[Dedicated to Cassie, who is one of the most loyal readers I've had so far. Like me, she's a hopeless romantic, and that really ties into the theme of this entire book, to be honest.]
"You're not even the slightest bit tired?" Dacey asked as the two of us walked along the path in the park where we'd gone running a couple days before. "Like, seriously. I woke up this morning at 6 because I couldn't stand the light coming through the window."
I shrugged, fiddling with my phone in my pocket. "You know I'm a lightweight, Dace. Yesterday, I woke up kinda tired, but I'm okay." I tossed my hair over my shoulder. A breeze blew through my hair, pushing a couple strands back. "What's up with you?"
Dacey let out a very long sigh. "Well, after you and your brother left, I guess I had too much fun with the spiked punch. I, like, totally passed out for an hour before some designated driver dragged me home." She rubbed her head. "It still hurts, you know. You could have more sympathy."
I patted her shoulder. "Better?"
She rolled her eyes, and we passed by the playground, where a couple of toddlers and their moms were all over the equipment. I felt a little nostalgic all of a sudden – maybe Dacey and I could join them for a second. Then I shook my head a little, raising an eyebrow at myself. What was up with me?
"But hey, where's Cara?" Dacey followed my eyes to the playground. "And no, we can't go there." She pointed down to her white shorts, pursing her lips. "They're brand new."
"Starting her internship down in D.C." I huffed a little, idly taking my phone out of my pocket. No new notifications so far. My social life was so dead. "The beach party's the last action she'll ever see this summer." I whipped my hair to the side so that I was directly facing Dacey. "Seriously though – her internship's supposed to last till August 20th."
Dacey whistled. "Talk about dedicated."
"I think she's the only one who wants to look extraordinarily good on her college applications," I whispered conspiratorially to her behind a hand with a twist of a corner of my lips.
Dacey giggled in response, and we continued to walk down the pathway weaving through the rather green park, hands on our hips. We both were still wearing our pajama bottoms and ratty class shirts, so we probably made quite a sight as we passed a couple of old people. (They didn't react as extremely as I thought they would, but we looked exponentially more modest than the legions of half-naked girls they saw on the beach these days.) A couple birds chirped in the high treetops, and as another breeze wafted by lazily, blowing a couple of strands of hair from our high ponytails, I realized that I'd never felt so relaxed – in the company of someone like Dacey – before.
After a while, Dacey cleared her throat. "So what did Carter think about me? He didn't drink, if I'm right."
"Yeah." I glanced around us idly into the grove of tree trunks that seemed to stretch on forever. Some weak rays of sunrays cast a golden ray as they filtered through the dark mossy green of the woods. "He drove me home."
My cheeks felt a little hot now because a hazy recollection of that night flashed back in my mind. There was something about a fire – there was a bonfire then, I remembered – and sand – the bonfire event happened on the beach – and Dom. Especially Dom with his tight white tee and board shorts and dark, furious eyes.
I frowned. I could never quite remember any specifics whenever I was drunk, which happened quite easily since I could practically get myself drunk after catching a whiff of beer on the breath of an overly horny rising junior on the junior varsity football team. It was rather annoying, really.
Dacey snapped her fingers in front of my nose, and I jerked up, slapping her arm away. "Ow." She threw me a dirty look. "Your reflexes are so fast." I rolled my eyes. She continued, "But did he mention me at all?"
I awkwardly bit my lip, wringing my hands a little. A single look at her sparkling blue eyes and unusually flushed cheeks almost convinced me to make up something that could somewhat live up to her daydreams, but I wasn't that sort of person. (But I wasn't quite Cara, who always made something sound more negative than it really was.)
"What?" Dacey lifted her chin, putting her hands on my shoulders and effectively stopping the both of us in the middle of the path. I fidgeted my foot to attempt to at least make way for other passerby, but Dacey's grip was extraordinarily tight. I bit down on my lip hard. "Come on; just go on and say it. I need you to tell me the truth in order for me to find success."
Why did she make it sound like she was conducting an ethically dubious experiment on pubescent boys involving the very high levels of testosterone surging through their bodies?
I let out a very long sigh.
Of course I was the one put into this situation. Why couldn't Cara be the one with the apparently attractive college student of an older brother?
"Dace, he didn't say anything about the party to me except for how difficult it was for him to drag me through the kitchen without waking up our parents." I tried to push her hands off my shoulders again, but in vain. I met her eyes, apologetically offering her a half smile. "Sorry?"
She dropped her hands from my shoulders immediately and began to speed walk back down the path. I had to jog to catch up, which was both okay because she did have longer legs than I did and not okay because I was, after all, the cross country runner.
"Don't take it too hard!" I called after her, catching her wrist without much effort. "He tends to notice only the flashiest happenings."
Dacey turned to meet my eyes with a raised eyebrow. "Well, you must have done something."
I rolled my eyes up to the sky, furrowing my brows. "I don't know, actually." I paused. "Something with Dom?"
