“ What?” he asked, scanning for traffic. “Do you have to stand in the road right now?”
“ She did it on purpose! She was flirting with you.” The thought annoyed me because he told me he liked me, he yelled it in fact, so the universe should have listened and turned all the other pretty girls away. I couldn’t compete with them.
“ So what if she was? Girls have flirted with me before,” he answered with a strange tone.
I grunted and walked past him. If only I could have said, guys have flirted with me before as well. ALL THE TIME IN FACT. But since that would have been a big ol’ lie, I walked past him and headed toward the giant fire now burning a few yards away on the beach. I couldn’t hear his footsteps in the sand behind me, but I assumed he was following me. If not, he’d stayed out on the road and had probably been run over by now. I told myself I didn’t care either way.
The bonfire was blazing and crackling through the dark night. It was the centerpiece of the party with groups mingling all around it. Off to the side there was a grill and a few coolers lined up. As I stepped closer, I tried to inspect the scene quickly and decide which area looked the least intimidating. There were more people there than I had expected, at least twenty or thirty. They all looked around my age or a little older.
“ Beck! You made it!” the girl from earlier called. I never did catch her name, so I dubbed her She Who Shall Not Be Named in honor of the Dark Lord. I’m sure they had a lot in common. I knew Beck was a few feet behind me, so instead of waiting for her to make her way over and tackle him into the sand, I headed over to the drinks. I couldn’t have alcohol because of my transplant, which sort of sucked in that moment. It would have been nice to take the nervous edge off a tiny bit, not to mention everyone would assume I was fifteen if I walked around all night with a coke can in my hand.
As I was reaching in the cooler for a bottled water, a shadow fell behind me and blocked the fire’s light. I twisted around to find Jason, the surfing instructor from earlier, standing behind me. He looked surprised to see me, but definitely happy about the coincidence. Huh.
“ Abby, right?” he asked, reaching past me to grab a bottled water and a beer. He handed me the water and then popped open the can of his beer so that it echoed through the night.
“ Yup. Jason?”
He smiled wide and motioned for us to move so other people could grab their drinks. I followed him a few feet away, trying to take in more of his appearance. He was really cute in a slacker way: kind eyes, easy smile, messy hair. He had on board shorts and a surfing competition shirt. I tried to guess his age, but I had no clue. He was somewhere between 15 and 45.
“ I didn’t realize you’d be here,” he offered, taking a sip of his beer and then tilting his head to the side.
“ I wasn’t really invited. Beck was invited and he brought me along,” I admitted.
“ Ah. Are you guys together or just friends?” he asked over the brim of his beer. His posture hinted that he might have hoped it was the latter.
What an interesting question. I glanced over to where Beck was standing with She Who Shall Not Be Named. He wasn’t smiling, but he nodded at whatever she was saying.
“ We’re just friends on a road trip,” I answered truthfully, I think.
I didn’t miss the smile that took over his features. “That’s great.”
“ How old are you, Jason?”
I think my direct question surprised him. “Twenty-three.” Not too old.
“ How long have you been surfing?” I asked before he could ask me my age. I didn’t want to admit to being nineteen.
“ My whole life. I grew up on the beach in California and then moved here to go to school for marine biology.”