Page 21 of Meet You in the Waves
“Selena Arlington. Tenth grade. She’d had a crush on me for years. We had a party here at my parents’ house and I just kind of had to know, I guess. She was a more than willing participant in the act but I think she was expecting something more like an engagement ring rather than walking in on me and the year twelve sports captain later that week.”
“Your life sounds so much more interesting than mine,” Ajay smiled, a hint of something crossing his face.
“I doubt that. You and whats-her-face look like the high school prom king and queen.” Yeah I was being immature but I couldn’t bring myself to say her name.
Ajay huffed a soft laugh. “I guess.”
“So how did that happen?” I asked, always the glutton for punishment.
A puzzled expression crossed Ajay’s face and I found myself leaning in even closer, shoulder pressed to his. “I don’t even really know for sure,” he admitted. “I told you I only moved to the same school as them for year twelve. Kira was best friends with Dee and those three had known each other forever. Kira had made some fairly obvious hints to me but it wasn’t until our big end of year celebrations at a friend’s house. I had way too much to drink and woke up the next morning beside Kira. Both of us naked. So I could only draw my own conclusions aboutwhat had happened. And then it just sort of became thisthingthat we were together.”
“Aw, so romantic,” I returned, biting on my bottom lip as I pretended to swoon. Ajay laughed and knocked me with his knee.
“Not all of us can be smooth operators like you.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed. “Is that what you like though? A bit of romance?”
Ajay stopped and looked at me, a shadow crossing his face. Dangerous territory here. A little flirting he seemed to tolerate but maybe I was treading into murky waters with that question.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Never really thought about it.”
“Well think about it now,” I pressed, in for a penny.
“It’s not romance I need,” he finally replied, eyes locked onto the flames dancing in the fire. “I just want something that feels real. Everything just seems so surface level, you know? All about the looks and the way it will photograph for the socials. I just want real.”
He looked back at me then and I almost said it. Almost offered thatIcould give him as real as he could ever wish for. But I didn’t, self-preservation kicking in and stopping me from talking. We’d barely known each other a week although that was more than enough time for me to know how absolutely amazing he was. But he was straight or at least he thought he was. I needed to keep reminding myself of that because the way he was looking at me right now seemed somehow slightly less than straight.
Of course, that was also the moment Kira stumbled back onto the scene, almost tumbling onto Ajay as she swayed on her feet.
“Steady there,” Ajay said, eyes breaking away from mine as he reached out to hold his girlfriend steady.His girlfriend, Nick.
“I’ve had too much to drink, Ajay,” Kira moaned, dropping to her knees in the sand.
“Yep. Come on, I’ll take you back to the house,” Ajay offered. Because of course he did. He was that kind of guy. Sweet and selfless and concerned about his girlfriend even though she was a piece of work with a wandering eye.
He stood and helped her to her feet, arm going around her waist as she clung onto him. His eyes came back to mine, some kind of mutual understanding passing between us, like he knew we had half a conversation to finish.
“Night, Nick,” he said, eyes holding mine for a moment too long.
“Night, Tassie boy,” I nodded, watching him head back up towards the house with his girl tucked under his arm.
The party lost all interest for me after I’d had to sit and watch Ajay walk Kira back up to the house. But I waited it out impatiently, mind half way back at the house, until the party petered out of its own accord. Dee and Dane had gone already. I hadn’t even noticed them leave.
I gave Rob a little extra time to shoot his shot with Kat but it wasn’t long before she eventually waved goodbye too and I guess that was that.
“Bad luck, mate,” I consoled, planting a heavy arm over Rob’s shoulders.
“Ah that’s okay,” he replied with a wistful grin, his short brown hair blowing in the sea breeze. “Pretty sure I’m slowly wearing her down.”
“That’s the spirit,” I grinned, patting his chest.
“Looks like we’re both down on our luck tonight,” Rob returned with a cheeky grin. “You want to take me home to bedseeing as your pretty young boy seems to have disappeared with his girl?”
“We’ll just have to make do with each other as our consolation prizes,” I said with a shrug.
“As long as you don’t take that as invitation to get all handsy with me.”
“Stop pretending like you don’t love it,” I chided back.
