Page 18 of Finding Her
“The beach is going to get crowded,” Lilah said with a shrug. “I wasn’t going to miss out on finding a good spot just because you didn’t know where you put your sunscreen and towel. Now, come on!”
In hindsight, I should have questioned Lilah’s insistence that we get to the beach so soon. But I hadn’t and unfortunately for me,the reason only became clear as we stepped onto the sand and I saw who else was at the beach that day.
“Lilah,” I said slowly, “I am going to kill you.”
She made a big show of cupping a hand over her face so that she could see down the way and announcing, “Oh, look! What a funny coincidence.”
I glanced at Saylor to see if she knew anything about this plan, but she looked so angry that I didn’t want to ask her anything. I wasn’t sure why she would be so annoyed, though, even if Lilah hadn’t asked her opinion. When we talked about it yesterday, she’d been all for Operation Get Poppy and Bear Together. What could have changed that quickly?
I was ready to turn around and forget this whole thing, but before I could even consider suggesting we go somewhere else, Lilah grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. Not wanting to leave Saylor behind, I instinctively grabbed her hand so that she was getting pulled along with us. And just like that, we were walking across the beach like some kindergarteners on a field trip who had to hold hand so they wouldn’t lose each other.
Was it embarrassing? Definitely. Was it also kind of fun? I guess so.
Luckily, Lilah wasn’t being too obvious about our plan. At first, I was a little nervous she was going to walk us straight over the boys and ask if we could join them—at which point, I would absolutely be running away and leaving her in the dust, but she chose a spot far enough away that it wasn’t obvious we were trying to be near them. Nobody would bat an eye at us being here.
It felt more like July than September with the sun beating down like it was, so I happily pulled off the dress I had on over my bathing suit and sat down on the towel I’d laid out. If I kept my head turned a little to the left, I couldn’t see the boys at alland could almost forget that my roommate was stalking them for me.
I tilted my head up to look at Saylor, who was still standing with her hands in her jean short pockets and her eyes trained on the boys. Except, now that the boys had dispersed a little—Bear sitting in a beach chair, while the other three went to put their feet in the water—I realized she was looking at one of the other boys that I didn’t know. Actually, she wasn’t just looking at him. She was glaring like she wanted to vaporize him with just her eyes. I was tempted to ask her what they’d done to incur her wrath, but I didn’t have enough of a death wish for that.
“We should go for a swim later,” Lilah said as she plopped down on the towel next to mine. She was still wearing the oversized button-up, that I was pretty sure must have belonged to her brother at one point considering how big it was on her, but I knew she had a bathing suit on underneath like me. Originally, she’d been wearing a bikini, but when she realized I was going to wear a one-piece, she’d changed into one as well.
Saylor finally sat down as well, resting her arms behind her and tilting her head up to the sun.
“This is gorgeous weather,” she sighed. Unlike her expression earlier, she seemed totally content now. “I should get out for a ride before it gets too cold.”
“Has the equestrian club started up yet?” I asked.
“It doesn’t officially start till next week,” she said. “But I’ve been out riding a few times already.”
Hartwell had room for the students to board their own horses, so Saylor had her horse here. She went down to the stables daily, even if it was just to study while watching other people’s lessons. She said it was the place she found it easiest to think.
“I still want you to teach me to ride,” I said as I laid down. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could picture the smile onSaylor’s face. We’d had this conversation enough times that I knew what the answer was going to be without her even having to say it.
“I told you,” she said. “I’m not going to be responsible for you breaking your spine. Just join the equestrian club.”
“Maybe when I don’t have gym class anymore,” I said. “I’m not sure I can add another sport into my day.”
“I still can’t believe they’re making you take freshman gym again,” Lilah said. “Doesn’t it seem a little redundant? I know you need two gym credits, but it’s literally the same class.”
“I’d rather this than taking sophomore gym in the summer,” I said. “At least I’m getting it over with.”
“And,” Saylor said in a teasing tone, “you know you won’t fail.”
Lilah snorted. “Nobody fails gym. That’s, like, impossible.”
A smile tugged at my mouth. I wondered how Lilah and Saylor would react if I told them that, actually, you could fail gym and Levi Barrett was living proof of it. They’d probably call me a liar, because the idea of a hockey player failing gym was just too ironic. Without consciously thinking about it, my head tilted to look at the boys again.
The three boys Bear was with were messing around, wrestling in the sand and shoving each other over. Bear was just sitting there with a frown on his face. Well, I wasn’t sure it was broadly counted as a frown as much as it was just his natural resting face. He didn’t look happy, but he also didn’t look annoyed either. Just... neutral, I guess.
As if he could sense me watching, he turned to look at me right then. I immediately looked away, hoping he hadn’t noticed. Maybe he wouldn’t even recognize us. He couldn’t see me very well with how I was lying down, Lilah was busy slathering sunscreen on her face so she was pretty much unrecognizable at the moment, and as far as I knew, he’d never met Saylor before.So, there was no reason for him to think we were anyone but three random teenage girls enjoying a warm Saturday afternoon. Heck, we didn’t even have any Hartwell Academy merch on us, so for all he knew, we could be from town instead.
I almost managed to convince myself that he’d only looked over in a passing glance and definitely didn’t recognize us, but when I snuck a peek out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was still staring. Either he knew who we were and was trying to figure out why we were here (hopefully he wouldn’t come up with the theory that we were stalking him, even though we totally were), or he thought we looked somewhat familiar and was trying to figure out who we were. Neither option was particularly appealing to me.
To take my mind off of it, I turned to Saylor and struck up a conversation about the book we were both reading for English class, hoping that Bear would lose interest. But for some reason, when I looked over five minutes later and saw that he’d turned away like I wanted, my heart sank.
CHAPTER 13
bear
