Page 20 of Beautiful Defiance

10

SEVEN

Three years ago . . .

“Meisa, you’re a terrible swimmer.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Go drown a cat, Seven.”

“I’m not for cruelty toward animals, so no go. Anyway, is that the best you got?” I raise a brow. The gesture gets all the girls hot for some reason.

“What would you have me say? Go kiss a hairy toad?” She flips her long black hair behind her shoulder.

“Toads aren’t hairy. They’re just ugly.”

“And gross.”

“Bloated too,” I throw in for good measure. “They’re gas balls ready to explode.”

She scrunches her face, and I can’t stop staring.

Meisa Okamoto, the Japanese exchange student spending the summer with Rue and Riley’s family, is pretty. She also has a weird sense of humor, another turn-on for me.

“I’ll show you I’m better than terrible.”

She takes off her clothes, revealing a swimsuit. Damn her. She lured me to the dock with the promise of a kiss, but intended on doing something else.

“Meisa, what the hell are you doing?”

“Something I should’ve done the moment I caught you kissing another girl.” She balls her clothes and throws the pile at me. “Stop me if you dare, Seven.”

She tips her chin and backs up toward the edge of the dock. She’s defying and daring me to stand by and witness her show of recklessness?

“It’s too far to the other side,” I growl.

“Dangerous too?”

“Yes.” I snatch her clothes off the ground and toss them at her. “Get dressed. We’ll do something safe, like archery and mountain biking.”

“I don’t want safe. You like dangerous, and I want you to like me.”

“It doesn’t take defiance to do that. I already like you.”

She’s at the edge of the dock. I look past her shoulders. There’s nothing for her to grab on to if she gets tired. There’s only open water. I stretch out my hand.

“Come on, Meisa. You know I’m not the greatest swimmer.”

“Admit it, you’re terrified of the water.”

I am after I almost drowned. Or should I say, I did drown. That’s what my father said.

He yanked me out of the lake and performed CPR after I swung off a rope swing and then passed out when I bore down for the impact. Yeah, it’s embarrassing as fuck knowing that the Valsalva maneuver, as the medical professionals called it, killed my showing off to a bunch of girls, and killed me, too, before Dad saved my life.

“I’m not admitting shit. But I will if you get your clothes back on and stop with this defiance crap of yours. The counselors gave us explicit orders to stay away from the water unless they’re out here too.”

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