It was the day after, and I’d managed to avoid explaining to him in math class by getting the teacher to tutor me for the whole block on procedures I could’ve done in my head. Some of the problems I purposefully made a flaw so great, the teacher had to stare at it for the whole class before being able to re-teach it to me.
I wasn’t so fortunate at lunch.
He invited me to sit in a separate table than Jade and her friends. Upon receiving such a request, I couldn’t politely decline. He led me to a small round table in a dark corner of the section the private school students normally occupied.
He pulled my chair out for me and helped me scoot up before he sat down. He was trying to be as polite as his manners would allow. “I don’t know how to put this, so I’ll be blunt-”
He was cut off by the arrival of one of the private school students. “Excuse me, only people with a certain level of economic stability can sit over here.”
“Do you want to know something scary?” the male who I expected to soon have a stronger relationship with asked.
“What?”
“Your pin number.”
“How is that supposed to scare me?”
“Doesn’t it bother you that I know it and your so-called economic stability is out the window? It means that now, according to your own discriminatory law, you haven’t the right to sit over here. Doesn’t that scare you?”
She growled in frustration and stomped away.
“As I was saying-”
I interrupted him this time. “You wanted to know why I kissed you?” He nodded. “Well, you deserved it.” I had to explain myself so I could be in control of the conversation.
“I did?” The poor guy was baffled.
“After everything I’d said to you, it seemed fitting, besides, I couldn’t have let you stoop to the level of those donkeys, could I?”
“Donkeys?” He was still confused, “Wait, you mean you only did it to apologize?” His face drooped. “Y-you mean you don’t have any feelings for me?” He quickly sat straight up. “It doesn’t matter really, it isn’t like-”
“Here’s some advice.” He raised an eyebrow. “Never become a politician. You’re a horrible liar.”
“What?”
“Oh, and you probably wouldn’t be a good crime scene investigator. You assumed prematurely that I didn’t have feelings for you. It’s not good to assume.”
“Right, now, what did you mean by that?”
“Hmm, maybe I said you passed too early?”
“You mean that was just a test?”
“Indubitably,” I sighed. “Yet who is to say this isn’t a test either?”
“If this is a test, you should’ve warned me. I have no one to copy off of. I don’t even have the answers up my sleeve.” He rolled his sleeve to show me his forearm.
I leaned forward. “You wouldn’t have the answers recorded digitally so you could listen to them, would you?”
“Me? Never! Why would you even think that?” He smirked. “If I were going to do that, I’d hack into the computer mainframe just to change the answers on the test to what I’d want them to be.”
“Are you trying to impress me with your arrogance?” I poked his nose. It was kind of an odd thing to do, but I fancied it over the clichéd side tickle.
“Maybe, but only if it’s working.”
“It’s not.” His face soured. “But I’ll be most impressed if you answer me one question and then ask the question I’m hoping you will.”
“What’s your question?”
“What’s your name? You’d be surprised how many people can answer that one wrong,” Again, he was confused. “No one seems to know you.”
I’m Gavin Weylin and,” He leaned in closer to me. “Is the question you’re looking for ‘Will you be my girlfriend, Sugar Booger?’?”
“Yes, that’s the question, but points off for not asking it.” I poked his nose again. “And if you had asked, the answer would be yes.” We were going to kiss across the table but something interrupted us.
“Sruun and Gavin sittin’ in a tree,” Jade was doing jumping jackets while wearing a hideous camo jacket. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage!”
“Where in the world did you come from and why are you wearing that stupid jacket?” I asked.
“Ha! Kristine owes me ten bucks because she thought my wearing camoflauge would mean you’d still see me sneak up! But you didn’t see me, so the camo worked! Ha!”
“Is she always this,” Gavin paused; he was having trouble finding the right word and just as he was going to speak again, Jade cut in.
“Fantastically brilliant in her scheming idiosyncracies?”
“Sure.”
