After I Fall (13 page)

I had a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a tank top on over my bikini. I hadn’t planned on wearing my shorts in the water. But now that he mentioned it. “Well,” I said, “maybe?”

“You don’t want to wear jeans in the water,” he chided.

“They’re jean
shorts
,” I said in my own defense.

“Em.” He gave me a pointed look.

I bit my lip.

“Hey,” he said when he noticed my hesitation. “What’s wrong?” He studied my face for a moment before saying, “Are you uncomfortable with me seeing you in your swimsuit?” He sounded surprised at the thought.

I was prepared to deny it but the color filling my cheeks gave me away.

“You are,” he said softly, “why?”

It wasn’t entirely because I was feeling self-conscious. It was just that with him wearing so little…and me wearing so little…my head felt a little fuzzy.

“It’s nothing,” I assured him. I gave him a smile to prove it.

“Come on then,” he urged.

His fists wrapped around the hem of my tank top. My heart reacted to having him so close, his bare skin sliding against mine as he leaned in close so he could peel my shirt over my head.

His fingers fumbled with the button of my shorts. The zipper slid down and with a tug the shorts were slipping down my legs. I kicked them off. They landed somewhere in the grass. Not quite next to my tank top but close enough.

His eyes skimmed over me, then landed on my face again. It wasn’t like I could protest; I’d done the same to him.

He grinned at me, as if he knew what I was thinking.

“Ready?” he asked.

“For what?” I wondered.

His arms scooped around me, whisking me off my feet. I let out a little shriek and began to laugh as he tried running through the water holding me. With my extra weight, and the water resisting him, we didn’t get too far. We toppled into the gently rolling waves.

We both sputtered as water splashed us in the face, and then we started laughing.

He scooted a little closer to me, the water lapping gently against our chests.

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked.

“Eric, this is my best friend, Clara. Clara, this is Eric,” I said by way of introduction.

Clara reached for his hand and shook it. “So nice to finally meet you.”

“You too,” he said. He narrowed his eyes at her, looking slightly confused. “Do I know you from somewhere? I have no idea why but you look kind of familiar.”

Clara looked flustered as she turned to me.

I scrunched my face up in apology. “She might look familiar because she was at the country club the day…” I didn’t want to say it.

I didn’t have to. He finished the sentence for me.

“Oh. Right. The day I got fired.” He shook his head. “Yeah, now that you mention it, that’s got to be it. Not one of my finest moments.”

“Don’t worry about it. That wasn’t on you. I’d say it wasn’t one of
Jace’s
finest moments,” Clara corrected. Her tone was full of irritation.

“Hey, there’s Mason,” Eric said.

We finally made it to one of the outdoor movies. Eric had invited Mason along. I was excited to be hanging out with my boyfriend and best friend. Mason was just an added bonus.

The movie was shown on the edge of town. At one time, it had been a drive in. Now, movies were shown on occasion but cars were packed in what was now a back field. The screen was still standing but some fancy speaker system had been put in, instead of each group of people having their own little speaker set.

As Mason made his way over to us we all greeted him.

I eyed him up, then Clara, hoping for some sparks. Eric caught my eye, smiled and shook his head. I hadn’t told him that I was hoping this would turn into a double date. I would love it if my best friend and a friend of Eric’s got together.

Mason and Clara greeted each other with the friendly, yet cool reserve that they always did.

“Oh, hey!” Mason said. “I didn’t realize they had snacks here. That’s new.”

I looked in the direction he pointed. A small specialty food truck already had a line forming in front of it.

“Popcorn!” Clara’s eyes lit up with her smile. “Do you think they have chocolate covered raisins, too? I love to dump them in the popcorn bucket.”

“Really?” Mason looked skeptical.

Clara arched an eyebrow. “Have you tried it?” He shook his head. “Then you’re missing out.”

“Should we get some?” Mason asked. “I’ll walk over there with you.”

Clara glanced at me.

“Go. Eric and I will pick out a spot and get the blanket spread out.”

“Okay. We’ll be back,” she said.

“Did you hear that Mr. Fogleson won’t be teaching Advanced Physics this year?” Mason asked Clara.

She gasped in indignation. “Why? Who’s going to teach it? Wait? Who cares about that? Who’s going to oversee Honor Society?! We have to have an Honor Society!”

