The Bad Boys of Summer Anthology

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The Bad Boys of Summer Anthology Page 163

by Emily Snow


  “That may be the worst thing anyone’s ever said to me ever.”

  I started laughing, in spite of the weight of him practically sitting on my chest. “Ow. I can’t breathe. Trip, you gotta get off.”

  He took mercy and rolled off of me, landing his butt on the beach. I got up on my knees, pretending to catch my breath and dust myself off before yelling, “Sucker!” and dive-bombing into him, throwing him backwards into the sand. He used the momentum of my tackle and rolled us both over, pinning me flat on my back again. Without the use of my arms, I was sputtering my hair out of my face and trying to spit the sand out of my mouth.

  “Bleh! You jerk! No fair, you’re bigger than I am.”

  “Yep. Stronger, too. Don’t ever forget it.”

  “Trip! I think I have sand in my eye. Let me up.”

  “Oh, right, you big faker. Think I’m falling for that again?”

  “No, Trip, seriously. I think I have sand in my eye.”

  He got up and I stood, brushing out my hair and clothes, making a big, phony show of trying to blink some non-existent particles out of my eyes. While he was busy dusting himself off, I went for a surprise tackle, diving right for him... just as he rolled out of the way, landing me face-down on the beach.

  I cracked up, fully breaded now from head to toe, as Trip stood over me laughing. “You are the worst actress ever. Like I was really going to-”

  His words were cut off as I grabbed his ankle and tugged, sending him ass-over-teakettle next to me. He looked stunned for a second, before he bared his teeth in a snarl, and I knew I was in deep shit. I got on my feet and made a run for it, Trip following right behind. I only got a few yards from him before he caught up, hip-checking me down to the ground once more. I tried to grab his ankle again, but he jumped back, then flopped down on his side next to me anyway.

  “You just don’t give up, do you, Warren?”

  “Never, Rymer.”

  We were both cracking up, the beautiful sunrise barely registering on my radar. Nothing on God’s green Earth was more beautiful than making Trip Wilmington laugh like that. How could any stupid sunrise possibly compare? After we’d caught our breath, dusted ourselves off and salvaged the last remnants of the brilliant dawn before us, I realized Trip and me were going to be just fine.

  All I had to do was keep my trap shut from then on.

  By the time we got back to the house, everyone else had gotten out of bed and was busy packing up to go. We had to check out by eleven and not only were we tasked with gathering all our personal belongings, but the place was an absolute mess to boot.

  Lisa and I were cleaning out the fridge when Rymer staggered in, some random trollop at his side. He walked her to the back door, told her he’d call and kissed her goodbye. I shot Lisa a “whatsgoingon” look, but she was too busy trying to contain the giggle that threatened to escape her throat. I must have missed quite a show the night before.

  Rymer closed the door and gave an exaggerated stretch. “Ahh. Good morning, ladies!”

  Lisa raised her eyebrows at him. “Um, good morning, Rymer.”

  He saw the look on her face and asked, “What? You’re the only one allowed to get laid around here?”

  Lisa gave a huff. “Date rape isn’t ‘getting laid’. In fact, it’s a crime.”

  We started laughing while Rymer floundered for a comeback. We were both surprised when he came up with, “Hey, fuck you, DeSanto.”

  “Whoa! Hey, hang on there, pal,” she started back. “I was only busting your chops. Since when do you get so pissy about it?”

  “You’ve been riding me all weekend, Lisa. Enough is enough already, okay?”

  He stormed out of the room, leaving Lisa and me completely wordless and flummoxed.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  Lisa bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know. You think I actually hurt his feelings?”

  “I didn’t know he had any.”

  That made us both laugh, but I knew she had a case of the guilts going on. “I have been kind of rough on him lately. Maybe I’d better go talk to him.” She got up humbly to leave, but not before offering, “Jeez. Next time Rymer picks up some random skank from the boardwalk, remind me not to comment on it.”

  I just shook my head.

