“And?” I ask, feigning excitement.
“He’s totally hot, if he really looks like the photo he uploaded. Tall, blond, and with amazingly beautiful eyes,” she gushes.
“Sounds like someone I saw in the current issue of Men’s Health,” I tease.
“Bullshit. Maybe he’s the one. He’s from Maine and only moved to Miami a few weeks ago. I’m going to meet him this weekend, and he asked if I wanted to bring a friend because he’s bringing a friend who’s single. What do you say?”
“No, Pearl. No way. I’m not going to play wingman for you.”
“You would actually be my wing woman,” she muses. “Come on, Shai, do me a favor. Bat your eyelashes at the other guy so he’s busy and I can chat with Anson.”
“Anson?” I ask, incredulous. “Not only does the guy look like a magazine cut out, he also used a name he probably stole from a celebrity mag. Are you blond or are you stupid?”
“Blond,” she chirps. “If I were stupid, I wouldn’t be in college but working at the grocery store for six dollars an hour.”
“Thank you very much,” I answer, dripping sarcasm.
She inhales sharply. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I forgot you work in a grocery store.”
“Fancy that,” I explain in a calm voice, though it’s shaky with suppressed anger. “You keep accidentally hitting me with those barbs of yours. Let me tell you one thing: people who work in a grocery store are not stupid. They’re merely glad they found a job that fills their fridges, Pearl.”
“I’m really sorry, Shai. It won’t happen again.”
“Yeah, it won’t happen again in the next two or three days,” I grumble, crossing my arms.
“Don’t be like that,” she complains.
“Well, I’ve just had enough of your crap. You keep making fun of my job or making all the people who have such a job out to be a bunch of morons. That’s enough. I’m starting to understand why you keep losing friends,” I say bitterly. “Ask Cay if she wants to join you in your latest pursuit. I’m not going.”
She pulls over to the curb. “You know, I don’t feel like spending the day with you anymore.”
“That makes two of us,” I counter, getting out and slamming the door shut. “I’ll see you … if I can’t avoid it.” I walk away, and when I reach the beach, I take off my flip-flops so I can feel the sand.
God, I hate it when she makes fun of me like that, I think, deeply upset.
I march across the sand, walking until I’m satisfied that I’ve put sufficient distance between me and Pearl. Then I spread my large towel on the ground and take off my dress. I lie down on my back, put my earphones in, and start the music on my phone. Cliff made me a mix that never gets old. I’m not partial to any specific genre, so my playlist has everything from pop to musicals. I’m the same with books. I love to read, and I can enjoy everything from romance to thrillers to drama, and back. As long as the story speaks to me, genre doesn’t matter. Once the music is playing, I pull my tablet from my backpack and switch it on. I put my sunglasses on and start reading.
I’m fully immersed in my book when someone yells “Watch out!” and takes a leap over my prostrate body.
I sit up straight and look around, slightly disoriented. “Really?” I yell back at the guy, pulling one of the earbuds from my ear.
He turns and grins at me.
Oh, no. I’ve seen this guy before. He hangs around with Nathaniel, or maybe the other way around. They’re friends anyway, and I saw him at the club the other night, too. Right—he was the singer of the student band.
“Sorry, I had to follow where the ball led me,” he calls.
“Dude, you almost stepped on my stomach,” I gripe, “and don’t get me started on the sand I’ve got everywhere now.”
“I won’t. Get you started, I mean,” he says, still sounding amused, and not the least bit sorry.
“Next time I’ll lift my leg and make you do a somersault,” I threaten, but I have to smile in spite of myself. I lie back down.
“I’m shaking with fright,” he teases, coming closer. “Can I pacify you in any way?”
“Yeah, easy. Just don’t jump over me like that again, okay?”
“Won’t happen again,” he promises.
“Draven, come on!”
Uh-oh. I knew it. I know that voice.
“Coming,” the long-haired guy next to me calls out.