“Right? And what about…”

Their voices faded off as they walked away.

“See? Two little peas in a pod,” I said with a smile.

He laughed as he watched the two of them, obviously in the midst of an intense conversation regarding some fashion of academia.

“Are you in Honor Society too?” he wondered as we started walking to an open piece of ground.

“Oh, no. Not even close. My grades took a nosedive the last year my dad was sick. Clara really helped me out last year. But I’m nowhere near Honor Society worthy,” I explained.

He nodded in understanding.

We wove our way around clusters of people who had gotten here before us. A few of the faces were familiar, but not many. It was almost dusk. The movie was scheduled to start shortly after the sun went down. We probably had just enough time to get settled in, and for Clara and Mason to get back, before the movie started.

These evenings weren’t geared toward families so there were no children milling around. It was surprisingly packed all the same. If many more people arrived, they’d have to sit way back, near the edge of the parking lot.

“How’s this spot?” I asked.

We were off to the side so our view was a little off. However, the blanket Mom had given me was pretty big. Big enough to accommodate the four of us comfortably. There really wasn’t anywhere else nearby that would work.

“It’s good,” Eric said.

He took the blanket that I had tucked under my arm. He shook it out of the tightly folded bundle and then whipped it into the air. It floated to the ground, covering a big patch of earth. He leaned over to straighten out the edges.

I took a step back to get out of his way.

“Hey! Watch it!”

I felt a trickle of something cold splash across my neck and slide down my shirt.

I turned around, ready to apologize, and found myself staring into Jace’s all too familiar face.

The irate expression he wore slowly faded. He looked truly surprised to see me.

“Oh. EmLynn. Hey. You okay?” He readjusted the extra large drink he held and the bag of popcorn that was tucked into his chest.

“I’m fine. Sorry, I should’ve looked where I was going.”

His eyes drifted past me as he ignored my apology. His lips curved into a sneer at the site of Eric.

“You still with him? Aren’t you tired of hanging out with a loser?” Jace asked.

I felt Eric stiffen beside me. He took a step toward Jace. “Aren’t you tired of being an ass?”

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Mason asked.

He handed me the two enormous bags of popcorn he held and stepped in between Jace and Eric.

“Hey, Mason. What’s up?” Jace asked.

“Just hanging out with my friends,” Mason said.

Jace’s eyes darted around our group. “These guys?”

“Something wrong with that?” Mason wondered.

Clara and I shared a look.

Mason was a hybrid combination of brainiac and jock. The guy truly did seem to have everything going for him. To top that off, he was, as Clara had pointed out before, a legitimately nice guy. He was in Honor Society, on the debate team, and he played both football and baseball. Trying to pad his college applications had left him well-rounded. And well-liked.

“Nothing,” Jace said. “Nothing at all.”

“So, hey,” Mason said as he played dumb. “Have you met my friend Eric? We work together.”

“We’ve met,” Eric said, his tone flat.

“Yeah,” Jace agreed.

“Okay, well, see you around then?” Mason’s friendly comment was clearly a dismissal.

Jace said nothing as he turned and walked away. I was disappointed to see that he didn’t go far. He dropped down on a blanket next to Marci. She gave me the blank look she always gave me. As if I wasn’t even worthy of being smirked at.

I quickly spun around.

“So this is fun, huh?” I said.

My sarcasm lightened the mood just a bit.

“It will be,” Clara said assuredly. For the first time I realized she held several cans of soda and a wide assortment of chocolate.

The speakers crackled, signaling that the movie was going to start soon. The four of us, and all of our snacks, got settled in, ready for the movie to start. I wiggled over so that I was right next to Eric. He looped an arm around me. I nestled in close. Now that the sun had slipped away the temp had dropped. Eric was nice and warm.

Clara and Mason sat side by side, a popcorn bag of distance between them.

“See?” Clara whispered into my ear once the movie started. “He’s everywhere you go.”

I gave her a subtle shake of my head. “No, he looked really surprised to see me.”

She didn’t look convinced even though this was one time I was sure Jace hadn’t intended to track me down.

The movie was a loud, action filled film. It did a good job of holding my attention, despite the fact that I was sure I could feel Jace glaring daggers into my back.

*   *   *

“He’s so amazing,” Clara said.

“What? Wait! Did you two…kiss?!” I channeled my little sisters. My tone came out high, giggly, and teasing.

