Crushing Summer

by C. M. Stunich

  C.M. Stunich

  Sarian Royal

  Crushing Summer

  Copyright © C.M. Stunich 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  For information address Sarian Royal Indie Publishing, 1863 Pioneer Pkwy. E Ste. 203, Springfield, OR 97477-3907.

  www.sarianroyal.com

  ISBN-10: 1938623665 (eBook)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-938623-66-0 (eBook)

  Cover art and design © Amanda Carroll and Sarian Royal

  "Optimus Princeps" and "Ultra Condensed Sans Serif" Fonts © Manfred Klein

  "Code Light" and "Code Bold" Fonts © Fontfabric

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

  this book is dedicated to

  Tawny Morgan

  (and special thanks to my betas, who read this last minute and never even got to finish - Sali, Melissa, Marlena, Leanne & Jennifer. love your faces hard.)

  I struggled for air, gasped for breath. My hands reached up and found nothing, clawed at the sky and the sunshine looking for something to hold onto. I knew I shouldn't have listened to Heidi, was the only thought that played through my head. My life didn't flash before my eyes nor did images of angels or heavenly light. I was just, kind of, sort of pissed off.

  My lips were pressed tight, pursed maybe, so no water was getting in. My irritation at my friend was actually helping to save my life. She knows, knows, knows I can't swim. Calls me a freak because I never get in the water. Well, what now, Heidi? I'm in the damn water.

  I kicked my legs, glad that two weeks of doing nothing but sitting in the sun hadn't diminished the muscles in my calves and thighs. I could feel the power there, built up from years of obsessive sportsmanship, and, I'll admit, some serious afternoon trips to the gym.

  Bubbles surrounded me, kissing my skin, tasting the sun drenched heat I'd spent the whole day absorbing and now, in this foamy frenzy, had lost to the cold, clammy arms of the sea. My brain kept telling me that I'd break through at any moment, that my lungs would fill with that beautiful So Cal air and I'd end up laughing this moment away lying on a beach towel next to my best friend.

  Yeah. Not so much.

  Long before I ever broke that wild surface tension, before I ever hit the wash of white foam above, my lungs started to burn and ache, two flaming ovals in my chest, choking, squeezing so tight I felt like they were about to burst.

  I squeezed my lips tighter, refusing to let that water in, letting my stubbornness be my strength as I fought and kick and flailed about in the wide open blue, in that beautiful slice of eternity that my friends worshipped like a god. But me, I hated the water. I hated it and I refused to do anything but shower in it, drink it, and look at it. Period.

  Until today, that is.

  I don't know what had come over me, but when Heidi asked if I wanted to take a dip, I said okay. I said okay even though I knew, somehow, that this would happen to me. You know I couldn't swim, but you invited me in anyway. Why the heck would you do something like that? In my head, I imagined Heidi smiling at me with her too pink lips, crooking a finger and beckoning me into the waves with her head tilted to the side. She didn't just encourage me, she practically baited me to get me in the water. Maybe a sexy lifeguard will rescue me? This stupid thought was one of the last that was able to escape before it happened, before my lips exploded outward like a bomb had burst inside my throat. Water rushed into the cavernous vacuum where my lungs had been, sliding into me, cutting me with cold and salt. I tried to scream then, but I couldn't because the ocean had found its grip in me and was holding tight. And she would never let go. Not willingly.

  It felt like I was being buried alive, that the water above me was dirt and the shifting currents around me, my tomb. My frantic flailing shifted to violent twitching and seizing as my limbs refused to obey my commands and started to dig, desperate for life, punching and kicking with a fervor that I'm not even sure my heart or mind shared. It's not like I had a bad life, really. It's not that at all. It's just … I had a boring life. I did what I wanted when I wanted, but there was nothing exciting about it, nothing foreign, nothing unusual. It wasn't until that moment, exactly thirteen seconds before I passed out, that I realized it.

  Then I saw a hand. No, two hands. Moving quick, coming straight towards me. I saw black fingernails and flashes of brightly colored tattoos. Isn't it strange how tragic moments bring out all the little details in life? How, years later, you can look back on the worst days of your life and remember the weather or the food you ate or the socks you wore, but not the sequence of events that led up to the tragedy, or the things you said, what you did?

  I would always remember those fingernails, those tattoos. A pair of angel wings around the wrist and a word, dripped across pale skin in red and black. I couldn't read it, but I saw it, and I saw the body attached to the arms, too. Watched the flutter of black hair around a determined face, the wide eyes, the green irises, the dark lashes.

  One of the hands grasped mine, pulled me forward, while the other slid around my waist and lifted me, shocking me through the cold with white, hot heat. So as I passed out, I burned and found myself lit up from within. Even as the water crowded my lungs and the blackness took over, I found the strength for one, last thought.

