Wake (Watersong Novels) (6 page)

“Harper tells me what to do all the time.” Gemma laughed. “And of course there’s Dad.”

“Oh. Right,” Nathalie said. “I forgot about him.” Her forehead pinched in concentration. “What’s his name again?”

“Brian.” Harper smiled to hide the hurt and swallowed hard. “Dad’s name is Brian.”

“I thought it was Justin.” She waved her hand, brushing off the subject. “Did you guys want to go to the concert with me if I can get tickets?”

“I don’t think so,” Harper said. “We’ve got a lot going on.”

The conversation went on that way for a while. Nathalie asked about the girls’ lives, and they told her things they’d told her a hundred times before. When they left, Harper felt the same way she always did—drained but relieved.

She loved her mother, just as Gemma loved her mother, and they were both glad they saw her. But Harper couldn’t help wondering what any of them got out of this.

FIVE

Stargazing

The garbage can smelled like a dead animal. Gemma wrinkled her nose and tried to avoid gagging as she tossed the bag in the can behind her house. She had no idea what her father or Harper had thrown away, but it was pretty rank.

Waving her hand in front of her face, she stepped away. Gemma breathed in the fresh night air as deeply as she could.

She glanced over at the neighbors’ house. Lately she found herself glancing over at it more and more, as if subconsciously looking for Alex. This time she was in luck. In the glow from her backyard light, she saw Alex sprawled out on his lawn, staring up at the sky.

“What are you doing?” Gemma asked, walking into Alex’s backyard without waiting to be invited.

“Looking at constellations,” Alex said, but she’d already known the answer before she’d asked. For as long as she’d known him, he’d spent more time with his head in the stars than here on the ground.

He lay on his back, his fingers latched behind his head, an old blanket beneath him. The Batman T-shirt was actually a bit small for him, a leftover from before his recent growth spurt. The muscles in his arms and his broad shoulders pulled at the fabric. The T-shirt had pulled up a bit, so she could see a hint of his belly above his jeans, and Gemma quickly looked away and pretended she hadn’t noticed.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Uh, no. Of course not.” Alex quickly scooted over, making room for her on the blanket.

“Thanks.”

The blanket wasn’t very big, so when Gemma sat down, she was right next to him. As she lay back, her head bumped his elbow. To avoid that, Alex moved his arm so it was in between them. Now his arm was pressed against hers, and she tried not to think about how warm his skin felt.

“So … what exactly are you looking at?” Gemma asked.

“I’ve shown you the constellations before,” Alex said, and he had, many times. But most of those times had been when she was younger and she hadn’t hung on his words like she did now.

“I was just wondering if there was anything in particular you were watching.”

“No. Not really. I just love the stars.”

“Is that what you’re going to college for?”

“Stars?” Alex asked. “Kind of, I guess. I mean, it’s not like I’ll be an astronaut or anything.”

“Why not?” She tilted her head so she could look over at him.

“I don’t know.” He shifted on the blanket, and his hand brushed against Gemma’s. “Going into outer space is an awesome dream, yeah, but I’d rather stay on the ground and make a difference. I want to study and track the weather and the atmosphere. It could save lives if people knew about storms sooner.”

“You’d rather be down here watching the sky instead of up in it because you can help people?” Gemma asked.

She stared at him, surprised by how much he’d grown up. Not just in the strong line of his jaw, or the trail of dark hair she’d seen on his belly. But something had changed
inside
him. At some point he’d stopped being the boy who obsessed over video games and had become somebody concerned with the world around him.

“Yeah.” He shrugged and turned to face her. They lay on the blanket staring at each other for a minute, and then Alex smirked. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” Gemma said, but she quickly looked away, afraid that he might see something in her expression.

“You think it’s weird, right?” Alex asked, still watching her. “You think I’m a geek for wanting to watch weather patterns.”

“No, that’s not what I’m thinking at all.” She smiled out of embarrassment over what she was really thinking. “I mean, you
are
a geek. But that’s not what I was thinking.”

“I am a geek,” Alex agreed, and Gemma laughed. Then, apparently without thinking, he said, “You’re really pretty.”

