“You’ve what?”
He just shook his head. “I just can’t believe how ridiculous you are. I bet you only started thinking it when other people brought it up, right? Always lending an ear to rumours –”
“Don’t be rude,” I interrupted icily. “I don’t lend an ear to rumours. You know I hate drama, and I defended you non-stop these last three years. You’re just pissed because I pushed for an answer, and I won’t the next time I ask you something, alright? I got the message. Now get the hell over it!”
I slipped back into the water – my way of a dramatic exit – and swam in the direction of the lake houses. I heard him jump in after me, easily catching up to me. He moved in front of me and I splashed him to get out of the way. He just splashed me back and continued to block me, determined to be as annoying as possible. “You’re such a dick,” I said.
He smiled. “Your exit would have been executed brilliantly if you weren’t swimming the wrong way.”
“I’m not swimming the wrong way!”
“Where are you going then?”
“Closer to the music.” I splashed him again, held my breath and disappeared in the water. I didn’t have to look to know he was following.
He was always following me.
We surfaced at the same time just under the last boardwalk. Close enough to shore, I could hear the music blaring loudly and see a small fire on the beach. There were people everywhere, buzzing around the fire pit, eating and laughing, moving to and fro from one gorgeous house and back again. I watched them as Aston settled beside me, staring in the same direction. The music made my bones ache to move.
“You want to go over there?” I asked him, our fight already forgotten.
“A lot of alcohol around, El,” he replied on a frown. “I don’t want to have to fight against a crowd of guys trying to get to you.”
“There are other girls, you know.”
“You’d be the prettiest.”
I fought the smile on my lips at his casual compliment. “I just want to dance.”
“You can dance some other time,” he replied dismissively. “I just don’t want another situation like Deck to happen again.”
“That hasn’t happened since you decided to come with me. You’ve been protecting me from all that. We’ll be fine.”
“We’ll do it some other time.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ugh, Aston, you really must learn to live in the moment.”
He exhaled. He knew there was no use arguing with me. Looking back in the direction we came from, he said, “You want to go and grab your clothes and we’ll walk back here then?”
“That’ll take too long. I’m fine the way I am.”
When he didn’t respond, I glanced at him and found his eyes moving along my body. Not that he could see anything in the darkness, but he was trying to just the same. He immediately looked up at my eyes when I caught him, a fleeting look of guilt crossing his face. With a locked jaw, he looked away from me and back to the crowd on the beach.
That was a monumental moment for me. Because I saw it. I saw it clear as day. My sweet, rough adoptive brother Aston had just checked me out, and it wasn’t done in a clinical, unfeeling manner either. I saw heat there. I swore I did. Didn’t I? My paranoia reared its head, but I pushed it away, determined to believe it.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. My heart accelerated as possibilities tore through my mind. What did this mean? Stupid hope emerged and I felt high off it.
“Let’s go,” I then told him, excitedly, otherwise I’d have swum there for eons, analysing this revelation. “They’re only a little older than us. College kids by the looks of it. We’ll blend right in.”
“You’re in nothing but your underwear and bra.”
I scoffed. “Look what the other girls are wearing, Aston! They may as well be naked.”
“But you’re wet –”
“It’ll look like a bikini –”
“You don’t know the kind of creeps out there. So, no. I’m not going to allow that.”
“Since when do you allow me to do anything –”
“I said no.”
“Yes, brother,” I hissed, frowning at the authoritative tone in his voice.
We glared at each other for several moments. Then I splashed him hard and swam away from him, moving toward the beach. He called out my name but I ignored him as I went. He couldn’t order me around!
I wasn’t going to be his little sister and do as I was told.
9.
Elise
I was breathing a little hard by the time I waded out of the waters, my hair soaked and sitting just below my waist. Smoke from the fire billowed against me, its heat already diminishing the relief the cool water had given me. I wasn’t aware of it until I was standing by the pit, but a few nerdy looking guys had stopped to stare at me, their mouths wide open, their eyes bulging out of their sockets.