My nerves were wrecked by the time Molly picked me up later that night. The stars were out and the sky over the Gulf had darkened to midnight blue, while the west was a riotous swirl of purples and reds and golds. I tried to find some peace in the beauty of it, but my mind was racing a million miles a minute trying to prepare myself for every possible thing that might go wrong at the beach party.
Molly’s mom chattered as she drove, but both Molly and I were so wrapped up in our own heads that we couldn’t respond in anything but monosyllables. After a while she shook her head and sighed.
“You two look more like you’re going to a funeral than the coolest beach party of the year,” she grumbled.
Molly and I looked at each other and shared a wry smile. We were such a pair of dorks. Here we were going to the summer’s biggest party, and neither one of us expected to enjoy it for a minute. Lame!
A few of the new seniors’ families had beach houses on the same stretch of beach, so that’s where the party was. I was pretty sure that one of them was Ashton’s, but I couldn’t remember exactly. We got out of the car and stood for a minute staring at the crowd of teenagers milling around on the sand. There were volleyball nets set up, and a bonfire that was technically against the law but so long as no one got carried away with it the police usually didn’t make a fuss. Some of the group had hot dogs and hamburgers grilling, and there were coolers full of drinks set out near the grills.
I looked it over with a weird twinge of sadness. In another year it would be my class holding the party that everyone looked forward to with a sense of awe from the time they were in middle school. And then I’d be a senior, ready to graduate and go out into the world on my own and… I still had no idea what. It was going by too fast and I wasn’t remotely ready. Agitated, I pulled a piece of gum out of my pocket and hoped that the ritual of chewing it would calm my jangling nerves.
“Ready?” Molly asked breathlessly.
I nodded and we started down onto the beach. A couple of big guys at the edge of the crowd regarded us with naked skepticism. It was obvious that we weren’t seniors.
“Walker invited her,” Molly blurted out. “I’m here to make sure she gets home.”
As soon as she mentioned Walker’s name they relaxed. It was like some kind of magical talisman or something. I only wished that what she said had been true. Except I wasn’t supposed to wish that. I was supposed to wish that I didn’t want to wish for anything to do with Walker. Ugh. I was making my own head hurt.
No one else paid any attention to me after that, which didn’t bother me at all. I’d worn a pair of old, faded cutoffs and a black tank top and had my hair up in a ponytail. While trying to decide what to wear I’d decided I wasn’t interested in trying to impress anyone, so I’d gone with something comfortable that was unlikely to attract attention that I didn’t want.
Molly was turning heads, though. She had on a lacy, off-the-shoulder cropped top and a pair of white bikini bottoms with black polka-dots. Her outfit showed lots of skin and made her legs look longer than I knew they could possibly be. The breeze toyed gently with her golden curls, which caught gleams of the firelight as they danced in artless disarray around her face.
I sighed to myself. Why couldn’t I have been that pretty? If I was, I would not be sitting around pining over Walker. But when Molly reached down and gripped my hand so hard that it made me wince, I knew that I had nothing to be jealous of. I was the lucky one.
“You going to be okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Know what you’re going to do, yet?”
“No.”
As we wound our way through the crowds, the last traces of sunset faded away into full darkness. Even with the light from the bonfire and the tiki torches scattered around it grew hard to make out faces, especially when we got closer to the water and further from the light. I began to wonder if we weren’t wasting our time. How was Molly going to find Quinn in this? Our senior class wasn’t huge, but there had to be a couple of hundred people in the crowd around us.
To my relief there was no sign of Walker. I did spot London snuggled up with one of the baseball players by the bonfire, though. From the way they were mugging down, I figured whatever had been going on between her and Walker was over. I tried to dismiss that so I could focus on our hunt for Quinn. It was none of my business what those two did. I shouldn’t care at all. But most likely Walker had hooked up with one of his fangirls and was off in the darkness doing whatever it was that he did with them.
I couldn’t even think about that without my stomach hurting. Walker and his stupid skanks. Why had I thought it would be any different with me? My eyes started to burn. No doubt it was from the smoke rising from the bonfire.
I didn’t realize that Molly had stopped until her grip on my hand almost jerked me off my feet. She was staring into the shadows beneath a tall palm tree where two people stood talking and laughing together. When I squinted and strained my eyes I could just tell that the guy was Quinn. It was too dark to see his companion, although the giggling left no doubt that it was a girl.
Molly released her death grip on my hand and wet her lips. With a groan I looked around, hoping that no one else had noticed us. We couldn’t just stand here staring at them all night.
“What are you going to do?” I whispered urgently.
“Let me think. Let me think!”
Their laughter grew louder, and they moved a little closer to the light. I didn’t know the girl, but she wasn’t Andrea White. That didn’t seem to matter to Quinn, though, who was almost as used to girls throwing themselves at him as Walker.
“I’m going to go get a drink,” the girl said, tossing her hair playfully. “Be right back.”
“Molly?”
