Her smile fades and she looks up at me with disbelief.
“I’m not the one who disappeared into the night and returned with a … with a stage show.”
“Shit. I really was thinking about you, most of the time. I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m sorry I let us get separated.”
She’s glowing in the dark, suspicious and beautiful. How’d I let this happen?
There’s a blast as red fireworks explode out over the ocean. People are slowing their exit to watch, mouths falling open at another blast of red. You blow something up on the ground and it’s a disaster. Ignite the sky and we fall in love. Don’t ask me to understand my own kind.
“Come on, gringa,” I tell her, grabbing her hand tight. This time I’m not letting go. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
I pull us through the crowd and back toward the spot where I sat with Jack. She’ll have a better view and I can sit down for a minute. Don’t want to let on I’m starting to feel ill.
“Where are you taking me?”
I manage to get her to a chaise longue fit for a queen. She pulls her shoes off like they’ve been sewn to her feet and reclines, throwing her arms over her head carelessly. Kills me. I’m jealous of her weightless heart. It wouldn’t cast a shadow.
“Ooh, that one’s like champagne,” she coos, gazing up at the fireworks. “And that one. Hey, is that a camel?”
So my girl’s had a few tonight. It’s a relief I’m not the only one.
“I don’t think so,” I manage through a wave of nausea. Automatically my left thumb finds the spot below the crease of my elbow and presses into it. Already I forget just how Mama did it, but if I can figure it out, it will work. Always did. With a deep breath I push into my forearm again.
“How come fireworks are always, like, the same four colors, you know? And how come these ones are going off all at once?”
I try to respond but it’s only a groan.
“Hey, what’s the matter?”
I give up trying to hide it and stagger toward her. She pats the edge of her seat, concerned but easy with the good humor of a drunk.
“What’s with the arm, Diego?”
“It’s a pressure point for nausea. I found the spot but I need your help.”
She sits up and tucks her dress over folded knees, interested. “Sure. What do I do?”
“Press where I’m pressing.”
“Like that?”
“Good. Now, keep the pressure and move your thumb down like two inches. Right. Then go back to the top and do it again. Again. Mmm, yes, that’s good,” I breathe.
She works and we both watch quietly. There’s a foot of insulation between me and reality, but it’s working. Green waves of seasickness are slowly relenting until I hear myself exhale.
“Is that good?”
“Yes, perfect. I’ll take it from here.”
She lets go. “Where’d you learn that?”
“My mother. She was a healer. Or, she was taught the traditional healing practice by her grandmother. It’s not like we didn’t have access to modern medicine.” I pause to swallow. “But sometimes the simplest thing is what works best.”
“You mean that actually helped?”
“Yeah. Could be psychosomatic, but either way…”
“You’re better.”
“Something like that.”
She lies back with satisfaction, gazing up at the stars. I’m with the best girl here. Don’t fuck it up. With any luck, it won’t be long till I’m taking that dress off with my teeth.
“My teeth…”
“What?”
“Hm?”
Did I say that out loud?
She lets me pull her in, big gold eyes searching my face. I can’t promise I’ve got what she’s looking for, but I hope I do.
Sitting here alone, I want to tell her everything. If there’s anyone who would listen to my problems and actually know how to solve them, it’s Lia. But she’s at the center of it. Not the problem, but tied to it. I’m somewhat responsible for her getting so involved here. How can I ask her to throw it away? And for what, my aimless vacation? A younger man’s wandering tour taken late? What a waste of her time. Everything must make so much sense to her.
“Diego, can you let go of my ass for just a second?”
“Sorry.”
That apple bottom gonna kill me. Feels so good being with her again I could bust.
“I felt a rain drop. Do you have the number for a taxi?”
“No. We should get moving.”
CHAPTER 8
Diego
It takes a minute for her to stand up and get her shoes back on. Together we cross the terrace to a staircase that leads to the hotel garden and the street beyond the grounds. The rain is hesitating and I’m glad for it. Got the feeling it’s going to come down hard and messy. Least I can do is get my girl to shelter.
We’re nearly at the street when she looks up at me with big round eyes.
“I saw some of your secrets tonight.”
Uh-oh. “What secrets?”
“Different sides of you I’m still learning about.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, I liked it. Not the part where we got split up so long, but you’re a good friend to Jack.”
“Thanks. And I’m sorry, again.” I show my guilt with bared teeth.
“Can we talk about those breakdance moves?”
“What moves?”
She stops dead and tells me to cut the bullshit without a word. So feisty.
“No one–” she points, poking me in the chest with her index finger “–could ever forget your dancing, especially you.”
I laugh, embarrassed. “You saw that?”
“Everyone saw that.”
I hesitate, but only for a moment.
“It was just a little fun.”
“A little? You were like a Clydesdale on speed.”
Oh, mierda. “Maybe that’s what I am.”
We weave through clumps of party people coming and going. Vision soft. Just taking step after step in a straight line has become a full-time job. Lia takes my hand and I start to remember how to move my body again. The rain holds off.
