Climatic Climacteric Omnibus

by L. B. Carter

  Reed led the way toward the crowd, estimating at least fifty people amassed in this central location and several groups sat around coolers dotted across the sand. A few more brave bodies were hesitantly toeing the water’s edge in the distance. The tide was out, and the water was clearly cold, because the figures stepped hesitantly in only to turn and run back to their less-daring audience.

  The music from the car was coming from another gap in the dunes on the other side of the fire. It had shifted to a slower throb, and, as they got closer, Nor could distinguish individual couples grinding together in varying degrees of being clothed. Girls in bikinis, guys in hoodies. It all depended on how keen they were on showing off some skin or how much they’d already consumed from the red cups and beer bottles adorning most hands. The sign they’d passed in the parking lot prohibited glass. Where was the local PD?

  “Hey, man! You came!” Justin bounded over, his girl stumbling barefoot through the sand behind him in a red one-piece though most of the suit was missing, huge cut-outs showing the curve of her waist. Justin was in board shorts and a t-shirt. He still wore his yacht shoes, making the term seem unfitting, like trying on a cooler older sibling’s leather jacket. Not that Nor knew about that.

  He lofted his red cup at Reed. “Glad you could make it, too, bro. Lemme introduce you to some of the alum. Nor, the team’s mostly over at Ben’s cooler.” He nodded to a spot just sea-ward of the fire, where a few guys and girls were huddled, laughing.

  Reed gave his brother a stern look of warning before turning to follow Justin and his clearly inebriated girl around the flames to where several tall guys were bunting a volleyball back and forth.

  Nor detoured around people he didn’t yet recognize from only one day at school, heading where Justin had suggested. The loudest laughter, he recognized. Surfer perched cross-legged on the cooler, entertaining the small group of guys and girls with some tale. Nor came up behind him, hoping not to interrupt.

  Cupid, who was standing across the way looking awkward with cup-free hands shoved in his corduroy pockets, noticed Nor and called out a hello.

  Surfer swiveled, almost toppling off the cooler. “Yo, dude! Didn’t think you were gonna show. Since booze ain’t your ‘thing’ and all.”

  The comment was a bit mocking but given the slow laziness with which it was delivered and the red rim to the boy’s eyes, Nor figured Surfer wasn’t too worried about his new teammate’s late appearance at the moment. “Said I would,” Nor responded mildly and gave a quick greeting nod to Cupid.

  The group went around introducing themselves, since there were a few sailors there who hadn’t made it to the diner the night before, and fresh girls dotting their ranks, too. Nor didn’t pay attention to most. He learned that Surfer was Ben, the owner of the cooler, and Cupid was Andrew.

  “Nor,” one girl giggled after he introduced himself last. She tried to cover her mouth but missed and ended up knocking herself in her pierced nose.

  Her guy, a stocky freshman with dark buzzed hair, grabbed the offending hand and wrapped it in his fingers, pulling her closer, to nuzzle her neck.

  “What’s that short for, North? You never get lost, huh, North,” she slurred, oblivious to the guy’s ministrations on her exposed collarbone. A few laughed.

  Nor refrained from retaliating with a snarky comment about how he hoped she’d get lost, mostly because it wasn’t a very witty comeback. His verbal defenses could use some help from Reed, too. “Short for Norton,” he explained. “Mother’s maiden name.” He kept the comment brief, quickly quenching the sharp pang that jabbed his gut like a punch from Reed.

  The crowd had already moved on to more important things like finding more alcohol. The cup slipped from the girl’s weak fingertips, she gave a little shriek at the splash on her legs that turned into a moan when she finally noticed the leech on her neck. Nor noticed hers joined several other cups and bottles littering the sand.

  “Hey, you gonna pick that up?” he demanded, but the questioning girl couldn’t respond as her mouth was now otherwise occupied. Nor literally scooped it out from under the oblivious couple, swiping a few more from around the crowd’s feet and thrusting them back in the cooler. Mother said many had cleaned up after themselves after the chaos that was Woodstock. No wonder the Earth was changing now. Humans were caring less and less about their home.