  I don’t know what Lisa said to Rymer during their conversation, but by the time we were loading up our cars, those two must have found a way to make nice. He actually helped us carry our bags out to my Mustang and loaded everything into the trunk for us. Wow. Maybe Rymer needed to get laid more often. Having sex seemed to turn him into an almost normal person.

  Huh. Wonder what it could do for me.

  As if Trip could read my thoughts, he emerged from the house at that very moment. He dropped his bag behind Cooper’s car and came over to say goodbye. Everyone was coming and going through the house, but that didn’t stop him from putting his hands at my waist and kissing me right there in the driveway. I tried not to think about the looks we were surely receiving from our friends and kissed him back, my arms looped over his shoulders right there out in the open, in front of God and everyone. I couldn’t believe it! It was the first time Trip and I had ever freely let on that something was going on between us, and the public display floored me almost more than the things we did in private. Trip Wilmington was actually kissing me, without shame, in front of everyone.

  Oh, the summer was going to be spectacular.

  Chapter 32

  CLOSE MY EYES

  We hit The Barrens later that night, Trip and I arriving together. That wasn’t so out of the ordinary- we used to show up at places together all the time- but that night, we showed up holding hands. We were almost giddy all evening, the two of us giggling like a couple of idiots into each other’s eyes all night. I can only imagine it was fairly sickening to watch.

  The next day, I invited everyone over for a pool party, and Trip didn’t miss too many opportunities to show a little PDA. We spent the day swimming, making out, getting tan, making out, barbequing some lunch and making out. I kept waiting for one of them to bust our chops about it- certainly at any moment, Rymer would yell at us to “get a room”- but no one said a word. I may have been overly optimistic and self-centered about the situation, but I sensed that my friends were actually happy for us. As far as I was concerned, we were just long overdue to finally be together, so maybe everyone else thought so too. Not that they didn’t have their own lives going on or anything, but I definitely caught the vibe that everyone seemed to be silently rooting for us, the unspoken approval uplifting yet humbling at the same time.

  Trip and I spent almost every waking moment of that summer together, most of the time wrapped up in each other’s arms. I can’t remember a more consistently blissful time of my life than during that season after graduation, all of us soaking up the last days of childhood together, trying to make time go by more slowly. No one spoke much about the fact that we were going to be off in different parts of the country in just a few short weeks.

  Heather and Becca had both set their sights on south Jersey schools, Princeton and Rutgers respectively, and even Rymer had gotten into Bergen Community College, a two-year school just a twenty minute drive away.

  But that was pretty much it for the Jersey co-eds.

  Cooper was slated to leave us first, spending the month of August doing intern work at some law firm down near his university in Maryland, trying to get a jump on some credits before the school year even started. Sargento was headed for Susquehanna all the way out in the boonies of Pennsylvania and Pickford was readying for his cross-country trek to L.A.

  Lisa and I were prepping for our move to the city, doing the entirety of our dorm shopping together. We figured it would be best to nail down a coordinating design scheme, knowing all our stuff would be reunited in our apartment the following year. She was practically manic with her spending, obsessing worse than me over buying anything and everything she thought she’d possibly ever need for New York. I kept r
eminding her that there was probably a store or two in the city where she could buy such vital items like wooden spoons. Or lightbulbs. Or soap.

  Trip, however¸ in spite of his excellent GPA and stellar SAT scores, hadn’t even applied to a single school. He was planning to take a full year off; indulging in a few lost weekends before concentrating on his MVP hockey team in the fall, then doing some intensive travelling in Europe and Africa. Then and only then would he think about looking into college, hoping to play hockey at some university upstate, or even out somewhere in Canada, or some other place very, very far away.

  A part of me was pretty jealous that he was going to be bouncing around the globe all year while I was stuck inside some classroom. The other part of me was terrified for him at the thought of not having a plan in place. I couldn’t believe that he was not only unfazed about not knowing where he’d be a year from then, but that he was actually excited about it. I knew that even if he had asked me to go with him- which he never would anyway- I’d be too much of a wimp to say yes.

