From the Blue

by Mark Stephens

  Dylan was only a heartbeat and a moment away from tilting up to kiss him when Jordan finally separated them, oblivious to what she was thinking.

  “I think the song changed, Dylan.” He still held on to her waist as if he were reluctant to let her go. His voice was little more than a sultry whisper to her.

  “Maybe we better speed it up then.”

  With two drinks racing through her system and her inhibitions dropping like the bonfire ashes around her, she grabbed one of Jordan’s hands and twirled herself around. She felt his other arm wrap around her waist as she pressed her back against his front. She closed her eyes and felt the drumbeat thump through her skin. Her hips began to sway gently to the rhythm and Jordan started to match her motion behind her. Their dance was seductively slow, erotically charged and Dylan smiled at his reaction.

  Jordan bent his neck down and nuzzled his face against her neck, his hot breath on her skin. The long fingers of his right hand entwined themselves in hers. Their body heat mingled as each pressed their bodies into the other as if attempting to merge into one being.

  The young woman kept her eyes closed, feeling and hearing instead of seeing. She was completely lost in the moment, adrift on the sensations. Her only thoughts were on the music and the motion and the man with his arms around her, not some intruding, unwanted daydream of a boy she’d probably never see again.

  Then a funny happened.

  She opened her eyes contentedly and glanced downward. The arm around her waist was no longer black, but white.

  This isn’t Jordan.

  She whirled around in surprise and anger. Her hands were raised, ready to push away whoever it was that had snuck up behind her. Her fingers pushed against a set of defined pectorals, just not Jordan’s. She looked up, ready to unleash the full force of her ire when she came face to face with him.

  Jaron.

  Her eyes widened and her mouth stood agape. She should’ve been mad at the intrusion. She should’ve wondered where Jordan had gone or how he had been replaced without her feeling it, yet the man who had been holding her in his arms had fled her thoughts as quickly as water down a drain. Only Jaron existed in her eyes now and she felt that feeling of comfort and relief in his arms again.

  When he bent his face down to hers and gazed into her eyes, she brought her hands up to his cheeks and kissed him without reservation, lost in her desire and fulfilling her earlier wish. With her eyes closed again, she felt their tongues dart playfully with each other and could feel his chest pressed up against her own.

  At the edge of her awareness, she heard the song end, but the kiss did not. Instead, it gained impetus, an almost desperate, furious need behind it. Her hands ran along the muscles in his back as his explored her. She tasted salt on his lips and felt the breath from his nose mix with hers. He breathed her in while she breathed him as if they were sharing their souls.

  Somewhere, deep inside, Dylan’s mind remembered where she was. This act of intimacy wasn’t as intimate as she would like. She was surrounded by her friends and classmates, who she was certain was getting a good show for their money. It was that idea, the constant chiding she was likely to incur, that brought her lips away from his and made her open her eyes.

  She expected to see those bottomless eyes, that square jaw and full lips. She wanted to run her fingers through the nest of unkempt curls, but she couldn’t.

  He wasn’t there.

  Dylan blinked away the brightness of the bonfire that crackled and blazed in front of her. She looked down and recognized Jordan’s arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Nothing had changed. Everything, all of it, had been a dream, a figment of her alcohol-fueled imagination. Jaron wasn’t here or anywhere around as her eyes searched the crowd. The only person looking at her was Alex, who was giving her a thumbs up with her own drink in her hand and a sly smile on her lips.

  She ignored the smug expression on her best friend’s face, her head darting from side to side, looking for him. Surely she couldn’t have imagined all of that. It had been so real. She could still feel his air in her nostrils and the mildly salty taste of him on her lips.

  What was she doing?

  There was a moment of clarity and it brought reality back to her, broadsiding her unexpectedly. Like a wind in her head had sprung up, the mist of intoxication was whisked away.

  Dylan Roberts was standing there with one of her best friends, grinding her butt up against his crotch like she was no better than an animal in heat.