I make a face. From the corner of my eye, I see Nathaniel approach.
“Leave the woman alone and come on,” he says. “Delsin’s complaining that you always get distracted.”
“Coming.” The guy looks at me and rolls his eyes conspiratorially. “Can I ask what your name is?”
I sit up again, making sure Nathaniel is out of earshot. I whisper, “Shailene, but don’t tell your friend, okay?”
When I lie back down again, I see him nod. “See you around, Miss X.” He rises and walks over to where Nate is waiting for him.
What the hell was that? I shake my head with a frown and focus on my tablet again, getting back into the story quickly.
When I’ve finished the book, I put the tablet back into my backpack, and then I flip over to lie on my stomach. I make a pillow of my hands, resting my head on them. I can’t lie flat; it drives me crazy if I don’t have some sort of pillow. At home, my bed is stacked with three pillows, which is the only way for me to find restful sleep. I think it shows in my posture, too, since I have a visibly hollow back. Noah keeps telling me I should place a thick book on my head and walk around like that in order to straighten my back, but I don’t have sufficient balance to keep it from constantly sliding down.
When I turn my head and look in the other direction, I can see this Draven guy playing football with Nate and three other men. One of them is Avery Morrison, who’s also on the university’s football team. “Can’t hurt to watch them play for a while,” I mumble and watch them from behind the screen of my tinted glasses.
The men are roughhousing, throwing each other down in the sand a lot, fighting over the ball, and generally having a great time, judging from their whooping and laughing. I can’t fight a smile, which makes me turn my head away again. Closing my eyes, I’m just about to doze off when my phone rings. That screamy song again!
I roll my eyes and pull it from my backpack. “Hello?”
“I knew it was you,” a familiar voice says.
“Who is this?” I ask anyway.
“Turn around and you’ll see.”
“Nathaniel,” I state, not turning around.
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were when we met at Dizzles?”
“Because it’s none of your business. What do you want?” I ask, trying for a neutral tone.
“I want to talk to you. Can I come over, or are you going to scratch out my eyes?”
I flip on my back and then sit up. “Feel free.”
“Will you talk to me?”
“Am I talking to you now? You can come here, or you can stay there. I don’t care.” I hang up. I’m not in the mood for long deliberations, not after the clash with Pearl earlier.
Only a few moments later, Nathaniel sits down next to me. “You look great, Shai.”
“Thanks,” I say curtly.
“How have you been?” he inquires.
I exhale roughly. “Can’t complain; I’m fine. How are you?” I hate this stupid small talk! Most of all with someone who lied to me and betrayed my trust.
“Great. Well, a little confused right now. Why didn’t you tell me you were … you?”
“Oh, let me think,” I reply and take another deep breath. “Maybe because I assumed you’d recognize me, since you look too young to be afflicted with Alzheimer’s already. I haven’t changed so radically that I’m unrecognizable.”
“Yes, you have. You’ve changed a lot. Your hair was much longer in high school, and it wasn’t blond. And don’t get angry with me for saying it, but you used to be a little more … uh, stout?”
<
br /> “Now that’s a nice way of saying I was fat,” I huff.
“You were not fat, but you had a little more flesh to your hips, yes. Oh God,” he mumbles, “I’m risking my neck going on like this … ”
I can’t help but smirk a little. “Yep.”
“When did you start college?” he asks.
“Uh, two years ago. I’m a sophomore.”
“How come I never noticed you before?”
“How am I supposed to know?” I counter, feigning a laugh. “I don’t know what cloud your head is in when you walk around campus.”
“Most of the time, I’m probably thinking about training,” he admits.
“Football, yeah? It’s great you made it onto the college team.”
“Yeah, I got a sports scholarship,” he tells me proudly.
“So your first dream has already come true,” I conclude.
He nods. “Yes. All the hard work paid off.”
