Shipwrecked Summer (9 page)

    I nodded. “Guess something in the sea air lulls me to sleep.”

    “You going to fall asleep on me when we have our rooftop sleepover?”

    My eyes widened and I swallowed hard. He still wanted to do that? What about Pia? Maybe this would be easier than I thought.

  “Sure,” I said. “Once the fun’s over.” I felt my cheeks skip warm and go straight to burning hot. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that!

    Anthony only looked at me with raised eyebrows as a smile formed on his lips. “I like the way you think.”

    I smiled, but found myself at a loss for words. He looked back at me, not saying anything. Talking to Anthony wasn’t supposed to be this hard, was it?

“So what are you doing today?” he finally asked me.

    I shrugged, figuring that maybe if I played it cool, he’d ask me to hang out. “I’m not sure yet. I don’t have to work, though.”

    He nodded. “Sweet. Maybe we can hit the beach later.”

    “Perfect!” I said with a little more enthusiasm than I should have.

He stifled a laugh and I wanted to die. “Glad you’re excited about it, Lex. I’m gonna grab some breakfast and stuff. I’ll come over in an hour.”

I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t say anything else stupid until later. If I was going to beat Pia in the Anthony Killeen sweepstakes, I was going to need to do a lot better than that.

***

Anthony rang our front bell about an hour and a half later, two boogie boards tucked neatly under his arms. I, of course, had been ready to go for the last forty-five minutes, but he didn’t need to know that.

Still, I hated that he was late, like I couldn’t count on him to stick to his word. I’d taken extra care to look perfect for the beach. My hair fell exactly as I hoped it would and I’d worn a bit more eye make-up than I ordinarily would to the beach.

Hey, desperate times and all that.

    Anthony smiled at me as I walked down the steps and we headed toward the beach bridge. It felt normal, like the first day we’d gone to the beach together, like yesterday and Pia had never even happened.

“This spot okay?” He stopped about fifteen feet away from the lifeguard stand.

I tried not to look, but I couldn’t help it. Jeff wasn’t on duty. “Sure, it’s perfect.”

He nodded and spread his towel out on the ground. I wasn’t sure how close to his I should put my own, so I settled for leaving a few feet of sand between us.

“I’m afraid to go in the water with you,” he said, pointing at my bruise which had begun to turn a frightening shade of traffic light yellow. “Don’t want your other leg to end up looking like that.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Then you up for this?” He pointed at the two boogie boards lying next to his towel.

I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “You just so happen to be talking to the queen of boogie boarding. I’m a champ.”

He cocked one eyebrow. “We’ll just have to see about that.”

We strapped the velcro cords around our wrists and ran for the waves. The water felt colder than usual but I tried not to squeal as I went farther out, always making sure I could feel the sand beneath me with my feet if I stood.

We turned around to face the shore, clinging to our boards, waiting for the perfect wave.

“I love the ocean,” he said, a smile on his face as he closed his eyes.

“Me too. Most of it, anyway.”

He looked over at me. “Most of it? There a specific part of the ocean you don’t like?”

I laughed. “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that this thing happened to me when I was kid. My whole family was out on a boat and my dad and I decided to go--”

“Look at that wave!” Anthony called out, and I turned around to see a pretty big wave rising behind us. We were positioned perfectly to ride it into shore.

I tried not to be disappointed that he didn’t want me to finish my story. I didn’t talk about that day much, but he’d seemed like the right person to share it with.

I just barely beat him back to the shore.

“Nice ride,” he said. “Want to go again?”

“I’d love to try the board!”

I froze. I knew the voice that had spoken behind me, but I almost couldn’t believe this was happening.

Slowly, I turned around, praying that I’d been wrong.

“Hey!” Anthony’s megawatt smile--bigger than any one he’d ever given me--sank my heart. “That could be fun! We could take turns. What do you think, Lexie? Willing to give your friend a spin on the board?”

Pia smiled at me and I didn’t think I had much of a choice.

“Oh,” I said. “Okay, yeah. No problem.”

I unstrapped the velcro wristband and passed the boogie board over to her, not wanting to let it go when her fingers closed around it.

“Thanks, Lexie. That’s sweet of you.”

I didn’t say anything, just began to walk up the beach to our towels. I didn’t plan to stick around and see how this played out. I knew Pia wasn’t going to bring the boogie board back to me unless I asked for it. And clearly Anthony wasn’t too broken up about losing out on time with me.

“Oh!” Pia called out after I’d gotten a few feet up the sand. “By the way, Lexie...you may want to grab a mirror. Your make-up’s running.”

My cheeks flushed as I quickened my pace to get back to the house.

Operation Steal Anthony Back was doomed to failure.

***   

Joey knocked on our front door just after we’d finished dinner that night. I expected a quiet night wallowing in my own pity, so his presence on the doorstep was a welcome sight.

    “I didn’t come over to stay,” Joey said after I asked him if he wanted to hang out on the patio. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to use Tack’s pool tonight if you want to come.”

  “He’s having a party?”

    Joey shook his head. “He’s back in Eastwood for the week, but said that we can use the pool on his roof whenever we want. And we want tonight.”

    “Who’s we?”

    “I don’t know, me, you, Pia. She’ll probably ask Anthony, so if there’s anyone you want to ask, knock yourself out.”

   “Oh,” I said, unenthused at the idea of seeing the two of them together. “Okay.”

    He rolled his eyes. “Don’t let that stop you from coming, Lex.”

    I stared back at him. “Why shouldn’t it?”

