Summer Love - 6. Chapter 6

So there I was, sitting with a group of teenagers I didn't know (except David), most of whom were the kind of jocks who I'm more used to running from than hanging out with, rubbing sunscreen into my arms and wondering what I was supposed to do now. David had done a quick introduction when we got there (“Hey guys, this is John; that's Alex, Mark, and Greg.”) then had flopped into the sand between Jody and the one I thought was Alex and joined into their interrupted conversation about the potential surf for the next few days.

“So, Johnny-boy, do you surf?”

I looked up and saw Jody smirking at me over his shoulder. A couple of the others snorted, and David rolled his eyes and shoved Jody's shoulder. “Shuddup, Jody, quit bein' a jerk.”

Jody gave David a false look of shock. “What? Just 'cuz he's a four-eyed geek doesn't mean he can't be a surfer bro, right?”

Dangit, I'd known this would be a bad idea. I twisted over onto my hands and knees, facing away from them, getting up and grabbing for my backpack. I wondered if I'd be able to get away, if I'd have to drop the pack (No, I can't drop the pack, it's still got Dad's binoculars in it).

Behind me, I heard their voices. “Lamer.” “Dickhead.” “God, you are such an asshole.” “Wait, John, don't...” That last was David, from right behind me, followed a second later by his hand grabbing my arm yet again. This time, I pulled away from him right away - not only because the sunburn had started to hurt.

“Fine, you wusses hang out with the geek, I'm hitting the waves.”

Jody's voice - also right behind me. The inevitable shove came and I went sprawling face-first into the sand. I'd been holding my backpack, so that was now digging into my belly, and my glasses had flown off, landing somewhere in the now-blurry sand. Don't I thought, feeling the tears threaten as I fought to stand back up. You're too old to cry, especially in front of them. I didn't even want to think about the cracking sound I'd heard inside my backpack. If that was Dad's binoculars, I was dead.

Hands grabbed my arms again and pulled up. This time, though, it wasn't David doing the grabbing, because he was standing in front of me, an out-of-focus face worriedly biting his lower lip as he handed my sand-dusted glasses back to me. “You okay, man?” asked whoever was on my left, and the one on the other side said at the same time, “Sorry about Jody, dude, don't know why he's bein' such an ass.”

I realized I was staring into David's eyes and blinked away, wiggling my arms out of the hands holding them so I could wipe the sand off my glasses and put them back on. Then I looked at the guys to either side of me, not quite enough to meet their eyes, before dropping my gaze to the sand. “Thanks, um...” was all I managed to get out.

The two taller teens moved away, leaving just me and David as he tried to coax me back over to the group. “I get it if you don't wanna, but the rest of the guys are cool, really, Jody was just.. I dunno, but they aren't like that.”

And so I ended up once again sitting with the group of high schoolers I still didn't really know. This time, though, I felt like I was actually part of the group, sitting in the spot Jody had been in before, next to David with Mark on the other side of me, Greg next to him and Alex on the other side of David. At least I knew which one was which, now - Mark had black hair and the start of a mustache, Alex was blonde, with a lighter tan than anyone except me, and freckles spotting his cheeks and nose, and Greg had dark brown hair (bleached in streaks to blond from the sun like David and Jody) and had the misfortune of having acne, with two especially big pimples, one on the side of his nose and one on his jawline.

They'd been talking quietly when David and I came back over after checking out my backpack. (My Dad's binoculars were fine; the cracking sound I'd heard was my shells. Both of 'em were smashed, but I didn't seem to have the energy to get any more upset about it.)

“So John,” Mark turned to me and asked after I was settled down, “where do you live, did you just move in?”

I shook my head. “I'm here on vacation. I live up in Lancaster, like an hour and a half north of here, but I'm staying with my aunt up Wilshire Boulevard.” I was looking at Mark when I answered, so it was only out of the corner of my eye that I saw David turn to face me really quick when I said that, then turn away again.

“Oh.” Mark glanced at the other two teens, then asked me, “How long are you gonna be around, then?”

I shrugged. “A couple more weeks, I guess. My mom and dad are gonna pick me up at the end of the month, I think.”

Mark started to answer, “That's coo--” when Alex suddenly whistled.

“Oh man, take a look at that.”

David and I both twisted around to see what Alex was looking at. Walking towards the ramp of the lifeguard station we were sitting under were two lifeguards, a guy and a girl. The guy was wearing swim trunks and a tank top; the girl was in a one-piece bathing suit and a white lifeguard jacket. The girl was taller than the guy, with light-brown hair cut short; the guy looked like he had no hair until I realized he was just buzzed really short.

