by Anthology
“Guess that means your choices are narrowed down.” She stuck out her tongue and crinkled her nose.
I shot her a look. She’d been into my brother ever since she came home with me for summer break last year. This was just her way of conjuring up an excuse to get into his pants. And as soon as that thought occurred, I shuddered. Definitely did not want that image seared into my mind.
Hookup or not, there was no way I was giving up the opportunity to save cash. Every penny made a difference when I had law school in the fall. Add in an expensive NYC apartment, and I’d be living off Ramen just to be able to afford subway fare. Even with three roommates to drive down the rent, it made Berkeley apartments look like a steal.
I squared my shoulders and shot Melissa a look. “I’m in.”
“Me too,” Chase said. He gave one final nod and then folded the paper a few times and slid it into the pocket of his shorts.
“Great. If a member of the group is not there to sign off on a challenge completed, photographic evidence is required.” She reached into her bag and pulled out four disposable cameras, tossing one to each of us and keeping one for herself.
Just like Melissa. Always a plan. Any political enemy was in deep shit when she got into office at the UN. And it also meant minimal relaxing on this cruise. Because of course we couldn’t just enjoy a carefree spring break full of sunbathing and drunken karaoke as we sailed through Cancun and Cozumel. No, we had to complete a list. Of totally stupid things, I might add.
I glanced at the list again. Okay, some of them sounded fun, but others seemed near impossible. Making out with a redhead? Those were few and far between. I mean, Carrot Top was rumored to be on the ship, but really, who wanted to make out with him? Unless I could count myself and perform a solo smooch in the mirror. Melissa would never let that slide. I lay back against the reclining lawn chair and pulled my shades off the top of my head, sliding them over my eyes.
As one of the first people to board the ship, the halls and decks had been fairly quiet, but as each minute passed, bikini-clad girls and shirtless guys swarmed the Sun Deck in droves. A 98 Degrees song blasted through the massive subs on the deck and a few girls belted out the lyrics, clearly already feeling the spring break atmosphere.
The state-of-the-art cruise ship boasted three different pool decks; the Sun Deck, Fiesta Deck, and Starlight Deck. The Sun Deck, which we were currently on, had two pools, a stage area, and three water slides. I pulled off my cover-up and shoved it under the chair along with my sandals. My shoes were already scorching from being in the sun for just a few minutes. I adjusted my bikini and glanced over at Chase, who quickly looked away from me, but not before I caught him blatantly checking me out. Super weird because Chase had never given a second glance toward me in all the years I’d known him. In fact, maybe I’d just imagined it and he was really looking at Melissa instead, which was way more likely. Nobody gave a second glance to a beauty queen’s best friend.
He cleared his throat and put his hands on his hips, staring out at the pool. “I’m going to test out the water. Anyone coming in?”
I shook my head. “I’m good.” Really, I just wanted to kick back and read. I started this really good book that came out a few months ago, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and totally related to sweet, introverted main character Charlie.
Chase’s lips pulled into a frown. Or maybe I’d imagined it, because less than a second later he was laughing at something my brother said.
Drew pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the lawn chair as he headed toward the pool.
“Too early to get wet,” Melissa said, staying planted in her seat and pulled a Cosmo and SPF 5 sunscreen out of her Mary Poppins bag.
“Lame, ladies.” Chase fisted his shirt and pulled it over his head in one fluid motion, putting his muscled chest on full display.
Sweet mother of pearl.
I clapped my hand over my mouth to hide a very audible gasp. I coughed and tried to play it off like I had something in my throat, because nothing could be more awkward than Chase knowing that I was gawking at his ripped muscles. That thought didn’t even feel right, because when did the words Chase and muscles go together? He’d been cute in a gawky, lanky way, which tended to happen when a gamer’s main form of a workout was making Mario run through the Mushroom Kingdom. And that bulk could not be achieved through the use of a controller.