  Who the heck is this guy?

  There was a mouth on my mouth.

  A hot mouth.

  A sexy mouth.

  A mouth that I absolutely, one hundred percent did not want to let go of. Only I did. And then I rolled over and threw up, mostly salt water but with a little bit of virgin daiquiri and some nachos mixed in. Damn it.

  “Should I call an ambulance?” This from Heidi. I knew because I could hear the hint of British accent she tried so hard to hide. I didn't understand that, actually thought her voice was prettiest when she just let go and stopped trying to imitate the women on TV.

  “Um, yeah,” the voice closest to me snapped. I didn't know who he was, but he sounded pissed. “Your friend nearly drowned. That might be a good idea.” Strong hands gripped my shoulders and seared me with warmth, surpassing even the heat from the sun above. I'd have traded a whole summer of sunbathing for just a moment in the arms of whoever this was that was touching me. Wow.

  My eyes flickered over to the left and found a pair of pale knees pressed into the sand, dripping wet swim trunks, a firm belly.

  The hands pulled me back into a sitting position so that I was resting on my haunches, vision blurring as I tried to take in the small crowd around me and figure out what was going on.

  I almost died.

  “No,” I coughed out as I glanced up and found Heidi with her phone in hand, long nails tracing a number on the screen. She paused and looked down at me, round mouth open and tongue resting on her front teeth, a sign that she was conflicted. It made her a really, really bad liar. “I'm fine. Don't call an ambulance. Really.” I paused again to choke some more and suck in another breath. It was painful and blissful both at the same time, like sore muscles after a hard workout. It felt great, but damn it hurt like hell.

  I glanced back over at the dude with the amazing hands.

  He had just pulled them back, almost reluctantly, drawing them off my shoulders and leaving me shivering, despite the warmth from above.

  “Are you sure you're alright?” he asked, voice soft, swollen lower lip dripping with moisture. I watched with fascination as a single drop swelled there on the edge and then rolled off, landing in the sand near his knees. He leaned forward
and cocked his head to the side, dark hair slapping against his neck as he gazed at me with bright, green eyes. God, they were intense, like two bits of emerald stuck right there in his head, gleaming, reflecting back the sunshine like cat eyes.

  I wanted to kiss his face off.

  And I didn't even know him.

  I swallowed hard and licked my lips unconsciously. Also unconsciously, I think, he did the same. We smiled at each other.

  “Maybe I should drive you to the hospital, just in case. You might want to get checked out.” Already I was shaking my head. I coughed again and held a hand over my stomach. Throwing up in public once was bad enough, but twice? Not going to happen. Not even after a near drowning.

  “I can drive her,” Heidi blurted, oblivious to the tension between me and Mr. Black Fingernails. His eyes flicked up to her once and then landed right back on my face. He licked his lips again.

  I wanted to raise my hand to my face and press the rough swirls of my fingerprints to my mouth, feel the spot where his had been pressed only moments before. Yeah, so I'm assuming it was CPR he was after and not a first kiss, but it felt like one.

  “Do you want to try standing?” he asked as I let my eyes trace the straight line of his nose, the swell of his cheeks, his strong jaw, all the way down until I landed back on those tattoos. The angel wings reflected the white light of the sun back up at me like fresh ink, slick and shiny. Beautiful. That's how I knew I'd never seen the guy before. I would've remembered those wings. I almost blurted out something silly like, you're my guardian angel, aren't you?, but managed to stop myself just in time.

  I nodded.

  Mr. Black Fingernails adjusted his leg, so he was balanced on one knee and one foot, and reached out to grab me under the arm.

  “If you feel dizzy, just let me know,” he said as he helped hoist me up. To be honest, I didn't even really need the help, but I liked the feel of his fingers on my skin, that delicious, comforting warmth that I didn't understand for the life of me. I had never, ever, felt anything like that before.

  “Thank you,” I said, noticing that he lingered there for quite awhile before pulling his hands away. Once again, my eyes got locked on his green ones and couldn't pull away, staying there even after the crowd started to dissipate and Heidi began to huff and sigh not at all surreptitiously. Can't she see something is happening here? To me. Right now. “What's your name?” I blurted before I could stop myself. Finally, I tore my gaze from his and looked down at the sand between our feet. Where mine were tiny, his were huge, but not all hairy and Hobbit-like. They were nice. He had nice feet. Oh, and his toenails were painted black, too.

  “Casper,” he said, and I almost chuckled. Instead, I stayed very focused on the purple paint that adorned my own toes. “Like the friendly ghost,” he added, sounding amused. My smile whipped straight up into a grin, and I glanced over at him through a fall of stringy, sopping, brunette strands.