A cab goes by and I give a sharp whistle, but it cruises past. Inside it I see faces watching, like they don’t realize we can see them. I tuck her hand more tightly in mine as we stumble down to the street. People everywhere, all of us looking for a taxi in the dark. It’s so humid the coconut oil on her skin is melting off onto mine. Can’t say I don’t like it. The clouds begin to open as the wind picks up, sprinkling us, so we move under the awnings of shops and houses scattered along the dirt road. Storm’s going to be rough.
Behind us, a car approaches with a rumble. It slows down. We turn and face our squinting reflections until the window slides open with a whine. Thick smoke pours out like cane syrup.
“Hey, Diego! Where you headed?” yells a guy from the passenger seat. I recognize him from the wedding. Couldn’t remember his name to save a life. I don’t know the driver or the person sitting alone in the backseat smoking a joint the size of an ice cream cone.
“Uh, we’re trying to get back to our hostel. It’s off the fifty-seven.”
“We can take you as far as the church with the white roof, the one at the T intersection.”
“Yeah?”
“Yup. You can walk from there.”
I look down at Lia. We don’t have long before the storm hits. She’s watching the guys in the car carefully but shrugs, taking my hand. We slide inside together, scootching over patched pleather. The mystery driver wears a colorful cap and dark glasses, even though it’s damn dark enough as it is. He hits the gas and we fly down into the night.
Lia
“Well, that was life-affirming.”
I’m steadying myself against a palm outside the church. The ride can’t have been longer than ten minutes, but it felt like hours once I realized the guy’s headlights were nearly dead. We’re both
more than a little wobbly. Insects buzz loud and wild, and I wonder how those tiny legs make such a loud noise. Thick mist blankets the ground.
“I don’t know how he did it. How could he see with those dark glasses on?” Diego asks with childlike wonder.
“Don’t ask me. I don’t want to know.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Now that I’m out of the death trap, yes.” For a few minutes I thought I might be sick in the back of that rumbling hatchback, but my nerves are easing up.
He laughs, scooping me up in his arms and holding me tight.
“I’ll keep you safe now, I promise.”
His voice melts over me. I crane my neck so I can get a good look at him and stroke an inky strand of hair out of his face.
“That’s a nice thing to keep.”
Rain is sweating out of the fog, beading on my skin. We’re far from the party lights and the air feels heavy, staticky. I might worry about where we are and how far home is, but I’m coated with a cottony layer of don’t-care. You know that strange time when you’re starting to sober up but it’s going to get worse for a while before it gets better?
“What the hell kind of wedding date am I, keeping you out here?” He lowers me to the ground gently, and my heels sink into the wet grass. “We’re close now. If we cut through that opening in the trees and walk for a while, we’ll get to the parking lot behind the hostel.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re sure?”
“Uh, well, no. Not entirely.”
“I guess it beats standing here.”
I check my phone. There’s one bar of reception, but when I try to send a text it doesn’t work. Nothing from Kat either. Of course, the only message I want to ignore is available to open.
“Your tits look amazing, sexy.”
When I glance up he’s staring. I feel guilty for dwelling on Carter’s message.
“Oh. Uh, thank you.”
“They should be printed on hundred dollar bills.”
“Well, let’s fucking call the president then.” I zip my phone away. For a second he frowns, seeing it.
The night is bleached with blinding white lightning, the horizon on either side of the church flickering. My whole body tenses waiting for thunder. A bird cries mournfully, breaking my heart. It’s too late to avoid the storm.
Boom!
Diego gestures toward the side of the church where mist is churning like the gateway to hell. My heels keep sinking into the ground, so I pull them off and dangle them from my fingers, then run after him. There’s a gentle slope beyond the churchyard and I move ahead of him, slipping and sliding with each step but never falling down. We move together silently like ships in the night.
The charcoal sky is thick and heavy. It hangs so low you can see it falling apart. I always wondered what it would be like to sit inside a cloud, and now I’m there it’s kind of disappointing. Nothing but mist and empty space. Sheets of vapor create a whiteout when the wind picks up, and I freeze.
“Diego?”
“Behind you. I can’t see anything, though.”
“Me either.”
The fog is getting thicker and soupier by the second, but there’s nowhere to go but onward, so we march into it like soldiers.
“We must be right in the middle of it.”
My face is covered in condensation; so are my arms and legs. I rub my skin like the water will absorb into my hands, but of course it doesn’t.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t go back to the church?”
“We’ll be waiting till morning.”
“Oh. Never mind.”
I can just imagine us falling asleep in a pew and waking up to a bewildered congregation.
The slope levels off and I think we’ve come to the bottom of the hill. I have the feeling I’m staring at an open field because I hear leaves rustling from a distance all around us, like we’re in a large clearing.
A gust of wind catches me off guard and blows into my mouth and lungs, bringing all kinds of ocean–forest information to my senses. It’s overwhelming when you begin to realize just how big the world must be to encompass weather systems and mountains and all the feelings in my heart.
