Sunset

by Melissa J Morgan

  The girls stood close together, nudging each other with excitement, as they watched Andi stroll up to Charlie and give him a congratulatory hug. Now Charlie looked like he might lose his balance.

  “Oh, I can’t stand it!” Tori squealed. “This is so awesome!”

  Maybe it was the thrill of his win. Or maybe the limbo caused most of his blood to run into his head and make him dopey. But for whatever reason, Charlie managed to set down his trophy, grab Andi’s hand, and pull her onto the dance floor.

  And judging from Andi’s face, she wasn’t going to speed away anytime soon.

  Cassie smiled. Score one for the nice guys.

  “Why did I come here?” Micah mumbled to no one.

  This dance was like torture. There was Cassie looking amazing in that soft blue dress that showed off her eyes and fluttered about her legs. The second he saw her he had an overwhelming urge to scoop her up and kiss her. Then his brain caught up with the rest of him.

  It was over. They’d never get that kiss after all. Besides, she had Bo.

  He wished it hadn’t ended the way it did. He would have liked to have stayed friends—to have her in his life some way. But he messed things up too much. Half the time he couldn’t talk to her, and when he could, he said all the wrong things.

  “Hey there.”

  Danica walked up beside him. He noticed her lipstick matched her dark red wraparound top. For some reason it bothered him. She was so much prettier without it. Why did girls hide their looks behind makeup?

  “Hi,” he said, forcing himself to stop staring at her lips.

  “Can you believe Charlie?”

  Micah grinned. “That was really cool. I was there this morning when he asked Simona about a limbo contest. At first I wasn’t sure why he’d be all into it. Now I know. The guy has secret moves!”

  “Speaking of moves . . .” Danica raised an eyebrow and grabbed his hands. “Come dance with me.” She tugged him toward the dance floor.

  “I don’t know, Dan,” he protested. “I’m kind of out of it right now.” But he was too weak and depressed to fully resist. The next thing he knew, he was underneath the lights he’d hung crisscrossed from the rafters.

  “Even more reason,” she countered, turning him to face her. “You need to make yourself have some fun.” She placed his hands onto her waist and hooked her hands around his neck. “Now sway.”

  Micah had to smile. Danica always had a way of making him do things.

  “See?” she whispered after a while. “Not so bad, is it?”

  “No,” he had to admit.

  “This is nice, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  She leaned back against his arms. “ ‘Thank you, Danica’?” she prompted with a wry grin.

  He laughed. “Thank you, Danica. I’m feeling a little better now.” And it was true. He was.

  “You know . . .” she stopped swaying and cocked her head as if in thought. “We had a great time together last summer. Didn’t we?”

  “Yeah. Last summer was a blast.”

  “Much better than this summer. Right?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. This summer has definitely had some high points. We won the surf contest . . . I got third at the invitational . . .”

  “I know, I know. Yeah, that stuff was cool and all,” Danica said, nodding somewhat impatiently. “I mean . . . campwise. Peoplewise, last summer totally has this one beat.”

  He scrunched up his nose in confusion. “You think so?”

  “Well, yeah. You have to admit there’s been some serious weirdness this year.”

  “Yeah.” He glanced over to where Cassie was manning the food table. “I guess you’re right.”

  Danica nestled in even closer, pressing her left cheek against his. “Don’t you ever wish you could just . . . go back?” she whispered in his ear. The vibrations shot through him and for a second he felt an old, familiar longing.

  Suddenly he could see what was coming.

  Danica’s eyes closed and her darkly painted lips opened slightly.

  She was coming in for a kiss.

  He knew it would be nice. It might have even made sense in a way. But it wouldn’t have been right.

  Because he would have been thinking about someone else.

  “Dan, stop,” he said, pulling his head back slightly.

  Her eyes opened and widened. “What?” She seemed totally confused. Hurt even.

  “You’re great. We’re great—as friends. But for anything else we’re just . . . wrong. We’re done.”

  He watched as her emerald green eyes slowly iced over. “I know that. I’m just having some fun.” She furrowed her brow. “I mean, it’s not like I want you back or anything. Who said I even wanted you that way?”

