Torrential (3 page)

Hastily I change the subject, asking
Opal if she wants another beer. She accepts, and soon both she and Tanner are fairly inebriated, trading stories about their least favorite professors and laughing about things that happened last year. I don’t really want to get drunk, and I take only small sips. Neither of them notices. Every so often, Tanner’s hand drifts to Opal’s thigh, which makes her smirk.

I should be having fun—it’s my first night at my new school and I’m with my best friend and my roommate, who is surprisingly cool. But it’s like something settled in my chest the second I saw Sebastian, and I can’t seem to shake it out. But I don’t want Tanner to know, and so I laugh with the two of them until it’s nearly one in the morning.

When Tanner stands up, he teeters like a tree about to fall and Opal has to grab him around his waist. “Thanks,” he slurs, patting her clumsily on the head. “You’re a total—you’re really…I’m gonna go to the bathroom.”

“Will you make it or are you gonna fall headfirst in the toilet?” I call after him as he staggers into the hallway.

“I use th’ urinal,” he grunts at me before the door crashes shut. I smile. Tanner’s an idiot when he’s drunk, but at least he’s a cute idiot. I sneak a peek at Opal to see if she’s showing any signs of interest, but I’m surprised to find that she’s staring straight at me, her eyes clearer than I thought they would be.

“So you did meet Sebastian?” she asks, a little insistently. She leans forward so that a few loose strands of hair fall over her forehead. “What did you think of him? I was going to ask earlier, but it didn’t
seem like your friend was open to the idea of talking about him.”

“Well,” I start, and decide not to lie.
“He was really rude to me. Like, really rude. But I saw him swimming, and it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before…if he can work that hard at something, he can’t be a completely bad person, right?”

“Hard to know whether he’s a bad person or not. Everyone seems to think he is, but I don’t know how to tell—he’s never said a word to me.”
Opal sounds a bit sad. She folds her arms behind her head and looks at the ceiling. “To tell you the truth, I’ve always been curious about him. He gets perfect grades and all he does is swim, even after dark. Every night he swims the length of the beach and back, at one or two in the morning. It’s like a mile.”

Another little jolt of pity
surprises me. “When does he sleep? And isn’t that dangerous?”

Opal
shrugs. “There’s lots of rumors that fly around about him—he never sleeps or he takes steroids, blah blah. I don’t think any of it’s true. I think people just want reasons to hate him. He never seems like he wants to talk to anyone and people don’t like that, I guess.” She shakes her head, as if to clear it. “Sorry for going on about him. You’re probably not that interested. Tell me about you! What do your parents do?”

I wince. Better to get it over with, I suppose. “My mom’s, um, sort of between jobs right now.
She wants to work as a graphic designer, though. She’s really good!” I point to a couple posters on my wall, swirly dreamy landscapes. “She did those.”

“Those are neat!”
Opal scoots towards the wall to inspect them more closely. “You know, my parents are the CEOs at Durringham International. They’re always looking for new graphic designers.”

She throws this out like it’s no big deal, but I’m so stunned I nearly spill my beer. Durringham International is a huge advertising corporation. And they treat their employees well. My mom would be set for life if she got a job there. “Seriously? I can have her send them her resume and portfolio—”

“Wait a second. I just had an idea.” She teeters back to the carpet, and I realize she really is pretty drunk. “You know, my parents do basically anything I want. If I told them your mom was one of my favorite graphic designers and that I really wanted them to hire her, they definitely would. Just like that.” She snaps her fingers clumsily.

A buzz of excitement sweeps through me. I’d felt so guilty at leaving Mom that I almost hadn’t been able to transfer. If I could find her a new job, I wouldn’t have to worry anymore. “
Opal, that would be—”

“Not so fast
.” She wags a finger, her tone like that of a spoiled kid, which I guess she must be if her parents are that rich. “I’d want you to do something for me. Listen—I’ve felt bad for Sebastian Crane ever since I came here, but I’m too shy to try to talk to him. But you’re not. I can already tell you’re an outgoing person. I bet you’re exactly the kind of person who could get him to open up. And if you can do that, get close to him and find out what his deal is, I’ll tell my parents they just have to
hire
your mom.” She claps her hands once. “That sounds like fun, right?”