The instant he said it, he turned away from her rigidly.

“I’m sorry. I can’t believe I just said that. I don’t know why I said that,” Alex said in one rushed breath. “I’m sorry.”

Gemma lay there for a minute, staring up at the stars while Alex squirmed in embarrassment next to her. She didn’t say anything at first, because she wasn’t sure what to say or what to make of his random admission.

“Did you … you just called me pretty,” Gemma said finally, her tone questioning.

“Yeah, I didn’t…” Alex sat up, as if trying to put some distance between them. “I don’t know why I said that. It just slipped out.”

“It just slipped out?” Gemma said teasingly and sat up next to him.

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, and kept his back to her. “Yeah.” He sighed. “You laughed, and I just thought you looked really pretty, and for some reason, it just … I just said it. It was like I forgot how to control my mouth or something.”

“Wait.” She smiled, the kind of smile she couldn’t contain. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Well, yeah.” He sighed again and rubbed his arm. “Of course I do. I mean, you are
very
pretty. You know that.” He looked up at the sky and cursed under his breath. “I don’t know why I just told you that.”

“It’s okay.” Gemma moved closer to him, sitting next to him but slightly behind him, so her shoulder pressed up against his. “I think you’re pretty, too.”

“You think I’m pretty?” Alex smiled and turned to look at her, so his face was right in front of hers.

“Yep,” she assured him with a grin.

“I’m a guy. Guys aren’t pretty.”

“You are.” Her smile softened, giving way to a slightly nervous and hopeful look.

Alex’s dark eyes searched her face, and he paled. He looked downright terrified, and even though the moment felt perfect, Gemma was starting to think he wouldn’t take it.

Then he leaned in and his lips pressed softly against hers. The kiss was small and sweet, almost innocent, but it felt like fireworks inside her.

“Sorry,” Alex said when he stopped kissing her and looked away.

“Why are you apologizing?” Gemma asked.

“I don’t know.” He laughed. He shook his head and looked back at her, smiling at him. “I’m not sorry.”

“Me neither.”

Alex leaned in to kiss her again, but before he could, Brian yelled from the house behind them.

“Gemma!”

That was all it took to ruin the moment. Alex jumped away from Gemma like he’d been shocked.

Gemma got up more slowly than he had, offering him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, no, it’s okay.” Alex rubbed the back of his head and refused to even look in the direction of Gemma or her father.

“I’ll see you later?” Gemma asked.

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” He nodded quickly.

Gemma hurried back over to her house, where her father stood at the back door, holding it open. When she went inside, Brian stood outside for a minute longer, watching Alex as he awkwardly tried to fold the blanket.

“Dad!” Gemma shouted at him.

Brian waited a beat before coming in. He closed the back door behind him and locked it, then flipped off the outside light. When he came into the kitchen, Gemma was pacing and chewing her fingernails.

“You don’t have to check up on me, you know.”

“You went out fifteen minutes ago to take out the garbage.” Brian leaned against the counter. “I was simply making sure you hadn’t been kidnapped or attacked by rabid raccoons.”

“Well, I wasn’t.” Gemma stopped moving and took a deep breath.

“Do you want to tell me what was going on out there?”

Her eyes widened. “No!”

“Look, Gemma, I know you’re sixteen, and you’re going to start dating.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “And Alex isn’t a bad kid, exactly. But he’s older, and you’re too young for certain things—”

“Dad, we just kissed. Okay?” Gemma’s face pinched with discomfort over discussing the topic with her father.

“So you’re … seeing him now?” Brian asked carefully.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “We just kissed.”

“And that’s all you should do,” Brian said. “He’s leaving in a couple months, and you’re too young to really commit to anything. Plus you have your swimming to focus on.”

“Dad, please,” Gemma said. “Let me figure this out on my own. Okay?”

“Okay,” he said reluctantly. “But if he touches you, I’ll kill him. And if he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”

“I know.”

“Does he know that?” Brian gestured toward Alex’s house next door. “Because I can go over and tell him that myself.”