Melissa tapped me on the shoulder, her brows furrowed, and I realized I was still coughing and sputtering. “You okay? Need water?”
I nodded and Melissa pulled a bottle of water out of her bag and handed it to me.
I twisted off the lid and took a few sips, trying to look anywhere but at Chase. But as a certain law of the universe goes, the more you tell yourself not to do something, the more you want to do it. I shifted my gaze to him as he stepped into the pool, the water slowly moving its way up his legs, flowing over the print of his shorts, teasing at the waistband that gave way to abs.
Holy crap. There was a six-pack…attached to Chase. And were those biceps or dinner rolls? Shit, when did he get so ripped? I rubbed my lips together and reached into the pocket of my cover-up for my Chapstick, to alleviate my suddenly parched lips.
Drew hopped up from his chair and sprinted toward the pool closest to us, executing a perfect cannonball. Chase swam after him, the muscles in his back and his calves flexing with each movement and I shook my head, trying to force myself to look away.
I hadn’t really looked closely at him until now, because Chase was always…well, he was Chase. My next door neighbor since I was born, my brother’s best friend. He was just always there, kind of like an art piece that hung above the top of our family’s mantel—something you know is there but you stop noticing after a while.
Well, I was noticing now.
Now he was…hot. Like Freddie Prinze, Jr. hot.
Whoa. Those thoughts needed to sink back down to the depths from which they’d sprouted. This was Chase we were talking about. The same guy who used to flick spit wads into my hair on the bus in middle school and gave me noogies up until senior year of high school.
After the guys swam farther away, Melissa laid her Cosmo over her stomach and turned to me. “You never told me about your brother’s hot friend.”
“Um. Yeah. Recent change.” As in, last time I saw him was junior year Christmas, during winter break, he definitely wasn’t sporting a football player physique. He’d transformed from Screech to Slater status in less time than it took the earth to orbit the sun.
She pulled her neon green sunglasses down her nose and raised a brow suggestively. “You gonna hit that?”
“Seriously, M, who talks that way?”
“Me and Coolio? Maybe Dre?”
I shook my head and giggled. “Good to know you’re getting down with your rapper roots. Should I call you DJ Gold?” On a scale of gangster cred, Melissa Gold ranked somewhere along the same line as Weird Al Yankovic. I mean, the girl once put gum wrappers over her teeth to pretend she had a platinum grill, but that was about as hood as it was going to get.
She threw out a fake gang sign. “Fo-shizzle.”
I playfully pushed at her hands. “Put those away before you hurt yourself.”
“It’s hard spending my life in a gangster’s paradise.”
“Go back to your Cosmo before you get us shot.”
She turned back to me, more serious this time. “For real, though, are you calling dibs on that Chase dude?”
He was the pain in the ass next door. So why would it be a big deal if Melissa went for him?
But somehow that rational thought process didn’t help the unease that had settled in the pit of my stomach. Really, I had zero say over who he hooked up with—not that I cared. But a twinge of possessiveness zinged up my spine, nonetheless. Chase was a nice guy, not someone who should be used as a consolation prize for a twisted game of spring break bingo. “I thought you were into Drew.”
“Yeah.” She turned to
me, her lips curving into a mischievous smile. “You think they’d be into the three-way kiss?”
I snorted. “Um. No.”
“Damn. Oh well, I’m sure there’s someone willing to do that on this boat.”
“Mmhmm.”
She opened her Cosmo back up and pointed out something in an article, but I zoned out as Chase commandeered a pool noodle and laid out in the water, everything but his chest and tops of his legs submerged. The sun glinted off each droplet on his chest, and Chase’s swimsuit had molded against his, ahem, package, and it was definitely hard not to stare. He laughed at something my brother said and two dimples appeared on either side of his face.