She swatted my arm and leaned back in the booth.

A large, gooey, cinnamon roll sat—mostly devoured—between the two of us. We each had our usual large vanilla lattes beside us.

It was the next day. I’d given Eric a smug smile when Mason had offered to bring Clara home. He said it was because her house was on the way. Whether it was or wasn’t, I didn’t care. It was on Eric’s way home as well. But I kept that little snippet of information to myself. I realized Clara hadn’t been in a hurry to volunteer it either.

“No! We talked. There was no kissing. What kind of girl do you think I am? That wasn’t even a date!” She looked appalled that I had the audacity to even ask. “He happens to have some amazing views on the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory. You know I got kicked out of American History last year. I got sent to the office.” She grinned, proud of her rebellion. I nodded. “Because I told Mr. George that I believed FDR allowed the bombing. He did, you know. He wanted us to join the war. It’s perfectly clear when you take a look at the dialogue between FDR and Churchill, prior to the war. He just wasn’t ballsy enough to jump in when he should have. Instead, he let our men get slaughtered. That way the country was raring for a fight.”

I nodded and pretended I was following along.

“How did you two even start up a conversation like that?” I couldn’t help but wonder about the machinations of my best friend’s mind. “It’s summer vacation. There should be no discussions of history class taking place.”

“Oh. Well, in the movie they were blowing up starships, which got me thinking about battleships. And then I thought about Battleship Row. And the battleships being blown up because they were all sitting ducks and from there—”

“Got it,” I said as I cut her off.

“Regardless, Mason agrees with me one hundred percent. He has some very interesting insight on—”

“Okay!” I said as I held my hand up to cut her off. “As much as I’m enjoying this mini-history lesson, can we refocus on Mason?” I knew from experience that once Clara got running on some crazy intellectual tangent, she was likely to keep going with it until someone reined her in.

She blinked at me. “What about him?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I had this silly little hope that you two would hit it off. Start dating. You know?”

“Nope. Didn’t know that,” she said.

“Well, you should.”

“I think he’s too busy to date,” Clara said. “I mean, the guy is in so many extracurricular activities it’s unreal.”

“Or maybe he just hasn’t met a girl that can hold his interest,” I pointed out. “I mean think about it, Clara. Could you see Marci McFadden, or one of her minions, keeping up with him for two seconds if he brought up conspiracy theories? Or do you think she would care if there was no Honor Society?”

She laced her fingers around her drink and tilted her head to the side. Finally she said, “You do make a good point. A relationship needs more than just physical attraction. It’s important that there is a modicum of intellectual spark.”

“Right,” I agreed with a smile. “What you said.”

“Well, I’m not going to push it. I’m probably not his type. I’m not really any boys’ type,” she said.

“That’s not true. I think you have the same issue that Mason has. You want someone you can really talk to.” I shook my head. “Sometimes I’m amazed you keep me around for a friend. You must have to dumb down your conversations for me.”

She nearly choked on her sip of coffee. “I do not. Besides, it’s different with boys. I have a hard time talking to them. It just helps if we have common interests. With you it’s easy. We just talk about anything.

“Enough about me,” she said as she abruptly redirected the conversation. “I’m glad last night worked out. I’m excited I finally got to meet Eric.”

“And…?” I gave her a hopeful look.

She smiled. “I like him. I’m also kind of impressed that he was able to keep his cool around Jace. After everything that happened at the country club, he could’ve totally gone after Jace last night. I have no doubt Eric could’ve kicked his butt.”

I smiled. I thought so too. “I think Eric’s trying really hard to stay out of trouble. He doesn’t want to disappoint his foster parents.”

I cringed as I realized what a disaster last night could’ve turned into. There could’ve been a fistfight, blood, police intervention, a ruined movie experience for all of those people.

“I’m really glad Mason was there. He did a great job diffusing the situation,” I said.

“He did, didn’t he?” She smiled as she thought that over. She started jiggling discreetly in her seat and I heard her foot tapping against the floor. “Maybe we could do it again? Go out as a group, I mean?”

I nodded and tried not to show too much enthusiasm. I didn’t want to scare her off.

“That’s a great idea. Mom and Phillip have some social engagements coming up. Maybe we could all hang out at my house? Grill some burgers? Hang out at the pool?” I suggested.