Life as We Know It: A Treasure Key Novel

by Sarah Bates

  “Nefarious purposes?” I asked, smirking.

  He shrugged. “You never know. I’m not exactly a member of the elite crowd if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “So, what, you’re a ‘bad boy’ by default?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “Well, that…and maybe some stupid choices I made when I was younger.” He shrugged again when I lifted my eyebrows. “We’ll call them youthful hijinks, for now, which resulted in a harsh enough punishment that I was wise enough to learn my lesson.”

  “That sounds like something that has quite a story behind it,” I said, lifting my drink for a sip.

  He shrugged again, gazing down at his coffee for a moment. “It does, actually. Maybe one of these days, after we’ve gotten to know each other better, I’ll tell you,” he said, looking back up to me.

  I nodded, shifting a step closer to him. “Sounds reasonable,” I agreed. “So, how do you propose we go about getting to know each other better?”

  He grinned and shifted a little closer to me. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Until then,” he leaned a little closer, his gaze never leaving mine, and for a moment simply held there, paused for a brief span of time, close enough that I could smell the musky, spicy scent of his soap, the faint scent of his coffee warm on his breath as it brushed lightly over my cheeks.

  Unable to help such a reaction, my heart began to race, and my breath hitched. Then hitched again when his smile widened, and I felt my cheeks warm with a blush.

  Then he dipped his head and pressed the barest of kisses to my cheek before he took a step back from me. “I’ve got to get to work,” he said, his voice just a little rough around the edges.

  Or maybe it was my imagination. But I didn’t think so.

  “I’d like to see you again. Soon,” he added.

  “Lunch, at school,” I said. My breath came out raspier, and I had to clear my throat.

  “Lunch,” he agreed, and then he took a few steps backward, his gaze never leaving mine until he had reached the next storefront down from my aunt’s. Then he saluted me with his coffee and turned to head for the parking lot.

  I had to admit, the swagger to his walk was most definitely more appealing than Neal Humphrey’s.

  Jeez, he made a good view.

  I continued to stand there and admire it until the door to the boutique opened with a jingle, and someone reached out and grabbed my arm.

  I jolted, then simply laughed as Margo dragged me into the boutique, her lips curved in a wicked grin of delight.

  “Details, cousin,” she said. “I want all the details.”

  Though there weren’t many to give, I hooked an arm through one of hers and walked with her back toward the checkout counter. And over frozen cafe drinks and the most amazing key lime sugar cookies I’d ever had, I told her and the others everything.

  ☼

  As first days of school went, this had been one of the best, I decided later that night after I had finished my homework. Of course, it had been the last part of the afternoon that had really made my day the best so far since my mom and I had arrived on the island.

  Thinking about those few wonderful minutes I had spent alone with Hayden, I couldn’t help but smile, and knowing I was going to spend lunch with him tomorrow had my heart racing.

  I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had been this excited about something that wasn’t related to my skating.

  And apparently, it showed.

  I was coming out of the bathroom, having just gotten ready for bed, when my mom stepped into the hall from the kitchen. She had a cup of tea in her hands, her short golden hair kind of messy, as though she’d just raked her hands through it, and wore pajamas like mine – light-weight cotton shorts and a matching tank top.

  She paused when she saw me, and smiled. “I haven’t seen that in a such a long time, and today I get to see it twice,” she said, grinning happily.

  “What?” I asked, adjusting my hold on my clothes.

  “You, smiling,” she said as she finished coming down the hall toward me. “You looked relaxed this morning after your workout, and at dinner, too. Even happy. But now…it’s so good to see you smile again, sweetheart.” She reached out and rubbed my arm. “We haven’t had much of a chance to talk since we got here,” she added, more somberly, “and I’ve been worried about you, since…well, since the night we got here, and you,”

  “Had a total emotional meltdown in front of everyone?” I offered when she trailed off.

  “Well…yes.” She grimaced. “I know it’s probably not something you want to talk about,”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said, and since Kat’s room was right there, I shifted and dropped my clothes just inside her door.

  Since she was listening to her latest playlist, she didn’t appear to hear me, and simply continued to work her way through the last of her homework.

  When I stepped back, I gestured for my mom to follow me, and led her out through the side door in the dining room to the lanai. We settled down in a pair of rattan chairs, and I drew my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them.

  “I know it’s been an adjustment,” my mom said. “And an unexpected one, but I hope over time you’ll like it here,” she added, wrapping her hands around her mug, as though to warm them. Which boggled my mind, because it was still in the eighties, muggy, and humid, even after the sun had set.

  “I do like it,” I told her, and was glad to discover this was, in fact, true. I liked the island, and I liked that I was getting the chance to know my cousins. And I liked, of course, that I’d met Hayden.

  But that didn’t negate how much it still hurt to think of home.

  “What aren’t you saying, Chloe?” she asked, taking a sip of her tea.