“Heeeey, Lady Lifeguard,” Alex called out, catching the attention of both of the lifeguards. “I'm droooowning over here, can I get some mouth-to-mouth?”

David and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes as Mark and Greg elbowed Alex from either side.

“Yeah, you sound like you're in pretty deep,” came the amused response from the girl. “Tell you what, Freddie, why don't you go help him out?”

Both of the lifeguards laughed as Alex turned red and started to sputter. “Wait, no, that's not what I --”

“She got you, Alex, admit it,” David gasped out, laughing hard.

“You dudes just wait, I'm so gonna ask her out.”

“Dude, she's, like, 25 or something, get out!” Greg exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Alex chimed in, “and you've been talking about asking her out all month.”

“Whatever, you just wait, you'll see,” Mark replied, then stood up suddenly. “C'mon, looks like the waves are really breaking, it's time to get out there.”

The sudden change of conversation worked, as Alex, Greg, and David all looked out at the surf and jumped to their feet, David with a whoop. “Yeah!” As the three older boys went for their surfboards, however, David turned back to me. “You gonna be around later?”

I shrugged, answering, “Yeah, probably.” I checked my watch (yeah, I was wearing a watch to the beach, I'm not gonna go into the whole geek thing again). “I got a couple hours before I'm supposed to be back home. Er, at Aunt Edie's.”

His face fell for a moment, then he turned towards the boards - I guess other people left their surfboards here too, since there were still a few more lined up even after the three high schoolers had gotten theirs. “Cool, maybe I'll see ya later then.” Then he flashed me a grin over his shoulder. “I'll do some tricks for ya - you better be watchin' me through those fancy binoculars!”

I grinned back, even as my cheeks flushed. “I will!” I didn't mention how I would have been watching him anyway.

David was over at the surfboards now, pulling his shirt off and tossing it into the pile of clothes under the ramp. Then his fingers fumbled at his shorts and I started to gape (He's not gonna undress out in the middle of the beach like this, is he?). I started to turn my head away, but couldn't stop from peeking as he pushed his shorts down - of course he was wearing his swim trunks underneath. (Duh, John.) The shorts and his flip-flops joined his shirt in the pile, then he grabbed his board, turned back to wave at me with another grin, and took off down the beach towards the breaking surf.

I stayed in the shade under the lifeguard shack, stretched out now on my belly, watching David through the binoculars with the book I'd brought (one of the “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” series) forgotten in the sand next to me. True to his word, David had tried a couple of tricks already, once trying to make his surfboard spin around, and once doing a jump up off the top of a wave (that looked really cool with him and his board completely out of the water, before the board went off one way and he bellyflopped back into the water - ouch!). Most of the time, though, he was just out there horsing around with the other guys while waiting for waves.

I was watching them (okay, mostly him, whatever) when I noticed Jody had rejoined the group. I watched them talk for a bit, then saw Jody look back towards the shack, then back at the friends. The binoculars were just strong enough that I could see the look on his face, and it wasn't a happy one. Then he shook his head and started paddling away from them, pausing just long enough to flip them off. Wow.

I lowered the binoculars away from my face for a sec, to wipe some of the sweat off my forehead (I may have been in the shade, but it was still hot!). While they were down, I caught sight of Jody again, coming in towards the beach. I realized he was going to be coming back here to get his stuff, and I didn't really want to be here when he did. With a swallow, I rolled over and grabbed my backpack, pulling out the binoculars case to put them away carefully (no sand on 'em, keep 'em clean so Dad'll let me borrow 'em again), then scooped up my book and got to my feet.

By the time I was out of the shade of the shack, Jody was already at the waterline, and boy he really did not look happy. I hurried as much as I could in the sand, angling up towards the road and the crowds of rollerskaters and skateboarders, hoping he wouldn't notice me.

I was almost there when I felt a hand grab my backpack and jerk me to a stop.

“Look, faggot,” Jody's voice hissed behind me. “I don't care what David says, you stay away from me and away from my friends, got it?” Then I was stumbling forward again from the not-so-gentle push he gave me. “If I see you again, you'll wish you'd never been born.”

He shoved past me as I got myself steady again.

“You alright, son?”

I looked up at the beach cop and wondered how long I'd been standing there staring at the ground. Nodding once, quickly, I said, “Yeah, I'm fine,” managing to answer without sniffing once, then hurried away, darting between a couple of groups of obvious tourists in the sidewalk crowd before heading back towards Wilshire and Aunt Edie's place. She couldn't complain about me coming home early to get aloe for the sunburn, right? Yeah, I hoped she'd accept that as an excuse, at least.

Last update: 2010-05-02 08:36:05 PDT