A pair of ripped blue jeans stepped in front of me. “Hey.”
I looked up into sharp, crystal blue eyes that were a trademark of the very good-looking, very popular Swenson brothers, Cane, Corey, and the one blocking my view, Corbin. Blond hair curled out from under a Billabong hat that sat low on his head, its rigid bill almost shadowing his face.
Corbin was closest to my age. He stood with a skateboard behind his head, propped lengthwise on his shoulders, wheels out. He’d covered the underbelly in stickers. “Don’t you go to my high school?” he asked.
Even though I was fairly sure he thought I was someone else, I nodded.
He tapped his chin. “You have, uh, stuff . . .”
Quickly, I wiped my face with my sleeve. “Thanks.”
“And your tongue is blue.” He grinned. “Why aren’t you at that party on Marigold?”
I sat up a little. “Why aren’t you? I’m sure all your friends are there.”
“I was. It’s no big deal.” Absentmindedly, he spun one of the skateboard’s wheels with a long finger. A cartoon sticker of a naked woman peeled at one corner. “So you know who I am?”
I blinked back to his face. “Corbin.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lake.”
“Cool. You skate?”
I ate more of my cotton candy. “No.”
“Surf?”
Tiffany and I had gone to a few surf camps over the years. I could barely stand. Tiffany was better, but she preferred dry land for sunbathing with her Walkman and magazines.
I figured I’d surfed more than the average teenager, so I shrugged. “Kind of.”
“You should come out with me and my brothers sometime. We could use some chicks in the lineup.”
“Maybe.”
“You here by yourself?”
I still wasn’t sure if he thought he was talking to someone else. I hadn’t seen Corbin with any specific girl I could remember, but guys like him always had a girlfriend. “With my sister.”
“Who’s your sister?”
“Tiffany.”
“Kaplan?” He swung his skateboard in front of his legs and laughed. “Yeah. Makes sense. I see the resemblance now.”
I had no idea why that was funny. It happened a lot, people finding out we were sisters and mentioning “the resemblance.” Whether or not it was just something people said, I usually took it as a compliment. With Corbin, I wasn’t so sure. “How do you know Tiffany?”
“From school. And she’s friends with my older brother.”
“I’m a year below you.”
“I know.”
Only then did my heart skip a beat, once I realized the most popular guy in school really was talking to me. Corbin had noticed me. Our high school wasn’t that big, but there were hundreds of students.
“I’ve seen you around,” he added with a smile. It was a nice smile, too—since he was so tan, his teeth looked unnaturally white. Everyone knew who the Swensons were. Their dad worked with mine, so the name even came up a time or two at the dinner table. I could see why girls liked the brothers with their perpetual surfer tans, their tall and lean muscular bodies. If I’d thought much about talking to Corbin, I would’ve guessed it’d be a bumbling, muttering, stomach-butterflies kind of thing, but it wasn’t. I liked him, and I liked that he didn’t make nervous.
The Ferris wheel stopped. I tried to see around Corbin, then through his legs, past his skinned knees, but he blocked my view with the skateboard.
“We went to camp together when we were kids.”
“What?”
“Young Cubs,” he said. “You know? Camp?”
I looked up at him again. I remembered, but it seemed so long ago. We were different people then. Kids. “I’m going back this year as a junior counselor,” I said.
“Cool. I’ll be there for a day to coach a baseball game, show them how it’s done.” He winked. “I’d stay longer, but I have baseball camp that week.”
“Sounds fun,” I said, leaning so far to the side I almost toppled over.
“Looking for Tiffany?” he asked.
“She’s on the Ferris wheel.”
“Alone?”
Manning’s height gave them away. He was at least a head taller than any adult, and in a crowd of kids, he verged on giant status. “She’s with a friend.”
“Who? Sarah?”
Manning’s eyes locked on Corbin’s back, and he came over, Tiffany on his heels.
The cotton candy made my mouth tacky. I ran my tongue over my teeth, worried they might be blue. I was suddenly aware of my breathing, of the fact that my shorts had ridden up when I sat.
“Hello?” Corbin asked.
“Huh?” I asked without looking away from Manning.
Corbin checked over his shoulder just as Tiffany spotted us.
“Hey, Corbin,” Tiffany said, looking a bit off balance in her platforms. “Looking for me?”
“Nope.” Corbin turned back to me. “Just saying what’s up to your sister.”