choice to do whatever he wanted with it.
“Sure feels close.” I huffed, blowing my shorter layers of
hair away from my face. “Anyway, thanks for stopping by, now if
you’ll just…” I pointed to the door.
Demetri didn’t move.
Of course not.
“Nope, I came to find you for a reason, and it wasn’t torture.
Though I’d love nothing more than to bring you so much pleasure
that you scream my name.”
I felt myself blush as I looked away.
“I want us to be friends.”
“Excuse me?” I was in the process of taking off my
sweatshirt, so I could jump in the shower, only it got caught on my
head, making me run into the dresser.
“Friends.” I could feel his warm body inches from mine, his
hands reached up and tugged the sweatshirt off me, leaving me
feeling naked as his eyes boldly scanned my body. “I want to be
your friend.”
The way he said friend reminded me of the way the shark in
Finding Nemo chased Marlin in hopes to be friends not food.
“Friends,” I repeated.
“Friends.” He leaned closer, finally resting his forearm on
the wall above my head.
“I have friends.”
“You said they moved away.”
“So I have one friend.”
“Really?” He looked intrigued.
Crap. I was the worst liar ever. “Yup, I have a friend.”
“What’s your friend’s name?”
My eyes darted to the floor. He even had nice Converse
shoes that seemed expensive, even though I knew they weren’t.
Ugh. “Sally.”
“Sally?” He laughed. “Is she eighty?”
I tilted my chin up. “Nope, and we have plans today.”
“You do?” He wasn’t buying it. His grin seemed to widen as
my lie got bigger.
“Yup, so if you’ll just excuse me. I’m going to be late.”
With a chuckle, he pulled back and went to the door.
“Alright, Lyssa, I’ll give you this one. You know where to find me,
if you need a… friend.”
“No, I don’t.” Crap. The words were out before I could stop
them.
“Oh.” He winked. “How rude of me. Here.” He put a slip of
paper in my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Have fun with Patty.”
“It’s Sally!” I called.
“Right.” His laugh echoed through the house as he left.
My hand was clenched tightly around the slip of paper he
gave me. Unable to stifle my curiosity, I pulled it open and
laughed. It had his cell number, his home number, his agent’s
number, his email, his Facebook and LinkedIn profile, as well as his
address.
Now that was interesting. Mrs. Murray was his neighbor. I’d
always been curious about who owned the gorgeous beach house
next door to hers. Now I knew. At least I lived a few miles away
from him. It was hard enough knowing that we’d been seeing the
same shrink.
I threw the piece of paper in the trash. Impossible. I couldn’t
do it. I couldn’t be his friend. When you were friends with boys, it
never worked. It always turned into something more, and then
when you got really close, the one person you swore you’d give
your everything to, leaves. Clearly, I was still struggling with past
demons.
Emotion welled in my throat. They leave you with nothing,
but sharp jagged pieces of your memories together. Each time I
wore the sweatshirt, it was like another cut. Each time I saw the
Justin Bieber poster, the cut got deeper.
But as long as I was cutting myself emotionally and not
physically… At least I felt pain. At least I knew it was real.
A tear escaped from my eye and dropped to the floor before
I could brush it away.
I glanced back at the trash can.
Muttering a curse, I retrieved the paper. Just in case.
****
I only kind of lied. I mean, I was visiting a friend. That is, if a
friend is an insanely old seal that lives at the Seaside Aquarium.
The staff knew me by name and always had little fish
day off, another one of my ways to remember the pain. Brady had
loved seals. I always thought they were stupid. I mean, who claps
when they eat food?
But one day, Brady pointed out to me that I did exactly that.
If I ate something that was really good or that made me happy, I’d
clap my hands. He’d roll with laughter. Thus, my new nickname
became Little Seal.
It was typical for us to visit the aquarium on the weekdays
when it wasn’t that busy, and then a few months before the
accident, he got a job there.
I was there every day.
Old habits die hard.
“Hey, Alyssa!” Sam was already standing by the seals,
throwing them their morning meal. He graduated a few years
before me and was close to Brady, like really close — they were
brothers. He was one of the few people who stayed behind after
graduation. Consequently, he healed just fine after the accident.
Apparently boys aren’t as emotional as girls. He put everything
into his studies and sports, and after a while, we just stopped
talking, unless I stopped by to feed the seals. Honestly, it was just
too hard being near him. It reminded me of everything I lost that
day. Recently we’d fallen into a sort of routine. I think he felt
responsible for me somehow, which was ridiculous. He gave me
the fish, I fed the fish to the seal, we made small talk, and he gave
me a hug.