Having a boyfriend seemed to make life more radiant. I had tried to find a war to introduce Gavin to my grandparents but it was proving difficult. Unfortunately, Jade made the already awkward situation that much more awkward. Jade had a few habits that were just irksome.
Thankfully, we did manage to find some time alone. As obnoxious as Jade could be, Gavin could match it with ingenuity. Gavin found ways to get Jade to leave us alone. At first he invited me to the movies and told Jade we were going to sit in the back. Jade’s response wasn’t what either of us had expected; she grew excited and promised to sit in front of us with a camera. We tried not telling her when we were going on a date but she knew anyways. It seemed the only way to leave her watchful gaze was to invite her with us, although Gavin did find that Jade wouldn’t tag along when he invited me to church with him. She said there were enough people gawking at us if we held hands that she wouldn’t have to spy on us. Several times, he made up some church activity so we could have a little peace; we’d gone to his church a few times but he didn’t bring me there as much as he liked because he saw me struggling to fit in.
Gavin and I were hoping to find some time together doing normal things on a Friday afternoon. To do that, we had to evade Jade.
Gavin walked to my apartment, as we’d agreed, and explained to my grandparents and Jade that his church was taking us to a museum. Jade approved the trip as safe, but determined the trip to be dull.
The reality was, as is always the case, far different than the lie we forged. Had we really been going to the museum, Gavin wouldn’t have recommended I wear a bathing suit underneath my clothing. It was true; Gavin and I weren’t going to a museum or even a church-related activity. Jade had hoped to catch us in a place we might be naughty-or romantic and this would be one of those places, but I doubted she’d see much if she came. Gavin had invited me to the beach with him and I’d been thrilled to do so.
I had a black two piece bathing suit on. I didn’t think it was small enough to be called a bikini, but I could’ve been wrong. To hide the bathing suit, I wore a black ankle length skirt and a matching polo shirt. The disguise was clever enough I could go to the beach without looking too underdressed for the museum.
Gavin and I walked to a public transport station and amused ourselves by reading a plaque on the wall near the bench.
“This plaque is to commemorate the street that once existed twelve stories below that once was the prime path of travel to the beach for the citizens of this great city before becoming the heart of the financial district that would grow into the bustling metropolis the city is now.” Gavin read aloud.
“Congratulations, you can read!” I teased.
“It was a struggle but I managed.” Our flirting was cut short by the arrival of the compact computerized track vehicle. Though it was small and could only carry four passengers, this was an efficient mode of public transportation in a city of skyscrapers because it gave the variety of people simple solutions to getting around to their destinations.
Gavin helped me into the vehicle before instructing the computer on where to take us. I found the tiny interior of the railway car to be quite cozy, perhaps even a little romantic. I even blamed the closeness of the walls for ten fingers intertwining together with five slender digits belonging to my right hand and the other sturdier fingers attached to Gavin’s left.
“Sruun, I’ve been meaning to ask you for some time, why is it you always dress in such a dark raiment?” Gavin asked politely.
“It’s just my personal style. It makes a statement about my past and helps people see who I am. What about you? I’m not the only one guilty of dressing like the night.”
“I want to force people to think. They don’t do it enough as it is.”
Our content conversation halted when the vehicle stopped prematurely. Another passenger was joining Gavin and I, as if only to annoy me. A teenage girl entered the car.
“Hello Gavin, who’s the slut?” She began applying her makeup with a small plastic mirror.
“You know, I don’t know that you’re referring to me unless you indicate me.” I stated. “For all I know, you’re talking about yourself because of a small brown patch of skin discoloration above your collarbone, but honestly, you need to have more respect for yourself. That bruise could be caused by anybody-erm-thing.”
She blushed with anger clouding her cheeks. “You’re very rude, did you know that?”
“And you’re still holding a mirror to your face.” A grin found its way onto Gavin’s face.
She snapped her mirror shut. “You, the badly dressed gothic princess clinging to the only body that has an organ dangling between his legs, are a Wal-Mart-clearance-rack ghetto rat.”
