The Summer Storm

CHAPTER FOUR

Exhaustion settles over me halfway through the game. I sit off to the side for a water break. I'm not cut out for this. Sports were never my thing. I spent all of High School and my few years so far in college at the library. I chug some water and dip my toes into the ocean. My bottom is getting a little wet, but the coolness of the ocean water feels good.

"Quitting already?" Pat asks.

I glance up, squinting from the sun overhead. Pat is standing so he doesn't get his camera wet. I get to my feet and take a step back towards him.

"That ball almost took my head off." I laugh.

He shakes his head. "Oh you're fine." He bumps into me.

"So, what happened back there before the game. I turn around for one second and the next your sucking face with Anna."

I chuckle. A wave crashes before me and the water rushes up, burying my feet into the cool wet sand.

"Oliver is here."

"I thought that was him. Are you okay?"

I shrug, and pull my foot from the sand, kicking some up in the process.

"Why did she kiss you?"

"To make him jealous. I think it might have worked. He kept watching us."

Pat smiles. "Did it feel good?"

A warm prickly feeling climbs up my neck. My cheeks burn, and it's not from the sun.

"It was-" I pause, trying to come up with the right words. "It was nice."

He smirks and puts an arm over my shoulder. We stand side by side for a few lingering moments. I'm not ready to go back yet and humiliate myself some more, but Sally interrupts us and there's no more hiding.

As I stand at the net Oliver strolls over and places himself directly in front of me. I spent most of the game in the back, but now it's my turn to be up front. Finger tips glide up my skin, and a warm body presses against mine from behind.

"Don't let him get to you," Anna whispers. "Look at how jealous he is." She tickles my ear with her sweet breath, it's like she just inhaled a whole container of strawberries.

I stare down at the sand, but in the corner of my eye watch Oliver's reaction. She's right. Oliver's eyes are glued on us.

"I know we just met," she says a little louder.

I carefully take in the smile on her face as she steps in front of me. I catch sight of Oliver over her shoulder. He steps closer to the net, like he's trying to hear what we're saying.

"Will you go on a date with me?"

Her eyes never leave mine. She takes my hand and slips hers through. I watch how her fingertips dance along my skin. When I look back up at her she winks.

"I'd love to."

I blow out a breath, stand on my tippy toes, and initiate a mind blowing kiss. We're faking it to make him jealous, but I'd be lying if I said this girl's kisses didn't take my breath away. She pulls back, smirks, then walks to her spot on the opposite side of the court. When I turn to face him, his mouth is hanging open. He catches me watching him and averts his attention to the girl who kissed him earlier.

***

After a long grueling day of volleyball, I find out that Oliver is staying at the house next to ours. He knew where we were staying, and part of me wonders if he did it because he knew. But he was the one who broke up with me, so why would he be curious about what I'm doing?

To calm my mind after a long walk with Pat, I hop in the shower. I needed my best friend and he knew. There's a knock at the door. Our room has its own bathroom, so the only person who it could be is Anna.

"Come in."

"I'm sorry," she says. The door creaks like it's old. "Is it okay if I brush my teeth?"

She showered while Pat and I walked, I didn't realize she wasn't done in the bathroom. She wasn't here when I came upstairs.

"Sure."

I close my eyes and lean back, allowing the shampoo to rinse from my hair.

"I apologize if I overstepped boundaries today. It's something I need to work on."

"It's okay," I say. My eyes open and I stare at the blue tile wall.

I reach for the bar of soap and start scrubbing my body. There's rough pieces of sand in places that there shouldn't be.

"Please tell me if I cross a line. You can slap me if need be." She laughs, and I find myself laughing with her.

"I'm okay. My heart is in a weird place right now."

"Understandable."

She's quiet for a few moments. "Do you want to keep pretending?" she asks. "I mean, if he's living next door we'll start seeing him a lot more. I'm down to fake it for you. The jealous look on his face was priceless."

Her words get a little jumbled towards the end. I assume she's brushing her teeth.

"You'd do that for me? You hardly know me."

"Yeah, but I like you. Pat never shuts up about his best friend, Kat. It feels like I know you already. And from my observations, I know you enough to realize that your heart is fragile right now, and maybe faking it might take your mind off of him."

As I soap my body I think about all the pro's and con's that an arrangement like this could bring. Anna is an amazing woman with so much spunk and a go-getter attitude. But then there's my heart, what if the kisses start feeling better? What if when the summer is over she leaves and I never see her again? Pat says she's a bit of a nomad and doesn't stick around for long. I'm not looking for a relationship, so there's that. If she and I form a fake one, maybe when it's all over I'll have gained a new friend.

"I'm sorry that was a lot for me to ask."

I finish rinsing my body and grab the white towel set aside on the towel rack outside the tub, and wrap it around my body. I move the floral curtain aside and step onto a squishy gray mat. She stops brushing her teeth and her eyes look over my entire body. The weird part is it makes my stomach flutter. I like the way she looks at me.

"It's not. I'm in. I need a summer to let go. This is my last summer before I have to buckle down and decide on where I want my life to go."

"Good," she says. She finishes up spitting into the sink, then strides across the bathroom towards me. "Good," she says again. "Because I kind of like kissing you."

My eyes land on her soft pink lips. "Faking it will be easy," she says.

She leans down and my lips part for her, like they're ready. She lightly kisses me, then pulls away.

"Very easy," I whisper.