Page 45 of Dear Roomie
“You know about that?” she questions in a small voice.
“Evelyn told me he didn’t show up. I put the costume thing together on my own.”
“Oh.” She turns back toward the ocean, eyes glistening.
“It was stupid of me to bring it up. I’m sorry he did that to you.” I keep my arms locked at my side, fighting back the urge to grab her and pull her close.
“You aren’t the one who stood me up.” She palms away the tears from her eyes, scowling, and her spine steels as she looks at me again. “I don’t want to talk about Tanner.”
“Okay then, we won’t talk about that.”
The conversation stalls.
James turns back toward the water, watching the waves crash against the shore. Normally, these little moments of silence between us are comfortable, but her gloomy aura taints it, causing it to bear down on me with oppressive weight.
“You know, this is my first time seeing the ocean.” The words come tumbling out without any thought. Her head snaps toward me, disbelief shining through her glassy stare.
“How the fuck have you never seen the ocean before?”
“I’ve never had the opportunity,” I say with a shrug. “I grew up near the Great Lakes, so I’ve been to the beach, but the one we always went to was more rocky than sandy.”
“This is a terrible first beach experience,” she says, sounding appalled. “Come on, I have an idea.” She grabs my hand and starts to pull me away from the crowd. I should pull my hand away, but, for the first time since I laid eyes on her today, James is smiling. So I let her drag me along, and I savor the feeling of her hand in mine.
“Where are we going?”
“For a walk. Now shut up and trust me.”
I shut my mouth and follow behind her.
The crowd thins as we move away from the party’s epicenter. Seeming satisfied with the distance she’s put between us and the horde, James stops, kicks off her shoes, and steps ankle-deep into the surf. Even after she lets go of my hand, I’m haunted by the ghost of her touch.
A few stray golden strands flutter in the gentle breeze as she walks in front of me with her attention fixed to the shallow tide. She’s like a dog on the hunt for its quarry; I half expect her to freeze and point in a direction once she catches its scent.
“What are you do—” I start to ask, but she lurches forward, reaching into the water just as the words pass my lips.
“Looking for this.” Her face glows with pride as she holds her hand out to me, displaying a pile of sopping sand littered with tiny bits of seashells that have been eroded by the waves.
“A handful of sand…?” I try and fail to mask my confusion. I only just got that smile on her face, and I’d hate to kill it now. But she simply laughs, and the sound loosens the knot that had settled in my gut.
“No, it’s a shark’s tooth.” She plucks a tiny black speck out of the silt and drops the shiny triangle into my hand.
“From an actual shark?”
“No, it’s from an imaginary shark.” She rolls her eyes and lets out another bubble of laughter. “Of course it’s from a real shark.”
“Well, excuse me for asking,” I say in mock offense, but she can tease me all she wants if it keeps her happy. “We don’t have sharks back in Michigan. Is the water even safe?”
“As safe as a large body of water can be.” She shrugs and turns her attention back toward the tide. “Growing up, anytime my dad was stationed near the ocean, he would take me out to find cool shells or shark teeth when he had freetime. I’ve got a jar full of them in my room back home that we gathered from all over the country.”
“People look for Petoskey stones around the lakes,” I tell her. She cocks her head and looks back in my direction with her forehead pinched. “Fossilized coral,” I explain, “Laura always said they were overrated. She collected sea glass instead.”
“Tell me something else about you,” she demands with a playful glare.
“Like what?” I can’t think of anything about me that is worth sharing that she doesn’t already know. She knows more about me than anyone else; the others don’t even know about Laura. It isn’t a story I like to share.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“My favorite color? Why do you want to know that?”