  OK, so she had thought about this moment. Given some serious thought to it actually, but she never would’ve acted on it. Not in a million years. By no means was she a gambler, especially with those she cared about. Her friendships meant too much to her to throw them away on a chance.

  Without the fog in her head clearing, the sheer enormity of her humiliation washed over her and she pushed Jordan’s arm away. She stumbled a few unsteady steps from him and turned to see the confusion that masked his normally congenial features. She was uniquely aware of her own arousal and could plainly see his. Without knowing what else to do, she mouthed an apology to him and ran off, unable to face him or herself with what she had been doing for one moment longer.

  Watching Dylan stalk off into the darkness, Jordan glanced over at Alex quizzically, to which she simply shrugged her shoulders. She’d been a bit taken by Dylan’s sudden reversal concerning Jordan, but, in her opinion, it’d been a long time coming. The two of them had been dancing around for far too long, but she understood why the girl had stormed off. She just wasn’t going to tell Jordan.

  All she could do was throw him a sympathetic, perplexed look in response to Jordan’s hurt expression. Her heart went out to him, but it also pulled her towards her best friend. Without another word, she turned to follow Dylan as she headed away from the revelry and towards the ocean.

  “Dylan! Dylan! Wait up!” Alex yelled over the fading music and conversation once she got past the immediate crowd. She ran after her best friend, slowly closing the gap between them. When she finally did catch up, they were already at the edge of the water and it splashed coolly at their toes.

  “Dylan, what is up with you?”

  Her voice came out in a huff from the quick march and sounded a bit harsher than she wanted, but Dylan hadn’t seen the look on Jordan’s face when she had run off. One side of her wanted to hug the young woman in her pain, while the other wanted to bash her upside the head for hurting him. She couldn’t quite decide, so she just stood there, watching the night waves until she spoke.

  “I don’t know, Alex. I think I’ve just had too much to drink.” Unsteadily, Dylan sat down heavily on to the soft sand at the water’s edge.

  “It’s more than that.” Alex commented. “You’ve been off all day.”

  Alex lowered herself to the ground next to her friend, letting the water wash away the grit of the sand on their feet and ankles. The wind whipped their hair around their faces and carried most of the party sounds away from them. Alex waited for Dylan to say something, but was only met with grim silence from her.

  “I’m kinda worried about you.”

  “Don’t be. I’ll be fine. Everything is just kind of jacked up at the moment.”

  “Well, that much is obvious, but I’m calling bullshit on the rest of it.”

  Dylan had no response to the accusation and Alex wasn’t sure if she had offended her or cut too close to the mark. The only sound left between them was the steady lapping of the water.

  “Are you sure that’s it? Are you really all right?” Alex finally asked, keeping her eyes on the night sky.

  “Yeah.” Dylan answered a little too quickly with the cutting edge to her tone. A heart beat passed. A heavy sigh came from her and, when she spoke again, the bite had gone.

  “Yes. I’m fine. I mean, my head’s still spinning and I doubt I’ll able to look Jord in the eye for awhile, but yeah, I’m all right. I’ll be all right.”

  “True that. You did kind of leave him high and
dry.”

  Just the reminder made Dylan feel mortified and the hot flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. Her eyes began to blur with unshed tears. “Oh my God. I don’t know how I’ll ever look him in the eyes again.”

  She felt Alex nudge her leg and heard her say, “Don’t worry about him. He’s a boy. A shiny object in a D cup and he’ll forget all about it.”

  “More importantly, I think,” Alex continued, “is that you figure out if you want him to forget about it. Or better yet, why do you want him to forget about it?”

  “I’ve told you, Alex, I’m not going down that road with him. I won’t do it.” Dylan said impatiently. “It wasn’t just about him anyway.”

  With that admission, the floodgates opened. Haltingly at first, the confession felt as though it was being wrenched from her, but each word came easier than the last and faster. Soon, she was telling her best friend about everything: the weird feeling from looking in Jaron’s eyes, the hallucination and her own awakening desire, even her own doubts that she had imagined it all. Delusion or not, though, Dylan finally voiced her suspicion that both incidents had unnerved and unsettled her more than she had known.

