Page 119 of Break Your Fall

Jessa spins around on him as he approaches from behind us and he stops right in front of her as she asks him, “And did she?”

Banks’s eyes trail down my sister’s body, then trail back up with a smirk on his lips. “I don’t know. Did you?”

“You couldn’t tell?” Jessa’s ability to sound both flirty and patronizing pulls a gape from me and a silent laugh from everyone else except Banks.

“Hey, I finish every girl,” he defends with a point of his finger.

Jessa and I share a snicker as she turns her back to him.

“You weren’t even here,” Camille spits at him before turning her accusing spotlight to me and Tommy. “And you two were late.”

I exchange a look with Tommy whose mouth is open, his jaw moving as he tries to find words just to release an uneasy laugh that gives us away.

I smack his arm with a chuckle.

Jessa gives us a look of approval, Julian laughs out at the waves, and Camille stares us down with a knowing smirk.

“Well, good,” she says. “Because I’m on my period.” Her snort is self-satisfied as she eyes Banks, right as he gags.

“T.M.I.,” Tommy throws out.

“F.U.,” she throws back.

“We can still—”

“No.” Camille cuts off Julian’s suggestive encouragement with a raised hand. “Tommy’s the one who likes blood.”

Banks gags again, saying, “Dude, you’re sick,” having missed the joke about Tommy’s fascination with horror.

Tommy stretches his arm toward Camille who meets him in the middle with a fist bump, and Banks mutters, “You guys suck.”

“Are we ready to bail?” I ask now, a press in my voice as I watch my mom glancing through the crowd, worried she’ll spot me lurking here in the back. I won’t be able tohold my peaceif we’re face to face.

“You can bail with me,” Banks says to my sister as he flings his arm over her shoulder, his hand dangling near her breast. Jessa lifts her hand and laces their fingers together like she’s trying to hold his, and for a single second, I look almost as shocked as Banks until she smiles, pursed-lipped, and flings his arm off of her.

Banks frowns but he’s undeterred. “Date me.”

“Oh, God,” I groan through a laugh.

“You had your chance,” he says to me, then again to my sister, “Date me.”

“You don’t know how to date,” she tosses over her shoulder.

“Yeah, I do,” Banks argues, so insistent that I smile. At Jessa’s headshake, he becomes more determined. “Then teach me.”

Camille scoffs at that, then warns my sister, “You might wanna be careful. He’s known for showing up naked in your bedroom, dressed as Cupid and shooting arrows to get his way.”

Now Tommy’s laughing and I poke him in his side, causing him to jerk with a small yelp.

“Teach me,” Banks urges Jessa, ignoring the rest of us. “I’m a very good learner,” he goads close to her ear.

“On your knees,” Jessa orders, spinning to face him so fast he gets whiplash.

“What?” he stutters out in his surprise.

“You’ve already failed,” Jessa says simply to the snickers around us, then grabs my hand and starts pulling me through the sand.

“I want a redo,” Banks shouts after us as I realize we’re heading for the ocean. “Extra credit!”

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