They Wish They Were Us(28)

“Now,” Jake said. “Let’s have some fun. The real shit starts tomorrow.” He lit a sparkler and the Players broke from their rigid lineup. Someone sent a tiny firework into the air and it exploded overhead. The beach was silent for a minute and then a sophmore yelled, “Let’s do it!” Right on cue, the music grew louder, blaring into the night.

“Ready for this?” Adam said into my ear, suddenly by my side. His hair was damp and sand had stuck to the tips. He was the real Adam again. My Adam, with his big, dimpled smile. I nodded and sensed the liquor make its way through my limbs.

“I’m so excited for you,” he said. “C’mon.” He grabbed my hand and led me to a circle of juniors. I was enveloped in a hug so tight I could barely breathe. Before I was released, Adam had retreated to Rachel’s side and slid an arm around her waist. She danced in front of him and laughed as he spun her around. When she saw me staring, she ran over and wrapped her arms around me tight.

“I knew you’d get in,” she said, her voice smooth and electric over the music. “Welcome to the rest of your life.”

“Thanks,” I managed. Her eyes searched mine, and her lips were chapped from the wind. She had tied her hair into a high pony so little wisps of her dark hair fell neatly around her face. She was magnetic.

“Wanna know a secret?” Rachel whispered, leaning into my ear. Her breath was hot on my skin.

I nodded.

“You’re just like me,” she said softly in a maternal voice. “Scared. Young.” My stomach sank. Those didn’t sound like good things. “You’ll survive, though,” she continued. “We’re the strong ones.”

Her words didn’t make any sense at the time, and in an instant she was gone, flitting across the sand to Shaila. They had known each other practically since birth and that night Rachel hugged her like they were sisters. I wondered what secrets they shared.

It was too intimate a moment to watch. I averted my eyes and looked to the sky. The full moon hung as high and big as a ship, directing stars to shine their spotlights brighter on us.

As a kid, I would come to this stretch of beach with my parents to make sandcastles with Jared, pretending we were deep-sea creatures just looking for a gritty new home. We took turns sucking in our cheeks and turning our faces into little fish mouths, pressing our palms out like flippers. We waved to the teenagers in Gold Coast Prep windbreakers arriving just as we were packing up our pails and shovels, dusting the sand off our butts with damp towels. They look so old, I thought. “You’ll be them one day,” my mom had said as if she read my mind. But at the time, that seemed impossible.





EIGHT





“JARED!” I YELL when I swing open the door. It’s almost noon and I’m famished, even after polishing off half a pizza at Nikki’s last night, and another slice this morning. When no one answers I run up the stairs and knock on his bedroom door.

“Come on!” I call. “Wake up.”

I hear a muffled groan through the door. “No.”

“I’ll take you to Diane’s.”

More heavy sighs. But within a few minutes, Jared has somehow managed to pull on jeans, slap a baseball hat over his matted hair, and look presentable enough to be seen in public.

“Good enough?”

I throw my hands up. “Good enough. Let’s go.”

When we get to Diane’s I grab my and Adam’s booth, the one with the thick crack down the middle of one seat, and shuffle all the way in so my shoulder knocks the wall. Jared does the same.

“Well, what did I do to deserve both Newmans today?” Diane asks, grinning. Her red mountain of hair is particularly voluminous today, nestled against her waitress’s cap, and her skin is dewy and flushed, like she’s been rushing around since dawn. “Such a delight, you two!”

Jared’s face turns red and I laugh. “You know you’re the best person in this town, Diane?”

“Don’t I know it!” Diane throws her head back and shimmies her shoulders. Someone behind the griddle lets out a guffaw. “What’ll it be?”

“Diane’s Home Plate for me,” Jared says. “And a coffee.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Since when do you drink coffee?”

Jared shrugs, his face still pink.

“Look how sleepy he is,” Diane says. “He needs it. The usual, dear?”

I nod and Diane winks as she walks away.

“I can’t believe you have a usual here,” Jared says, lifting his fingers to form air quotes. “Guess you’re here a lot.”

“Sometimes.” A silence extends between us and I glance up above Jared’s head, where Shaila smiles back at me from inside the Gold Coast Prep frame. Her head rests on Graham’s shoulder and he’s smushed up against Rachel’s side. He and Rachel look so obviously related with their hair parted the same way, their angular jaws.

Jared turns to look, too. “Must be weird, huh?” he asks.

Before I can respond, Diane comes back with our mugs. While she pours the coffee, I peek out the window. The sugar maples that line the parking lot have turned a deep cherry red. They’re so bright they look fluorescent. Neon, maybe. Even in here, the air smells like fall, crisp and biting.