  The words finally dried up and she wiped the tears she hadn’t known she was crying from her eyes. Dylan waited for a reaction or comment from Alex, who seemed to be taking all of it in like a giant sponge. Her head still felt disconnected from her body and she wondered briefly exactly what it was that she had drank. At least the ocean breeze seemed to be sobering her up a little.

  “You know, Dylan,” Alex finally began after a moment, sweeping the other girl out of her ruminations. “I’ve known you for a long time and I can’t say that I’ve ever seen you this worked up over a guy. Even when you’re dating someone, you always stay so reserved and detached and logical like you’re going through the motions, but not really invested in the emotional side of it.”

  “Part of falling in love is losing yourself in another person so completely, so totally, that it’s difficult to tell where you end and they begin. And, in turn, they lose themselves in you to the same extent. I’ve seen it happen over a long period and I’ve seen it happen in the blink of an eye. Hell, darling, I fall in love like that at least once a week. Remember that Jonas Brothers thing I had? Maybe I’m just rubbing off on you.”

  It was Alex’s trademark to share her insight with humor, but Dylan couldn’t bring herself to laugh this time. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s so out of control, so not me. And why him? Of all people, why not someone I know? I don’t even know him. Before today, I never knew he existed.” She replied, watching the faint lights of the cruise ship as it carved a path through the sea, twinkling more faintly as it moved away from them.

  “I can’t answer that, honey. Life and love can be mysterious and surprising and unable to be explained. Hasn’t Nicholas Sparks taught us that much?”

  “Damn. It feels like I’m driving down a curvy highway in the middle of the night at 65 mph with the lights off. I’m basically just waiting to wreck into a tree or run off the road.”

  Dylan’s voice came out strained and Alex could understand how Dylan would feel so unnerved by this. She had always been the master of her own fate. She set clear goals for herself and followed through on them. If she found something that didn’t conform to her plan, then she changed it so that it would. She was the most disciplined and orderly person that Alex had ever met. This Jaron guy and her unexpected, sudden feelings for him flew in the face of everything that Dylan subscribed to.

  “Dylan, when it comes to falling in love and following your heart, the rulebook doesn’t apply. It can be messy and illogical and confounding. But it is also the most wonderful feeling that you’ll ever feel. It isn’t going to fit into any prescribed idea that you concoct for it. It just is. It’s kind of like getting on a roller coaster for the first time. You don’t know what the next corner brings. You don’t know how many zigs and zags are gonna toss you around or how fast the damned thing is going to go. You just have to close your eyes, have faith in it and hold on as tight as you can.”

  The roller coaster analogy seemed apt to Dylan because ever since she had locked eyes with Jaron, she had felt she was on a ride. Her own emotions were sending her through dips and turns, sometimes even upside down, at unimaginable and dizzying speeds.

  “What do you think I should do? I mean, I barely know him and I don’t even know if he felt the same thing I did.” she asked her best friend, trusting her answer more than she trusted herself at the moment.

  “Go and find out, then. Buy a ticket and take a ride, Dylan. For once, lose control and have some fun. Whether you fall in love for a minute, a week or the rest of your life, you’ll always remember that it started here and you’ll be a richer person for it.”

  Alex pushed herself up from the wet sand and brushed at her legs and feet. Without another word of encouragement or dissuasion, her best friend placed a hand briefly on her shoulder and then headed back towards the party sounds, leaving Dylan alone with her thoughts.

  Her head still pulsed from those drinks, but it had calmed down a bit and she vowed no more drinks tonight, or maybe even ever. She may have no control over what her heart wanted, but, at least, she did have control over that.

  For another half an hour, the young woman watched the sea and felt the breeze against her face. She sat there, thinking, considering and finally deciding. When she finally got up, her mental fog was gone. The choice had been made. And, for the first time that day, she felt her sense of purpose return to her.

