checking in with my peeps. You know, as senior class president, I need to keep in touch with my constituents. So, if there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.”
Their conversation had drawn Jaime and Alex out of their sun-induced malaise and boy hungry hypnosis. Their necks craned up from their beach towels and they strained to watch the exchange, not even bothering to keep it covert. They looked at each other’s strained expression and fought to contain their giggles. Everyone knew that Brook had it bad for Dylan and everyone also knew that she had shot him down every time he asked her out again.
“Your ‘peeps’ are fine.” Dylan’s tone was icy and dismissive. She really just wanted him to go away.
Hoping Brook would take the hint, Dylan lowered her eyes back to her book. It took a minute of being ignored, but he finally got it and stood up, noticing Jaime and Alex watching the exchange. His face had lost some of its luster and cheer with the dismissal, which immediately came back when he realized he still had an audience.
“Ladies.” He nodded his head, his broad grin returning, and they watched him as he walked off towards another group of his ‘peeps’. In synchronous motion, the girls’ heads whipped around and stared at Dylan, who was watching him leave over the book she was reading. They kept looking at her until she noticed them and lowered the book.
“What?” Her face was pinched in annoyance, her brow furrowed in frustration.
“Dylan’s got a boyfriend. Dylan’s got a boyfriend.” They sung the lines in mocking, knowing how much Brook irritated her.
“Shut up.” She lifted her hand as if she were going to throw something, which the girls pretended to dodge. Smugly, Dylan grinned at them and went back to reading her book. Both girls immediately shut up and continued their worship of the sun-god and the man muscle at the volleyball net.
By three that afternoon, everyone had migrated back to their roost and had dug into the sandwiches and chips that they had packed. After repositioning the umbrella with the moving sun, half of them were already dozing off their late lunch. Derrick had been the first to drift off to dreamland, unable to resist the lulling rhythm of the waves and leaving Carrie sitting uncomfortably next to Dylan.
“So, how’s it going, Carrie?” Dylan asked cautiously. It was a simple question, usually warranting a one or two word answer. But, any question or conversation with Carrie was much like walking blindfolded through a minefield. If you got lucky, you might make it through intact. Most of the time, though, you were los
ing a leg or a foot.
“Like you really care, Dylan.” The cheerleader replied, keeping her usual, demure sophisticated tone in her words. Her eyes stayed glued on the distant blue surf as if she didn’t care to acknowledge anyone else’s presence in her little world. Her fingers never stopped running through Derrick’s hair, who was laying right beside her.
“I’m just trying to make friendly conversation. No need to jump down my throat.” Dylan retorted strongly.
“Stop pretending that we’re friends.” The other girl said and looked at Dylan over her shoulder with an icy glare. “We both know that I’m only here because Derrick is slumming it. If I had my way, we wouldn’t associate with you…people ever.”
The insult smacked into Dylan like a runaway car. “Why do you have to be such a bitch? If you hate us so much, then don’t be here.”
She hated it when Carrie or anyone got a rise out of her. She despised how it made her feel, yet she wasn’t going to back down, especially not to Carrie.
“You’d love it if I broke up with him, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t care either way.” Although Dylan knew her words weren’t exactly true. “I can’t say I’m your biggest fan, never have been, probably never will be. But I am Derrick’s friend, only his friend, and, if he wants to date you, then I’m going to support him.”
Dylan tried to remain as calm and diplomatic as possible, while Carrie turned her face back to the rolling surf as if she hadn’t heard a word. Dylan followed suit, hoping that this little foray into tactful peacekeeping was over. For long seconds, both girls said nothing, just sat there still as statues with the wind whipping through their hair.
“You know,” the voice came from right beside Dylan’s ear as Carrie had leaned closer to her, “that act doesn’t fool anyone. But it doesn’t really matter. Because, if I weren’t dating Derrick, he sure as hell wouldn’t be dating you. In fact, he’d probably switch teams and date a guy before he would ever consider you.”
The words were quiet, barely more than a whisper heard over the roar of the ocean breeze, but they carried the same sadistic weight as if they’d been shouted at her. And, although Dylan didn’t want to get rankled by them, they stabbed at her heart nonetheless. Wounded, her response came out, uncontrolled and just as cruel.
“Maybe it strokes your ego to be such a mean and pretentious bitch, Carrie, but that and your looks are all you have going for you. Derrick would see right through that façade of yours if you weren’t so easy.”
She resented being attacked by this cheering harpy and quickly looked away towards the rest of her classmates milling around on the sand. Immediately, she regretted what she had said, but Dylan was sick of putting up with Carrie’s crap, even for Derrick’s sake. She was debating on saying more and dealing with Derrick’s anger later when Carrie abruptly stood up and wiped the sand off of her legs.
“Maybe you’re right.”
The words couldn’t have been more venomous coming from a cobra’s fangs. She stalked off out of the shade and disappeared into the distance, probably finding a gaggle of cheerleaders to squawk with. Dylan watched her storm off and wondered if something more wasn’t going on. Carrie was always a bit harsh and uncouth, but even that outburst was a bit out of character for her.
“What a bitch. I mean, I’m a bitch but at least I know how to keep my mouth shut.” Alex’s angry, but supportive, voice came from behind her, followed by a few chuckles. And then added, trying to inject some humor into the situation. “Well, sometimes.”
