“Come on. It’s not going to kill you.”
The band’s tempo picked up to a steady frenzy. The crowd changed from dancing to jumping in place; a beautiful synchronized rhythm. The buildup brought palms pointed to the sky; some were empty and others clutched brown bottles. My head dipped back in abandonment; the strands of loose hair tickled the back of my neck. My eyes closed. The world went black. The only conscious sound came from the band on stage with guitars and drums, beating into oblivion, getting wilder with every chord change.
I bumped against another sweaty body. Opening my eyes, I saw Jess watching me with a grin on his lips. He was flirting again. I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my hand in the air above my head and sent my body around in a spiral. My feet gently rotated on each jump in the sand. Jess extended his arm out then pulled me back closer to him. We moved. We danced. We laughed. I let the music take me back to that place; the place where everything disappeared and I felt alive.
"You havin' fun?"
"Yeah," I answered him back.
"I really didn’t think I would ever see you like some country band." He twirled me back out and around. Lacing his fingers through each of my palms, Jess pulled me closer to gloat.
"This is not country."
"They’re from Oklahoma."
“Doesn’t make them country. I think you found yourself a rock band.”
He shook his head no while I got close up to his face. Nose to nose, I nodded a smirky yes. Jess pushed my knuckles back slightly, threading his fingers through mine. “Stoney’s playin’ tonight.”
“Is he now.”
“We should come back. Maybe just us?”
I shook my head no as his hands slipped around my waist. We danced the rest of the song with his sweaty body pushed against me in the middle of thousand people.
The band switched to something with a heavy guitar intro. Letting go, I moved back next to Sadie. The girl had moves; the hidden rocker kind with wild, head-banging hair. We danced next to each other and with each other. For once, Sadie seemed to be an actual, normal college student.
I wasn’t the only one to notice. Seth watched my roommate. The guy had it bad for Sadie and she wouldn’t give him the time of day. Seth got close enough to slip an arm around her waist. He smiled at her, flashing those perfect white teeth. Even with that, he never would have a chance with Sadie. I pulled out my phone.
“Alex if you take one picture.”
“Come on, Sadie.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You need to frame something besides all those stupid awards. I want you to have a picture of all of us in your fancy Chicago apartment.” I passed my phone to a girl in a florescent, yellow bikini top and cutoffs. The four of us scooted together as she took the first shot. I yelled, “Tequila!”
“Tequila?” Sadie tried to squirm free, but Seth had one side and Jess pushed us together on the other.
“Sex, sun, and tequila,” I teased.
“You are so weird, Alex.”
“And you’re normal?”
The girl in the bikini snapped picture after picture of us, just the way I wanted to remember it. Before the last click, I turned and grinned at Jess. He looked back at me; nose to nose with our lips just inches apart. Jess and I had our own private moment captured in time forever.
We left the concert and went back to the volleyball court, gathering up our chairs and Sadie’s stupid hat. Walking to the truck, Seth babbled about the volleyball game as if none of us had witnessed a thing. His overzealous excitement was similar to Jess’s. Always happy.
Seth sometimes joined in our study sessions. As business majors, we even had some classes together. I kicked his ass on the tests, although it wasn’t a complete beating on my part. Seth was smart and most of it manifested as second nature.
It was too bad Sadie held such conceited ideals. Seth accepted a bank job in Dallas after graduation; a very good accomplishment right out of school. His career wasn’t enough to draw a second glance from Sadie. She would only settle for someone with Roman numerals after his last name and a job in the high six-digit range.
I stopped in my tracks, almost tripping over a dark-haired guy lying face up in the sand, wearing only boxers. “Should we do something?”
“Like what?” Sadie looked disgusted, like his sweat could leap from his body and land on her ankle, spreading a terminal disease.
“His mouth is just open.” I peered down at the sleeping face. His lips were open at a strange angle, leaving his pink tongue exposed. His bare chest bore remnants of puke that had dried in clumps. “Can you sunburn your tongue?”
“I’ll just take him back to the house.” Jess reached down and threw the unconscious body over his shoulder. He was a short guy and couldn’t weight much more than a sack of feed as he dangled in the air.
“This is absurd. You are not bringing a stranger back to the house.” Sadie refused to move with crossed arms, pushing her breasts high out of her pink dress. Seth noticed and she quickly dropped them.
“It’s my house. I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”
And I went right back into my world owned by the Masons. We followed behind without another word. Sadie fumed. Seth hummed a faint song. The new guy stayed silent; his head bobbing against Jess’s shoulder. We all walked back to his truck and loaded up, putting the beach hitchhiker in the bed.
Our house wasn’t on the map with the rest of the South Padre college students. The Masons recently purchased a yellow, two-story, four-thousand square foot beach house with private water frontage. The house even had a pool and hot tub on the back deck. Our spring break didn’t come close to the nasty motel squalor of the rest of the students. We partied in the private gated area Sadie dubbed the Texas Hamptons.
Later that night, Sadie I stood on the deck looking at the hot tub. I wasn’t in the mood to socialize and needed a break from her. “I’m going for a walk. You should get in there. Be nice to Seth for a change. He’s totally into you.”
“I will pretend you didn’t say that.” Sadie looked over the edge and turned her perky nose straight into the air.
“Stop being a snob.”
“I will have more trips to the doctor from that nasty, steaming tank of bacteria than if I slept with the random guy wearing the truck me hat on the beach.”
“Truck me hat?”
“Don’t act like you have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“It really said truck me?”
“You know what I mean.” She looked annoyed, and I shrugged back in confusion. “Remember the two guys in the over-sized caps that said Dirty Daddy and Vagina Magician embroidered across the top. I pointed them out during the game.”
“What?”
“You are so exasperating, Alex Tanner. The two idiots who tried to pick up the girl in the leopard print top by offering to hand-paint one of those flower bikinis on her breasts cheaper than the beer tent. The Vagina Magician kept repeating it. Come on, baby. I can paint your titties real cheap.”
“Did Sadie McAllister just say titties?”
“I said it on the beach too, but I guess you were too preoccupied to notice anything else. I was afraid you might actually lick his abs out there today.”
“You know Sadie, I’ve beat the shit out of someone before. She just kept talking and bam! Blood was everywhere.”
“Stop procrastinating with empty threats. I’ll get in that wretched hot tub if you tell Jess the truth.”
“For real?”
“I’ll even be nice to the beach hitchhiker in there with Seth.”
“His name is Brandon, and he’s a freshman at Western State. He’s a nice guy who has some shitty pledge brothers who left him.”
“So we just believe everything the hitchhiker is selling and pretend he’s not going to rob or murder the entire house tonight.”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“Sweetie, I didn’t spend the summer at drug camp. I’m not use to this level of acceptable surprises.”
“Sadie!”