The buzzing in my ears dies down, and my chest tightens a little. Did she really just tell me she’d get my mom a job if I co
uld get close to Sebastian? I look more closely at her and see the way her eyes are sparkling. This is a game to her.

I try to smile. “
I don’t know if I could do that. Judging by the conversation I had with him, he’s definitely not interested in getting to know me.”

She brushes this off. “He’s that way with everyone. You’d just have to try harder. How about I give you until the end of the semester? That should be plenty of time, right?”

I’m still totally dumbfounded. “Why...why do you think I could do something like that?”

She drags herself onto her bed, yawning. “What I asked what you thought of him, you didn’t immediately call him a jerk. You sounded like you wanted to understand him.
And you don’t seem like someone who’d be so easily intimidated by him. I don’t know, it’d just be nice for someone to figure him out, you know? Since none of the rest of us can.”

Tanner chooses that moment to topple back i
nto the room, his fly unzipped, a fact that makes Opal hide her head under her pillow until it occurs to him to pull it up. “Hello, ladies! Tanner has arrived. I know, it’s very—extremely—exciting.”

To hide the shock still radiating through my system, I jump up and position myself next to Tanner—he immediately leans on me. “Bedtime,” I say firmly, trying not to look at
Opal, but as far as I can tell, she’s already drifting off to sleep.

“I like her,” Tanner declares as I do my best to maneuver his stumbling six-foot-three body through the hallways without sending him smashing into the wall. “She’s not as micey—mousy—when she’s drunk. Hey, where’d she go? I wanted to—”

“She went to sleep, just like you’re going to. Now where’s your hall?” I prod him until I get a set of mumbley directions. His hall is in the building next to mine, and his room’s up two flights of stairs, a fact that makes me groan at the hopelessness of it until I discover an elevator next to the stairwell.

His room’s a total mess, boxers strewn everywhere. “Tomorrow you’re cleaning,” I announce, tipping him into his bed, which I assume is his because the sheets look like they haven’t been washed once in the last millennia.

“Tomorrow
you’re
cleaning,” he snorts at me, and then rolls over into his pillow. “Tomorrow you’re…hnnn…”

He looks so dorky snoring there that I ruffle his hair, which is something I’ve always wanted to do but I’ve never been able to reach—I’m five two—and then I snap a picture of him with my phone so I can adequately tease him tomorrow.

In the hallway, however, there’s nothing to distract me from what Opal said. What she proposed was a dream job for my mother, but even if I could get Sebastian to open up, how do I know that she’s really telling the truth? Then I picture my mom, our run-down apartment, and I realize I can’t pass this chance up or I’d never be able to live with myself. Even if Opal’s probably lying.

Not that it’ll ever work. My heart sinks as I remember the facts—Sebastian
took an instant dislike to me. There’s no way he’ll waste a second of his time with me. I’ll probably just end up annoying him, which isn’t fair to him. He obviously wants to be left alone, so I should respect that, right?

But what if
Opal meant what she said?

I hear a door opening and I look up, worried that Tanner’s decided he’s going to go pester
Opal after all. But the door is at the farthest end of the hall, and the person opening it doesn’t see me.

It
’s Sebastian.

He’s in swimming trunks, an unzipped black sweatshirt hanging loosely over his chest. I can see the curve of his muscular stomach as he twists the lock, shifts the towel he has over his shoulder, and heads for the stairs at the other end of the hallway. He walks almost like he swims—graceful, but with the hint of hidden strength.