“That’s great,” I repeat. Man, what is a girl supposed to talk about with the ex-boyfriend who broke her heart? “How did things go with Caroline? In case you don’t remember, she was the reason you dumped me … via text message.” I couldn’t refrain from mentioning that, and neither can I stifle the scornful grin.
“Not great,” he says. “As soon as prom was over and done with, she dumped me, and I’ve been single ever since.”
“Did she send you a text, too?”
“No. She sent a friend to let me know.”
“Wow. That’s almost as impersonal as a text,” I state dryly.
“Listen, Shai, I know what I did was shitty, and I regret it. You only realize what you’ve lost when it’s too late.”
“What?”
“Yeah. When I was going out with Caroline, I kept thinking of you, and when that was over, I still kept thinking of you,” he says, pulling up his knees and resting his head on them.
I don’t look at him, for fear of forgiving him on the spot. I don’t want to forgive him, but I’m far too soft. “I don’t believe you, Nate.”
“You don’t have to believe me, but it’s true.”
“Why did you never call, then?” I probe. “Oh, wait … probably because you knew I’d found out that you only dated me to get to Caroline. One day before you broke up with me, you told me you loved me, Nathaniel. And then, one week after my birthday, you dumped me, just like that!”
“I was an immature asshole who thought more with his dick than his heart,” he says in defense.
“Which doesn’t excuse that you broke mine. If you knew all the stuff that happened afterwards … ” I stop myself, because it’s none of his business what happened after our relationship.
“What happened?”
“I crashed hard. I hit rock bottom, Nathaniel. In case you didn’t notice, I even changed schools because I couldn’t watch the two of you together.”
“What do you mean you crashed hard, Shai?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say in my smallest voice.
“Okay.” He nods and clears his throat. “Maybe … maybe we could meet and talk soon?”
“We’re talking right now,” I remind him.
“I mean when we’re not half-naked. Maybe sitting in a cozy café.”
“If you’re bothered by my bikini, I can get dressed,” I say with a half giggle, because his insecurity has taken away some of the unbearable tension I felt in the beginning.
“No.” Nathaniel is quick to shake his head. “I’m not bothered. I’d just like to hear what you’ve been doing for the last few years. I’d like to meet you without all my friends around. They’re looking at us like we’re aliens.”
“They’re your friends, not mine.”
“You’re still the same person I knew back then,” he states thoughtfully. “Other people and what they might think of you still don’t interest you.”
“I think that’s the best attitude you can adopt,” I say with conviction, “not giving a fuck what other people think.”
“You’re right.”
I smile. “I always am.”
“So will you agree to meet for coffee?”
I sigh. “Okay. But only if you promise me that you won’t launch into any sort of sentimental nonsense. I don’t want to talk about us, or about how much you missed me or anything fake like that.”
“Gotcha. But we could talk about all the things that happened afterwards.”
“Not about all of them,” I reply with a forced smile. I’m not going to tell him about Jim Cooper. It’s none of his business, and I don’t want to dig it up and pick at old scabs for the second time in as many days. Yes, my therapy was successful, but it’s always possible to revert to old, destructive patterns. And I’m lucky not to suffer from my eating disorder anymore. I felt fat after all the shit that went down, so I began to put my finger down my throat to get rid of all the food I ate. First only sporadically, and then on a more and more regular basis. I’m not proud of that phase, but the mean talk within the family and the withering looks from my so-called grandmother made me fall hard … several times. I wanted to disappear. I didn’t talk much about this part, not even to my therapist, and it hasn’t happened in a very long time, but I still worry that if I experience another bad thing, I’ll fall back into the old, self-destructive habit.
“Well, what’s exempted?” Nathaniel asks.
“There are things in my past I’m not proud of,” I say simply.
“Well, I’ve done a few stupid things myself, but anyway, I’ll accept that. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, Shai.”
The way he pronounces my pet name sends a shiver down my spine. He stresses it in an inimitable way, drawing it out, making it sound like a softly breathed jay. It doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I always loved that. “How generous of you,” I say with a smirk.
