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ChapterTwo
Alana parked the Copperfield’s second-hand maroon Chevy within sight of the beach bonfire, which spit orange ambers into the night sky, reaching about eight feet into the air. Julia smeared on another layer of lipstick, her eyes to the mirror above the seat. Alana had the sudden urge to ask her sister not to embarrass her, but kept her lips shut. Thank goodness. She didn’t want to seem like she cared too much.
A boombox roared with the track “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal. Since last summer, the song had seemed like a permanent fixture across the island of Nantucket. Julia, who was normally more pretentious when it came to music, scrunched her nose.
“If you don’t like the music, maybe you shouldn’t have come,” Alana grunted.
Julia kept quiet and crossed her arms over her chest. They walked toward the bonfire a good four feet apart. Toward the far end of the high school crowd, a figure emerged and waved a hand in greeting. Alana’s stomach twisted.Was it Jeremy?
But no. The dirty-blonde Charlie Bellows, Julia’s boyfriend, hustled toward her, his smile wide. Of course. Julia had wanted to come as an excuse to see Charlie.
“I thought this was seniors only,” Alana muttered as Julia rushed into Charlie’s arms, grateful to be away from the hulking shadow of her older sister.
“Don’t get in any trouble!” Alana hissed as Julia and Charlie started to walk off. “Mom will kill me.”
Julia rolled her eyes and continued toward the water with Charlie, jabbering about something Alana couldn’t quite make out. Two of Alana’s cheerleading friends waved from around the bonfire, both clutching beer cans. Alana headed toward them, kicking sand with her tennis shoes. One of the girls, Tiffany, laced an arm through the running back’s, eyeing him saucily as she tipped her body back. The gossip was that Tiffany liked to run around with all the jocks as a way to make one of the younger high school teachers jealous. Alana wasn’t too sure how true that was.
“Yo, Alana.” The running back greeted her.
“Hey, Todd.” She bent to grab a beer from the cooler and clicked the tab open. “How’s it going?”
Todd shrugged flippantly. “Nowhere as good as your boyfriend.”
“Right.” Alana’s stomach twisted as she took a large swig of beer.
Tiffany tugged on Todd’s elbow, her eyes pleading with him to stop.
“I mean, full scholarship to Notre Dame to play football?” Todd continued as though he hadn’t noticed Tiffany’s tugging at all. “That’s like the lottery when it comes to sports scholarships.”
“Yeah.” Alana gulped more beer. “But then again, it is Indiana, isn’t it? Who wants to live in Indiana?”
Todd’s eyes bugged out. “You’re kidding, right? Don’t you see how huge this is?”
“She obviously gets it, Todd,” Tiffany sassed.
“Did you apply for Notre Dame?” Another cheerleader, Margorie, approached to grab another beer, flipping her auburn curls.
Tiffany snickered. Margorie flashed her a strained smile. “What?”
“Notre Dame? Are you kidding?” Tiffany asked. After a split second, her face crumpled. “I’m sorry, Alana. It’s not that you’re not smart. You are. But you’re just not…”
“Notre Dame-smart,” Alana finished hurriedly. She’d learned through the jungle of high school that it was better to get out in front of an insult than get angry at it. It was better to play along. “No, I know.”
“Neither is Jeremy,” Todd continued. “But they need that arm of his.”
“Yep.”
Alana still remembered the day the recruiter had appeared at the far edge of the bleachers at one of Jeremy’s football practices. A hush had overtaken the field, one heavy with the knowledge that that man could very well change Jeremy’s life. Alana had burned with a terrible rage, avoiding Jeremy’s phone calls the next several nights and even breaking up with him for a full ten days. When asked about it, she’d made up an excuse. She hadn’t wanted to be the girl who’d broken up with someone just because they had the potential to abandon her. After they’d gotten back together, their happiness had felt blissful and completely uninhibited by anything. When he’d told her that he’d gotten the scholarship to go off to Notre Dame, she hadn’t fully allowed herself to believe it.
Yet now, here it was. The future, headed straight for them— threatening to destroy the love they’d built.
“Speak of the devil.” Todd unlatched himself from Tiffany’s needy touch and headed for Jeremy, the handsome high school quarterback and all-around “most handsome,” “most charismatic,” and “kindest” guy at Nantucket High. Todd smacked Jeremy on the shoulder and shook him as well as he could, given the thickness of Jeremy’s frame.
Alana swallowed a bit too much beer and nearly choked on it. She turned quickly, placing a hand over her mouth.
“How are you doing, man?” Todd asked as Alana steadied herself.
“Not bad. Counting down the days till the end of the year.” Jeremy’s voice was dark and textured. A shiver raced up and down Alana’s spine as memories flashed through her: Jeremy, whispering into her ear on the first night they’d kissed beneath the stars. Jeremy, calling her name (not anyone else’s name) across the football field after they’d won state championships their senior year. Jeremy’s lips had known her name forward and back.
