Page 19 of Fighting the Tide
I like smoking weed, and Brooke and I do it often, not to mention I do enjoy a few bottles of beer now and then with her too.So talking to Avery would force me to look deep inside myself as I admit that maybe I am slowly turning into him and I’m having too much fun to care.
“Nolan?”Brooke breaks me out of my self-reflection and I turn to look down at her.I haven’t been going to the beach as much as I usually do this time of year, and soon enough, the tourists will be taking it over.
“Yeah, that sounds good.I’ll meet you there.What time?”I step back from her and adjust the bag on my shoulder as Kasen walks by, dipping his chin to me in acknowledgement.It hasn’t been lost on me that he and Monica have been avoiding each other lately.They’re in another downward swing and the first person I think about is Avery.Worried about, actually.Monica will be sniffing back around to fill the empty space.
“Nine?”Brooke’s hands slip up and under my school shirt to rest against my stomach and I nearly jump out of my skin at the contact.The last week has been intense with how much PDA she’s been packing on, and I’m not sure what it all means.
We haven’t discussed exactly what we are or even if we’re dating or not, and I don’t know how to bring it up without looking like an idiot.Are we already dating?Would I be stupid if I asked what we were?
“Sounds good.”I nod and back away toward the school bus.
“Let me take you home, Nolan.”Brooke grabs my shirt to pull me back.“It’s stupid to take the bus when you have me with my pretty pink car.”A loud scoff sounds just as Avery walks by us, her eyes rolling and pulling heat to my cheeks.She just heard Brooke begging me to ride in herpretty pink car.How fucking embarrassing.“I’d drive you too, Avery, if your head wasn’t so far up your ass!”Brooke calls to Avery’s back who gives her the middle finger in return.
“I gotta get on that bus,” I explain as I extradite myself from Brooke’s hold.I don’t ever want her to see the degradation I live in.The worn and crumbling cottage sitting on untended land.I would never live that down.“I’ll see you at nine.”
“Fine.”She shrugs, then an unnatural squeal erupts from her mouth when she sees Cassie leaving the school.“Girl!We’re free!”I take the moment she jumps onto her friend to escape and rush for the bus.
I’ve been sitting in the front row for over a month now, and even though I miss sitting beside Avery in the back, I can’t deny that I enjoy having a window seat.The bus is filled with hyped kids, excited about school being over and their summer just starting, and I like that I’m not in the middle of that anymore too.
“Did you get your piece done for Columbia, dear?”Daisy, the bus driver, gives me a smile as she pulls the lever to close the door.Yeah, I know how it looks, but I did make friends with the bus driver.Who else was I supposed to talk to on my rides home?
“I did.”I give her a thumbs-up.“With a week to spare too.”
“When will you hear back?”She pulls out of the school parking lot and onto the street while everyone screams behind us.I don’t know how she tunes it all out.
“In six months.”I groan loudly over the chatter.“It’s going to be torturous waiting.”
“That time will fly.Don’t dwell too much on it and make sure to enjoy your summer.It’s going to be a scorcher.You know what that means.”I can see her smiling as she looks straight ahead, her cheeks bunching with the motion.
“More tourists,” I grumble as she laughs, somehow hearing me over the noise.
“Don’t be so quick to hate them.That’s how I met my husband.He was a rich kid to some big-shot lawyer up in New York.His first summer here he met me at the ice cream shop and I’ve had him wrapped around my finger ever since.”She stops at the first stop as some kids run past us, eager to be rid of anything to do with school, and then we’re off again.
“That sounds like a fairytale, Miss Daisy,” I tell her as I gaze out the window.“Lately my life is more of a macabre film.”
“Oh, you teenagers are so dramatic.I have a good feeling about you, Nolan,” she assures me.“In September, I’m going to be hearing you had the best summer of your life!”
Chapter Nine
Idragmyfeetalong the sand and follow the sound of the music, the bass leading me to a party I don’t really feel like attending.I came home to find my father was once again passed out on my bed, and Mom was in the bedroom bawling her eyes out.There was no mistaking the lipstick smudges around his mouth, and when I made a move to grab him and throw his ass outside, Mom begged me to leave it alone.
I only listened to her because I could hear just how tired she was, and I didn’t want to add to her stress.
Now I’m walking along the beach, trying my best to be excited for an end-of-year party, the first I’ve ever been invited to, and smelling the rain in the air.I tip my head back and look at the gray clouds over my head, watching as they slowly move in like an ominous premonition.The feeling swirling in my gut is similar to the one I had the night I found Brooke readying to jump off the lighthouse.My feet stop moving as I look out at the ocean, the waves becoming angry as it mimics the clouds above.I should turn around and go back.I don’t want a repeat of months ago, but instead of doing that curiosity gets the better of me as I continue forward.
Soon the voices begin to mingle with the music and I start to see outlines of figures on the beach.A lot of outlines.
“Jesus,” I mutter as I get closer.The beach is packed with people from my high school, but there are a bunch of people I don’t recognize as well.
“Nolan!”Brooke’s voice cuts through the noise as she comes barreling toward me, her hair flying out behind her.“You’re here!”She jumps up into my arms and I have no other choice but to catch her, my hands immediately finding her ass as her mouth lands on mine.
Whistles sound around us as Brooke laughs against my mouth, her scent soaked with liquor and cigarettes.My stomach twists as it brings back images of my father laying on the couch with lipstick stains on his face.
It’s hard to separate what’s happening here in front of me from what I just left back at home.So without being rude and abrupt, I let Brooke wrap her arms around my neck and hug me as I slowly release her legs, forcing her to stand.
“You’re late.”Her hand slaps against my chest as she sways on the spot.I’m an hour late, and in that one hour, she’s somehow managed to drink enough to put her on her ass.
“I had some things to take care of,” I explain as I head toward the bonfire, but when my eye finds Avery sitting on a log beside none other than Monica, I stop dead in my tracks.Her eyes widen on me and then flick to mine and Brooke’s clasped hands, her mouth tipping downward like she has any right to judge me while sitting there beside the one person she begged me to help her forget.“Hey, do you want to go for a walk?”I ask Brooke.