It’s really late. I wonder where he’s going, and then I remember what Opal said about him swimming the length of the beach every night. I hadn’t been sure if she was serious or not, but it looks like she was.

I can hardly believe I’m doing it, but before I can stop myself, I’m sneaking after him. I can’t pass up another chance to watch him swim, especially if I’m not allowed at the pool when he’s there. And something in me is the tiniest bit worried—it can’t be safe to swim so far in the ocean this late at night, when nobody’s watching and he must be exhausted, especially considering the way he was swimming earlier.

When I get outside, it’s so dark that I have to stop and blink for a minute. Then I gasp. The stars are amazing—there’s millions of them, way more than there ever were over my smoggy New Jersey suburb. The air’s cooled off a little since this afternoon, but it’s still warm enough that I can relish the breeze in my tank top and shorts.
Stop it, May, remember what you’re doing
. I think I’ve lost Sebastian until I see his slim silhouette rounding the residential buildings and moving down the path toward the beach.

I have to sneak. Be stealthy—

“Ow!”

I bite back the noise but it’s already out of my mouth as I hop back, grabbing my foot where I stubbed it on a rock. My head shoots up, but Sebastian’s silhouette doesn’t stop. Phew.
I duck my head and hurry after him as quietly as I can, which unfortunately isn’t that quietly.

But he’s a lot faster than me, and by the time I reach the path, he’s already on the beach. His figure is a dark sliver of movement against the sands lit by moonlight. He sheds his swea
tshirt and hits the water running. Even from here, I can tell that his technique is perfect. I inch closer, hunkering down behind the sea grass to watch him.

I’m definitely the creepiest person in the world.

After about ten minutes, he’s almost completely out of sight, barely a blip on the surface of the water shimmering with starlight. I should probably go back to my dorm, but I stay even when he disappears completely, letting the cool sea air fill my lungs.

Wait.

Disappears completely?

I stand up a little, the grass rustling against my knees, and look harder. The surface of the water is glittering and unbroken. My heart starts to pound. Where did he—

And then I see his head resurfacing, except it’s so far away it’s just a small shadow. I exhale, relieved, except he’s not moving forward anywhere near as fast as he was before. He’s not moving forward at all. I squint hard, trying to see better. There’s a shimmery flash of water splashing, and then his head dips below the surface again.

This time it stays down for a while.

Something is definitely wrong. But he’s such an incredible swimmer, how could—and then I realize how stupid I’m being. Sudden muscle cramps can happen to anyone. And aren’t there sharks in Florida? Oh my God, is this a shark attack—

“Shut up,” I say out loud. I am not going to panic. I am going to run back to campus and get help—except what if that takes too long—I see his head resurface again, but this time it’s only for the briefest of seconds before he disappears.

He’s drowning.

And then I’m sprinting for the water, kicking off my shoes while I run and miraculously not tripping over them.
He was so far away the last time I saw his head, and I still can’t see it at all—

The water is freezing cold, the complete opposite of the warm night air, and it sucks all the air out of me as if I’d been punched, but I don’t stop. I take two bounding leaps through the shallows and then dive, water filling my ears and closing over my head as I kick hard and fast.

I’ve always been a good swimmer, but I haven’t swum this intensely in a long time, and I’m exhausted and very slightly drunk. My body screams in protest as I force it to move faster than I’ve ever moved before. The rush of the water passing me is a dull roar, and my skin throbs with the iciness of it.

He can’t die. I can’t let him die.

I really hope it’s not a shark.

SEBASTIAN

It’s the stupidest thing in the world that I should die here.

My leg is useless. Arm as well. Muscle cramps. Hardly surprising, now that I think of it. The lack of sleep, the fights, the endless practice, the icy night water. My body is rebelling at the most crucial time.

What’s surprising is how little I care.

Ever since
she
died, I’ve wondered what dying was like. Quiet, or loud? Painful, or gentle? It looked painful to me, but I was twelve. I could be wrong.