The Game Changer (6 page)

Deanna is standing in front of her mirror, putting on some lip gloss, when I enter her room. She has those full pouty lips, same as Luke. She could be a model with her long legs, perfect face and body. She’s stunning to look at. She turns around when I walk in. “Wow! Look at you... you
look great! That color looks awesome on you with your tan.” I feel pale compared to her. “Here, sit down, let me put a little lip gloss on your lips, it has UV protection, so your lips won’t get chapped in the sun.” That is her nice way of saying I need a little color on my lips. “There… perfect! You ready?” She hands me an extra pair of her sunglasses. My stomach gets that queasy feeling.

“I guess.” Not sounding very convincing.

“Trust me, JJ, they will love you. Besides, everyone is always fascinated with the new kid!” she teases.

We walk to the corner to catch the bus while she gives me the details on her closest friends, Cathy, Lori, Billy, Sean, and Matt. Matt is also Lori’s boyfriend. “There will be a lot of kids from our school there, so I’ll try not to overwhelm you all at once.”

“Thanks,” I say dryly.

As soon as we get off the bus, the anxiety kicks in. I almost tell her I’ve changed my mind, but I know she will be disappointed. We walk towards the beach and she tells me how everyone sits on 1
st
street because the surfing is better. As soon as we hit the path through the dunes to the beach, the sounds of music and thousands of voices going at once can be heard. We walk through the crowd of kids, stepping over the colorful beach towels scattered across the warm sand. Finally, we hear someone calling Deanna’s name.

“Oh, there’s Lori.” Deanna waves in her direction as we start heading towards them. I’m thankful for the sunglasses, I feel like I can hide behind them a bit. As we zigzag though the crowd, Deanna occasionally stops to say hello to someone.

We pass a group of girls that seem to be older. “Hi, De,” the sexy blonde says effortlessly as I feel her eyes looking me up and down.

“Alexa,” Deanna replies shortly, while refusing to stop.

“Who the hell is that?” I hear the sexy blonde quietly ask the friend next to her.

My stomach turns. So that’s Alexa.
Wow
, I think. I want to look back so bad, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

As we finally reach the spot where Deanna’s friends are sitting, she begins the introductions as she points at each person curiously looking up at
me. “This is Lori, Cathy, Matt and Sean... and this is
Jesse
.” She looks at me and smiles. She knows me so well already. She knows I won’t be comfortable with everyone calling me JJ.

“Hi, Jesse, it’s nice to meet you,” they all pretty much say together.

Cathy continues, “We’ve been waiting to meet you. De talks about you all the time.”

“It’s nice to meet you all, too. It’s just been a couple of crazy weeks, trying to unpack and everything.” I try to sound casual and not overly anxious.

“Here, we’ll make room, so you can spread out your towels.” Lori begins to scoot down next to Matt so there is enough room for me and Deanna to squeeze in.

“How do you like Bay Point so far?” Sean asks.

“I really like it. This is my first trip to the beach this year,” I answer.

“De told us you moved from Philly; do you miss your friends?”

“A little,” I lie. I glance at Deanna; she knows that I don’t have friends to miss. She gives me a reassuring smile.

“We’re not going to give her time to miss her friends, because we are going to show her a good time here, right?” She turns to wink at me.  Then, she quickly changes the subject, “Where’s Billy?”

“He’s here… surfing,” Matt answers as he nods his head towards the water.

I’m thankful Deanna keeps the conversation flowing it takes the focus off of me. So far, so good. I don’t seem as out of place as I thought I would. She was right, from what I have seen so far, they seem to be nice. 

Deanna turns to me so only I can hear. “JJ, did you notice who said hi to me as we were walking up?”