So, sadly we talked once a day about things that didn’t even
matter, and never about Brady. Saying his name out loud was
something I never did. It hurt too much.
“How’s work?” Sam threw another fish and politely handed
me the bucket so I could join in.
I shrugged. “Well, I figure I’m a few taffy pieces away from
curing world hunger, so that’s good.”
“Awesome.” He chuckled. “I know you’ve been working on
that one like your whole life. Great accomplishment.”
“Yes, I hope to cure cancer next.”
“My, my, you’re driven.”
I laughed and threw another fish toward my favorite seal.
Sally swam up next to me and splashed water near my face.
“So, rumor has it that one of the famous AD2 members has
kind of a thing for you.”
“Rumors suck,” I grumbled, patting the water next to Sally.
“He’s bad news, Alyssa.”
I froze for a minute then shook my head in denial.
“Nothing’s going on.”
“Okay.” Sam put up his hands. “I just wanted to warn you,
that’s all. I know you probably don’t know what happened last
year, since you were basically MIA all year and stuff…” He just
waved his hand in the air. “But he was dating that girl Nat Murray
for like a few months, then the brother started dating her. I still
don’t know what happened, but he nearly overdosed on drugs and
killed himself.”
Well, I wasn’t expecting that, but it gave me another good
reason to reject Demetri’s friendship. Surrounding myself with a
guy like that would do nothing but get me into trouble.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to people talking about me. I
mean, I’m famous, but still…” a deep voice said from behind us.
I swallowed the dryness in my throat. My eyes flickered
between Sam and Demetri. “What are you doing here?”
“I like fish.”
“They’re seals.”
“Damn, the pamphlet said aquarium. You understand my
confusion.” He winked.
Sam stood in front of me.
“You must be Sally.” Demetri held out his hand.
Laughter bubbled out of me before I could stop it. I put my
hand over my mouth; it smelled like fish, but I didn’t care. The look
on Sam’s face was priceless.
“No.” Sam swallowed and stepped farther in front of me.
“That is Sally.” He pointed to the seal, which chose that exact time
to splash all three of us.
Demetri’s clothes were drenched. His tank top was suddenly
molded across his perfect abs. I fought to keep my jaw from
dropping. No guy just out of high school should have that nice of
body. Everything told me to avert my eyes, but like an idiot, I just
kept staring.
“I think Sally’s upset,” Demetri finally said, wiping his face.
“Must be the company.” Sam sneered.
Demetri smirked. “I like your friends, Lyssa.”
“We’re not —” I stopped talking, because to say I wasn’t
Sam’s friend would be hurtful. But friends didn’t give up on you,
and Sam had. Sally, however, was a completely different story.
“To be clear, I meant the seal,” Demetri said, saving me.
“Can I feed her?”
“Sure.” I grabbed the bucket from Sam’s clenched fingers
and handed it to Demetri. “Just don’t let her bite you.”
He grabbed a few fish and tossed them to Sally. Demetri’s
rich laughter was like water to a marathon runner. It was
intoxicating, beautiful, deep. I took a step away from him. “So, still
stalking me I see.”
“Not at all.” He shook his head and grabbed another fish.
Sam stood on the other side of him, brooding. “I was bored, and
since my friend wouldn’t come hang out with me, I decided to do
the only touristy thing I could find in this town.”
“Taffy. Why don’t you check out the taffy?” Sam offered,
obviously trying to get rid of him.
“Ah, now there’s a fun story. I work at Seaside Taffy.”
Demetri shrugged. “So, it’s not very touristy for me anymore.”
“You?” Sam sputtered. “Work?”
“I sing the jingle. Wanna hear it?” Demetri looked dead
serious. I laughed again. Why the heck was he being nice to Sam,
when Sam was being a genuine ass?
Sam nodded his head. “If it makes you leave, I’ll hear it.”
“No such luck, friend.” He jumped down from the concrete
step and went to wash his hands. “I’ll leave on my own. I don’t
need to sing in order to gain permission to do so.” He winked at
me. “Pleasure seeing you again, Lyssa, and Sam, nice meeting you.
We should hang out sometime. I’m gonna go into the aquarium.
You know since I paid to see fish and all.” With a grin he walked
off.
Sam and I stood in silence.
“He’s, uhh…” Sam scratched his head.
“Not nearly as hostile as you,” I pointed out.
“I was being protective.” Sam’s eyes flashed as he grabbed
my hand and pulled me close to his body. He’d never acted like
this before, and I didn’t like it. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Since when did I nominate you as my protector?” I jerked
away.
He glared. “You didn’t. But I’m sure it’s what Brady would
have wanted. After all, I’ve been protecting both of you for years
now. And now he comes into the picture?”