I tried not to laugh. “Thrift store actually; they’ve got great bargains. Enough about me, where’d you get your charming fashion sense? Did you barter with a hobo or do you do your shopping in the dumpster behind a nearby restaurant?”
Happily, the thorn’s stop came momentarily. She’d been annoying me more than the average breathing figure; she wouldn’t let me have a conversation with the one person I liked talking to. I think it was her intrusive nosiness that bothered me.
“Who was she?” I asked. ”She knew your name.”
“Her name is Krystal Nicholson, she goes to the private school.” Gavin explained. “I’ve talked to her a few times and loaned her money for lunch once or twice.”
We would’ve talked longer but the public transportation vehicle slowed to a stop. From there, it was only a short walk to the Atlantic Ocean.
The beach wasn’t what I’d expected except for the sand and water, it was grungy and unwelcoming. I’d expected the beach to be blanketed by thong bikinis and drooping swim trunks that revealed love handles and beer bellies. With that in mind, the dank scar of industry’s talons on the shore was more comfortable than I would’ve expected.
The sun wasn’t hiding from the beach, even if society had chosen to neglect this pristine patch of sand and surf. In fact, it beat down hard enough to be arrested for battery. The warmth was complemented by a cool ocean breeze that toyed with my hair and drew an upside-down frown on Gavin’s face.
Soft and silky was the sand but the radiant heat of the sun caused the sand to feel coarse, grainy, and perhaps even rough. I found the variations in texture from the differences in temperature captivating.
I’d been prepared to settle down next to one of the many grassy shoots but Gavin had other ideas. All of my pleading didn’t persuade him to let my tired bare feet rest. Even when I took my polo shirt off, which I did to persuade Gavin, he said we needed to keep walking along the foamy shore; all taking my shirt off did was invite Gavin’s fingers to tickle my vulnerable sides.
The man in my life took my hand and walked me just a little further, around a bend. In front of us, where the beach had deteriorated, just on the edge of the big blue wet thing was a crumbling concrete sewage pipe. The one end that poked out and sat in the water looked to be about ten feet in diameter while the other end was buried beneath a sheer cliff of mud and clay that had been carved by the patient chisel of the sea. An eternity of tidal cycles had painted lines on the side of the cliff. Gavin directed me into the ruins of the pipe.
“This is where I like to come to be alone.” Gavin mused aloud.
I hated to doubt his sanity but a foreboding sense of caution perturbed my manners. “Is it safe?”
“It’s fine; it may be crumbling but the arch shape is sustaining the weight of the structure.”
“What about hygienically?” I was beginning to sound like a girl, I knew, but if that pipe were connected to a sewer, I wasn’t going in.
“Relax, it’s just a pipe sitting on a beach. I don’t think it was ever connected to the sewer, it’s buried in the ground.”
Swallowing my fear for Gavin alone, I stepped around the pipe’s edge.
Water puddle about halfway into the pipe and soft sand filled in the gaps. The sand looked like it might be very comfortable to relax on.
Gavin eased the bag off my shoulder that held my laptop and placed it on a pile of sand about twelve feet inside the mouth of the artificial cave and then he stacked his bag on top of that.
“Shall we take a dip?” Gavin removed his jacket and it became a crown atop the two computers. With one hand, he pulled his white tee-shirt over his head and ruffled his thick mane of hair in the process. For a split second, I almost thought he was going to skinny dip when his other hand tugged at his belt; his sentence hadn’t exactly ruled out the thought. A jingle whispered the presence of house keys clipped to a belt loop and loose change in the bottom corner of one of his pockets. When Gavin let his black cargo pants drop to the sandy floor of the pipe. All he had on then was a pair of navy blue swim trunks with a dead stick figure sprawled across one leg. I didn’t recognize the symbolism of the illustration, though the ‘x’s over the eyes were cute.