I shifted restlessly in the chair, crossing and uncrossing my legs, focusing back on Melissa, who was reading out loud from the Most Embarrassing Moments column. Something about a bikini falling off and a big wave. But I couldn’t concentrate on the story. All I could focus on was Chase’s abs and bulge. Jesus, it’d been a while since my last boyfriend, but I’d never felt this type of need before, one that pulled low in my belly. Obviously this was the aftermath from notgettinganyitus. Maybe it should come with a warning label with a list of side-effects, like the ones for prescription medication on television.
Warning: prolonged abstinence may be associated with sudden onset of lusty feelings for your brother’s best friend.
I swallowed hard and licked my parched lips. This was going to be a very long four days.
Chapter 2
Chase
There were two things I promised myself I’d never do: wear anything that could possibly be in Richard Simmons’ wardrobe, and go for my best friend’s sister.
The first one, I’d undoubtedly follow to my grave, but my resolve for the second flagged the second we arrived on the ship.
When I was thirteen, I had a massive crush on Emily. Drew somehow caught on, probably because I was a gawky teenager who did a shit job at playing it cool. He cornered me one day when Em had gone inside to get snacks, punching me in the arm. He said, “If you ever go for my sister, I’ll kill you.”
Nine years had passed since then, and I doubted he’d still want to decapitate me if I dated her, but I’d stayed away on principle.
But the thought of letting this week slip away without telling her how I felt, before we went our separate ways back to Berkeley and Stanford, was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up.
After spending a couple hours hopping from the pool to the hot tub to laying out on the beach chairs, we went back to our rooms to unpack and recharge before we met back up for drinks later.
The bed springs groaned as I took a seat on the Hawaiian print comforter and unfolded the bingo paper, staring down at the list of tasks. Most of them seemed pretty easy. Shouldn’t be too hard to find someone in a thong, not when Sisqo was performing on Friday night.
But one tiny pink-lettered box stared back at me, taunting me. I’d imagined getting with Emily since I was a teen. It’d be so easy to use this contest as an excuse to hook up. But she was worth more than a random fuck on a spring break cruise.
I looked at the sheet again. Knowing Drew, he’d be through this list by Friday without breaking a sweat. Same with Melissa. Shit, that girl scared me. I saw past her sweet Georgia Peach exterior for what she really was—someone who’d rip off your balls and feed them to you if you got in her way. Not that I’d back down from the bingo game because of a potential ball-crusher. I was saving up for an apartment in whatever California city I ended up at for my first teaching job, and an extra couple hundred bucks could go a long way.
Drew was in our bathroom, unloading his toiletries on the sink when he called out, “What do you think of Melissa?”
I shrugged to myself. “She’s okay.” Nothing compared Drew’s sister. When Emily took off her swimsuit cover today, I’d lost the ability to breathe for a minute.
“Just okay? Damn dude, are you blind? She was like Miss Teen USA or some shit.”
Maybe I was blind. Or just had a severe case of tunnel vision. Normally, I could focus on thoughts other than Emily, but since we’d be in each other’s space for the next four days, pushing thoughts of her to the periphery would be tough.
Just as I was about to tell Drew to fuck off, the room phone rang. I rolled over to the other side of my bed and grabbed the receiver on the night stand. “Hello?”
“Ahoy there. You mateys ready to plunder some treasure down at Blackbeard’s Tavern?”
I shook my head and stifled a laugh. “You really need to work on your pirate talk, Em.”
“Yarr.”
She was so goddamn adorable, and I couldn’t help the cheesy grin that spread across my face. I cradled the phone between my shoulder and ear and messed with the towel on the bed that was in the shape of a manta ray. “Old No Beard Jones and I could use a drink.” Or four if I was going to wash away unwanted (very wanted) thoughts of Em.
“The sea wenches will be there in a few minutes to pick up you mateys.”
“Yarr.” I smiled and hung up the phone.
Drew ambled back into the room and furrowed his brows as he looked at me. “Did you just make a pirate noise?”
“Yeah. Em is now a sea wench.”
He shook his head and laughed. “She’s so weird sometimes.”
