Secret Lucidity(97)
“I’m sure I won’t remember any of that.” I laugh under my breath before standing and wiping the sand off my shorts.
“Who’s the bunny?” one of them questions as he walks over to us.
“Ady, this asshole here is Brogan,” Micah says and then turns to his buddy. “And she’s no bunny. She’s new in town.”
Brogan ticks his head up and reaches out to me. “What’s up, Ady?”
We shake hands as beads of water drip down his dark tan chest, which is inked with a few tattoos.
“I was about to leave.”
“So soon? We just met.” He exaggerates his flirtation with a charming smile, and it causes my lips to lift as well.
“Ignore him. He has a hard-on for anything that’s breathing.”
Before Brogan can say anything, I turn to Micah. “Thanks for hanging out.”
“Any time,” he responds. “You have your cell on you?”
I pull my phone from my pocket and he takes it from my hand, adding his number to my contacts.
“Shoot me a text later, and I’ll add your number to my phone, too.”
I linger for a beat as he grabs his board and heads into the water before making my way back down the shore to my car, but it isn’t Micah that creeps into my thoughts while I walk—it’s Kason.
“Ady. There you are.”
“Hey, Micah.”
“Where’re you off to?”
“The quad with all the other derelict youths,” I exhaust with a dramatic eye roll.
“Funny.” He smirks because this school is filled with elitist offspring of the rich and richer. “We’re heading out for lunch today. Wanna come?”
“You sneaking out?”
He laughs. “It’s an open campus, Guppy. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I follow him to his truck and hop in. “Where are we going?”
“The Cheesery is at the bay today.”
“The Cheesery?”
“Best food truck in the city. It’s normally over in Palm Harbor, but every now and then it comes to South Tampa,” he tells me before turning up the music and laying a heavy foot on the gas pedal.
Micah is the epitome of what I would imagine any surfer to look like, but it’s his easygoing attitude that draws me to him. It’s only my second day at school, and he’s gone out of his way to ease my awkwardness. Not that I show it. I do my best to feign indifference to the dread of trying to fit in.
When we arrive, Micah introduces me to a handful of other kids from our school that are already there. The girls give me a fleeting hello, and I stick to Micah’s side, not wanting to be the odd man out.
Once we have our food, we carry our Styrofoam containers to the park that edges along the water. All of us scatter about in small groups and sit on the manicured grass as business men and women stroll about, enjoying their mid-day break.
“Got any plans this weekend?”
Micah catches me with a mouthful of melted cheese and caramelized apples.
“Shit’s good, huh?”
I nod with an awkward laugh from my belly as I swallow the massively unattractive bite. I wipe the back of my hand across my mouth, and then Micah leans over and takes a bite out of my sandwich.
“Hey! Eat your own.”
“Dude, that’s good,” he says around the food in his mouth.
“Next time, you should order it instead of stealing bites out of mine.”
“A woman territorial over her food. I like it.”
I playfully nudge his shoulder and catch a few glances from the group of girls huddled across the lawn from us, sipping their Diet Cokes. “Is this the typical welcoming, or should I be bothered by the disaffection?” I give a slight nod in the girls’ direction.
“Ignore them. They’re starved-for-attention bunnies.” With a questioning glance, I wait for him to explain. “Bunnies are chicks who flock to the beaches and hope to get noticed. They pretend to be down, but most of them are too uptight to get a little salt in their hair.”
I dip a fry in some ketchup and toss it into my mouth.
“But you . . . you’re of a different breed than that of around here.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
He shakes his head and stands. “I’m gonna go grab another drink. Need anything?”
“I’m good.”
I drop the other half of my gourmet grilled cheese into the container, too full to go on in my gluttony, and wipe my greasy hands on a napkin. With the sun beating down on me, I lower my sunglasses over my eyes and enjoy the warmth of this much-too-hot spring. As I look around, I give a friendly smile to the girls when they glance my way, but I don’t stay on them for more than a beat before moving on. When I spot Kason, who I hadn’t realized was here, he’s alone on the edge of the wall that drops down to the water.
I stare curiously from behind my dark lenses, wondering why he’s isolating himself from everyone. Not wanting to stew in my thoughts, I decide to make my way over to him. A tinge of insecurity flares with each step I take, but I figure I have nothing to lose by going over to say hi. I notice he has earbuds in, and he doesn’t sense my presence until I climb onto the stone wall and sit next to him.
“What are you doing here?” he asks after pulling the buds out of his ears.