“No, Dad!” Gemma held up her hands. “I’ve got it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go to bed so I can get up early tomorrow to swim.”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday. The pool’s closed.”

“I’ll go out to the bay. I skipped tonight, and I want to be in the water.”

Brian nodded, letting the conversation go, and Gemma hurried up to her room. The light shone from beneath Harper’s bedroom door, signaling she was still up, probably reading a book. Gemma snuck into her own room quietly, so as not to alert her sister.

From her bedroom window, Harper might have been able to see Gemma and Alex kiss, or she might’ve overheard Gemma and her dad talking about it. And the last thing Gemma wanted to do was rehash it with Harper, especially when she had no idea how she felt about it herself.

Gemma flopped back on the bed. Plastic stars were stuck to her ceiling, and only a couple of them still managed a dim glow. She stared at them, smiling because they reminded her of Alex.

Harper had been the one to put the stars up when Gemma had been eight and suffered from serious night terrors. Alex had helped, though, mapping out the constellations with as much accuracy as he could manage.

It was so weird thinking of him now. Gemma had been used to having him around as a nerdy friend of her sister’s. But now when she thought of him, her heart beat faster and a warm feeling grew from her belly.

Her lips still tingled from his kiss, and she wondered when she’d be able to kiss him again. She stayed up late, replaying their moments under the stars over and over in her head. When she finally fell asleep, she did so with a smile on her face.

The alarm next to her bed jolted her awake in the morning. The sun was just starting to rise, shining bright orange through her curtains. The snooze button was tempting, but she’d already missed a full day of swimming, so she really had to make up for it.

By the time Gemma was up and ready, the whole town of Capri was bathed in warm sunlight. Both Harper and her dad were still asleep, and she left them a note on the fridge reminding them she’d gone to Anthemusa Bay.

She blasted Lady Gaga on her iPod and hopped on her bike. It was still early, so the rest of the town was asleep. Gemma liked it better that way, when the streets weren’t filled to the brim with tourists.

The trip to the bay seemed to go more quickly than normal. Pedaling seemed easier. Gemma felt like she was floating on a cloud. One simple kiss from Alex had somehow made the whole world lighter.

Since she rode her bike, she couldn’t swim at the spot with the cypress trees like she usually did. Her bike couldn’t make it up the path, and there was no place for her to lock it up. Instead, she went down to the docks near where her father worked.

Technically, people weren’t supposed to swim there, since it was dangerous, with all the boats, but she didn’t plan to actually swim there. After she locked up her bike, she would dive in and swim out where it was safer. Nobody was really out this early to catch her anyway.

Gemma parked her bike next to a post on the dock. Once she’d stripped down to her bathing suit, she shoved her jean shorts, tank top, and flip-flops in the backpack she’d brought with her. She looped the bike chain through the backpack’s straps and secured it with the bike, locking everything up tightly.

She ran to the end of the dock and dove in. The morning air still had a chill to it, and the water was a tad icy, but Gemma didn’t mind. It didn’t really matter what the temperature was or what the water was like. Gemma never felt more at home than when she was in the water.

She spent as much time swimming as she could, but by late morning the bay had started to get crowded. It was shaping up to be a beautiful warm day, so the beach was full. The water closer to the dock had filled up with boats heading out to sea, and Gemma knew she had to head back in or risk getting run over with a propeller.

The ladder at the end of the dock was missing a few rungs, so she struggled to pull herself up. She was just about to hoist herself over the end of the dock when somebody stuck a hand in her face. The nails were long and manicured, painted bloodred, and the skin smelled of coconuts.

With salty water dripping down her face, Gemma looked up to see Penn standing right in front of her, her hand outstretched toward Gemma.

“Need a hand?” Penn asked, smiling in a way that reminded Gemma of a hungry animal.

SIX

Cornered

Penn was the closest to Gemma, but the other two girls stood right behind her. Gemma had never been this near to Penn before, and her beauty was even more intimidating up close. Penn was flawless. She looked like an airbrushed model on the cover of
Maxim
.

“Did you need help?” Penn asked more clearly, as if she thought Gemma were deaf since she hadn’t done anything except gape at her.