Obscure

seventh.

“Sorry about Ty,” he said walking over to Taylor’s car. “He came over a few minutes before you called. I couldn’t leave him so I brought him here with me. He’s a bit fucked right now so just give him a minute before doing anything to or with him. Anyway, what’s the problem? Something with Chase?”

Taylor confirmed it and told him what was going on. Nick opened the door and looked at Chase, who hadn’t stopped his silent crying since we’d arrived. Nick called out his name, and Chase turned his head towards him.

He asked Chase why he wouldn’t get out, and instead of not saying anything, he nervously looked around before leaning into Nick. He covered his mouth with his hand so we couldn’t see what he was whispering, and when he was done, he pulled away and Nick smiled. He put his hand on Chase’s shoulder and flipped his long hair back and asked him if he wanted to go home.

Chase shook his head and whispered into Nick’s ear again. “Alright then,” Nick said. “If you want to go, just tell me and Ty and I’ll take you home, you got that?” Chase nodded and Nick stepped out of the way so he could get out of the car. Maggie made a comment about how that wasn’t fair, but I was just left with the question of what he said and why it took this guy with long hair to get him out of the car, and why no one else could do it.

Another car, this time a severely damaged old Honda Accord, pulled up and three people, two boys and one girl, came out of the car.

“There was a party and I wasn’t invited?” One of them, a skinny pale dark haired boy, said throwing his arms in the air. “Shows what good friends you are. Fuck you. Assholes.”

“Why are you here, Cyrus?” Taylor asked with a large dose of annoyance in her voice. “And why’d you bring them?”

“I saw Nick and Ty driving, and I followed them. When I knew where they were going I went to pick up Taboo and Beau was with her. And now we’re here.”

“So what’re we here for?” The girl, a curvy and very attractive Hispanic girl, asked walking closer and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well,” Taylor said. “I came here to smoke with Maggie and Akira, but-”

“Who in the hell is Akira?”

And that was the very second that everyone stopped what they were doing to turn and look at this girl who was sitting on the bed of a truck with a red flannel top on and a pack of Marlboros in her shirt pocket. Never have I ever been so nervous to say hi to a group of complete strangers in my life. But I did, and they just stared at me like I was an animal in a zoo.

Taylor saved me by walking up to me and wrapping her arm around my shoulders. “She’s a friend I made earlier this summer. She’s been coming out here with me to smoke and swim and talk and stuff like that.”

“Oh,” the girl said. “So she’s cool then?” Taylor nodded and looked at me and nodded again. “Cool. How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” I answered.

“So you’re a sophomore?” I shook my head and told her I was a freshman and she nearly screamed. “Thank you! Thank you now I’m not the youngest here! I was so scared that I’d be alone my senior year without any friends, but now you’re here! Thank you!”

She introduced herself as Estella but told me to call her Taboo because that’s what everyone else called her. The rest of them introduced themselves, and I told them I was Akira but they could call me Kira and that I just moved here over the summer and that I was glad to meet them.

We all went on the bank of the lake and sat down, wading our bare feet in the water. I had the cigs, so I was the one to pass it around to everyone. Taylor had her white lighter, and lit hers then passed it around just as I did with the pack.

Everyone was smoking, except for me of course. I just let mine burn slowly in between my fingers, flicking the ash off every few minutes and waved it around a bit, and nobody noticed what I wasn’t doing.

They asked me where I moved from, and I told them I was from Atlanta. There were the comments about how I was a “big city” girl and whatnot, and they wanted to know the details, but I didn’t tell the whole story, I just told them that my family wanted me away from my mom, and moving here came with that deal.

“What about you?” I asked Nick, who asked me about my move. “Taylor told me everyone has something going on with them, what’s yours?”

He sighed and blew the smoke he held in his lungs out into the air. “I prefer not to share my shit with people I don’t know I hope you don’t take that in a negative way. It’s just something of mine I hope you understand.”

“Completely,” I said, starting to feel comfortable and a bit bold. “I haven’t told you everything about me, I like to keep some mystery about myself.”

“Oh really?” He asked. “And what mysteries are you keeping from us?”

I smiled and brought my knees closer to my chest, saying, “It wouldn’t be a mystery if I told you now would it?”

He smiled, nodded, and took a drag of his cigarette. “You’re right, you’re right.”

Cyrus had an idea to go swimming, and we all agreed. I thought we were going to stay in our clothes, but they had other plans. The boys stripped down to their boxers and the girls down to their panties and their bras. I felt a little uncomfortable, but since the guy’s cocks didn’t shoot up at the sight of Taboo’s unbelievably sexy ass in too small underwear then I was fine in my bra and panties too.

Taboo was the first to jump in the water. She climbed on the tree and let herself fall, not screaming, not saying anything, just falling until she hit the water and the splash broke the silence. Taylor followed and the guys just ran in from the bank like a crazed giraffe.

The only people left were Chase, Maggie, and I. He still had his clothes on and, like me, had a lit but unsmoked cigarette in his fingers. Maggie was holding his hand, and he held hers in return though just by looking at him, you wouldn’t notice. He had her hand sort of tucked behind him in a way that you wouldn’t tell unless you were looking hard enough, and he was looking at the moon, eyes still red and puffy from earlier and lips slightly parted as if he was going to say something.

I wanted to wait, just in case he did, but Maggie glared at me in the most unexpected way possible, telling me to leave them alone. I can take hints, even if they aren’t given to me, and I stood up to leave. I gave Chase one last look, and I caught him staring at me, but he quickly looked away in the same kinda way that you do when you don’t want someone to know that you’re staring at them.

“Akira!” I heard. I turned back to the lake and saw Taboo, boobs floating on the surface and black curly hair slicked back exposing her beautiful skin and full face. “Akira, come on! The water’s great.”

I looked back at Chase one last time, who was looking at me but once again quickly diverted his attention to the grass below him. Maggie took a look at his face before kissing his cheek, and laying her head back on his shoulder. I sighed, threw my cigarette on the ground to burn out by itself, and walked to the water.

✌ Akira Waters ✌