  Nor noticed a narrowed set of eyes still watching him. “We litter the Earth, we deserve the repercussions,” Nor explained. “This is a beach. Anything left here will just end up in a huge floating trash heap in the ocean, polluting the marine ecosystem.”

  Andrew ignored the rant, saying suspiciously, “Thought you were Barb’s nephew? Barb only has a sister. And her maiden name is Smith.”

  Nor blinked. Shit. Fucking small towns. Everyone knew way too much about everyone. Wasn’t all that odd for him. Everyone had known his family details at home as founders of the organization. He hadn’t been expecting it within the first week. Nor and Reed needed to get their stories straight with their hosts stat. Why they’d given her such a generic all-American name like Smith as part of her retirement identity was beyond him. Then again, they’d been assigned Stanley.

  “Step-sisters,” he explained, inventing quickly. “They grew up together.” That part was true. Cupid—goddamn it, Andrew was still staring at him accusingly, so Nor quickly busied himself observing the groups surrounding theirs.

  Reed was across the fire, his height making him barely visible over the licking tongues of flame. He was in a serious discussion with a broad guy with a blue Mohawk and leather jacket. Stereotypes existed for a reason. They were probably talking about bikes. Reed missed his and kept threatening to sneak home for it. An empty threat. Reed was too smart to risk their cover for that. A gaggle of girls flaunting their goods in scanty bikinis posed by the fire, tossing their hair in the wind, as if the boys around them were predators, lured in by movement. Based on the few guys not-so-subtly eyeing the girls’ assets from the shadows like sailors with sirens, Nor allowed them some merit to the idea. One girl was bent at the waist, her blue Speedo-clad guy dedicatedly humping her red thong-clad ass in time to the music. Classy. A short Asian boy was being shoved by a bulky guy.

  Nor focused.

  “You finished your homework, yet?” the big guy said, as he gave the scrawny kid another shove, making him stumble and sit hard in the sand, his glasses toppling off. “Doubt BSTU kids even have parties anyway.” He didn’t laugh, but a tall guy behind him did, sycophantically.

  “Leave him alone, JT,” said the bored voice of a tall girl in heels standing behind the bully. Fucking heels! Those were totally impractical at a beach. She’d never escape a threat without breaking an ankle. As likely intended, it did lengthen her legs beneath the mini skirt. The gold top was also well designed to attract the eye. “He’s not worth it. Let him go back to the other losers.”

  JT ignored her, watching the boy paw for his glasses in the sand. It was the kid who sat with Sirena in anatomy, Nor realized. “He probably can’t find his friends in the dark, right? Since he said he didn’t see me standing here. What prescription do you have, anyway?” The bully snatched the glasses from the boy’s hand and moved to put them on his nose.

  A third guy made a quick movement as though to stop JT, but quickly shoved his hand in his blue polo shorts and took a step back into the shadows. A matching girl in a white polo shirt clutched at his arm.

  “JT,” the heels girl whined.

  “One minute, Shay. I’ll get rid of the pest, then we can go back to making out in peace,” he cooed without turning around. Shay made a tsking noise in response, but otherwise didn’t move. The glasses glinted in the moonlight as the guy held them up. “Jesus Christ, you’re practically blind.”

  “Let me try!” The tall guy held out his hand, eagerly. “I wanna see if they’re like beer goggles.”

  JT smirked and held them out.

  “Nor?” Justin was back. “You okay, man?”


  Nor reoriented on the team’s captain. The question was backward. Justin’s eyes were more glazed than when Nor had first arrived. “Yeah, fine. Be right back.” Nor waved absently and moved away, already trying to determine the best way to take out the threats as he moved silently toward the bullies.

  Two athletes: JT was stocky enough to guess football; and Tall Guy had height enough to be a basketball recruit. The walking rich-kid advertisement was being discounted since he wasn’t participating. Additionally, he didn’t have the muscle mass of the other two. And two, no, three girls. A short bronze-skinned girl with lengthy, black hair emerged from behind JT, her tiny waist encircled in Tall Guy’s arm.

  “…doubt I could even make a three-pointer in these things!” Tall guy was saying. Nor had been correct on that guess.