“Yeah, that’s me,” he laughs.
“Unbelievable,” I join in his laughter.
“Nate, are you catatonic, or what?” one of his friends yells. “We want to play, and the girls are almost ready to start the barbecue. Either invite your baby over, or drag your sweet brown ass back here now!”
“The girls?” I probe.
“Some friends.”
I nod. “You mean girlfriends?”
“No, I’m still single. They’re just a bunch of friends, girls and guys,” he insists. “Do you want to tag along?” he adds.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Why not? All my friends are really nice, and I’d like it if you stayed.”
I sigh again. “I’ve gotta call Noah and ask him to pick me up. My friend and I had an argument, and she drove off.”
“All right, then why don’t you stay until he comes to get you, or I can drive you home later if he can’t. Thalia’s letting me use her Mercedes at the moment, because she’s always riding in Linden’s fancy sports car.”
“Who are they?”
“A cute couple, and also my friends,” Nathaniel explains. “So what do you say?”
“You win.”
Nathaniel always wins when he sets his mind on something.
Chapter 4
After a round of names I can’t remember, someone invited me to sit down in a chair on the terrace of the pretty beach house. Nathaniel and the other guys are playing football again, so I’m beginning to wonder why he wanted me to stay in the first place.
“Do you think Thalia is going to show up at all today?” Dahlia asks Camille.
“Linden’s in town, so I don’t expect her to do anything until he’s gone again,” Hailey chimes in.
I listen to them, but have no idea who they’re talking about, so I remain silent.
“How does this fucking thing work?” Camille suddenly snaps. Then she calls over toward the men: “Baby, can you come and get this damn barbecue to work? I can’t do it!”
The guy with the baseball cap and the impressive abs comes over at a jog. “What’s the problem, Caram
el?”
“That woman and technical things, you know,” Hailey teases.
I can’t help but smile, but then quickly say, “Sorry,” when Camille throws me a withering look.
Hailey sits next to me. “Shailene, where are you from anyway?”
“Here.”
“You’re a student, too, right?”
“Yes. I’m studying biology and chemistry. I’m just about to finish my sophomore year.”
Camille turns around. “Me, too. I don’t recall seeing you in any of my classes, though.”
I shrug. “Some of the lectures are huge. I tend to sit in the back and race out as soon as they’re over. My best friend Cliff keeps complaining I’m too fast for him when I’m going to meet up with the girls.”
She nods. “I guess I’d do the same, but I like to sit upfront, since that forces me to pay attention.”
“And there you have it,” Delsin chuckles, “my sweet Caramel is a teacher’s pet.”
I lift my eyebrows. “That’s perfectly okay in my books. I guess I’m sort of one myself.”
“Hear, hear,” Delsin exclaims as he finally gets the flames to spring up in the grill. “Well, I can’t fully deny the charge myself,” he adds.
“Wrong,” Hailey proclaims. “You’re just a jerk lucky enough to get good grades without studying!”
“I can’t help that I was born with a clever head,” he pouts in mock self-defense.
“Then stop your bragging, baby,” Camille teases him. Then she faces me again. “So who do you hang around with? Maybe we know them.”
“Aside from Cliff, my best friends are Pearl and Cay.”
The barbecue tongs fall from her grip, and she stares at me with incredulity.
“Uh-oh,” Hailey murmurs next to me. “Either you and I look for cover right now, or we’re going to be facing a tirade. And it could take a while.”
Before I can say anything, Avery appears on the terrace. “Oh! Hey, Shailene, how are you doing?”
“Hi. I’m fine, and how are you?”
“I’m great.”
“You know her?” Camille asks him, dumbfounded.
He nods. “Yeah, she’s a friend of Pearl’s.”
Dahlia, who’s sitting across from me, utters an angry snort.
Nathaniel: True Love: New Adult College Romance Novella (Coral Gables Series Book 4) Page 4