  But we didn’t spend much time discussing the future anyway. We both knew we were on borrowed time, the ticking clock always hanging over us, knowing we were going to have to say goodbye. For the first time, I truly realized how Lisa and Pickford must have been feeling and understood why my friends were falling apart at the seams a little bit more each day.

  Trip and I were great at playing the denial game, always living in the now, never discussing what our lives without each other would hold. It was impossible to think about our time together coming to an end, so I guess we always made a point to sidestep any questions about what was going to happen in the fall.

  Two nights before Cooper was scheduled to skip town, however, Trip and I were sitting on my couch, snuggled up and watching Animal House. Out of nowhere, I started thinking about it, thinking about everyone leaving, about having to start a new life in New York, how I’d have to say goodbye to my friends, my family, my childhood, Trip... and my heart felt like it was being ripped apart. How was I ever going to let them go?

  I blurted out, “Everything’s changing.”

  Trip squeezed me a little tighter, knowing full well what I was talking about, the boogeyman in our midst finally being acknowledged. But he didn’t respond right away, so I continued. “Everyone’s going away soon. It’s like we’re not going to be us after that, you know? We’ll run into each other at homecoming games or reunions or bump into each other randomly in town, but we’ll never be us ever again, will we?”

  Trip’s voice was calm, soothing beyond his eighteen years when he answered, “It’s called growing up, Lay.”

  “I know, but God. It really sucks.”

  I looked at him and saw the line drawn between his brows and the dimple working in his cheek- the look he wore when he was really thinking hard about something. “Yeah, it does. Is it harder for you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you’ve known all these people your whole life. I’ve only known them a year and it’s-” He swiped a hand through his hair before continuing. “-it’s so much harder this time, even for me, to think about leaving. It’s like, for all the cities I’ve lived in before, this is the first place that’s ever felt like home to me. And I didn’t even grow up here, with them, the way you have.”

  I put a hand to his face and said, “I’ve only known you for a year... Do you really think it’s going to be any easier for me to say goodbye because I haven’t known you as long?”

  He held me tighter and kissed the top of my head. “Okay, point taken. C’mere.” He slid down to lay on the couch, maneuvering me half on top of him.

  We were silent for a moment, his hand moving in a caressing gesture along my back, trying to smooth our hurt away when he said, “You’re right. This sucks.”

  I could feel him getting gloomy and realized this was why we never talked about it. I felt bad for bringing up our one, big, taboo subject and wished I could have stuffed the whole conversation back in my mouth.

  “I’m sorry,” I offered. “I’m sorry for even bringing it up. We still have a few weeks left and I don’t want to spend them being sad, okay? Agreed?”

  I turned to look up at him, just one split second before he was able to swipe the tear from his eye. Holy Jesus, I made him cry. My heart just about splintered in two when he tried to offer a wan smile to cover.

  I felt helpless, guilty beyond belief for dragging him into my sorrow. I did the only thing I could think of, which was to grab him behind his neck and plant a kiss on him. Hard.

  When I broke away, I realized I’d achieved my desired result, because Trip snapped out of his misery and looked at me like I was crazy. Well, at least he wasn’t sad anymore. I’d managed to replace despair with confusion. At least confusion wasn’t such a foreign emotion.

  He sputtered out, “What the hell was that?”

  I started laughing, trying to jolly us out of our sadness. “I don’t know. Want me to do it again so you can figure it out?”

  The old Trip was back, sounding like he was ordering another Coke when he replied, “Yes, please!”

  So I kissed him again. I slid myself fully on top of him, pressing my mouth to his, licking him along the part in his lips until they opened for me. I wasn’t normally the aggressor during our makeout sessions, but I could tell by the growing knot against my hip that Trip didn’t seem to mind.