Immediately, the heat in my cheeks rose, and I lowered my head again, covering my cheeks with both of my hands.
I was so pathetically affected by just the mention of his name. And I was the one who'd said it! This was getting ridiculous.
Dacey was either being unusually kind by choosing not to comment or completely focused on her own situation to notice. She shrugged, starting to walk once again. I took a couple of the longest strides I could to catch up. "Don't expect me to remember. I was probably more drunk than you and Cara together."
We reached a clearing in the woods. The bright sunlight instantly assaulted my eyes, and I squinted. A group of people was approaching, apparently on a run with running shoes and water bottles. They almost jogged right past us, but one of them stopped right next to me. Dacey halted immediately, putting her hands on her hips.
"Lottie," she muttered.
I almost turned around to whisper back a very irked "what?" but then realized that I was facing the exact person that I'd been trying to avoid. (But it wasn't like it was that hard to avoid him, considering the fact that we didn't even run in the same circles usually.)
"Lottie," Dom said.
I coughed, again feeling heat rise to my cheeks, but pointedly avoided his eyes. "Um, hey." I glanced up to the side at him, only to accidentally meet his dark eyes. A bead of sweat was dripping down the side of his face, and he'd probably run his hand through his hair a couple times. That ruffled hair and flushed countenance – too much.
"Look, about the other night –" he started to say, holding a hand toward me.
Dacey coughed so loudly that I wanted to sink into a hole and die right there.
"Um, yeah." I began to speed walk forward on the path. "I, uh, think I've got somewhere to be. At, um, ten, I think."
I crossed my arms over my chest and hurried forward, but not too far because my legs were, in fact, very short and Dacey's and Dom's legs were very much longer than mine. Dacey yanked on the back of my shirt, not so inconspicuously, I imagined. She was probably wondering what in the world I was thinking or doing because this was Dom Amaro.
Dom Amaro, who'd called me a bitch that night, because he found my "obsession" with Guys and Dolls creepy and weird.
At least that was all that I'd remembered from the party – it was all basically a big blurry mess of firelight and darkness and the beach and a whole lot of yelling, probably about that very musical, if I was correct. However, I didn't remember many specifics...did I say something stupid?
As I attempted to explain to Dacey through a very warning glance, that was another reason why I should be ignoring Dom, not acknowledging him so easily even though he was actually approaching me. For real. I hurried my steps before I could start hyperventilating.
Oh God. I was already starting to feel incredibly faint in the head, and my leg muscles were slightly spasming. I was totally going to fall down any time soon, so I might as well increase my proximity from Dom while I could.
"Wait, Lottie," Dom tried once again. I heard his footsteps thumping behind me, and soon enough, he was standing right next to me. "I just wanted to say that –"
"It's nothing," I said over him loudly. "Absolutely nothing." I shot a pointed look at Dacey, who looked more confused than a newborn sheep that couldn't find its mother. "Nothing at all."
I'd repeated the word "nothing" about three times. And Dom had called me Lottie. Lottie. He'd never called me that before. Did I say something at that party? Or did he just hear that from someone? Or did he suddenly find some seeds of affection for me deep inside his chest, and he now wanted to express that?
Dear God, now I was living purely inside my dreams.
Dacey coughed once again.
"Look, seriously," Dom started, "I just wanted to apologize."
"Apologize?" echoed Dacey faintly. For what? was probably her real question.
"Oh no," I said quickly. "There is absolutely nothing for you to apologize for." I turned my head to meet Dom's eyes once again, which I, again, realized wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done. The way he held my eyes so tenaciously and apologetically really made me want to stop, and the muscles in my legs were starting to not listen to my brain.
"There is," Dom said more insistently. "Come on, Lottie."
If he thought that by repeating my name he was going to get what he wanted...he was absolutely correct.
I wheeled around and crossed my arms over my chest. "All right, fine. If you must, and if you won't talk to me about this again, you can tell me exactly what you have in mind."
Dom ran a hand through his already ruffled hair, turning his head up so that the sweat on his forehead glistened in the faint sunlight of the woods. His arm muscles were prominent, and my gaze couldn't help but drop down a little further to where his abs probably were. I bit down on my tongue – focus was definitely what I needed right now if Dom was going to apologize to me for our little shouting match earlier.
Oh God.
"Look, I really shouldn't have used that particular word." Dom sighed. "I'm sorry for calling you a bitch." Then he lifted up his chin. If I was right, I was sensing a "but" coming up next. "But you should be more accepting of other people's opinions."
That was so not the right way to go.
I bit my tongue once again so hard that I basically tasted blood. "All right, Lottie," I murmured to myself, half-hoping that I was speaking quietly enough – it would be absolutely humiliating if Dom caught me talking to myself as well as calling him an idiot on several counts, "you're going to keep your mouth shut."
Dacey cleared her throat, frightening off a bunch of pigeons resting on a nearby park bench.
Ah well, I was never the greatest at subtlety, was I?