I’m barely moving when the wind slows to a low, ankle-cooling breeze and the mist begins to break up, swirling around my ankles like I’m Alice Cooper on stage.
A long white box juts out of the ethereal haze just a few feet in front of me. Full stop. I get this creepy feeling we’ve wandered into someplace … occupied. Slowly, they reveal themselves to me. Coffins. Coffins everywhere.
We’re surrounded by the dead in their sealed chambers. Imperfect rows of them all around us. A small, dark grave is guarded by a bow-headed angel with stone wings that look too tiny to carry even a heavenly body.
“Woah, Diego.” I turn to see him slow down in awe behind me.
“The church…” He trails off, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder. The mist pools around his shiny black formal shoes. They must be soaked through.
He glides up next to me. We don’t touch.
Streams of moonlight tumble through a break in the clouds and find us. An enormous hillside looms over the valley we’re standing in, and it’s studded with graves that lie on the ground instead of resting hidden inside it. A few pale crosses sprout from the earth like bones picked clean.
To one side of us is the way we came from, hidden in heavy fog. On the other awaits a violent, wet electrical storm we can’t avoid. Diego scans the horizon, drawn to the gothic scene of mist and potential and death. Me, I’m more alive every minute.
CHAPTER 9
Lia
He’s squinting at the storm rolling in. I know what he’s thinking: we need to keep moving.
“Let’s go?”
“Yeah.”
He doesn’t move. Soaking grass makes a strange carpet for my naked feet.
“I’m looking at these graves, keep thinking how much time I wasted.”
“What do you mean?”
Diego glances over at me, more sober than he can possibly be.
“Putting a girl like you at a distance.” He laughs humorlessly.
My heart heaves. In the middle of a storm, amid bones and rocks and plans gone awry, our light burns. We could almost recall long-gone souls back to life with the heat. He smiles at me so sweet it hurts, and then he tucks it back away onto a shelf some place inside him.
The rain’s dropping down harder and heavier, and we begin to weave through the cemetery toward the opposite side of the valley. Don’t hold back.
“I used this time away to think,” he continues, cradling me up off the ground suddenly as we come to a rocky patch and placing me back down gently where the grass grows lush again. His graveyard wandering etiquette is right on point.
“You know?” he goes on, as if I’ve known this all along. “About my future and my family, and school. And you. Of course you.”
I don’t know what to say, but I could hear more.
“And even though I think all the time about your naked body, it’s more than that,” he goes on quickly. “I know I’ve been focusing on that a lot lately, but if you haven’t realized, I like being your companion.”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” I can’t help but mutter.
He stops, angry. “You want me to apologize again?”
I balk. “It’s just, if you want me to be your companion, we have to spend time together. That’s how it works.”
“Gringa, I’m trying to tell you that’s what I want. But it doesn’t mean I know how to do it.”
I sigh. Angst slithers through my belly uncomfortably. I don’t even know why I’m picking at this.
“This feels disrespectful, arguing here.”
“Lo sé. Let’s keep moving.”
We step through the grass gingerly and in the obscurity of confusion. However respectfully I try to pick my way through the sacred ground, I just want to get across.
I nod. Like we’re planning a prison break, he moves next to me and hunches down conspiratorially. We march slowly onward.
“When we go out together I feel so proud to be with you,” he goes on. “Especially when you look like this, my god. After months of getting to know you, time alone, after being with you, it felt different. That’s new for me, to miss someone.”
Up swoops my heart until he continues.
“I really like you, but I have to be honest. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. You hear me? To not be able to give you everything you deserve, it breaks my … my… Sorry, but your hair is on fire.”
“What?”
Diego’s staring at the top of my head in shock, pointing with fascination. I pat my scalp frantically, snuffing nonexistent flames. It tingles with static like I’ve just dragged my sock feet across a thick carpet.
“No it isn’t. But, ow.”
“It’s an electric charge. Jesus, I can see it rising up off of you.”
Sharp prickles stimulate my skull like I’m a lamp and my head’s the bulb.
“My ears are buzzing,” I mumble, clutching my temples.
The wind’s picked up, thrashing the massive branches all around us so their leaves rasp against the furious sky and white noise of the storm.
“This is bad,” announces Diego, concern darkening his brow.
“How bad?”
“Buzzing is the last thing you feel before getting struck by lightning.” He takes hold of my hand and picks up the pace. “We need to get out of the open space.”
He looks up at the sky fiercely, handsome as ever in dangerous grayscale. I watch in horror as his own hair stands up and glows blue with electric charge.
“Diego, you–”
“Yeah, we need to move. Now.”
Together we tear across the field, away from the cemetery, toward the trees. It’s like a dream but it’s real, and I’ve never run so fast, my brain heavy and raging with pain, squeezing tears from my squinting eyes. Tired of holding it, the clouds burst open and water beats down on us like we’re the enemy, sopping my head and shoulders. I shriek and hold my breath like it will keep some part of me dry.
Caramel Beach (Lessons in Pure Life Book 2) Page 6
