Surfacing - Book One in the Swans Landing Series

Chapter 10

Elizabeth crossed her arms and shot Miss Gale a disgusted look. But Miss Gale didn’t back down. She pressed her fists against the wooden railing as the dark clouds swirled in the sky over her head, giving her a fearsome appearance. After a long moment, Elizabeth spun around and marched down the sidewalk with her little posse following after her.

My mouth hung open as I blinked up at Miss Gale. Remind me never to get on her bad side.

“You all right, sugar?” she asked.

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Sometimes you have to get ugly with people like that,” Miss Gale told me, shaking her head. She waved one hand at me. “Go on home and get cleaned up. And if you have anymore trouble with Miss Connors, let me know.”

Miss Gale turned, but I called up to her, “What does Elizabeth have against me anyway?”

She fell quiet for a moment, picking at a crack in the doorframe to avoid my gaze. “She’s just that kind of person, Mara.”

“But I haven’t even been here long enough to have done anything to her.”

Miss Gale pressed her lips together. “I can’t give you no answers. Go on home and talk to your daddy.”

She disappeared inside the store, apparently satisfied that everything was okay. But it wasn’t. There was no way I was going home right now to face Lake. The run-in with Elizabeth had only increased the anger bubbling inside me.

I squeezed soda out of my hair as best I could and then started walking again. Silence had settled over the island, but a few people walked down Heron Avenue, hurrying to their destinations before the rain started. A woman walking with a young child moved in a wide arc around me, pulling the little boy close, as if she were afraid I might touch him. She didn’t meet my gaze as she passed.

I didn’t understand anything that was going on around here.

The trees at Pirate’s Cove swayed back and forth in the swirling wind when I entered at the little trail that Josh had showed me. I walked through the forest quickly, trying to avoid being scratched by low-hanging limbs and ducking under the branches that swooped over the path.

To my disappointment, the beach wasn’t empty. A lone figure sat on the sand, his face turned toward the ocean and a guitar resting in his lap.

“You’re on my part of the beach,” I said when I reached him.

“Your part is over there.” Josh nodded his head toward the right. “This is my part.”

“I changed my mind. I’m claiming all of this.” I waved my hands in a big arc. “You can have that one little corner way over there.”

Josh looked around. “That’s a pretty big piece of beach for one person.”

“I need all of it.”

He still wore his usual black hoodie and baggy jeans, but his hair was wet and plastered to his head, dripping water onto his collar. “Have you been swimming?” I asked.

Josh blinked. “Why would I be swimming? It’s February. It’s cold.”

“Your hair is wet,” I pointed out.

“So is yours.”

I peeled a lock of sticky hair from the side of my face. “I got a Diet Coke shower a few minutes ago.”

Josh raised his eyebrows.

“Not voluntarily,” I growled. “Just a little run-in with Elizabeth Connors and her posse.”

“Oh,” Josh grunted. “Them.”

I plopped down onto the sand next to him uninvited, pulling my knees up to my chest. “Yes, them. Those girls you sit with at lunch.”

He made a face. “I don’t sit with them. I sit down and then they take over my table.” He glanced at me and then added, “Not voluntarily.”

“That’s a relief,” I said. “Because otherwise, I would have seriously questioned your taste in human beings.” I picked up a handful of sand and let it sift through my fingers. “So do you like to sit here by yourself in your free time?”

“It’s quiet,” Josh said. “Usually.”

Over the ocean, two birds chased each other, turning circles in the air and squawking. I scanned the water and I wished I’d thought to grab my camera so I could zoom out farther than my eyes could see. I needed to see something other than this island where no one could speak an honest answer, to be reminded that there were lives out there other than the haunted one I lived here.

“It was too quiet at home,” Josh said. He didn’t look my way when I turned to him and instead strummed a few lazy notes on his guitar. “My mom had gone out to run a few errands and sometimes I don’t like being there alone.”

“Is your dad around?” I asked.

His expression changed slightly as he said, “No. My dad died when I was really little.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. A dead parent, something we had in common. Which was worse—losing the only parent you’d ever known your entire life, or living with the mystery of never knowing what you’d missed out on by having a parent die so early in your life?

“I’m sorry,” I added.

Josh’s smile was tight and forced. “It was a long time ago.”

We sat quietly, side by side for a long time, listening to the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. Josh played a soft, low accompaniment to the ocean on his guitar. Outside of our little hideaway, Lake was probably still at home. Had he even taken a second to wonder where I’d run off to? Would it ever occur to him to come after me, just once?

I hugged my knees tighter to my chest and rested my chin on top of them. No, I wouldn’t think about Lake anymore. He wasn’t allowed to have this kind of control over me. It didn’t matter anyway. A couple of years and I’d be gone, far away from him once again.

“Look out there,” Josh said, pointing to a spot on the water toward his left.

I squinted, trying to see what he was showing me. Then I spotted them, leaping above the surface of the water in smooth arcs. Dolphins splashed and played in the choppy water offshore.

“They don’t realize how lucky they are,” I said, envying the dolphins for their ability to swim as far as their fins would carry them. Far from people and all the problems of living on land. As I watched the dolphins leap in and out of the water, the sound of the ocean grew louder in my ears. I could almost imagine myself out there, swimming and leaping with them. “I’d like to be like them, never having to go back home if I don’t want to. Just swim and swim around the world, forever.”

The wind whipped my hair against my face and the sound of the ocean called to me like a lullaby over Josh’s soft music. He hummed just the tiniest bit and the song wrapped itself around me. My head swirled and my eyelids began to close. The ocean’s whisper and Josh’s song slowly grew louder in my ears and the air shimmered a little around me.

“Don’t you think it might be a lonely life?” Josh asked quietly. “Out there all by yourself?”

I wanted to say that I didn’t need anyone except myself, but here in Josh’s presence, the words felt like a lie on my tongue.

He stopped playing suddenly. “You’re shivering.”

I shook my head. “I’m okay.”

“You should have put on a coat.” He peeled off his hoodie, revealing thick arms and a wide chest underneath a plain white T-shirt. He pulled the hoodie over my head before I could protest, enveloping my entire body inside with the arms hanging loosely at my sides. It was warm and cozy inside his shirt, and it smelled like salt and musky deodorant.

“Thanks,” I said. The embrace of the ocean’s effect on me had been replaced by the buzz of Josh’s intoxicating scent.

He smiled. “A peace offering. I’ll share my beach with you if you’ll share it with me.”

I couldn’t help smiling back. “I suppose that’s a fair arrangement.”