  “Okay,” he said slowly.

  “It’s a dance, Micah. We’re dancing.” She leaned back into him and started swaying mechanically.

  Micah wanted to ask when dancing involved mouths coming together, but didn’t. He was just too tired. Too confused. Too scared of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.

  Danica lowered her eyes and snuggled back up against him. “You’re a nice guy, Micah,” she mumbled against his chest. “Maybe too nice.”

  “Uh . . . okay,” he said, chuckling awkwardly.

  “Thanks, by the way, for checking up on me on Oahu.”

  “Of course. No problem.”

  “You know, I could have won that surf contest.”

  “I know.”

  “I wasn’t totally focused on it. I guess I didn’t . . . want it enough,” she went on. “I guess I had my mind on other things. But next time I’ll really set my sights on winning, and no one will be able to stop me.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” he said with a smile. He meant it, too. Danica had more force than a crashing wave when she went after something.

  He glanced over at the food table and caught a quick glimpse of Cassie serving treats to a group of kids from the pueo bunk.

  If only he could be that focused with the things he wanted . . .

  “You need to stop beating yourself up about the wipeout,” he said, making himself focus on Danica again. “Winning isn’t everything, you know.”

  She stopped swaying and looked up at him. “That’s where you’re wrong, Mr. Nice Guy. Winning is everything.”

  Micah sat on the steps of his bunkhouse. He didn’t want to turn in yet, so instead he was enjoying the night sky and reliving the events of the past couple of days.

  Man, everything could change so fast. In an instant. Bam! Just like a wipeout. Only with less warning.

  Everything was jumbled. It was like those sliding puzzle games where you put the lion’s head on the giraffe’s body. He felt mismatched the exact same way.

  Like . . . why was Danica making a play for him when Cassie was the one he wanted? Danica was great and all, but it could never work between them. They were too different. Danica had to be on top at everything. In fact, she probably only wanted Micah now because she wanted to be back at the top of his list. After all, she was the one who’d broken up the relationship last summer. Not him.

  And then there was Cassie . . . how could he be so mad at her and still want to kiss her so badly? Nothing made sense.

  A crunching noise made him look up. Charlie was walking down the gravel path toward him, only he wasn’t exactly traveling in a straight line. He seemed to be lost in thought and would wander to the left, then to the right. Eventually he made it to the steps of the cabin.

  “Hey,” Micah greeted. “Howzit going?”

  “Yeah . . .” Charlie half-spoke, half-exhaled. He sat down on the step beside Micah and turned toward him. “I’m sorry . . . what did you say?”

  Micah laughed. “Man, where have you been?”

  “Walking Andi to her bunkhouse,” Charlie replied, smiling. It was an enormous smile that gleamed in the starlight. Micah got the impression only major surgery could remove it from Charlie’s face.

  Had
he looked like that when he was flipped out over Cassie?

  “Dude, you are seriously gone.” Micah shook his head and chuckled. “I guess things are going pretty good, huh?”

  “Life is so amazing and wonderful,” Charlie said. He leaned back on the steps and tucked his arms underneath his head. It couldn’t have been comfortable at all, but Charlie looked as if he were lounging back on a cloud.

  “I guess,” Micah mumbled. He didn’t want to ruin the moment by telling Charlie he’d just been thinking the exact opposite.

  Charlie seemed to snap out of his reverie. He sat back up and turned toward Micah. His brow was furrowed, but his mouth still wore a hint of a smile. “Hey man. What’s going on between you and Cassie?”

  Micah let out a grunt. He wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it. “Nothing,” he muttered, yanking a thin sliver of wood off the railing. “Not anymore. We kind of had a thing going, but . . . stuff happened.”

  “So you guys broke up?”

  “I guess. Yeah. Well . . . in a sense. I’m not sure if we were ever officially together. Everything went wrong so fast. She totally conned me.”

  “Cassie did? What do you mean?”

  “I mean, she wasn’t up-front with stuff. She, like, set me up. I thought she was so cool, but she wasn’t.”