She didn’t answer. Instead she squared her shoulders and sauntered towards Quinn. I had no idea that she even knew how to saunter, but it seemed to work because she caught Quinn’s attention immediately. His posture shifted from relaxed to that of a lion watching a gazelle, while a wicked grin creased his face.
I knew how I’d feel under those circumstances with an audience, so I silently wished her luck and walked away. I had no idea what she intended to do, but I’d handled my part. I was going to find some out of the way place to lurk and avoid everyone else until Molly texted me that she was ready to go.
Doing my best to keep to the shadows, I edged around the firelight to head the other way up the beach. I passed laughing couples as they snuck away into the dunes to be alone, while others stood around holding hands or swayed in one another’s arms to the music coming from one of the nearby houses.
I felt a cold stab of envy at the sight of all of them so happy and relaxed, followed by a twisting pang of loss that squeezed my chest in a merciless grip. This party was not a place I needed to be right now. I drew myself up with a long, quivery breath and made myself stare out over the water at the twinkling lights in the distance until I had myself under control again. I refused to lose it here in front of all these people. Katy Hebert had done that at our sixth grade skating party when her boyfriend showed up with another girl, and people still called her Crybaby Katy. Later, when I got home, I’d let it all out.
The wind whispered to me while the sand beckoned to my toes, so I kicked off my flip flops and stepped onto the wet sand just in time for the surf to rush swirling around my ankles. As it receded again my feet began to sink, the warm sand squishing up between my toes. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and let the beach work its magic.
It wasn’t a cure, but I was starting to feel a little better when one word tore my composure to shreds.
“Delaney?”
I opened my eyes and found Walker before me, his face dappled by the stark shadows. Panic scorched through me, setting my nerves alight. I’d been so afraid of seeing him, and now that he was here I couldn’t bear facing him. Gasping, I spun and started running blindly back along the beach, my flip flops forgotten on the sand.
“Laney!”
Walker called after me.
With no idea of where I was going, I sprinted off into the darkness. My only thought was to get away. I had to get away from him. My eyes burned with fresh tears that blurred my vision, and before long my breath was coming in ragged gasps from my tortured lungs. Then I missed my footing in the shadows and my ankle twisted, flinging me down onto the hard-packed sand. Before I could get up again Walker was there, kneeling beside me, his hands lifting me up.
“Are you all right?”
Even though I could barely see his face, there was no mistaking the concern in his voice. Emotions surged through me, threatening to overwhelm what scraps of control I had left.
“Fine,” I gritted out.
“We need to talk.”
“No.” I shook my head emphatically. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yeah, there is.”
I tried to pull away, but his hands gripped mine and I couldn’t jerk free. “Let me go.”
His fingers slowly relaxed their hold and he rocked back on his heels. “Please, Delaney. Don’t run away again.”
I was so stupid. Even after what he’d done, all I wanted to do was have him take me in his arms so I could bury my face against his chest and listen to his heart beating. And never, ever let go. Stupid, Laney. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“All right,” I sighed.
“Look, I know you’re mad. You have every right to be, and I’m sorry. But what you saw wasn’t what you thought it was.”
The anger I’d been suppressing flared up brighter than the bonfire. Maybe I was hopelessly in love with the jerk, but I still had some pride left.
“Yeah, right,” I snarled. “I guess seeing London plastered all over you like a bad rash was just my imagination?”
Walker lifted his hands palm up as if to surrender. “Laney—”
“Don’t call me that!”
He took a deep breath. “Delaney. London was there that day with someone else.”
That earned him a bitter laugh. “And that makes it better? You messed with my feelings and those of the guy she was with?”
“Not exactly. I sort of asked him if I could borrow her.”
“You borrowed her? What kind of sick people are you?”
To my surprise he chuckled. “I’m not explaining myself very well. No, I didn’t borrow her like that. I just needed her for show. To make you jealous.”
I couldn’t possibly have heard that right. “What?”
“You came to the beach with your friends that day and you’d hardly even look at me. But then when that guy you used to date showed up you sat there and laughed and flirted with him.”
“I was not flirting!”
“From where I was sitting it sure looked like it. And the worst part was that I knew that you knew I was right there seeing the whole thing. It was like you were rubbing my nose in it or something.”
I gaped at him in shock. He seriously thought that I had done that to him? “I would never…” But my voice trailed off, because I had to admit that to Walker it really could have looked that way. Maybe this wasn’t completely his fault.
“I didn’t know that you’d seen me,” I said in a tiny voice. “I didn’t think you even knew that I was there.”
“And that’s why you were flirting with that guy?”
“I wasn’t flirting with him. He was my first—and so far only—boyfriend back in middle school. He moved away in the eighth grade and I hadn’t seen him since. We were just catching up and reminiscing.”
“And no flirting?”
“I don’t think so. He did ask me out, but I told him I was seeing someone. But I’m sorry if it looked like I was. I didn’t mean to make you jealous.”
He gave a soft laugh. “No one has ever made me jealous before, and I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never cared about what the other girls did, but I saw you laughing and smiling and looking so happy to be near him and it was like acid gnawing through my guts. All I could think of was trying to make you see that it didn’t bother me and to try to make you jealous at the same time. It was wrong and it was stupid, but nobody had ever hurt me before, Laney.”
