Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) (17 page)

“Classy, isn’t she?” I agreed as we continued walking out of the parking lot.

“Who’s the guy that drove her?” She asked as she studied the foursome in front of us.

“Her brother, Mark. He’s a senior and that’s how she gets to all the parties, too. I don’t know him more than to know what his name is though. Oh, wait. You know what, that’s not true. He’s a jerk. I forgot, but Kate told me he’s the guy who made that rude comment when Paul fell my first day.”

On hearing that, Jillian let loose a disgruntled “
Humph
.” She’s not a big fan of people who pick on those who are weaker than them.

We got to the field and parted ways. Jillian went to sit with Derek and a few of his friends, who were totally cool with having a kid sit with them, and I walked with my parents to the guest side, totally trying to avoid catching any glimpse of the Norsemen’s cheerleaders. Once there, I left my mom and dad and located a few people to watch the game with. I ended up sitting with Mike, his girlfriend Kristen, Pete, and a guy named Justin. They all welcomed me and the whole event was very comfortable.

The Dynamic Duo didn’t make an appearance at the game, but that’s okay. I had a good time with the people I was with, Mike especially. He’s got kind of a wry sense of humor, but he always says what’s on his mind and I can appreciate that. Pete was still relatively quiet and actually, he ended up taking off before halftime, presumably to get things set for the party he was to have after the game. Which was actually sort of exciting.

Both teams had done such a good job of keeping each other out of the end zone that the score was 0-0 until like the last fifteen seconds of the game. Keith set up the offensive line like they were going to go for a field goal, but instead of positioning the ball for the kicker after the hike, he made a blind lateral pass which was caught and then ran in for a touchdown, making it impossible for Derek’s school to even the score in the game’s remaining few seconds. When the excitement was over, I met up with Kate and Melissa and then the three of us fell in with the rest of the crowd walking back to the parking lot.

“Camie, do you have all your stuff for tonight?” Kate asked, making sure I was packed and good to go for the sleepover Melissa and I were having at her house.

“Yeah, it’s all here,” I replied, holding my bag up.

“What is all
this
commotion about?” Melissa asked as we approached a group of people hovering around a car in the lot. “Wait for me, I wanna see what this is about.”

She jogged over to where the “commotion” was taking place and then disappeared amongst a couple dozen kids as she squeezed in to join them. She came running up to Kate’s car about five minutes later, laughing hysterically.

“Oh my God! You guys won’t believe what I just saw! Mark Austin’s car…oh oh!”

“Okay Melissa, get a hold of yourself. Spit it out.” Kate put her hands on Melissa’s shoulders in an attempt to calm her laughter. Her mascara was starting to run because of the tears streaming down her cheeks and Kate gave me a look that said, “See? Makeup is a pain.”

“All the tires were taken off and one was put in each of the seats…buckled up!! And there’s black stuff like shoe polish or something on the windshield that says…that says…” She promptly burst into another lengthy gale of laughter, one that lasted some minutes before she could finish. “It says, ‘FYI, I’m not contagious anymore, the rash is almost gone, so the ointment is working’ Oh, I’m dying…I can’t breathe!”

Wiping at her face, Melissa dragged us over to see the carnage for ourselves and we in turn laughed about it the whole way to Pete’s house for his party. It’s kind of poetic, don’t you think? And yes, it
could
be a coincidence, but I’m going to text Derek right now to ask about my little sister’s whereabouts during the game just in case.

9.

An Open Invitation To Take My Clothes Off

Thanks to the vandalism and people choosing to loiter in the parking lot to look at and/or share it with the world via Facebook, we got to Pete’s before a ton of other people did, which was kind of nice. I’d found out shortly after that first party I went to that aside from a special occasion here and there, Melissa doesn’t drink. That being the case, she’d offered to be designated driver tonight. In turn that meant Kate was free to indulge, and because I wasn’t going home tonight, I decided to join her. I’m not planning on going nuts, but I figure I can let my hair down a little bit. I mean, I seriously doubt having a couple of beers at a party is going to be a bury-able event, you know?