  I hesitated, then shrugged when she gave me her patient mom look. “I do like it here,” I told her. “But you’re right, it’s still a huge adjustment. I’m not used to having so many people around all the time, and this heat,” I shook my head. “I know a lot of people would probably think I’m nuts for saying this, but I’m already missing snow, and it’s not even winter yet. And I can’t even begin to describe how much I miss skating,”

  “Oh, my God!” My mom’s eyes widened in shock and she bobbled her mug, nearly spilling her hot tea all over her, while at the same time I nearly jumped out of my skin I was so surprised by her exclamation.

  “Mom,”

  “Your skating,” she said, her eyes still wide, her voice coming out on a strangled breath. “Oh, Chloe. I didn’t even think…I couldn’t think. That day when everything was decided on and finalized so quickly…my mind just went blank. Oh, sweetheart.” Her eyes welled with tears and she set her mug aside on a small table. “Oh, Chloe. You must think the worst of me. I never even took such things into consideration when I decided to come back here.”

  “I don’t think the worst of you, Mom,” I said, shaking my head as I let my legs go and straightened in my chair. “I could never do that. I know you’re hurting. After everything that Dad put you through,”

  “That’s no excuse for basically forgetting everything that’s important to my daughter,” she said, shaking her head as tears slipped down her cheeks. “Oh, God. I’m the worst mother ever,” she added, and she dropped her face into her hands and wept with more passion than she had in the entire time since my dad had walked out on our family.

  Feeling a horrible knot of guilt in my belly, I stood and wrapped my arms around her. “You are not the worst mother ever,” I told her, and I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re the best mom I ever could have asked for, and I love you so much.”

  “But skating…was…everything to you,” she hiccupped between sobs.

  “No, it wasn’t,” I said, holding her tighter, hating the fact that I had been the one who had made her cry so hard. Even after everything my dad had done, he had never drawn out such strong emotion from her.

  “Yes…it was,” she hiccupped.

  I c
losed my eyes, because honestly, she was right. It had been everything to me, and I wasn’t sure what, or who, I was without it. But at the end of the day, even with that uncertainty, I still knew one thing for sure. “I love you more,” I told her. “And as long as we’re together, that’s all that matters. We’ll figure out the rest.”

  For a long moment neither of us said anything, we simply stayed as we were, until finally my mom’s tears subsided. When they did, she took a deep breath and drew back from me.

  Where she had been bright-eyed and smiling when we had come out here, now her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, her cheeks damp. “I’m sorry, baby girl, more than you will ever know, that I took something so important from you, so mindlessly and thoughtlessly.”

  I blew out a breath and sat back down in my chair, feeling utterly miserable. “I know. It’s okay,” I said. “It is,” I insisted when she shook her head. “Neither of us was exactly in the best frame of mind when we left home. I know I wasn’t.” I pulled my knees to my chest again. “But it’s been nice being here, getting to know my cousins, spending time with everyone. And, I mean, I know it’s only been a day, but I liked school.”

  I thought through everything that I had experienced since we had gotten here, trying to come up with another positive point for being here. Since I was still adjusting and working my way through some serious bouts of homesickness, it was a little harder to come up with something else on the spot than I had thought it would be, despite how much I was beginning to like being here. Then I remembered that afternoon, and smiled. “Oh, yeah. And I had a cookie today that may very well have possibly changed my life forever. But in the best possible way,” I added.

  “A cookie?” she asked, her smooth brow furrowed in a confused frown.

  “Not just any cookie,” I told her. “The most amazing cookie I’ve ever eaten.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded. “Really. I meant to save one for you, so you could have such a life-altering experience as me, but, well, I ate that one, too.” I grinned sheepishly, then chuckled when she just stared at me. “You’ll have to go to Cooke’s and get one for yourself. It’s the key lime sugar cookie, and I swear, you’ll never be the same again once you’ve eaten one.”

  She grunted softly and reached for her tea. “I suppose I’ll have to get one while I’m out looking for a job tomorrow.”

  “You’re going to get a job?” I asked, frowning. Never in my life had my mom ever worked outside our home. My dad had insisted upon it. “I thought with the child support and the alimony you wouldn’t have to work?”

  She shrugged. “Technically I don’t. But things would be a bit tight if I don’t. Things are more expensive down here than they were when I was your age, especially now that it’s become such a tourist destination and things have been built up. Besides, I think I’d like to have something to do, to keep me occupied.”

  I thought of that and reached out to take her mug for another sip of tea. “Well, since you mention it, I was kind of wondering if maybe I could get a job, too. You know, to have something to do, and so I could earn my own spending money.”

  “Oh, Chloe, you don’t have to,”

  “I want to,” I told her, and realized just then that I did. “There’s a part-time position available at this secondhand store, over by the grocery store. I saw a sign in the window when Kat and I walked by it yesterday.”

  Was it only yesterday? Somehow, it felt forever ago.

  She studied me for a moment, then hummed. “If it’s something you really want, then I suppose we can look into it,” she said, and accepted her mug back when I held it out to her. “Now, why don’t you tell me about school.” She took a sip from her mug and finally smiled again. “Did you see that cute boy again?” I blushed and her smile widened. “You did. All right, now this I really need to hear. Don’t leave out any of the details.”

  Blushing a little bit more, I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, and told her about my first day at Treasure Key High, and Hayden.

