“Okay, so what then?”
He sighs. “Have you ever been in a room full of people and
felt completely alone? And everything around you, the lights,
the champagne, the people, it all feels so…”
“Empty?”
“Exactly.”
He studies me so directly that my skin starts to tingle.
“I’ve felt that,” I say, holding his gaze.
“Is that what brought you out here to the beach?”
This guy is either well-rehearsed at wooing angsty, artistic
girls, or he isn’t quite the jerk I had him pegged to be. Adrenaline
pushes aside my usual wall of sarcasm.
“I think I wanted to do something crazy, but I chickened out
and came here to sulk instead.”
“What would you have done?”
“If I hadn’t chickened out, you mean?”
He nods, watching me.
“I don’t really know. That’s part of the problem.”
He laughs a little. “You’re different. I could tell by the way
you sat here looking out at the shore.”
“You’re pretty strange too, you know.”
“Guilty as charged,” he says, with a wink. “So what do we do
about it, you and I? A pair of odd ducks searching for meaning.”
“I guess we have to do something crazy.”
“Let’s,” he says. “What will it be?” Then he springs up. “I
know.” He grabs my hands, pulling me to my feet. “We’ll jump
into the ocean!”
I laugh at the irony of his suggestion. “No thanks. I had a
nice swim last night, and that got me into enough trouble.”
“Aw, come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Nope.”
A sly smile creeps onto his face. “You didn’t come out here to
talk. You could have done that at the party.”
Without warning, he bursts into a run down the beach, pulling me along with him. We run into the rush of stormy ocean wind. I can barely stay on my feet to keep up with him.
“Hey!” I shout, my hair streaming behind me. “Stop!”
“Enough talk! Now we act!”
“I said no swimming!”
He keeps running. “We’ll dive off the point, see if we can
catch a mermaid.”
“No! I’m too young to die.”
He laughs, and I can’t help laughing too. We run until we
reach the base of the rocky point, where we both stop, bending
over to catch our breath.
“Push me in that water and I’ll drown you,” I say between
gasps of air.
He grins. “I thought you wanted to do something rash.”
“I do. I’m just not into dying with a complete stranger. Not
quite what I had in mind.”
“I am getting a little carried away, aren’t I? I don’t even know
your name.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Well, are you going to tell me or have I lost my chance to
know you?”
My breathing has calmed, but something about the way he
looks at me keeps my heart pounding.
“Cass,” I say. “Cassandra.”
He holds out a hand. For a handshake, I guess? Quaint. I give
his palm an awkward tug.
“And you are?”
He blinks. “Lawrence,” he says, looking mildly surprised I
asked.
“Sorry, I’m not from around here. I don’t know all the
cool kids.”
His brow furrows a little.
“You’re honestly shocked I don’t know your name,” I say,
with a scoff.
“No, but since this silly party sort of centers around me, I
thought
you’d—”
“Excuse me, what? The party centers around you?”
He shrugs, looking cornered. “Easy. It wasn’t my idea.”
“Oh, so you’re claiming that my mom and stepdad randomly
decided to make you the star of their party at their house? You’re either outrageously narcissistic or delusional. Right now, I’m
thinking probably both.”
He frowns. “We must be talking about two different parties.
I mean the one right there through those bushes.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s my mom and stepdad’s house.”
He stares at me, “You’re mistaken.”
My face burns. “I know we don’t exactly fit in, but they rent
the place fair and square, so it is, in fact, their house.”