We were sitting in Pete’s kitchen playing the quarter game again and although I was still more than pleased with my skills, the others were playing pretty well, too. By the time my fiancé showed up an hour and a half later, I was a good ways done with my third beer. And you know what? I actually felt fine. I can’t imagine how much of this stuff kids have to consume to wind up behaving like out of control lunatics, but, it must be a lot.

Kate and I abandoned the game when the guys showed up and we went to socialize outside with them and the rest of the raucous partygoers. There were several other events taking place so there weren’t as many people as there’d been at that first party or at Mike’s and because of that, the environment was more—for lack of a better word—intimate. Although that really doesn’t describe it well. People were catapulting themselves off the roof of the small-ish guesthouse into the pool and someone; I actually think Pete himself is responsible for this, put Mr. Bubble in the hot tub. It seemed like Tristan was acting kind of wishy-washy and, of course I could be way off base about this, I got the feeling he was vacillating between wanting to pay attention to me, finding another girl to play with, or hiding. I gotta say, it’s a little annoying.

God, Fate, Destiny…whatever you want to attribute what happened next to, forced him to make a decision—at least for a time.

I’d gotten kinda warm so I’d taken my hoodie off and left it, along with my cell phone, on a lounge chair by the pool. The four of us were standing amongst a larger group of people; I had my back to the pool, and even though he wasn’t really paying attention to me or even facing me for that matter, Tristan was on one side of me, Jeff was on the other, and Kate was opposite us, making it like a little clique within a clique.

“Hey Camie, you have a text,” Kate said, hearing my general text ringtone which just so happens to be the song “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.

“Oh, who is it?” I asked.

“It’s from Derek.”

All of a sudden, Tristan went rigid, almost like he was on full alert. A sinister laugh echoed in my head as having forgotten all about the question I’d asked Derek earlier, I suddenly realized the potential promise this opportunity held before me...if I dared take it. I mean why not? Let’s do a little experiment, shall we?

I mentally crossed my fingers. “Read it, what’s his answer?”

She giggled and then said, “It says ‘Yes. 30 min or so. Luv u shark bait.’ Does that make sense to you?”

“Yes.” With a huge grin, I watched Kate put my phone back in my sweatshirt pocket and tried my absolute best not to give anything away.

God, I so love my cryptic cousin!! You see, the question I’d asked went something like this; did Jillian disappear during the game, and if so, for how long? However, Derek’s answer wasn’t quite the most informational text in the world, and it could’ve easily been misconstrued by someone who might think my cousin and I have a thing going. Especially when you add in the ringtone, which is pretty much a doo-wop love song. I just happen to find it funny as a ringtone for text messages. And I just love the term of endearment he used for me, don’t you? Not to mention he threw in the “I love you” part which just makes it so much more intriguing.

Just when I was being questioned about the meaning by both Jeff
and
Tristan—intriguing in itself—a couple of other party attendants tried to walk through the narrow space between the guys, Kate, and myself. They bumped into Tristan first, then when they turned around to apologize to him, their shoulders shoved me and I was forced to take a few steps backwards, placing my heels right on the very edge of the pool.

So I’m teetering there and circling my arms for balance—yeah, I looked like a dork—and then a third idiot tried to push past Tristan, which had him turning sideways to face me. He was pretty stable still as he reached his arm around my waist to keep me from going in, but I guess I pulled him off balance. His body weight pushed me over the edge and into the pool I went, with him on top of me. Yes, I couldn’t have
been
happier with the result. The splash we made was large enough to get Jeff, Kate, and the three troublemakers all wet, too. At least we weren’t the only ones in the pool, though, because then I would’ve really stood out when I started stripping my clothes off.

Tristan and Jeff were laughing about the fall and Kate had a skeptical look on her face as her eyes kept going back and forth between Tristan and me. Although when I gained my footing in the pool and pulled my shirt off over my head and then went to tug my jeans off, all sounds of laughter coming from Tristan and Jeff abruptly ceased. Their laughter was replaced however, by Kate’s with Melissa joining her hilarity, as she’d been watching the whole event unfold from the other side of the pool.