  He knew this one: basketball captain Dylan Miller, which meant the Bully was hockey captain JT Williams. Justin had spoken of them reverently as the school’s VIPs, the “P” standing both for Player and Person, given their parents’ prestige, also known as wealth. Nor was not impressed. That made the girls some of those cheerleaders from the ‘down for whatever’ list.

  “I think we should keep them so you can try at the next game.” JT was still standing over the kid, who looked resigned to his fate. He hadn’t moved from his sprawled position in the sand.

  “I think,” Nor said as he stepped up to the kid’s side, facing all enemies at once, “that you should give them back.”

  JT flinched back at Nor’s unannounced appearance. He hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings. He may have the bulk, but he clearly didn’t have the tactics to be a real fighter.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he spat at Nor, trying to cover being startled with arrogant bravado. “No one asked you.”

  Nor shrugged. “Just trying to keep the peace. Seems like—” Shit, what was the kid’s name?

  The boy in question manged to squeak a response. “Stew.”

  Nor continued smoothly, “—Stew here didn’t mean to bump into you.” Nor didn’t know that, but he was going to bet a kid who got into university was smart enough not to instigate any fight with these guys.

  “Who the fuck are you?” JT seemed to be stuck in first gear. Nor sighed.

  “You’re the new kid.” The soft voice came surprisingly from the polo-shirt girl. Her boyfriend blanched a bit when JT swung around to face her.

  Shay took a teetering step forward, her ankles clearly stronger than Nor gave her credit for. “Norton Stanley.” She raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow and gave him a once over.

  “Norton?” JT snorted, crossing arms over his chest, once again angled toward Nor. “The fuck kinda name is that?”

  “Nor,” he corrected tersely, pissed at having his mother’s maiden name mocked for the second time that night.

  “Nor,” Shay tested the shortened version and licked her glossed lips. JT scowled harder.

  “Sailing team,” the third girl added. They’d done their gossip homework. Nor hadn’t even technically joined the team yet.

  “Hmmm. A seaman, huh, Jessica?” Shay quirked her lips, enjoying her innuendo. The long-haired girl gave a real-life purr of approval.

  “Fucking yuppies just sit around on boats all day.” JT was murderous. His backup noticed. Tall Guy wasn’t laughing anymore.

  “Everything okay over here, JT?” An Irish lilt came out of the darkness behind Nor. He’d heard the footsteps approaching, but, with the reddish hue tinting JT’s face opposite him, had deemed the newcomer less requiring of his attention. “All right, Stew?” The newcomer reached a hand down for Stew, and Nor kept a wary eye on JT while the kid struggled to his feet. “C’mon, JT, let’s go get some more beer,” the Irish guy soothed.

  Nor was grateful. He could probably take on JT, even without the liquor hindrance. However, he didn’t like to fight unnecessarily. He didn’t want to put the girls in harm’s way. More importantly, Reed would’ve then handed Nor his ass.

  “You fucking helping the new kid, Liam? I’m your captain.”

  “Just making sure no one gets hurt.” He was smart not to point out who would get hurt. It wouldn’t be Nor or Stew. “Why don’t you get Shayna some more beer,” he repeated, taking a step in front of Stew who was cautiously backing away. JT was still seething.

  Shayna (Shay was evidently a nickname) wrapped an arm around his waist and tugged gently. “Baby, I’m thirsty.” She took over the excuse Liam had offered. At least she had some wits about her. “Really thirsty,” she said pointedly, winking at Nor. Never mind, she was just conniving. “Later, Liam.” she threw in a little smile. And evidently she was shameless with her equal opportunity standards. She licked her lips again. Goddamn. Nor hoped her lip-gloss tasted awful.

  “Glasses,” Nor reminded, holding a hand out to Dylan before he could traipse after his leader. He snarled, then handed them over before following JT and Shayna towards the fire.

  “Thanks, man,” the polo guy said quietly with a slightly embarrassed and regretful smile. Then he, too, left, taking his female clone with him.

  Nor let out a breath and gave a head shake, turning to Liam. “Thanks,” Liam said before Nor could say it first. Nor raised his brows. “For not killing him,” Liam explained and chuckled. “He’s an arse when he drinks, but he can’t fight for shite.” The Irish curses would have sounded funny if the situation wasn’t so serious.