  “Huh.” Charlie nodded in a way that showed he wasn’t convinced. “But . . . if you guys weren’t all on the record as a couple, how could she have gone behind your back and stuff? I mean, how could she break the rules if you hadn’t given her any?”

  Micah couldn’t reply. He’d never really thought of it that way.

  “Cassie doesn’t seem like the sneaky, dishonest type,” Charlie went on. “Maybe whatever happened, she had a good reason for it?”

  Micah scoffed. “How should I know?”

  “Well, I’m no expert but . . . maybe you could try asking her.”

  Eleven

  Cassie felt like a backward Cinderella.

  She’d been to the stupid ball, but now here she was sweeping up, feeling sorry for herself.

  Not that she minded sweeping. In fact, she’d volunteered to clean up after the dance. And she’d already shooed off Charlie so he could walk Andi back to her bunkhouse. She hoped it would give him more time with her, plus she just wanted to be alone.

  And she was in no hurry to go back to her cabin and overhear Danica talk about Micah.

  It was odd. The two of them didn’t seem to be together at the start of the dance. Then later she caught them looking really cozy on the dance floor.

  But Danica or not, Cassie and Micah were obviously wrong for each other. It hurt bad enough discovering that he’d blown her off for his ex-girlfriend. And yet hearing him accuse her of being a surf snob was worse. It meant he didn’t get her at all. That he obviously never did.

  Cassie let out a grunt as she pushed aside one of the tables in order to get to the crumbs underneath. It actually felt good to be active after standing behind the snack table for three hours. When she was done cleaning, she’d promised to take out the trash for Charlie. Then maybe she’d take down the lights for Zeke and Micah so they wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. Then maybe she’d scrape the walls and repaint . . .

  Anything to keep herself occupied.

  The screen door suddenly opened and in breezed Tori, her face lit up like a jack-o’-lantern. “Cassie! You’ll never believe it!” she exclaimed.

  “What?”

  “Look! Look what Wesley brought me back from his fishing trip.” She held out her hand. In it was a perfect, pristine sunrise shell.

  “Wow.”

  “Do you know how rare these are?”

  “Yeah. They’re like the diamonds of seashells.”

  “I know!” Tori cradled it against her face.

  “Please don’t tell me this means you’re engaged.”

  Tori laughed. “No. But I’m so glad I didn’t go to the dance with Eddie and louse things up with Wesley. Thanks for that. For setting me straight.”

  Cassie smirked.

  “No, really. I know you think I’m, like, this expert on relationships, and I do act like it sometimes. But I’m not. No one is.”

  “Whatever,” Cassie said, feeling awkward.

  “You’re better than I am anyway.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short. I mean, so what if you don’t have loads of experience. You’re smart. And honest. And just a really awesome person. You deserve the best and you’ll get it.” Tori reached out and caught Cassie up in a long and slightly suffocating hug.

  Cassie didn’t know what to say. Her cousin usually wasn’t the type for a Lifetime Network moment.

  “What I’m trying to say is . . . maybe you shouldn’t come to me for advice,” Tori went on, releasing her from her embrace. “People like me play games because we’re afraid of just telling the truth. You’re not and that’s awesome. So don’t start the games. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Cassie said, unsure of how else to respond.

  “So . . .” Tori clapped her hands together, as if breaking a spell. “Can I help you clean up?”

  “No, thanks,” Cassie said, waving her off. “It’s after curfew and Simona would freak if she knew you were out of your cabin. Besides, I’ve got it under control.”

  “Well, okay. See you in the morning.” Tori stared down at the sunrise shell as she headed for the door. “I really need to figure out how to make some jewelry out of this.”

  Cassie shook her head and chuckled, watching as Tori disappeared into the darkness.

  She had just bent down with the dust pan when she heard the screen door open again. “What now?” she called out. “Forget to tell me something?”

  “Yeah. Lots of things,” came a familiar voice.

  Only it wasn’t Tori’s voice.

