Dark Night

Surf's up

Well, this is awkward.

I smiled at him and waited to see what he'd do. We'd agreed that the ball would be in his court.

He smiled too. A real smile, one that reached his eyes. "Leia," he said, and opened his arms a little tentatively. I went in for the hug, reluctantly making it a catch and release thing rather than the long snuggle I would have preferred.

"John," I said. "How's it going?"

"You guys know each other?" Darrell asked.

"Yeah, high school," I said.

"Great! You should come along," he said to John. "I'm teaching her how to surf on Friday. We're getting an early start but a bunch of us from the hall and Delia's roommate and some other girls are coming later too. Beach parties are always fun." The guys in the group discussed it, gaining enthusiasm, and John was swept up in it. I couldn't tell if he actually wanted to go or not. Well, he was a big boy, he could find a way out if he didn't want to go. In the chatter, Darrell asked me to dance, so off we went. He was a good dancer, which is always nice. One guy kept bumping into us; a solo dancer, apparently very into his experience and kind of flailing around. We gave up and walked toward a water station instead to refill our bottles.

"Dude!" Darrell said happily as he waited for me to finish filling my bottle. I saw the back of some guy as they did a brisk hug. What I could see was nice; muscular broad shoulders and nice legs, long-ish rumpled dark hair with thick streaks, not that much taller than me; my forehead was about level with the top of his shoulder. "Delia, this is Arthur Fitzgerald. Fitz, this is Delia...."

"Knight," I said, smiling and trying to keep my cool. But holy cow, was it hard. This guy's appearance hit me like a ton of bricks. He had fair skin just kissed with a tan, sharp cheekbones and jaw line, carefully tended stubble, and enormous light eyes with a thick fringe of long lashes. His lips were full and lush and he had a large hawk nose that kept him from being movie-star handsome. His shirt was partially unbuttoned and what I could see peripherally was nicely muscular. He smiled at me, his eyes crinkling and dimples popping out of nowhere. I'd have fanned myself if it would have done any good and hoped that his personality lived up to the hype of his appearance.

"Nice to meet you, Delia," he said. "You new here this year?"

"Freshman," I confirmed.

"Fitz, I'm teaching her to surf on Friday. You should come, a bunch of people are coming, it'll be a party." Darrell said. I was kind of amused at his promotion of the party.

"You ever tried before?" Arthur/Fitz asked me.

"No, but I skateboard." Both of them looked at me with more interest.

"Surfing's easier," Darrell said. "If you're decent on a skateboard, you should be able to pick up surfing easy enough."

"Delia!" I turned to see Serafina waving at me. As she started over a guy she was passing gestured too broadly with his cup and spilled the contents down her front. He spoke to her and she frowned as she pulled her wet t shirt away from her body. The incident had dampened her spirits and I noticed several guys checking out her chest as she came over, including Darrell.  I'd have been irritated if I wanted to date him, but neither of us seemed that into the other. And besides, he seemed determined to limit the time the two of us were alone together. Which was good, because his buddy did things to me. I introduced my roommate to Fitz, who nodded politely. Darrell and I arranged to meet at the beach--good news because I could leave whenever I wanted, and the boys ambled off. I smiled when Arthur looked over his shoulder once.