“I caught that.” I look over in the direction of where
Alexa
sits. This girl is...
Wow!
is all I can think. I don’t know why, but Luke just seems too nice to be with her. Don’t get me wrong... she is a knockout. Not naturally beautiful the way Deanna is, but more of a... I don’t know... more of an over done kinda look... like a stripper or playboy model would look; with her skimpy bikini and all parts of her curvaceous body seeping out. Okay, so I
am
being catty and jealous. Guys will definitely drool and she seems like she knows it, too. Why do I care anyway? I guess that’s Luke’s type, what guy wouldn’t want to be with someone like her? Besides, he
looks
like he should be with someone like that. I look around to see if I see him. I don’t see him or Mikey. “I heard her ask her friend, who I was,” I whisper to Deanna.

“Yeah, I heard that, too. She’ll hate you,” She says with a giggle.

“Hate me?” I ask, shocked. “Why?”

“Because you’re so pretty... Not to mention your friendship with Luke.
That
will drive her crazy.”

I roll my eyes, not quite believing that she will give even a second thought to me. I definitely am not a threat to her, not with the way she looks.

Cathy interrupts, “Are you talking about Alexa?”

“Yeah,” De says, rolling her eyes.

“You had to see her earlier. See those guys over there. I don’t know where they are from, but they were playing football and you know her, she had to flaunt her stuff in front of them. They asked her to join in their game, they were all over her. Good thing Luke wasn’t here. Then, we would have had to hear fight... what... 110?”

“Something like that. I still don’t get why he’s with her. Then again, he’s with a lot of girls. He and Mikey are pigs. He uses her like she uses him, I guess,” Deanna answers sounding agitated, shrugging her shoulders.

I sit there pondering this. I guess I am maybe a little surprised. With my first impression of Luke, this would have been typical, but after getting to know him, he has a sensitive side, too. I watch the group of guys playing football by the water, showing off in front of Alexa and her friends. Not one of them even compares to Luke. As I sit and daydream, we are interrupted by Matt calling us over.

“Girls, c’mon we need you for a volleyball game,” he says excitedly.

I look at Deanna. I hope we aren’t going to play; I’m not good at sports. She looks at me, reading my mind. “C’mon it’ll be fun, believe me, we’re not good, either.” We head over to a place back by the dunes, a distance away from where everyone is sitting. I’m relieved we’re not playing in front of a crowd. A cute boy, who I haven’t yet met, walks up to us.

“So, who’s this?” he asks, looking me over. It makes me uncomfortable.

“Jesse, this is Billy. Don’t mind his rudeness,” Cathy jokes as she introduces us.

“Ah, so this is Jesse. Nice to finally meet you.” He grabs me by the hand and pulls me along with him. “Jesse’s on my team.” I look back over my shoulder at Deanna.

She looks at me and shrugs. “Don’t mind him, Jesse. He’s a little pushy.”

He laughs and turns to me. “So, do you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” I answer shyly.

“Do you want one?” He asks forwardly, flashing a smile.

I don’t answer. I know he is teasing, but I’m still embarrassed.

“Alright, I’ll let you off the hook for now, but maybe after you get to know me better,” he jokes.

At the same time, the girls all yell at him, “Billy, leave her alone.”  Deanna pulls me away. “You’re going to scare her away.” “I’m just playing with you...
but
... if you ever change your mind.”

“Just ignore him,” Deanna says.

After we’ve finished the game, Deanna and I walk down to the water. “Billy’s a clown, but he’s harmless. He’s actually a really nice kid. He plays on our football team,” she says as we slowly walk in the water, splashing the cold water onto our hot skin. She then points to an attractive guy playing football with his friends. “That’s Timmy Price, he’s in Luke’s grade and a running back on our team; I think he is really cute.”

“He is cute,” I agree. “Does he know you like him?”

“I’m not sure, we just met recently at a party... we’ve talked a little, here and there, but so far, he hasn’t asked me out or anything.”

We are so engrossed in our conversation that when I suddenly hear a familiar voice, “NOW!” it startles me. All I see out of the corner of my eye is Mikey picking up Deanna, throwing her over his shoulder at the same time I feel
his
hands around my waist, lifting me up. They laugh, delighted they caught us off guard as they drag us out deeper into the icy water. We’re both screaming for them to put us down; I squirm to get free. I can’t see Deanna or Mikey, but I hear her threatening to kill him and I hear Mikey laughing at her. At the same time I plead with Luke, trying to use my best sympathy voice as I try to pry his tightly wrapped hands from around my waist.