  Cassie slowly stood and turned around. Standing just inside the entrance was Micah, his eyes sagging sadly. In his hands was a beautiful yellow wildflower.

  “Uh . . . hi,” she said.

  “Hi.” He stepped forward and held out the blossom. “This is for you. I’m pretty sure it’s custom for a guy to give flowers when he takes a girl to a dance.”

  “Um . . .” Cassie scrunched her brow in confusion. “But I think it’s customary to take the girl to the dance before the dance is over.”

  “Who says it’s over?” He walked up to her and pressed the flower into her hands. “Feel like dancing?”

  Cassie felt like she’d entered some bizarre dream. It was all so wonderful, but it made no sense. “Uh . . . there’s no music,” she pointed out.

  He smiled. “Sure there is.” He gestured to the iPod hooked onto his shorts. Then he pulled out a pair of earbuds. One he put into his right ear. The other he pushed gently into her left. Suddenly she could hear a smooth-voiced man singing a moody ballad. Usher, maybe?

  “Shall we?” Micah asked, lifting his arms.

  Again Cassie had the distinct impression that she’d entered some sort of Neverland. She wouldn’t have been surprised if a mermaid came flopping into the room.

  She wasn’t Cinderella. She was Alice in Wonderland.

  “Sure,” she finally replied. Tucking the flower behind her right ear, she stepped into his arms and rested her head against his chest.

  At first it was awkward. Her feet kept bumping into his and he kept shifting his hold as if uncomfortable.

  Finally, they found that perfect fit. And there they stood, gently swaying. She could smell the ocean on his shirt and feel the flutter of his heart beating. It was easy. It was nice.

  What is this? she wondered. What does this mean?

  She wished the voice inside her would shut up. It was ruining the mood. Why did it have to mean anything? Friends could dance. Maybe this was Micah’s way of saying that they didn’t have to hate each other just because they couldn’t be a couple.

  Perhaps he read her thoughts because all of a sudden he stiffened slightly and cleared his throat. “Hey, uh . . . I’m sorry abo
ut before,” he mumbled. “Sorry I jumped to conclusions about you and Bo. I guess I was just jealous.”

  Cassie tried not to smile. “It’s okay,” she replied, trying to match his somber tone.

  “No, it isn’t. I had no right. I mean . . . we never really said we were a couple. You know, like, all exclusive. Right? So how could I get mad at you seeing an old boyfriend?”

  Cassie let out a snort. “Boyfriend? No way. Bo’s just a buddy.”

  “Oh.” She glanced up in time to see Micah grin ever so slightly.

  “But I know what you mean.” This time it was her turn to get all serious-sounding. “We didn’t make things clear beforehand. I mean, obviously we weren’t all exclusive or you and Danica wouldn’t have hooked up during the trip.”

  Micah stopped swaying and took a step back. “What? Who told you that?”

  The shock in his voice surprised her. Suddenly she realized she was going to have to make a small confession. “Well . . . no one. I sort of accidentally saw your text to her.” She could feel her cheeks turning color. “But . . . it’s okay. I mean, I understand how things can get between exes. Kind of. And like you said, we weren’t serious.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Micah was shaking his head. “I’m lost. What text? What did it say?”

  “You were thanking her . . . for something . . . she’d left her hair thing in your room . . . you were going to sneak it to her.” She winced at the way she emphasized sneak.

  After all, it was pretty sneaky of her to have read the text.

  Micah wore a look of total astonishment. “What were you doing reading Danica’s te—” He shook his head and cut himself off, much to Cassie’s relief. Finally he gave a nod. “Okay. I guess I could see how you would be worried. But it didn’t mean what you thought it meant. Danica wiped out hard in her first heat and went back to the hotel without her key. I went to check on her and let her calm down in our room. That’s all.”

  “Oh.”

  She wasn’t in dreamland anymore. She’d been yanked back into reality. The ache in her chest proved that. So did the creases in Micah’s forehead.

  “I thought you knew me better than that,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. All at once she felt a surge of indignation. “But you should have known me better, too. When you thought I was with Bo. When you thought I judged guys by their surfing skills.”