I tried to pull away, but Sam’s grip tightened. “What would
Brady think, Lyss?”
“I have to go.” I threw the bucket down and ran into the
aquarium. I wasn’t sure why I was running toward Demetri, but I
was frantic.
Chapter Ten
Demetri
So, I officially looked like some creepy stalker. Really, it was
a first for me. I mean, I liked Alyssa, but not enough to actually
stalk her every waking move. She must think I’m a total and
complete lunatic. I wouldn’t blame her if she burned my numbers
tonight in a trash can and cast a spell over the fire to render me
unconscious.
I tapped the pamphlet against my leg as I walked slowly
around the darkened aquarium. It wasn’t very impressive for being
the one tourist attraction. In fact, it was quite small. But the seals
were kind of cool, and they did let you touch a lot of the animals.
The five-year-old inside of me was pumping his fist in the air when
they said it was okay to touch the octopus.
I sighed and walked by the miniature sharks, or whatever
the heck they were called. My thoughts took me back to meeting
the guy Alyssa had been with. Was he a boyfriend? Maybe I read
her all wrong. She didn’t seem to appreciate his protective stance.
But even I had to admit he was some serious competition in
the looks department. Obviously I needed to be lifting more and
stop being so lazy after work.
“Demetri?” I heard my name, and then a body ran into me
so fast I nearly fell into the glass aquarium, to release the tiny shark
to feed on every human in its wake.
“Lyssa? What’s wrong?”
Her face was flushed, her nostrils flared. Was she crying?
I leaned in closer. She backed up as if scared. “I, uh, I’m
scared of sharks.”
“It’s in a glass cage.” I pointed out.
“You nearly broke it.”
“Because you ran into me.”
“Do you want to hang out or not?” she huffed.
What. The. Hell.
Something was up. But at least counseling had taught me
one thing: when girls were upset, you didn’t make things worse by
forcing them to talk about it, and then you didn’t try to fix
everything and give them a slap on the back when they were done.
So I nodded my head and grabbed her hand. She didn’t pull
away. Thrilled that she actually let me hold her hand, I led her out
of the aquarium straight by Sam, who looked like he was getting
ready to sic Sally on me.
I was never one for drama with other dudes.
Maybe it was because I always won, except when it came to
my brother. Hence the need for drugs in the first place. I wonder
what that said about my personality? Rejection leads me down a
path of destruction? Awesome. At any rate, my motto had always
been that when women someday take over the world, I’m going to
need all the testosterone on my side that I can get. It was never wise
to make enemies with those who’d protect your manhood when a
girl wanted to take a machete to you.
“So where to?” I asked once we were out in the warm salty
air.
Alyssa looked down the boardwalk. “Wanna go for a
swim?”
“Do you have wetsuits?” Last year I tried to get Nat to swim
with me in the ocean and nearly froze my toes off. She thought it
was hilarious. I wanted to die and was pretty sure my voice, as well
as other parts of my body, didn’t return to normal for hours.
“Yup, follow me.” She led me down a few steps, then
walked into a surf shop. “I need an extra large and an extra small.”
“The extra large is for me.” I winked at the lady behind the
desk. She blushed.
Alyssa hit me. “Pretty sure that’s obvious, Dem.”
“Aw.” I tilted my head to the side. “I have a nickname too!”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it kind of sounds like damn,
which means to go hell. I thought it fit.”
God, she was beautiful when she was feisty. “You care.”
“I don’t care.”
“Admit it, you kind of do.”
Our argument was interrupted by the sales lady. I insisted
on paying for the rentals.
Alyssa pointed out the dressing rooms, and I ran in to
change.
Extra large was not large enough.
Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Who did they make these things for? Fifth graders?
I cleared my throat a few times and tried to give the boys
some room. Hopefully, I’d still be able to reproduce after this little
adventure.
I felt myself flush when I emerged from the dressing room.
Alyssa had put her hair back and looked like a goddess. Trying not
to kiss her today was probably going to be the hardest thing I’d
ever done. Even harder than giving up drugs. Hell, she was like a
drug. I just wanted to be around her all the time.
“Ready?” She bit her lip and crossed her arms. Her eyes
scanned me with amusement. “A little tight?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Let’s go.” I put my arm around her and led her out of the
store.
****
The water was just as cold as I remembered, but it was at
least eighty-five out, so at least the air was warm.
“You ever use a skimboard before?” Alyssa called out to me.
“No, but I surf. I think I’ll be okay.”
She shrugged.
I was not okay.
I fell on my ass at least twenty times while she skimmed by
me like a pro.
“It’s the wet suit!” I shouted as I fell for the hundredth time.