Beach Day

37: Enter Matt

The jagged blade hits something that isn't bone. It's wood, it's metal; it's a shotgun raised to stop the blade. She follows its length to the very end.

Shit. The one person she didn't want to see is right in front of her and she almost just hit him with a sword that isn't hers.

"Tiff, what the hell?" he yells, yanking the shotgun back to dislodge the sword. She stumbles forward with it. "You could have killed me."

Oh, if only. "I thought you were the bone creature." She keeps her voice clipped, tense. "Whatever. Go away, Matt. I'm trying to find what's at the edge of this thing."

"It seems like you're headed toward the caves out there."

"What caves? We're in Florida."

"We still have caves, Tiff. And holes. How else would Weeki Wachee work?"

"Fake mermaids. Obviously."

"As opposed to real mermaids?"

"Mermaids are real. I don't have to argue about this with you. I don't have to say anything to you." She turns, puts the sword back, and starts walking.

"God, Tiff, how come you're being such a bitch all of a sudden? I've never known you to be like this."

She whirls on him again, sticks her finger in his face. "You don't know anything about me!"

Drew steps between the two of them, hands up to push them apart. "Okay. Alright. I'm invoking seniority. Break it up. Tiff, walk ahead. Matt, I think it's probably best if you go."

The bushes rustle again. Tiff's hand goes to the sword; Matt adjusts his grip on the shotgun.

Once again, it's not the bone creature. It's Andy, pushing his way through the trees and palmetto fronds.

Tiff whirls on Matt, ignoring Drew's attempts to stop her. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you bring Andy out here? Do you want to get him killed?"

"He was supposed to stay in the truck!" Matt defends (as if it's a defense at all). He looks at Andy over his shoulder. "Andy, you were supposed to stay in the truck."

"I— I— I wanted to see what you and Tiff were doing! I know I shouldn't have, but— but—" Andy looks, for a moment, like a crumpled-up ball of paper that might start crying any moment now.

Great. Fantastic. Wonderful.

As pissed as she is— as horribly angry, as much as she wants to smash her head into a wall until the world implodes— she can't do anything about it. Deep down, she gets what Denny is always saying. She doesn't want Andy to be afraid of her, even if she's pissed at Matt and would prefer it if he was.

What's the point of being so angry that she might explode? There's nothing productive about it. Even if she can't shake the feeling, Tiff takes a deep breath, swallows her spit, and lets out all the air inside her. "Okay. Fine. I'm in my normal era now."

"Every time you say that," Drew points out, "it is absolutely a lie."

"Maybe it's true this time. You don't know."

"I sure hope it is, Tiff. I sure hope it is."

"Do you care to tell me—" Matt steps around Drew to glare at his other cousin. "Do you care to explain why you tried to kill me just now?"

"I thought you were the bone creature. It's not a hard concept to grasp, Matt. I thought you were the bone creature, you dumb fucking idiot. I thought you were the bone creature!"