I let out an extremely long breath. "That just completely negated everything you said in your apology," I muttered.
"Um, I, uh, don't think that was, um, exactly what –" Dom spluttered out, running up so that he was facing me and instead walking backward. He looked incredibly gawky with his arms moving from side to side, a single strand of hair flopping over her forehead. But it was cute!
I was really good at getting myself distracted.
"All right, you might have taken that the wrong way." Dom hooked his thumbs in his shorts waist. "But seriously, you need to be more receptive of other opinions." He opened his dark eyes widely. "Especially if the piece of work you're protecting is obscure and confusing as hell."
That just basically did it for me – what the hell was an apology for when he was just going to assert the same ignorant view over and over again like a broken record player?
"Look," I said, stopping right there on the path so abruptly that I ran into his chest, "you need to go. Now." I took a step back, taking a shaky breath – because he smelled like the outdoors and sweat and some type of cologne that I couldn't quite recognize. I snapped when he didn't move. "Come on."
From behind me, I heard a stifled giggle, most definitely not from anyone but Dacey.
I was going to totally kick her ass later.
Dom ran a hand through his now extremely ruffled hair. "All right, that came out wrong. That was all my fault." He cleared his throat. "Um, but really, you should seriously hear me out. I'm super sorry, really, um –"
"Dacey!" I grabbed Dacey's arm, eliciting such a high-pitched squeak that I didn't know humans could even emit. "We have somewhere to go, right? I, uh, might have to, um, catch up with my brother! He just came back from college."
Dom frowned. "Look, really –"
While still grasping Dacey's upper hand, I set off on a steady pace, the one which I used when I was finishing up a 10K during a cross country meet. Dacey kept sputtering something that I couldn't quite pick up, but I took in a shallow breath, forcing my legs forward. The wind rushed by my flushed forehead, and it felt good, aside from the blood rushing through my veins.
By the time we made it to the other side of the park, Dacey was completely pale, and she looked like she was about collapse by the way her hands were trembling. Exactly as I thought, when I let go of her, she fell down to the ground, rolling around on the path and completely ignoring my protests about the dirty ground.
"Oh God, I have never run that far and that fast in my life," she puffed out somewhat incoherently, burying her face in her arms.
I rested my arms on my waist, bending over a little. My legs were definitely a little sore, but not after all this conditioning throughout the past three years. "Dacey, I offered to take you along with me whenever I went for one of my light runs back in freshman year when I wasn't that good yet."
"You're making me sound pathetically weak," Dacey mumbled back to me.
I shook my head. "You're the one who didn't take me up on the offer."
When Dacey rolled over on her back, she stretched her arms over her head. "Yeah, right. Nowadays, I only catch you and Cara running nine fucking miles per run when I can't even run half a mile without dying."
Puffing out a breath through my lips, I shrugged.
After a while, Dacey climbed back up on her knees. She looked up. "But what was up with you and Dom? Don't you like him? I mean, last time I checked, that fact didn't change since the third day of freshman year when you waved to him when he was really waving to Olivia Blair?"
I spluttered, feeling a little like the befuddled Dom we'd encountered a moment ago. "Olivia Blair? What does she have anything to do with anything?"
Dacey pushed herself up the way an extremely athletically challenged freshman girl would attempt to support herself while doing a half-assed pushup. She hopped up to her feet, legs trembling as she steadied herself. "You totally rejected Dom Amaro." She frowned, mouthing the words to herself again. "Oh my God. You just rejected Dominic Amaro."
"He told me that Guys and Dolls was stupid despite the fact that he attempted to apologize. It means nothing to me." I breathed out through my nose. I reached out and yanked her up, pulling her up by the arm. "Let's go; our work here is totally done."
Dacey took her sweet time rejoining me out and around the perimeter of the park, and there was a blissful silence during our walk even though I really wanted to run the heat off. Then, she cracked open her mouth.
Oh God, I knew that nothing good was going to come out of those lips now.
"So, now that we've heard enough about your love life," she said, pursing her lips, "how's Carter feeling?"
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Hi everyone!
So I may or may not be freaking out a little because we hit 600 reads here, but again... But anyway, I'll move on to the real stuff here.
This is the aftermath of the party, right? Let's just say that the teens will have to really face the consequences sometime later. (This is the reason why you shouldn't watch a movie that I've already seen with me: I blurt out everything. But again...) But hey, this is a first, right? Lottie actually says no to Dom. I have too much fun XD
So above is a picture of Jean Simmons, the actress who played Sarah Brown in the movie. Isn't she gorgeous? This is one of the reasons I love the '50s: the actresses are incredibly classy and beautiful. But anyway, if we go back to the character she plays, we can see the entire theme of the musical. Sarah Brown is known to be beautiful, fearless, stubborn, and totally not a romantic at heart. You can think of Lottie that way...except she is so totally a romantic at heart.
Guys, thank you so much for reading and all!
Much love,
Anne <3