Tristan’s eyes practically popped out of their sockets when he saw me remove my shirt; he got right next to me, hovering almost protectively like he didn’t want anyone to see me, and then he bent to whisper, “Jesus, Camie! You made me turn around last weekend and now you’re putting on a
damned
show?!
”

My jeans had become stuck around my thighs and I was tilting, so I steadied myself by putting one hand on his rock hard bicep, which I’m pretty damned sure I felt jump and then flicker under my touch, like his muscle was trying to maintain its composure. “Hardly. If you’ll take the time to notice, you’ll see I’m wearing a bathing suit.”

He looked down and instantly saw that I was speaking the truth and through touching his arm, I felt him begin to relax as he muttered to himself “Thank God.” I had to swallow more than once to get my heart to return to its proper place, because touching him like that...? Well, I ain’t got the words. I certainly got a reaction out of him, though, didn’t I? Yes, I’m pretty pleased with myself, too.

“Why are you wearing a bathing suit?”

“Because if you’ll recall last weekend, I didn’t fair so well in the clothing department and you have yet to return my bra. Since I don’t wanna lose another one, and in preparation for stuff like this happening to me, I thought I should adopt a new motto…wanna hear it?” I asked he who makes my heart go rat-a-tat-tat like a snare drum in a marching band.

Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you to remember “the geek and the underwear scene” from
Sixteen Candles
for the future? Well, guess who played the role of the geek who gave a girl’s underwear to the studly jock. Yeah, that would be me. I’d completely forgotten he took the bag with my clothes in it with him to his car and I only remembered once I was getting dressed Sunday morning. Not only could he have reminded me to take it when he drove me home that night, but he hasn’t, in a week of opportunities, returned my clothing. Kate and Melissa like to think of it as if he’s taking scalps. You know, like a trophy of some kind.

Tristan gave me a lopsided, teasing grin and with dancing eyes he nodded that, yes; he’d very much like to hear my new motto. “Okay, you’re gonna love this… My new motto is ‘hope for the best, but plan for the worst.’ I even have a change of clothes in Kate’s car… Crap, I’m stuck. Take my jeans off, please,” I said as I started to tilt in the water again.

I know. I didn’t really mean to give him an open invitation to take my clothes off, but having done exactly that, I guess I deserved the utterly heart-stopping and rather cocky look of consideration that crossed his face. It quickly changed to more of an “I don’t need to be told twice and just so you know, you asked for it” kind of look as he reached under the water to help me wiggle out of the denim Chinese yo-yo that my jeans had become. The whole process would’ve been laughable if wasn’t for the shared intensity which made it highly intimate.

Once we fell in, the novelty of the spectacle we’d become wore off fairly quick so no one other than Melissa, Kate and Jeff were paying much attention to us in the pool anymore. Tristan finally managed to yank my pants off and as he went to throw them on the deck, he realized Kate had been laughing the entire time and still was. I didn’t have time to warn her when I saw the gesture Tristan made with his chin to Jeff before he took Kate’s arm and launched her into the pool, doing a canon ball after her. She smacked him when he resurfaced and then tried to swim away. She didn’t get too far, though, because both Tristan and Jeff being in their element, jumped at her and shoved her back under the water. I giggled, watching them torture poor Kate for a few minutes, and then I swam over to join the group in the hot tub turned bubble bath.

I was feeling like I’d done a pretty good night’s work, so, I didn’t decline the plastic glass of champagne that Pete offered me. Apparently, the game inside had broken up already and Pete was being a magnanimous host to those of us in the uncommonly large Jacuzzi. The Three Musketeers eventually joined me and we all stayed there for the rest of the party. Happily, Tristan and Jeff, both of whom had already been in shorts, had done away with their shirts, too. But, the even bigger bonus was that Tristan chose to sit next to me in the hot tub! I know, right?! I mean it wasn’t like he made an attempt to get familiar with me under the bubbles or anything, but still. I felt it warranted a quick mental happy dance anyway.

Having me next to him also made it easy for him to lean close and whisper to me when Jeff began to regale us with much animation, the story of his heroics last weekend when his Jeep had gotten the flat tire. Somehow the whole thing started when Kate said something about how Jeff should be grateful that she hadn’t had her new phone on her when he tossed her into the pool earlier. Then she started in on him about how she’d appreciate it if he’d take some responsibility for his actions and grow up. So, with Tristan whispering in my ear to give me the
real
story in hilariously matter of fact asides, this is how it went: