Summer Boys

by Hailey Abbott

  Two weeks into her trip to Maine last summer, Jamie had been sitting on a beach chair with a pen and a stack of loose-leaf paper, imagining herself as an early twentieth-century novelist. She’d been trying to write a short story about seagulls, but instead, she’d ended up watching Ethan. He and some other guys were playing football in the sand, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  Whenever he looked up at her, Jamie quickly frowned back down at her story, pretending she was deep in thought instead of checking out this guy’s extremely cute butt. Then suddenly, he’d appeared beside her chair, all sweaty and glistening, and asked her what she was writing. She was sure that any moment his girlfriend would show up in her thong and they’d run off into the waves together, so what the hell. She’d told him about the seagulls. And he’d admitted that he was an aspiring writer, too.

  She almost went into cardiac arrest when he’d asked her out. And now, in the hammock, he was making her heart pound again.

  “Let’s go for a ride down to the beach,” Ethan suggested, and pulled Jamie up beside him.

  They went into the cottage shed and dug out the black eighteenspeed Lemonde Jamie had ridden last summer, before she’d gotten her license. Ethan’s own bike was muddy from wherever he’d been that morning. He took off in front of her, and Jamie pedaled as fast as she could to keep up, the wind blowing through her hair. Being in love and outside and moving fast made her feel like her body was too small for the surge of emotions that were swirling around inside her. They hurtled along the dirt path and then out onto the main road in town, Ethan leading the way. He finally slowed down alongside the pier, hopping off his bike and leaning it against a lamppost. Hand in hand, they trudged to the dunes farther up the beach and collapsed in exhaustion.

  “I can’t believe we have the whole summer,” Jamie said through quick inhales and exhales. The blue sky they were staring at was perfectly clear.

  “Yeah. There’s so much going on—it’s gonna be crazy.” Ethan rubbed his chin excitedly. “Did I tell you I enrolled in a writing course at U. Penn this August?”

  “No,”she said frowning. “How long will you be gone?” Ethan lived in Philadelphia, which now seemed so far away. He tugged the strap of her green vintage halter top, the one he’d liked so much last summer. There was some kind of live wire in her chest, and it zinged whenever he touched her.

  “Two weeks, from the eighth through twenty-second. I won’t be coming back afterwards,” he answered.

  “You’re going away two weeks early?” Jamie sat up and stared at him, trying to suppress the disjointed, hurt feeling that erupted deep in her gut. Ethan slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close with an amused smile.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll make up for the lost time,” he said. He studied her intently. “Do you know how pretty you are? You have the coolest cat eyes.”

  Jamie still wasn’t able to stop frowning. A part of her knew that it wasn’t a big deal—this class seemed like an amazing opportunity, and hadshe been given the chance to go, she might have taken it, just like Ethan had. What bothered her was that he didn’t seemed concerned at all that they were going to have two fewer weeks to be with each other. Hadn’t their year apart made any difference to him at all?

  “Well, aren’t you going to miss me when you go?” After Jamie said that, she wanted to take it all back. Remarks like that were reserved for clingy girlfriends, and that was definitely something Jamie didn’t want to be.

  Ethan sighed and his mouth settled into a straight line. He didn’t respond.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that I thought you’d want us to be…together…,” Jamie said timidly. Suddenly, she was feeling incredibly insecure.

  Ethan tilted his chin away from her, staring off into nothing. He took a couple of deep breaths and then shook his head. Jamie tucked her knees up to her chin and hugged them. Then Ethan faced her again.

  “Hey,” he said as he stroked her bare arm with one finger. “Looks like your sunburn healed okay.” He tugged at her halter strap again.

  Jamie giggled a little bit at Ethan’s teasing comment. Last year she’d forgotten to use sunblock during her final week at the beach, and her fairer-than-fair skin had turned lobster-red, keeping her indoors for the last days of the summer. Her only consolation had been Ethan. While everyone was outdoors swimming and barbecuing, Ethan (who could sit in the sun wearing nothing but SPF 2 and never get burned) sat with his feet propped on the bed readingSlaughterhouse Five to her, and rubbing cold aloe from the fridge on her arms and legs whenever she asked. Jamie had loved the attention, even though she had been all raw and red. She’d had Ethan all to herself, which was what she’d wanted all summer, anyway.

  On the second afternoon, he’d gently slipped her shirt off over her head while she was lying on her stomach, and started kissing all the parts that hurt. Everyone else was down at the beach. Though it had been sweaty and sticky-hot, he’d pulled a sheet over them and traced her bare skin with his hands, which were twice as big as her own. She rolled over and touched the parts of him that fascinated her—his chest, his arms, the crease in his lower back. Then, before she knew it, he reached down and pulled off his boxers. She felt shy for a moment, but then she let him slide her own underwear down. And when they started kissing, she didn’t feel shy anymore. It was thoughtful, slow, and perhaps even a little less passionate than Jamie had expected. It all happened so naturally somehow. Still, more important, when it was over, it felt right. She’d been attracted to Ethan up to then, but that was the moment when she’d felt her life tying up with his in a knot. It was the first time she had felt—dare she say it—like she was falling in love.

  “Those were some good times, huh?” Ethan said, kissing her shoulder. The kiss made her pulse quicken and her heart fill up with sheer joy. She lifted her finger up to the scar on Ethan’s chin, which he’d gotten years ago while riding his bike. Then she ran her hands over his stubble-covered cheeks.

  “Yes, they were,” she replied softly.

  The light had changed within the past few minutes, and the sounds of the waves became somewhat muted and distant. Dusk was Jamie’s favorite time of day. All the colors in the sky transformed from wondrous hues of blues into shades of red and violet. She slid a hand under Ethan’s T-shirt and ran her fingers over where his boxers covered his left hip bone. This subtle spot was one of her favorite parts of his body—she couldn’t get over how perfectly sculptured he was. But her attraction to him wasn’t just physical. She had the same feeling now that she had that day they spent under the sheets. She wanted him to see her soul in her eyes and know that it was meant to be.

  She wanted this to last forever. There was no reason why it shouldn’t.

  But their earlier tiff had left a bit of awkwardness in the air between them, and it wasn’t so easy to send away. It lingered in the back of her mind until she let herself be swept away by the sight of the sunset. Then when Ethan turned to kiss her again, she stopped thinking about anything at all.

  5

  Ella sat at the picnic table by the grill, her chin in her hands so that her full, freshly glossed lips smushed against her palms. She was chewing her fifth stick of gum of the day and watching backyard badminton. It was Team Peter and Kelsi versus Team Beth and George. Although it was a fair match, George and Beth were winning, mostly because Peter was clearly distracted. Whenever Kelsi took a swing with her racket, he followed every motion of her body as if she were Anna Kournikova.

  Ella tried to take her mind off her envy and put it toward better use—checking out Peter’s amazing body. He was wearing aqua-blue shorts and a tank top that had the word punk across the front. His tan arms were a little sweaty from the heat of the competition. She admired his athletic build, big calves, and the strong muscles in his back that flexed whenever he moved his arms an inch. He walked in a slow, deliberate way that just drove Ella wild. The smoothness of each one of his strides gave off this air of confidence that
Ella had always felt in herself, but never really saw in anyone else. Every two seconds, Ella was thinking about what he might look like underneath his clothes. She couldn’t help herself.

  Up until he’d walked into the backyard about half an hour ago, the hottie singer from the party had almost become a memory to Ella. He hadn’t called Kelsi until this morning. And Ella hadn’t seen him for over a week, so she’d lost hold of the thing that had made him so irresistible to her that first night.

  Now it was all coming back to her.

  Ella reached for the tie of her leopard-pattern bikini top and readjusted the knot. She found herself wondering how she looked, which she usually never worried about. She wished Peter had come down to the beach earlier, when she had been lying on her stomach in her tiny bikini bottom, the back of her top untied and open. That might have convinced him to grease her up with Coppertone instead of seeking out Kelsi.