  Chapter 33

  NECESSARY ROUGHNESS

  On Cooper’s last night, Rymer had us all over at his house for a going away party, but we knew it was pretty much a final gathering for the rest of us, too.

  Rymer’s was wholly the best location for the best possible sendoff for our friend. Walking out onto the deck made everything horribly real for the very first time, however. I realized we were actually going to have to start saying goodbye.

  I spent a lot of time exchanging addresses with everyone, with promises to write whenever we could and call whenever we were going to be back in town. We knew it was the last official get-together, the last chance we’d all have to be assembled in the same room, the same town, at the same time. Such a previously casual occurrence, one which we’d taken for granted for the past four years. A pall hung over our evening, even though we all pretended to be having a great time. At least I knew I was pretending, anyway.

  After a while, Coop announced he had an early morning and had to cut the evening short. Becca seemed sad, but I knew she wasn’t devastated. After all, her campus at Rutgers-Camden was only about a two hours’ drive from Coop’s university in Baltimore. She’d only have to wait a few weeks, once they were both settled in, to see him again.

  Unlike the rest of us.

  After he’d said his goodbyes to everyone, I walked with him out the front door, trying to carve out a private moment. I’d pretty much said my peace with everyone else, but Cooper actually walking out the door kind of made things official. I wasn’t ready to do it, to start the process of watching my friends leave me, one by one. And even worse, the chain of departures had to start with Cooper!

  He’d been my rock for the better part of our school year, but that was nothing new.

  I had a string of flashbacks from over the years starring Coop, realizing he’d been there in some way or another for practically my entire life. Cooper, who shared his Fruit Roll-Ups with me the day in first grade I fell off the slide at recess. Who talked his parents into buying me a new paintable ceramic Smurf kit when I was eight, because he’d overheard me crying to Lisa that I had just broken the one my father had given me for my birthday. Who came running out with Bactine the time when I was ten, and had wiped out on my bike in front of his house. Who suffered detention for an entire week when we were thirteen, after he’d punched Kevin Sullivan out right there in the gym for making a snide comment about my mother leaving.

  And now it was his turn to leave me. Who was going to be the one to heal my heart once he was gone?

  It seemed he was always my Superman, rushing i
n to patch me up whenever I’d gotten hurt. Now, he was the one causing my pain, and I knew there wasn’t a Band-Aid in the entire world big enough to treat that wound.

  “Jesus, Coop. I guess this is really it.”

  He met my eyes, the years of shared memories passing between us. “Shit,” he said, “I’m really going to miss you.”

  I didn’t have anything big enough to say to him. Nothing to sum up how important he was to me, how my life wouldn’t have been the same without him.

  “Keep in touch, okay? Don’t just say yes and then not do it.”

  He wrapped his arms around me for a hug. “I will, I will. I promise.” He pulled back, smiled and added, “You are totally gonna own New York.”

  It was so completely like him to recognize that while I was devastated about him leaving, the feeling was all wrapped up with fears about my own future as well.

  I spent the ride home in complete silence, and to Trip’s credit, he didn’t try to get me to talk about it. By the time we’d pulled up in front of my house, I was drained.

  I went to lean over and kiss him goodnight, but my body became possessed, moving on its own as my leg slid over his lap and straddled him in the driver’s seat. I caught Trip’s startled expression for a quick second before closing my eyes and opening my mouth on his.

  I promptly rammed my tongue in his mouth, grinding my hips against his, feeling him harden in spite of his shock. I pressed against him with abandon, trying to make my mind go blank.

  I unbuttoned my blouse but left it to hang off my shoulders as I knotted my hands in the back of his hair and pushed his head into my bra. He immediately slid his palms up to my breasts, grasping at the cups of pale blue lace as he lowered his mouth to the space in between. I slid my hands underneath his shirt, running my fingers along his bare chest as I felt his tongue tasting away at my cleavage, his erection pounding between my thighs.

  I gripped his shirt in my hands and pulled it over his head before pressing myself to his bare chest and kissing him again.

 

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