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“It’s a date! I’m Rico. This is Jonah.”
“Rico. Jonah.” He gives each of us a wink. “See ya boys later.” Then after a suave little drum of his fingertips on the table, he’s off, mission accomplished. Even as I watch him strut away, I can’t figure out whether it was Rico whose idea was to hook us into going with a local, or Adrian’s idea to get himself some arm candy.
Wait. Is that what I just became? “Are we just fucking arm candy now? What the hell was that?”
Rico, after a sip of his water while peering over his shoulder where Adrian went, gives me a smirk. “That, my friend, was how you get in.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s just a fuck boy. He isn’t going to sweep you off your feet or anything.”
“Oh, I don’t want him to be anything but my fuck boy. This is our vacation. We’re not looking for husbands.” He eyes me. “Now finish your steak so I can get ready to take a bite of that one.”
Chapter 6 - Kent
One hour, the fire is in the sky, like a torch slowly being dipped in the distant waters of the gulf, put out on the other side of the horizon.
The next hour, the fire is on Sugarberry Beach, blazing hot and surrounded by booze, chairs, and laughter. All of my island family are kicking back—only one of which I’m actually related to by blood, as far as I know; after all, my parents were very “busy” people in their day. How else did they end up with four sons and a daughter-in-law? For all I know, I do have a half-brother or half-sister somewhere else on this beach. I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’m standing some distance away, leaning against a wooden fence that used to belong to something, but now just stands out in the middle of nothing. I can’t hear the gulf waves over the noise of everyone here. The crowd of locals has grown quite a bit over the past few years. There was a time when our bonfires only brought out ten of us. Now it’s upwards of fifty, from the look of it.
And it’s about to be fifty-two, whenever my spotlight whore of a brother Adrian gets here. I say fifty-two because he’ll likely have his latest boy toy of the weekend, whom he’ll have tucked under an arm like some pretty possession. And I’m sure that person will feel extra special for now, like they’ve won the boyfriend lottery with my fraternal twin brother who looks nothing like me—and is nothing like me. Come Sunday night, they’ll be tossed aside like trash, and the romance will die a fast and fiery death, just like the kindling in that bonfire we’re all staring at.
“Dude, you’re sulking.”
I turn. Skipper has hopped onto the wooden post next to me, appearing out of nowhere like a gull. “And you aren’t,” I say, noticing the oddly bright expression on his face. “Did you get laid or score some weed or something?”
Skipper snorts. “No. I don’t smoke.”
“Or drink. Or do anything fun at all, I know.”
“I’m seventeen.”
“I drank at your age. Considering Mom, it’s a miracle you’re such a straight arrow sometimes.”
He kicks his feet playfully. “I dunno. Guess I just want to be different.”
“Good for you. I applaud that, by the way. Just giving you a hard time.” I eye him. “What’s got you so damned chipper, anyway? You’re, like … practically glowing and it’s freaking me out.”
“I’m not glowing.” Skipper lifts a foot, inspecting it. “It’s just something that happened at the Elysian earlier. I was with Reef and Dwayne, and—”
“You gotta stop hanging with those guys. Well, Reef, at least. All he does is sneak into R-rated movies or hit on girls all day. I mean, yeah, you could probably learn some lessons about how to score girls from him, but he has no ambitions. At least Dwayne wants to go into business with his big brother, but—”
“Will you let me finish?”
“What were you doing at the Elysian, anyway? I keep telling you to stay on our side of the island on the weekends for a reason.”
“It’s summer. It doesn’t matter if it’s the weekend. Vacationers are gonna be around all the time now.”
“Yeah, well, less of them over here at this beach.”
“I’m not a ten-year-old anymore.”
“They’re bad news.” I try not to think of a pair of tiny yellow trunks and an infuriatingly handsome face with a five o’clock shadow—and feel like a hypocrite.
“Normally they are, I know. But not this one. It was a guy at the Elysian, and he saw Beck giving me and my friends a hard time—”
I scowl. “Fucking Beckett.”
“—and he offered to pay for a cabana for the whole day for us to use! Didn’t even balk at the price. Well, almost didn’t balk.” Skip reconsiders. “Actually, he did balk. But Dwayne wouldn’t let him pay and we left anyway.”