Everyone had their own brand of weird, but mine and Em’s came as a matching set.
I pushed off the bed and wandered over to my suitcase sitting on the luggage stand. Shrugging out of my Blink 182 shirt, I replaced it with a clean button-up and checked my reflection in the mirror. Fashion decisions weren’t typically high on my agenda, but I wanted Emily to see me differently. I wanted a shot at what I’d never had with her, but I’d always hoped for. “They’re meeting us here in a few minutes.”
He buttoned up his collared shirt and caught my eye through the mirror on the closet door, his smile growing serious. “You’ll watch out for her, right?”
“Of course.”
And now I felt like a major piece of shit, because all I was thinking about was which bingo task I wanted to complete with her first.
“Listen, I’m not a dumbass.” Drew squared his jaw and cleared his throat. “I know you like her, but don’t go for her, man.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” I was a schmuck for lying to my best friend, but it was for his own good.
He gave a knowing look, like he could see right past my bullshit response. “She got out of a bad long-distance relationship not too long ago and it really messed her up. I don’t want to see her get hurt again or be strung along.”
That was a logical request. Last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. Then again, would a week of harmless flirting and fooling around count?
I nodded and looked down at my shirt. “Okay, man. I won’t get involved.”
But even as I said it, I knew that’d be the hardest promise I ever had to keep.
Chapter 3
Emily
I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t stop staring at Chase’s tanned forearms. The sleeves of his light blue button-up were pushed up to his elbows, giving way to a delicious view of the veins cording around his arm. A groove formed between a valley of muscle as he picked up a tequila shooter and tossed it back. Jesus. Since when did I think veins were sexy? Or forearms, for that matter? Obviously the sun had drained any intelligible thoughts from my head. Good thing I’d taken the LSAT before this vacation.
“Thanks again for inviting me, Em.” He reached across the table and ruffled my hair, just like he’d always done in that annoying, big-brother kind of way.
I needed to focus on something else, such as the four days of sun, tanning, and cruise ship shenanigans before our senior year ended and we went on to the real world to get real jobs. Or for me, delaying reality for a few more years by attending law school. Since my VW Cabrio would be packed and ready to road-trip it to New York the day after graduation, this was the last time I’d see Chase and Drew until winter break next year.
&nb
sp; Chase licked his lips after he took a sip of his beer and his cheeks were already flushed from the combo of alcohol and time spent in the sun earlier today. He had a nice five o’clock shadow going on, and a small part of me—the two-sangrias-deep part—had an urge to reach out and run my fingers down his stubble to determine if it felt as rough as it looked. I didn’t know which disturbed me more: the fact that I was thinking about Chase’s facial hair or the fact I actually wanted to run my fingers along it.
Drew broke that train of thought when he raised his Corona and said, “To senior year and all of us making it out of spring break in one piece.”
“I think that only goes for you, Drew.” I smirked. My daredevil brother would be lucky to make it out of spring break with anything less than two stitches.
“To bad life choices,” said Melissa.
I rolled my eyes.
Chase said, “To the nights we won’t remember.” He put down his beer, picked up an untouched shot of tequila, drops of condensation dotting the frosted glass, and knocked it back without a wince. Chase was already on his third in a little under half an hour and the glaze over his eyes said that he meant that sentiment.
“To being the winner of Spring Break Bingo,” I said.
They all chimed in that they were going to be the winners. Oh, they were so going down.
Chase turned to me and said, “Ready for New York? Excited to go all Law and Order on people?”
Heat rose in my cheeks. I hadn’t mentioned my admittance to NYU’s law school on the plane ride, so Drew must have filled him in sometime in the last three weeks when I’d received my acceptance letter. Pins and needles washed over the small of my back at the thought of Chase and Drew talking about my news. Did Chase ask about me? Or had Drew just casually brought it up in conversation? Okay, I was way overthinking things. What was wrong with me? I’d never been nervous around Chase before. I’d never even blushed because of him either.