The Hunt

The Bash

Booker

Skye looked up at me with a mischievous look in her squinted, honey brown eyes. The sun absorbed on her tan skin and her curly hair blew behind her. For a second I saw the girl I was obsessed with in middle school with her glasses and mouth full of braces. I was head over heels for her, then she went crazy freshman year and I got serious about school. We hadn't talked much since.

"You surf?" I noticed Liam for the first time. I looked between the two of them quickly. They fit like two puzzle pieces. Both were incredibly immature and had no idea what to do with their lives, except each other, I guess.

I shrugged my shoulders and brushed my salty hair out of my eyes. "It's a good way to relax," I replied. I heard Skye let out a quiet chuckle.

"I didn't know you could," she mumbled, but the ocean didn't block out her words like she'd hoped. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Why were we still talking? "Did you catch anything?" she asked. She was trying to cover up her rude comment most likely.

"Nah. The waters are calm today." With that, I went to walk away, but her hand gripped my board.

"You coming to the bash?" Her eyes seemed to shine a different color in the sun, like lightly creamed coffee. Wasn't planning on it.

"Yeah," I said instead. Was I actually going to go? I guess I had to now. My parents would kill me, but I hadn't gone to any parties my whole high school experience. They needed to stop suffocating me.

"Is Lorelei coming?" Liam asked, surprising me again. Somehow I kept blurring him out of my focus.

Lorelei. The perfect girlfriend. She was gorgeous, serious about her future, and serious about our future. For some reason that didn't comfort me. Maybe I wanted a little crazy. My eyes landed on Skye again. "Not really her scene." Skye raised an eyebrow, then looked towards the waves like she wanted to escape. "See you later," I said, giving her an out.

"Bye, man," Liam waved. Skye gave a little raised hand, and I did the same. Before I turned to walk to my car, I saw Liam pick her up and rush towards the water, Skye letting out little squeals as the cold water splashed at her skin.

Something in me changed, then. I was going to go to the bash and let loose. It was high time I let myself be a teenager.

***

What the hell am I doing? I looked out at the beach, seeing the huge bonfire and a lot of people already stumbling across the sand with various cups and bottles in their hands. The air reeked of weed and bonfire smoke with a mix of salt.

No one saw me yet, so I could just get back in my Jeep and drive away. Yeah, no harm done. Skye and Liam wouldn't even notice if I wasn't there because of how many people were crowding the beach.

"Booker Coleman, is that you?" A voice I would rather have not heard reached my ears. I let out a sigh and put on a smile, stepping out of the darkness.

"Dayton, sup man," I responded. Dayton was the kind of guy that always looked for a competition and if there wasn't any, he made sure to make one out of nothing. I guess that came with being the star quarterback of Laurence High.

"Didn't expect to see you here. Are you waiting to see whose been chosen to play The Hunt?" he asked, his words slightly slurring together. I noticed how both of his hands had a red cup in them. He reached one of them out to me and I didn't want to be rude, so I took it.

We started walking to join the bash, music blaring from multiple speakers. I thought The Hunt was a stupid game that shouldn't even exist, but I had no other reason for being here. "Yeah," I replied. "Any sign of the grads that are in charge this year?" I asked, taking a sip from the cup. It was bitter and tasted like ass, but I continued to swallow it down.

"Nope, they're squeaky clean this year like usual," Dayton responded, blue eyes widened as he watched me chug the rest of the cup. "Damn, Booker. I didn't know you could drink like that." He laughed and nodded his head towards a table that had more cups on it and a keg. Dayton looked over towards the "popular" group that were all dancing on each other by the fire. "See ya, bro," he said before going over to join them.

I looked down at my empty cup. I was going to need a whole lot more of these to get through the night. I made my way towards the table, seeing another face that looked out of place. I filled up my cup and sat next to her on the sand.

"Hey, Isla," I greeted, even though I expected no answer. Isla was one of those girls that kept to herself all the time, no exceptions. She had no friends that I saw, never did anything outside of school, and definitely didn't go to parties. So I was surprised when her short, blonde hair swished as she turned to face me with a smile.

"Hey, Booker." Her voice seemed far off, and so did her blue eyes. I looked down to see a cookie in her hand, and the way her body slumped made me wonder what was in it. She took another bite, her pale skin glimmering with the moon and firelight.

We didn't say anything else. We were both severely out of place, but that didn't necessarily make us comfortable with each other. Apparently her and Lorelei had some falling out freshman year. Isla went silent after that, which was the complete opposite of Skye who went from quiet to obnoxiously loud.

Right on cue, I heard laughing from around the fire. Skye was dancing with Liam, a brown bottle in her hand. I watched as Liam went to lean forward to kiss her, and I almost turned away until I saw Skye push his face the other way, still laughing. Why would she reject her own boyfriend?

I needed another escape. That's when I saw people jumping into the ocean with glows sticks around their necks, heads, wrists, and ankles. Surfboards lined the beach. Night surfing. My lips curved into a real smile for the first time that night.

"Do you surf?" I reluctantly asked Isla, who I was now positive was high. Her dilated pupils were a giveaway.

She had an airy laugh, and her voice was still quiet like normal. "Afraid of sharks." I simply nodded and stood up, heading to my Jeep and grabbing my board which was still attached to the hood and stripped off my shirt. I made my way towards the glow sticks, my board under my arm.

That's when the speakers shut off and crackled as some other device connected to them.