  “He’s an asshole when he doesn’t drink, too,” Stew argued, coming back to snatch his glasses from Nor. “Thanks,” he said, sulkily.

  Nor nodded. “You okay?”

  “Fine,” he said, when clearly he meant, Embarrassed. “I’m gonna take off.” He looked to Liam. “Can you tell Sirena I had to head back for curfew or something? Don’t tell her about… this.” He blushed. Liam shrugged a yes and Stew trudged off towards the parking lot. Tell Sirena?

  Liam sighed. “I’d better get back. Kayna sent me to find where Stew went.” He motioned towards the water with his head and Nor looked over Liam’s shoulder to see two silhouettes away from the crowd, sitting toward the ocean. Sirena and Kayna. It had been the four of them, sat together in the dark on the beach. Dammit. Nor should’ve guessed she had someone. He had assumed when Justin brushed her off on the available girl list it was because they’d been told to leave her alone. He hadn’t thought it was because she wasn’t available. Good. She should have someone. Nor wasn’t that someone, he reminded himself. Damn, being DD.

  Nor said goodbye. He picked his way back to the sailing team, where Cupid had settled on the cooler beside Surfer, facing the action.

  “Tough guy, huh?” he said, making it clear he’d watched the whole thing.

  Nor didn’t need attention. He quickly steered the conversation to the team’s boats to get Tom an in, while keeping ears open for any information he and Reed could use. He wasn’t there to get involved with anyone.

  Chapter Five

  Rena tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach, particularly as they were only feet—feet!—from the water. She was using most of her focus to rebuff the waves that settled with a contented sigh on the wet sand just short of caressing her toes before pulling back in a tempting lure. Yet, she was distracted.

  Liam had returned seething. JT again. According to Liam, Nor was a ‘fecking hero’ who’d saved Stew from a ‘pummeling’—something they had to promise they’d pretend not to know. Kayna hadn’t believed that Stew would ditch them without a good explanation, so she’d convinced Liam to spill. Though he was reluctant at first to disclose the events, he hadn’t seemed all that upset by her hands-on method of coercion. Liam may have been impressed, but Rena already knew Nor liked to play Hero. She could easily picture Nor standing there, heading off JT. He’d focus his blue eyes on the hockey captain, calmly facing him down without a flinch… Rena shivered.

  “Cold?” Liam asked, putting an arm around Kayna, as though she were also cold. “We’ve been out here for a while, maybe we should head closer to the fire?�
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  Kayna snuggled into her boyfriend’s arm. “I kinda like it out here. It’s romantic.”

  Point taken. Now that Stew was gone, Rena was the awkward third wheel again. She stood, wiping the sand from the butt of her shorts, and waved a staying hand when Liam and Kayna made to follow suit.

  Kayna grinned gratefully, confirming Rena had read the hint right. “We won’t stay too long. We’ll come find you when we’re ready to head out. Don’t stray too far from the fire. In fact, maybe you can corral Tilly?”

  Rena gave another wave, this time in understanding, and moved towards the heat, turning her back to the moonlight dancing on the ocean surface. It was a bit of a mental relief to move further from the water. She moved around some couples all but having sex—standing, laying on the sand, sitting on coolers, they were everywhere—and held her palms out to the warmth, the thin t-shirt actually a bit chilly now that she was standing in the wind. Rena let the bright orange light fill her vision.

  “Hey there,” a deep voice said next to her ear.

  Rena jumped, her sandals caught and she almost went down in the fire. But it wasn’t Nor, it was his brother, Reed who played Hero and caught her wrist with wicked-fast reflexes.

  “I know. It’s hard not to fall for me.” He grinned good-naturedly as he righted her and she couldn’t help but quirk her lips back. “Having a good time?” She nodded. “I’ve been learning all the nitty gritty about this town from the local crazies.” He motioned across the bonfire where she’d seen some scary biker-gang types.

  She didn’t even know any of those existed in this town. Then again, she didn’t hang out many places besides home, school, and Barb’s. Then what he said registered and she shrank a bit into herself. The town gossip was sure to include her. She was the local freak. Unique, Nor had called her.