  She was going to find Jaron and see if what she had felt was real or just her imagination. She needed to know if he had felt the same things that she had, for better or for worse.

  It was time to get on the coaster.

  Chapter 8 – Moonlight Serenade

  Dylan walked back up the beach, following in Alex’s footsteps. It only took a moment until she reached the fringes of the party, which was in full swing now. Music thumped loudly and echoed out over the dunes. Laughter and conversation were everywhere. Flickering shadows danced on the sand and over the partygoers.

  The crowd had grown considerably since the lighting of the bonfire, much greater than just her class and all spread out in little groups. It seemed impossible that she would find one boy amidst them all, but she’d never been the type of girl to shy away from a daunting task. So, meticulously and as inconspicuously as she could, Dylan began to thread her way through the boys and girls of her class, her eyes searching faces, her ears listening for that voice.

  She’d made it through the satellites of students without success and the first twinge of doubt entered her thoughts. What if Jaron had found the company of one of Beach Side High’s bimbos? What if he’d already left, gone back to wherever he had come from? No, she wasn’t going to think like that, at least not yet.

  She moved closer to the corona of the blaze, the ring of light that circled the bonfire and the teens within its orbit. She kept to the darker edges, not wanting to be seen by her friends or anyone else. Her search was a solitary effort and not one she wanted to explain. So, Dylan was careful and kept to the dark as much as she could.

  Derrick and Carrie were slow dancing, unaware of anything else happening around them. Alex had found Jaime and both girls were discussing some random gossip with another group of girls. Neither of them saw her as she flitted past them. Jordan and Johnny ensconced in a sports conversation with half the football team, but Jaron was not in attendance. She hurried around them unnoticed, knowing she would have to speak to Jordan eventually. She just didn’t want it to be tonight. She had other things to do at the moment.

  Completing the circuit, Dylan came up empty and slipped away back into the night. A disappointed sigh escaped her. The sand still felt warm from the day’s heat against her feet as she trudged away from the light. Her mysterious prince wasn’t here and, given that he was only visiting, it was doubtful that she’d ever see him again. Whatever she had felt, whether something re
al or imaginary, was likely to never be confirmed or explained. She hated unanswered questions.

  Whatever. She thought to herself halfheartedly, frustrated at her lack of resolution. There’s nothing I can do about it if he isn’t here.

  Aimlessly, Dylan meandered farther away from the crush of the party. She supposed she should rejoin her friends and apologize to Jordan for her lewd behavior, but she just didn’t want to be around people quite yet. She needed a moment to process, yet she didn’t know where she wanted to be.

  The lack of direction seemed to exist only in her mind as her slow and prodding footsteps led her back to her friends’ little pavilion of umbrellas, coolers and towels. She stopped and stared at the assemblage. No, she didn’t want to be here either. Sooner or later, someone would come back.

  Grabbing the edge of her towel, she pulled it free and draped it over her shoulders. Lured by the lull of the waves, she stalked off towards the sound until her bare toes hit the hard packed sand and cool water washed over her feet.

  The moon overhead cast a ghostly sheen over the waves. She passed a group of teenagers drinking, night swimming and trying to hook up. Dylan gave them a wide berth and said nothing to them. Right now, she felt no overwhelming urge to be friendly with anyone she passed. So, she ignored all of them and dodged past them until she left all traces of the party far behind her. When she’d gone far enough that the blazing fire was but a small yellow flickering dot, she stopped, listening to the quiet sounds of the beach at night, content that she was far enough out not to be disturbed. At least for a little while.

  Laying her towel on one of the mounds created by the high tide, she sat down and faced the rhythmic sounds of the waves that were barely visible in the night. Dylan’s eyes roved over the idyllic, romantic scene, taking it all in but not really seeing any of it. Her elbows on her knees, her chin on her crossed arms, she stared into the unadulterated starry sky that twinkled above the vast reaches of the Atlantic. The soft sounds of the surf combined with the hypnotizing night sky hypnotized her into a serene state of being, which soothed her fuzzy head and calmed her stormy emotions.