I’d stared at Gavin before, but this was the first time I’d ever seen him so exposed. Perfect waves washed down his biceps and triceps; those waves were large enough to torment the mother of a toddler, yet small enough to make even amateur surfers complain. He didn’t have a six pack on his stomach, but thankfully, he didn’t have one in it either and thus didn’t have the signature gut of a boozer. Moving down his body, Gavin’s legs at least from the knees down weren’t as dense with hair as the bipedal structures of most males; he did have leg hair- he wasn’t clean shaven, but it was in an appealing amount, unlike the gorillas playing sports. At the base of the teenage boy, long lanky feet slept with five stubby toes on each. Three of those ten toes had jagged and perhaps lethal nails.
“Well, aren’t you going to get ready to swim, or would you prefer to tan?” Gavin startled me from my admiration of the good fortune I possessed.
“Tanning is for vain imbeciles wishing to die of skin cancer.” Though I mocked the moribund fashion, those were my feelings on the matter.
“Then won’t swimming be a little difficult in a skirt that long? I mean, if you want to try, go right ahead but I’m just saying.”
A smirk sneaked onto my face. “You’re a pervert, did you know that?” I mumbled stepping forward, wrapping my arms around his neck, and tapping m lips to his. Flirting with him for the brief moment I did gave me a chance to unfasten the skirt and let it fall. My goal had been to surprise Gavin by stepping back from the embrace ready to frolic in the salty water.
He and I took a few slow treads into the water. Having never seen the ocean, this was an awe inspiring event for me.
Sand danced between my bare toes as my feet descended further beneath the frothy wet surface. On my shins, knees, and before long, my hips, the water was cool and refreshing; it was a pleasant contrast to the warm sun on my torso. Standing still was a wonderful experience for me because not only was the sand spiraling in gentle circles at my feet, but I felt like I was on a conveyor belt headed out to sea and moving at half the pace of the average snail. Sand moved in graceful arcs at my feet but loose seaweed moved in the same beautiful footsteps as a ballet dancer, if the ballet dancer had been serpentine in nature that was. White foam licked at my concave belly button but with the arrival of each new wave, the foam dared to kiss higher, once placing a moist token on my neck.
Taking a step towards the horizon, followed by another, I noticed three leaping shadows portrayed on a sky blue background. At first glance, I couldn’t identify the playful shapes but with some squinting, all I could do was gasp. The identity of the cavorting blobs was apparent to me as soon as I recognized them from an animal documentary; the dorsal fins gave it away. They were dolphins.
Relaxed with my knees slightly bent so the water came to shoulder heighth, I listened to a misplaced roaring sound, much like a freight train rolling past. I didn’t understand where it had come from or what it meant, but Gavin did. He screamed my name-not one of his silly monikers for me, but a frantic urgent yelling of my actual first name. My head snapped around to see what his problem was; his tone of voice had been too petrified for my liking. He was waving his arms like a music conductor whose orchestra wasn’t together. He also had a mute outcry; it was mute because the roar had grown immensely louder. I was afraid to see what was behind me, but I knew anyways. A massive wave was crashing just above me. A thousand spooked horses were about to trample over me.
Every muscle in my body tensed to a rigid replica of the soft flexible tissues they once were. I ducked my head and wrapped my arms around my head but even with all my fearful reflexive actions, I couldn’t have been prepared for the hammering blow.
The weight of the water came crashing down on top of me. My world began spinning faster than I could’ve imagined in my worst nightmares, faster even than most computer simulations could replicate. The water lost its beauty the moment it lost its temper. The once clear water that had shown slender guppies now showed only murky clouds of furious sand. At some point in the chaos, my left heel smacked against the sea floor and I felt blood break through the fresh wound. I let out a burst of vocalized pain but all that came out was my short supply of oxygen as an ocean of seawater toured my lungs and respiratory system. The taste of algae wasn’t appetizing, but neither was the intake of all that water. Dizziness overtook me and blackness consumed me with my last thought being that I’d forgotten to turn the stove off when I’d made lunch.
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