Page 6 of Reckless Roses
“What are you doing?” I ask, wiping my eyes.
“It’s time.” Her grin is mischievous, the same expression her twin makes at me when he’s trying to get me to break the law. It’s fucking terrifying on both of them.
“Time for what?”
Another burst of laughter comes from farther away, and for the first time this morning, I take in my surroundings. My bedroom door is thrown wide open and my two best friends are standing in the doorway, giving me the same fucked-up smile as Elena.
Her twin brother, Everett, leans against my door with his arms crossed. He has grown at least six inches in the last year, and now, he towers above all of us, including Zach. I again tug my blankets farther up my body, somehow feeling like he can see right through my face and into my dreams.
Leo stands next to him, painfully resembling that kid fromHigh School Musical. His blue eyes glisten with knowing, and the smile he gives me is different from the twins’.
“Get up, buttercup.” Elena pats my cheek a few times, stealing my attention the way she always does. “We’re going pier jumping.”
I roll my eyes, lying back against my headboard. “I told you guys I didn’t want to do that.”
I’m not as reckless as my friends. I just don’t see the point in it, I guess. Everett’s got a wild nature that calls him to try everything just for the thrill. Leo does stupid shit because he wants attention. He was neglected and abandoned, so that tracks. My brother wants to be the cool, older leader the others look up to, and Elena… I think Elena has always been a little insecure about her inability to click with other girls, and the only way to keep up with the boys is to be as crazy as they are.
I know there are parts of her that enjoy it, being untamed. She was destined for it, but not through the actions she takes to fit in with the boys. It’s Elena’s heart that’s wild, and ironically, that’s the part of her she keeps locked in a cage.
Her dark lashes flutter as she bats her eyes at me, sticking out her bottom lip. She thinks she’s dramatically pouting, but what she doesn’t know is that the pleading look on her face makes mewant to give her anything she has ever asked for. Sometimes, I’m afraid if she knew the effect she had on me, she’d take advantage of it. “Please, Augustus. I’mdaringyou.”
Yeah, see, that word means nothing to me. Leo and Everett—even my brother—can’t turn down dares easily. The three of them are constantly playing a game of chicken at school and around town, daring each other to do something stupid, like blind skateboarding down a steep hill in traffic, or go shopping cart surfing, or spray paint over the street sign for Pacific Tides Blvd so it says “Pacific Tits Blvd” instead.
Idiots.
Jumping off the pier together is one of the tamer hobbies our group has taken up over the last several weeks. It started when Everett dared Leo to jump off one morning. Leaping from the Pacific Shores pier is against the law, and there is a thousand-dollar fine if you’re caught—plus, you get permanently banned from the Boardwalk.
Leo did it anyway, and the week after, he dared Everett, who dared Zach the week after that, and Zach dared Elena last week. Now, apparently, it’s my turn. Even though I don’t care much for this kind of stuff, being chosen last is never fun, which made me want to participate even less.
I’m hellbent on saying no; I won’t let myself be the lame younger friend who tags along out of pity. I huff, crossing my arms and facing Elena again. She’s still giving me that hopeful expression, and as her lip quivers and her head tilts, I notice her hair fall off one shoulder and behind her back. The thin, black strap of a swimsuit peeks out from the shoulder of her tank top, and I knowexactlywhat suit she’s wearing. It’s the one she had last summer. That bathing suit is made up of exactly two tiny triangles that leave very little to the imagination, with thin bottoms that are no better.
Dammit.
My eyes trail down the column of her neck to her chest, imagining what she looks like without that tank top on—the way she’ll look when she’s peeling her shorts off at the pier, when she climbs up on the railing, when she jumps off the edge. “Fine. I’ll go.”
That mischievous grin flashes across her mouth as she softly claps her hands together, and I realize the only thing that may be more motivating to me than her body is her smile.
“August, if you’re coming, you need to get your ass out of bed! Let’s go!” Zach booms from the front of our house—likely the kitchen.
Elena winks as she backs off my bed at Zach’s voice. She always seems to be chasing after him in one way or another—that much hasn’t changed over the course of the last year. I knew the day I met her, she must’ve had a crush on him, but with the way he has consistently treated her, I hoped it’d dissipate with time.
Seventh grade was good—with Zach in high school and me in middle school, I was finally in the same place as Elena. I had seven hours each day I was guaranteed not to lose her attention to him. We didn’t have any of the same classes, since she’s a year older, but we ate lunch together most days, and we read together in the library during study hall. We spent months trading books we annotated for each other.
Even this past year after Elena transitioned into high school for ninth grade, we remained just as close.
Some weekends, we meet up at Sweet Rue’s or at my house, and I draw while she writes in her journal. She doesn’t tell me what she’s writing, but she seems to love it as much as I love my sketchbook. We read together, we like the same music and the same movies. My stomach still hurts every time I make her laugh, and she listens to what I say like it’s the most interestingthing she has ever heard. She makes me feel important, and she never makes me feel forgotten.
Leo and Everett spend just about every free minute they have on the water, and when Zach isn’t at football, baseball, or basketball practice, he’s doing the same. I like surfing, and I’m okay at it, but I’m nothing compared to Leo. Some people call him a prodigy, and I can’t keep up with him and Everett. Elena likes the slower pace surfing like I do, the kind that’s not competitive or intense, but simple and peaceful. Sometimes, all we do is paddle beyond the break and float, lying on our backs as we look up at the sky and make shapes out of clouds.
Those days are my most favorite of all.
Some days, I’m convinced Elena was put on this planet just for me. Sometimes, I’m convinced she’s my other half. My soulmate, maybe. Without question, I know she’s my best friend in the world, but there is part of me that does question—that wants—so much more.
And yet, I watch in silence as she closes my bedroom door behind her, off in search of my brother.
A half hour later,the five of us are standing above the railing, staring down into the morphing shades of blue that make up the Pacific. The water is nearly crystalline in the morning sun, glowing out across the white caps from behind us, casting the crashing waves in sparkles. The reflection leaps across the ever-moving water, making it a thousand different colors all at once. My stomach jumps a little, realizing how far the drop actually is.
“Okay, Auggie, you’ve got to go first because it’s your dare, and the rest of us will follow,” Leo shouts from the other end, Everett, Zach, and Elena between us.
