Page 45 of After the Siren
‘Bro, it’s February.’
‘Jaze, I —’
Jake cut him off. ‘Out in ten or I’ll come in and get you. I’ll talk toEva.’
Theo stared at his phone. He did not want to go to the beach, but he also didn’t want to stay here. And he definitely didn’t want Jake knocking on his door. He didn’t doubt that Jakewouldmarch up to the door, flirt politely with Eva, and then bully or cajole Theo out of the house. The lower-energy option was to bow to the inevitable and stave off Eva finding out that anything was wrong. That he was fucking upagain.
‘Tick-tock,’ Jake said, and hung up.
Theo threw the phone down on the bed, but he also got up. He fossicked in a drawer to find some board shorts and pulled on a ratty t-shirt.
He managed to get out of the house without running into Eva, so he texted to let her know where he was going.
One of the windows of Jake’s ute rolled down as Theo approached. ‘Get in, loser,’ he said, looking at Theo over his aviators. ‘There’s coffee. And snacks.’
There was. Theo sipped his coffee and pretended not to be delighted by the bag of warm cinnamon doughnuts. It was ... quite thoughtful, really.
They were both quiet on the drive. At one point Theo made the error of reaching for Jake’s phone to change the music and was shouted down – apparently the K-pop wasn’t some sort of algorithm misfire.
‘I don’t know how you listen to this,’ Theo said.
‘Better than the sad-boy indie shit you’re into.’
Jake drowned out Theo’s reply by joining in with a rap break. There were accompanying dance moves, which Jake performed with one hand. Theo found himself smiling, even if he did wish Jake would drive with two hands on the wheel.
‘Where are we going?’
‘You’ll see.’
They turned off the highway forty-five minutes later and proceeded down a network of country roads, then finally onto a dirt track. It was probably a good thing that Jake drove a stupid ute – Eva’s hatchback couldn’t have handled the potholes. They pulled up, finally, in the sort of car park that had evolved organically rather than through planning permits. A hand-painted sign read ‘Take your litter away with you, you dirty cunts’.
Jake parked and unclipped his seatbelt. ‘Phone,’ he said, holding out his hand.
‘What?’
‘Phone.’
Theo handed it over, confused, and Jake shut it in the glove box. ‘You won’t need it.’
‘I’m not twelve.’
‘So you weren’t on socials this morning like a muppet?’
Theohadbeen on socials that morning. Like a muppet. A sad, pathetic muppet. ‘Fine.’
Jake retrieved a backpack from the back seat and led Theo across the car park to the beginning of a track. Theo trailed after him, feeling a little bit like a reluctant puppy being taken on a walk.
‘I used to come here all the time during school holidays,’ Jake said, sure-footed on the rough path. Theo was really hoping neither of them was going to break an ankle. Davo would be pissed as hell. ‘Most people don’t know about this track, so it was a good place to go and ... hang out.’
‘Hang out, huh?’
Jake gave Theo a wry look over his shoulder. ‘Yeah.’
It wasn’t a hard climb, but Theo could appreciate why you wouldn’t make it if you had a gaggle of children or a whole lot of gear. Just as Theo was about to ask how much further they had to go they came up over a rise and there was the beach, the restless ocean stretching out to the edge of the pale-blue sky.
He’d been wrong. Itwasbeach weather, even if it was a little cool.
They both kicked off their sneakers and walked down the sand. Theo inhaled. He’d missed being close to the beach. Sometimes you just needed to submerge yourself in salt water. Not that he was going to admit that to Jake.