  “Good one,” Kelsi said, bending over to pick up a birdie that George had spiked hard against the ground. Peter playfully patted her on the butt as she bent over. She shot up awkwardly, her short blonde ponytail swinging, and darted a look toward the grownups. Beth’s dad was bent over the grill, laying raw pink burgers on the grate. Uncle Carr and Aunt Claire, Beth’s mom, and Ella and Kelsi’s dad—their parents were divorced, so the sisters spent the summers with their father—were at the table across the grass, too busy chatting to notice the innocent hanky-panky between Peter and Kelsi.

  Kelsi was always uptight and conservative when it came to public displays of affection. Ella chuckled at her sister’s prudish reaction. If Peter thought Kelsi was that kind of girl—the kind that let you touch her butt—he was sorely mistaken. Big sis had gone out with her last boyfriend for two years and only let him get to third base. Two years . For Kelsi, who lived by the mantra “Let’s slow down,” the standard allowable butt-touching time was probably somewhere around six months. Ella, on the other hand, didn’t have those kinds of strict rules. In fact, she considered all rules to be rather flexible, especially if they interfered with having fun. And when it came to Peter, any and all types of restrictions or regulations could be easily thrown out the window.

  “Get ready, guys. The best burgers in the history of ground beef are about to be served,” Gary, Beth’s dad, pronounced from behind the grill. They had burgers at least three times a week at these cookouts, but Gary always got excited about it. And so did George, who was a big fan of Gary’s burgers. George abandoned the badminton game and leaned over the grill to watch Gary work.

  “You know, these things are cooking too slow, Gar,” he said. “You need some of this action.” Before anyone could figure out what he was doing, he picked up the lighter fluid beside the grill and squirted some into the coals. A huge flame leaped up. Everyone, including Ella, jumped back in fear.

  Beth stood behind George, shaking her head sympathetically at her dad.

  “George, kindly step away from the grill,” Gary said, swiping at his face to make sure it was still there. “And while you’re at it, don’t handle anything flammable ever again. Okay, buddy?”

  George’s face flooded bright red. Uncle Gary began scraping the burgers off the grate onto a platter, then disappeared inside. Kelsi immediately stepped in to take over with the survivors, expertly sliding the spatula under each raw patty, one at a time.

  Ella couldn’t help but laugh. She just loved a commotion. She turned to look at Peter, who stood aimlessly between the grill and the net. He slouched on one hip and cast his gaze over the grass slowly. He was trying hard to conceal a huge grin, which Ella imagined was directed at the near-fatal barbecue. The fact that they were the only two people laughing made her feel as if they were in on some private joke that nobody else was a part of. It was like a sign that Ella couldn’t ignore. She just had to make a move.

  As she stood up and sauntered toward him, she adjusted her top to show a little more skin.

  “You up for a game of one-on-one?” she asked, boldly grabbing one of the two badminton rackets dangling from Peter’s hands and started back toward the net.

  “Is that some sort of challenge?” he asked, glancing back at Kelsi.

  “For you, maybe. I’m a badminton expert.”

  She wasn’t lying. After years of coming to Pebble Beach, badminton had become her sport (if you could even call it that). And besides, she looked good playing it. She was wearing a tiny white FCUK tennis skirt below her bikini top to show off her newly tanned arms, legs, and stomach.

  Knowing how delicate boys’ egos could be, she intentionally missed the birdie on Peter’s first serve. She laughed and bent to pick it up, giving him a close-up view of her backside before handing over the birdie to him.

  “Lucky serve,” she said slyly while arching one eyebrow.

  “Are you kidding? That was one hundred percent pure skill,” he replied. His eyes met Ella’s for a second with the slight yet oh-dear-God-how-sexy smile still playing on his lips. She tried not to be rendered to pure mush at the sight of it.

  As long as she’d been noticing boys, Ella had known she could cast a spell on them if she wanted. All she had to do to get a guy to like her was focus completely on him, and soon he would be under her control. But Peter was proving to be something of a challenge.

  The next time he served, she missed completely by accident, and the birdie sailed right past her.

  “Expert, did you say? You’re a badminton expert?” Peter asked teasingly.