“Please Luke, don’t do this to me, it’s freezing, and… this is my first time at the beach meeting everyone.” I try to play on his sympathies. He knows the anxiety I have about meeting new people; we’ve covered it in our morning “therapy” sessions at the docks.

He isn’t buying it. He holds onto me tighter, pulling me closer to his smooth, tanned, broad chest. His head bent down and his lips brush up against my ear as he speaks softly, “
Relax
… stop trying to fight me and I may let you go.” I can feel the muscles in his arms and chest tensing as he flips me and cradles me in his.  His playful, rough voice sends chills through my whole body. 

“Okay… really... you will?” I ask innocently, shaking. I’m not sure if the shaking is from the freezing water or from him holding me so close.

“Umm... no... I don’t think so.” He chuckles as he continues to walk deeper into the water. 

“Oh, my God, you are such a jerk! Please don’t!” I beg as I bury my face into his chest.

“Oh, so now I’m a jerk? Probably not a good thing to say right now,” he taunts.

“Sorry... pleassssse! I’m freezing!” I plead.

“See, that’s the problem; you’re too slow. You can’t just stand there taking forever to dive in... it’s more painful that way. You have to dive right in… get passed it. Then, you wouldn’t be so cold,” he whispers softly, brushing his lips against my ear. The warmth from his breath and his body are beginning to warm me, but, with that thought, he drops me in the water! I scream as I go under.

As I pop back up, spitting out water, I yell at him, “I hate you! I can’t believe you just did that to me!”

He’s laughing so hard as he picks me up in his arms again and begins to head back for the beach. “No, you don’t,” he whispers, amused at himself. 

He’s right. At that moment, I know I can never hate him, but I won’t let him know that. “Put me
down,” I say in my best annoyed voice as I push the wet hair out of my face.

As we near the beach and are in a foot of water, he finally puts me down and throws his arm around my shoulder, pulling me towards him. “Don’t be mad, I’m sorry.” He looks at me with his puppy dog eyes and beautiful smile.

“I’ll think about it,” I say as I smile up at him. He knows instantly, he’s forgiven.

Mikey is ahead of us, walking out of the water with a sopping wet Deanna hitting him in the back of the head and yelling at him. I can see by the way his shoulders are shaking he’s laughing at her.

We must have caused a scene because there are a few people staring at us when we get out of the water; one being a not too happy girlfriend. We both must have spotted her watching at the same time, because he quickly drops his arm down to his side. I start to walk towards Deanna as Luke heads towards Alexa. He turns back to me. “I really am sorry, JJ.”

“No, you’re not,” I say, laughing. I can hear him laughing as he walks back towards Alexa.

Mikey turns to me and De. “Uh oh, he’s in trouble!”

“So are you… by me! I’m not as forgiving as JJ! And so, what? Who cares if she’s mad? I don’t care what she thinks!” She is still furious as she rings out her hair.

Mikey agrees with her. “Yeah, I know.” Then, he sounds annoyed. “Why does Timmy Price keep looking over here?”

Deanna shoots him a look. “Mind your own business, Mikey. I’m annoyed enough at you right now!” She grabs my arm and pulls me away.

“What’s that all about?” I ask.

“I told you before about how there is this rivalry with the baseball team and the football team. Well Timmy plays football and Mikey plays baseball... so…”

“Not to mention, he was staring at you,” I add.

“Maybe.” She glances back over her shoulder.

We sit down on our towels and I put on my sunglasses so I can watch Alexa and Luke argue without anyone knowing I’m watching. She’s giving him a hard time, but he just shrugs his shoulders and laughs at her.  I can see that he’s teasing her, nudging her, after awhile he puts his arm around her and kisses her cheek. I could swear she glances in my direction as she leans in to kiss him on the lips. Oh well, fight over.