  Six

  Over the next few days Hayden and I worked out a kind of unspoken routine. Every morning we would meet on the front steps at school, and from there he would walk me to my locker, then homeroom. Later, since he was on the same schedule as Jamie and Margo, we would meet at the door to the cafeteria, and would spend our lunch period catching each other up on how our days had gone so far. After the final bell of the day rang, he would then meet me at the front door again for another quick catch up before he left to go to work, either at his grandparents’ motel or his friend Levi’s dad’s auto shop, and I went wherever Kat or Margo dragged me until going home for dinner and to do homework.

  This morning as Jamie pulled the van into the school parking lot, I saw that Hayden wasn’t alone on the steps. The guy standing with him was tall and athletically built, his skin a beautiful, dark mocha, and his black hair was buzzed close to his scalp. Like Hayden, he was dressed casually in cargo shorts and a graphic t-shirt, his picturing a silhouette of a surfer riding a wave on the front of pale blue cotton. He wore battered looking leather flip-flops on his bare feet, and thick black sunglasses shielded his eyes.

  They were both smiling and gesturing as they spoke to each other.

  “Who’s that?” I asked, turning my gaze to Jamie.

  Jamie leaned to the side after he tugged the keys from the ignition, his brow furrowed softly. “Oh.” His brow smoothed as he straightened back up. “That’s Levi Armstrong,” he said, reaching for his backpack.

  “Oh.” I recognized the name, as Hayden spoke of him frequently. “Hayden’s mentioned him.” I grabbed my backpack and pushed my door – the much-coveted front passenger seat – open. “How come I haven’t seen him around before?”

  “He graduated last year,” Kat replied, climbing out of the back. Today her last-minute breakfast was a slice of cold leftover meatloaf between two slices of bread and butter, which she washed down with a can of grape soda.

  Like the pizza from our first day of school, it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but since the pulled pork my first day here I was learning to be more open-minded.

  “I see,” I said as we waited for Zach to climb out of the van. Once he had – he’d pulled a Kat today, and hadn’t rolled out of bed until the very last minute, so he was greatly disheveled, and still looked half asleep – the four of us started toward the school together.

  When we reached the steps Hayden’s smile widened and he reached out and whacked his friend lightly on the belly. “Here she is,” he said, and as soon as I reached him, he slid his arm around me and snuggled me against his side. “Levi, this is Coco. Coco, my friend, Levi.” He gestured between us.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I said, holding my hand out to him.

  “You, too,” he said, his smile bright and charming, in a friendly kind of way. “This one talks about you so much, I decided this morning that I’d better come and make sure you were real.” His grin sharpened a bit as he shook my hand, and Hayden rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t talk about her that often,” he said in a bland tone. When Levi lifted his dark eyebrows, he hesitated, and I was charmed to see his cheeks turn a soft shade of pink. “Okay, so I talk about you a lot,” he confessed, smiling sheepishly.

  “Really?” I asked, and my heart skipped a couple of giddy beats when they both nodded. “That’s sweet.”

  “Which is not how I thought I would ever hear someone describe Hayden,” Levi said. He chuckled when Hayden whacked at him. When he whacked him back and lifted his eyebrows again, Hayden sighed.

  “It’s true,” he admitted, looking back to me. “I’m usually a lot moodier.”

  “Which is his way of saying he’s usually super-bossy and overly opinionated,” his brother, Logan, said as he came up the steps. I’d met him the other day, as he was being escorted out of the principal’s office by a particularly irate Hayden.

  “Well, I don’t have any siblings, but judging from my observations of my cous
ins, being bossy and over-opinionated is kind of par-for-the-course for older siblings,” I told him, even as Hayden gave him an annoyed look.

  “She speaks the truth,” Zach agreed, and he grinned when both Jamie and Kat whacked at him.

  “It’s our prerogative from our lofty positions of having come first,” Levi said easily. “Speaking of which, where’s my brother?” he asked, turning his gaze to Logan.

  “As you’re his older brother, doesn’t that make being his keeper your job, not mine?” Logan asked, his lips curved in a snarky smirk.

  Hayden narrowed his eyes and cuffed him lightly on the back of the head. “Watch it, smart mouth, and answer the question,” he said in a very authoritative voice.

  Logan narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack. “He said he had something that he needed to do, and he’d catch up later. I didn’t ask what it was, because unlike the two of you, I actually respect the concept of personal boundaries, and minding my own damn business,”

  “I’ll start respecting your boundaries and personal space when you start using the brain in your head again,” Hayden hissed, poking him in the chest.

  “Your pot’s calling my kettle names, big brother,” Logan said, swatting at his brother’s hand.

  Jamie lifted his eyebrows and gestured for Zach and Kat to go around us, even as he gave me a pointed look.

  Hayden, having caught Jamie’s gesture and look as well, closed his mouth before he responded, and shifted us out of the way to make room for the others to pass us. But he kept his gaze on his brother. After the others had gone inside, he finally said, “If you were damn near half as smart as you think you are, you’d learn from my lessons instead of your own. But you’re right, you’re free to screw up your own life. Just remember that while the choices you make are yours to make, you are, in fact, not the only one who will have to live with the consequences of them if they blow up in your face.”