  “Listen, I just didn’t want to take away your dignity so quickly,”Ella said through her giggles. “But now that you’re mocking me, I’ll just have to whip you.”

  They snapped back and forth, both getting more and more competitive. Toward the end of the match, with Ella up by a couple of points, the birdie landed on the edge of some trees and Ella ran over to retrieve it. Her heart was thrumming. Beating the brush with her fingers, she grasped the birdie and stood up, turning around with her racket poised to serve, her cheeks flushed. Only Peter wasn’t waiting for her eagerly, as she had hoped. His racket was on the grass underneath the net.

  Ella looked toward the grill and saw that he was standing behind Kelsi, holding out a plate for the new batch of burgers. Every time she passed a burger to Peter, Kelsi’s entire face lit up like a Christmas tree.

  Across the lawn, Ella swiped at the perspiration on her cheeks. She was still trying to regain her breath. She hadn’t noticed before how giddy her sister looked when Peter was close by. It was unbelievable but undeniable. She looked the same way Ella had felt a few seconds before, when she and Peter were volleying back and forth.

  She looked like a girl who was falling in love.

  Ella forced herself to accept the situation. Kelsi was her sister. And for some reason that Ella couldn’t even begin to imagine, Peter seemed really into Kelsi. The smart thing for Ella to do would be to forget him for good and move on to the next summer boy.

  But it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do.

  6

  Jamie paused by the side of Ethan’s house and pulled off her cotton sun hat, smoothing back her damp hair. She resecured the knotty bun she’d made before leaving her house as she walked up the stairs, then lowered her hand and pushed the doorbell with her index finger. Her breath fluttered out of her mouth unevenly while she waited.

  Underneath her loose peasant blouse she wore the pink sheer bra that she’d bought over the winter with Ethan in mind. He hadn’t seen her wear it before, so today would be the grand unveiling. She wondered what his reaction would be—would he pounce on her and smother her with kisses, or would he just say she looked pretty and then act all weird? With Ethan lately, you could never quite tell what mood he was going to be in—either he was attentive and affectionate or distant and standoffish. They hadn’t even had sex again. Jamie was beginning to worry.

  The past two-and-a-half weeks hadn’t been quite what Jamie had expected in the days leading up to the summer. She’d pictured her and Ethan spending long hours lyi
ng on the beach, cuddling and kissing, and drinking iced coffees at local cafés. But so far, he’d been busy a lot of the time at his job down at Pebble Beach Bikes, or with his friends doing typical guy stuff like fooling around with the X-Box for hours on end.

  But today is going to be different, Jamie kept telling herself. They hadn’t been together—as in, alone in a house with a bed—since she’d gotten here. And that was all going to change as soon as Ethan opened the door.

  The doorknob jiggled and Jamie tried to let her body relax, rolling her shoulders back a few times to relieve the tension.

  Ethan’s mother appeared in the doorway.

  “Oh,” Jamie said in surprise. “Hi there.”

  Mrs. Davis was a tall, statuesque woman with a short brunette bob that made her look very first ladyish, even in a swimsuit and flip-flops, which she wore now. She gave Jamie a friendly smile and welcomed her inside.

  “Jamie, so nice to see you,” she said. “I was just leaving for the beach. Ethan’s downstairs. They’re watching a movie.”

  “Great. Thanks.”

  Jamie turned and headed down the stairs. She could hear the movie blaring from the VCR. DefinitelyStar Wars. It was Ethan’s favorite. Yoda was giving Luke Skywalker his famous speech about how you couldn’t try to use the force, you just had todo it. “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

  Maybe she’d come over too early. She knew Ethan usually liked to lie on the couch and watch TV in the morning. But as she ducked under the archway into the den, she saw four of Ethan’s friends, crashed out on the white leather sofa and chairs. He was in the chair on the far end, his legs hanging over the side, his hair all crooked and smushed from lying around. He looked up just as she entered the room.

  “Hey,” he said, frowning slightly.

  “Hi.” Jamie walked around behind the couch and kissed him on the cheek. “What’s up?”