“What do you mean, ‘sometimes’?” Jaime mentioned from beside Alex, earning her a playful smack in the arm. Dylan ignored her friends, staring off in the direction where Carrie had vanished. Her expression was full of hurt from Carrie’s words, which continued to bounce around in her thoughts, and anger from allowing the vapid girl to affect her like this. Yet, she still felt the urge to follow her and apologize, whether she deserved it or not.
Luckily, Jordan picked that moment to return and distracted her from the choice. With a bound, he dropped down on to the towels behind the girls, surprising them and making them squeal. Usually Johnny was padding behind his brother wherever he went like a puppy, but this time he was conspicuously missing. He reached over towards the cooler, raising an eyebrow at the choked-off laughs around him.
“What’s everyone laughing at? Who’s a bitch?” he asked with a quizzical look on his face. He glanced from one face to another, but no one answered him through their smiles. He shrugged his shoulders, accepting defeat. He knew it was impossible to get these girls to talk, or even sometimes to shut up, so he gave up. He dug around in the freezing, but refreshing, ice water in the cooler and successfully fished out a can of soda.
“Nothing, Jord. Where’s Johnny?” Jaime queried, rolling over from her stomach and sitting up, while grabbing a can of soda for herself. She scooted over a little to be closer to him and popped the top of her can.
“Making friends, I guess. I’m not my brother’s keeper, you know.” He was a bit defensive in his reply, but that wasn’t exactly unusual or a cause for concern.
“Yeah, but, like you are, you know, like yeah.” Dylan replied in her best ditzy girl voice, flipping her hair back as she sat up.
“Quiet, Dylan.”
He meant to sound angry, failing miserably since it was basically the truth. Johnny had been following him around since he learned to walk and he didn’t really mind it most of the time.
The fake tension was broken by the rough snort and mumbled words that came from the Derrick’s sleeping form behind them. Startled, the group glanced over at him and then burst out laughing again. The noise was loud enough that Derrick’s eyes fluttered open to see that everyone was looking at him.
“Wha’s goin’ on?” He asked drowsily, rubbing his eyes.
“Nothing, Sleeping Beauty. Nothing.”
Content that he wasn’t missing anything important, Derrick closed his eyes again and rolled over on his side.
Chapter 6 – First Contact
The sun had begun its downward and westward trek, elongating the shadows into disproportionate facsimiles of their owners. The waves had receded some as low tide approached, but the wind was still whipping them up into a white-capped frenzy. The afternoon waned and the partygoers had settled into that space of expectation, patiently waiting for night to grab hold of Paradise Beach.
Beneath the double tilted umbrellas, only Dylan had chosen to remain behind as everyone else had gone exploring the party beyond. Her attention remained riveted to the book propped up on her knees and her consciousness suppressed the growing cacophony around her. Her eyes were glued to the pages in front of her as Danny Torrance confronted his possessed father, Jack. Her concentration was so intent on the pages in front of her and the scene in her mind that she barely noticed the murmurs and whistles that were issuing out around her. Nor did she really care.
She was flipping a page, feeling the weight of the day on her eyelids and a bit saddened as she always became when she realized that she was nearing the end of a good read. Danny was busy, running through the topiary maze, as Alex came skidding to a stop on her knees beside her, throwing sand up and interrupting her abruptly.
“Dylan, did you see him?”
Without looking up from her book, she replied tiredly, “See who?”
“The new guy. The hottie. No one knows who he is or where he came from, but, OMG, is he hot. Like burning hot. Like Hemsworth hot. Either brother.”
Her voice was excitedly high-pitched and the words came tumbling out without verbal punctuation. She was keyed up enough to make Dylan look up and pay closer attention. Alex’s eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed from her exertion. But, if Alex was exasperated by her founding, Dylan was indifferent. Among the teenage girl community, it was always a call for celebration when a new boy showed up on their doorstep, especially if he was cute and you hadn’t known him your entire life, but she just wasn’t in the mood to gawk at some stranger.
“Alex, this is Inlet Cove. There are no new guys. It’s always the same old guys with new haircuts or growth spurts or braces.” She couldn’t keep the disinterest from her expression or her voice. “And, if it is actually a new guy, he’s probably a tourist or some tourist’s kid that got separated from the pack.”
“Maybe, but it’s definitely not anyone we know.” Alex answered emphatically, yet distracted, searching the beach behind her. Dylan’s apathetic response either went unnoticed or ignored since it did nothing to deflate Alex’s enthusiasm, which, in turn, only stoked Dylan’s curiosity. She closed her book, leaned backwards and looked in the same direction. Nothing was there that hadn’t been there all day.
“I don’t see anyone new.” Dylan commented sarcastically and began to lean back into the beach chair. Before she could reopen her book and go back to reading, Alex snatched it out of her hands. “Hey!”
“You’ve been reading all day. It’s time to get out and mingle a little.”
“I don’t want to mingle, Alex.” She put as much annoyance in her words as she could muster. “I’m happy right where I’m at.”
“Not really giving you a choice. Now come on.”
Dylan barely had time to put her book down before Alex grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. A few harsh words came to mind as she stood, but she bit them back. Alex was, of course, right. She had been a hermit all afternoon and it wouldn’t hurt to give her legs a stretch. So, with a roll of her eyes and a sigh, she resigned herself to whatever fate and Alex had in store for her.
“Fine, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about some new guy.” She warned as she straightened out the wrinkles and brushed the sand out of her sarong. Dylan pushed her sunglasses up the crook of her nose and noticed that the sea breeze had begun to drive thick, dark clouds towards the coast, obscuring the sun intermittently and threatening rain.
From the Blue Page 6