“Because that’s no way to live your life. There’s nothing you can do about it if he prefers her to you. But don’t let it ruin your summer.”

    I hated it when someone gave you perfect advice but you knew you weren’t going to take it.

   “He doesn’t have to be so cruel about it.”

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you,” Joey said, his foot tapping ever so slightly against the porch. “You obviously think he’s a jerk so you should be happy that Pia took him off your hands. Come out tonight and have fun and let them do whatever it is they want to do. If he’s not a good guy, she’ll get hers and then I’m sure you’ll be happy.”

    I frowned. “Hey, that’s not--”

    “Don’t even try that with me,” he cut in. “I know you and I know you wouldn’t be that broken up about it if Anthony screws Pia over. It’s whatever, I don’t care. All that matters to me right now is that you put your bathing suit on tonight and come with us to the pool.”

  “Okay, okay,” I said with a defeated sigh. “I’ll be there.”

    “Tack’s house at nine,” Joey said before he turned and jogged down the steps.

I closed the door behind me and leaned up against the wall, shutting my eyes.

I’d vowed not to hang out with Pia again this summer, at least until she apologized to me for this, and that definitely went for hanging out with Anthony and her together.

    Somehow, Joey had managed to rope me into it in under five minutes. I didn’t think he’d be too much of an ally tonight and I definitely needed one. Without thinking twice about it, I hurried to find my phone.

I needed reinforcements and Gianna would be there with me, whether she liked it or not.

Turns out, Gianna was a lot more willing to go with me to this impromptu-but-sure-to-be-a-disaster pool party than I thought. She’d immediately agreed to meet me at Tack’s house at nine.

I walked down the steps, ready to make my way over to the Jordans’ pool, when the door to the Killeen’s duplex opened and I couldn’t help but look up.

Anthony, dressed in bright blue swimming shorts and a clingy-in-all-the-right-places white T-shirt, closed the door behind him.

“Whoa!” He jumped when he saw me standing awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs.

    “Sorry!” I said. “I was just leaving and saw you come outside.”

    “Couldn’t say hi before you scared me half to death?”

   “I said sorry.” My tone may have been a bit snappier than it should’ve been, but I was weary of Anthony Killeen now.

    He frowned. “You okay?”

    I could only nod and his frown deepened.

“Lexie, if something’s wrong, you can tell me about it. What are neighbors for?”

   I glared at him, my heart pounding, wondering if I should tell him the truth, tell him that I didn’t understand what he was doing with Pia when he’d been doing all of the same things with me.

    “Really,” he added. “You can.”

    I’d started to walk down the street and he had to jog a few steps to catch up with me.

   Standing side by side with him, hidden by the night’s veil, I bit down on my lip, willing the tears to stay back. Who was I kidding? I’d had expectations about Anthony and me for this summer.

And why shouldn’t I have? He’d been nothing but nice--flirtatious, even!--with me when we’d first met and hung out that day. He’d bruised my leg! Didn’t that count for...I don’t know, something?

Anything?

  “It’s just...” I trailed off, losing my nerve.

    “Just what?” I could detect a trace of impatience in his voice and I sighed.

Did it matter what he thought of me at this point? He obviously preferred Pia and I might as well let him know I wouldn’t be a total pushover.

   “I don’t know what your problem is,” I snapped, the bite in my voice surprising both of us. “You’re all nice to me the night we met, rescuing me from Jeff at the bonfire, and you’re even nicer the next day when we’re hanging out. You keep asking me to do things, saying all the right stuff, and then it’s just like...bam! You’re done with me as soon as the next shiny toy comes along.”

“That toy being...?”

    I narrowed my eyes. “Really? You have to ask?”

    He looked at me and shrugged. “Yeah, I have to ask.”

    “I know you haven’t already moved on from Pia.” I said her name as if it was a contagious disease.

    “Moved on from...” he trailed off. “Pia? I’m not interested in Pia.”

    “Yeah. Obviously not.” I shook my head. If Anthony wasn’t even going to be straight with me, what was the point?

    He shook his head. “I don’t know where you’re getting this, Lexie. Because I’m nice to her? That doesn’t mean I want her.”

    “Oh, please. Guys always want her.”

    Anthony held up his hands, palms facing the dark night sky. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not one of them.”

    “Then what do you want?”

    “Honestly? I don’t want anything but to have a good time this summer. I’m going to school in the fall, you’re going to school in the fall, she’s going to school in the fall. I just want to enjoy this last summer before college, you know?”

I nodded, but I didn’t know. I wanted to have a good time, too, but I wanted more than that. How could he be so cavalier about his expectations for the summer?

“It’s like...whatever happens happens,” he went on. “And I’m not interested in anything serious, so I’m sorry if I somehow gave you that impression. And I didn’t mean to give it to Pia, either. Guess I have to talk to her, too.”

I smiled, comforted by the thought that Anthony didn’t prefer Pia to me and that he was a decent enough guy to tell her that straight to her face. And mine.

He raised an eyebrow as if he didn’t quite believe me, but was nice enough not to press the issue.

“Then are we good?” he asked me. “Because I like hanging out with you. I don’t want that to go away.”

I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “Me neither.”

“Okay.” He sighed. “Good.”

We walked up to Tack Jordan’s front porch and Anthony tried the door. Finding it unlocked, we walked into his house and up a maze of staircases to the rooftop pool. It was probably the only private pool on all of Fresh Water Island and as much as I loved my third-floor balcony, if Grandma and Poppy said they’d rather put a swimming pool up there, I don’t think I’d complain too much.