I stared at him, wanting so badly to believe. More than anything, I wanted to believe him. But I’d been hurt too, and I’d be a fool to trust my heart to him again.
“I’m sorry, too. I had no intention of hurting you. But this is a bad idea. You’re going to get bored with me. Another London will come chasing after you and you’ll forget all about me. Or you’ll end up sticking around because you’re a nice guy and you don’t want to hurt my feelings. Then you’ll just end up resenting me.”
Walker tilted his head to the side as though weighing my words. “Maybe I deserve that. No, I definitely deserve that. But this thing with you is something different. I’ve never gone chasing after a girl before. I’ve never sent a girl texts first thing every morning before. And I’ve never wanted a relationship before. But all of these things that I’ve never wanted before, I want with you.”
My body started to tremble, and I couldn’t make it stop. “You mean that?”
“Yes, Laney. I tried telling you. I want you to be my girlfriend.”
The night held its breath while that thought took hold. Walker’s girlfriend. He’d never offered that to anyone else. He’d never put this kind of effort into any other girl. Did I dare believe him? What if he hurt me again?
On a night just like this I’d stood on this same beach in his arms and I’d felt that all was right with the world. I desperately wanted that again, but I’d never get it—with Walker or with anyone else—if I wasn’t willing to risk my heart.
“I guess if I can live in a haunted house, then being your girlfriend isn’t that scary.”
Walker stretched out his hands, and I laced my fingers through his. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
I was pretty sure that wasn’t true, but he pulled me forward into the circle of his arms. My heart started pounding as he bent forward and our lips merged softly, his kiss tender as though I was made of spun glass and he was afraid his touch would break me. His care for me melted my heart all over again, and I knew without a doubt that it belonged to him and no one else.
But I had his, too, and that meant that I had the ability to hurt him. I’d never had that kind of power over anyone before, and it was kind of terrifying and made me feel protective of him at the same time. So I’d have to be careful of his heart, just like he’d have to be careful of mine.
Then I quit thinking at all because his kiss drew me up into a sweet blaze of passion that heated me from the inside out, and the world faded away until there was nothing at all except the two of us in the whole of the night. And that was how Walker Dean and I fell in love.
Best. Summer. Ever.
The End
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Continue reading for an excerpt from Bayview High #2 - Not Exactly Lying.
Bayview High
Excerpt: Not Exactly Lying
“Quinn, if you don’t get back over here he’s going to shoot you.”
Quinn’s character, a tall, muscular blond not unlike his real-life perfection, continued walking casually along the edge of the rubble-strewn street. I scanned the buildings to our front through the scope of my sniper rifle and gritted my teeth. CowboyBob and SimoHayha’s teams were playing through the ruins with us in a player versus player deathmatch, and I was pretty sure that Hayha was camping in the bombed out office building in front of us. It was sniper Heaven, with good concealment to shoot from and cover for relocating after firing. Hayha was good—almost as good as me—which was why I figured he’d be in there. It was where I’d be.
And if Quinn didn’t g
et his stupid head down, he was going to get it shot off by Hayha or one of his team.
“Quinn, get back here now or I’m going to shoot you myself.”
Little flutters riffled through my stomach as his laughter came through my headset.
“I love it when you talk dirty to me, babe.”
I flushed, grateful that Delaney wasn’t watching me play today. Quinn never let up on the teasing and flirting. Too bad it was just another game he was playing. But at least he moved back to where the rest of our team was waiting in the wreckage of a parking garage so I didn’t have to listen to the other guys griping about favoritism when I didn’t carry out my threat.
“I wish you’d stop walking around out in the open like that. Do you have a death wish or something?”
“Aw, Val, I didn’t know you cared.”
“I don’t. I just can’t afford to lose another player.”
Trent had stepped on a mine, and Jason had been picked off almost the instant we spawned. I was pretty sure that had been CowboyBob’s doing. There were rumors that he was cheating, but since I liked the other people on his team I put up with it.
“Don’t be like that,” Quinn said, faking a hurt tone. “You’ll bruise my ego.”
As if. A dump truck couldn’t put a dent in Quinn’s ego. He was our varsity quarterback, six feet of broad shoulders and toned muscle with big, blue eyes you could fall straight into and lips that I had dreamed of kissing since the first time I’d seen them.
Of course most of the other girls in school had the same daydream, and Quinn always dated the hottest ones—for a few weeks, anyway, before moving on to the next one. Whatever it was he was looking for, he wasn’t finding it, and I wasn’t delusional enough to think that I’d be any different.
“I just don’t want you dead,” I grumbled.
“See? You really do care about me!” He pitched his voice to a sexy murmur. “Want to sneak off by ourselves behind the garage after you waste Hayha?”
Yes. “No! Quinn, you are the biggest pain in my—”
“Ten o’clock—third window from the end,” he said. “Go get some, babe.”
A Little Bit Haunted Page 11