  “You said it, not me,” I whispered through my teeth. Behind me, Heidi adjusted herself and planted a hand on her hip. I didn't even have to give him my name. My best friend took care of that for me.

  “'ello? Chloe? You sure you need to go to the hospital? You look alright to me.” The sudden reappearance of Heidi's accent was enough to steal my attention away from Casper. But only for a second. My friend glared back at me with turquoise eyes and raised her right eyebrow. That was my cue to back out of whatever it was that I was doing and have a talk. I looked back at Casper who was emptying his swim trunk pockets and depositing a carton of soggy cigarettes and a soaking wet iPod into the sand at his feet. Oh crap. I slapped my hands over my open mouth.

  “Shit,” I gasped as I wrinkled my nose and watched him untangle a pair of trashed earbuds. “I'm so sorry. I promise I'll buy you some new stuff.” Casper smiled a crooked smile and shook his head.

  “No worries. You didn't ask to get caught in a riptide.” He shrugged, shoulders nice and loose. Here was a guy who was relaxed, who was such the opposite of the type I'd been hanging around lately that I was practically drooling. The only thing the guys at my school cared about were SAT scores and college admission essays. Even sports and girls took a backseat to getting into the most prestigious schools the country had to offer. The people around here were not poor, exactly, but not wealthy either. Smack dab middle class basically. And when it came to college, that was the hardest place to be: not many grants or financial aid to be had, but not much money saved up either. It was a catch-22: you're not poor enough and you're not rich enough. So yeah, all of the studying and the scrambling made sense, but it also made for a lot of stressed out, overbearing, worry worts.

  I bit my lip hard, trying to pull my thoughts together. Casper was … well, okay, he was ripped and gorgeous and probably a little weird, but the thing that really caught my attention was his attitude. He seemed pretty chill, unassuming. I liked that. Well, other than the pseudo glares he was tossing Heidi's way every time she sighed. It was pretty obvious that the two of them were not fans of one another.

  “But I'm sure you didn't count on having to rescue a sixteen year old with absolutely zero swimming abilities either. I don't think I can help with the cigarettes, but I can get you a new iPod.”

  “It's okay, really. I had my eye on the next gen stuff anyway.” As he said this, he dug out yet another item – a soaking wet iPhone – and tossed it into the pile. Damn. Not exactly the best first impression. I couldn't help but notice that he cringed at that one. “I'm just glad you're safe.” As he said this, he lifted his bright green eyes back to me and looked straight through me, like he could see and hear everything that was going on in my head in that moment, absorb me through a simple, unwavering gaze. I was the one that looked away first.

  “I don't mean to rush you or anything, but we have that … event to get to, remember?”

  “Event?” I asked, still focused on Casper, wanting to know where he was from, how old he was, if he was new in town. Whatever Heidi might've thought, I was not leaving that beach until I got his number. Or he had mine, at least.

  “Oh for Christ's sake, Chloe. Bloody hell.” Heidi turned away and started off down the beach, blonde hair swaying back and forth like she was in a modern remake of Baywatch. I watched as heads turned and eyes caught on her teeny-weeny bikini with the little pink hearts, the one that rode right up her butt crack. Funny thing was, she liked it that way.

  I turned back to Casper.

  The sun was already drying out his dark hair and the breeze was teasing it with soft fingers, sweeping it down over his brow and fanning it around his ears in razored wisps. I caught a glimpse of silver plugs in his lower lobes and smiled.

  “There is no event,” I told him, tilting my head back and glancing up at the blue, blue sky and the white clouds, the yellow shimmer of brightness that said that summer was in full swing. Two weeks in and things hadn't really gotten started yet, but they would. Soon enough. I was both dreading and looking forward to it. I dropped my chin back down and leveled my gaze.

  “I figured as much,” he said with another smile, a goofier one this time. “Your friend and I didn't exactly connect in those few, brief seconds before I jumped in the water.” He shrugged again and sucked in a massive lungful of heated, salty air. “She was worried about you, so that's good. She just … ”

  “Panicked? Yep. That would be Heidi. She gets into these states where she just … ” I paused and shook my head. He didn't want to hear Heidi's life story, and I'm sure neither of us was missing the growing awkwardness between us. “So, I guess I owe you my life.” I tried to smile when I said this. Something about Casper made me nervous, but in a good way. Like, I wanted to be at my absolute best when I was around him. Considering I'd known him for about five minutes, that was pretty impressive. I think I'm getting a crush, I thought with an inner squeal. It had been awhile since I'd met anyone this interesting – or at least I thought so. I might never have met anyone like this. The images on Casper's swim trunks? Zombie kittens. Z
ombie. Kittens. See what I mean? So I did what I always do and decided to stay true to character. Be bold. Be outspoken. Be loud. It gets you heard, and that's the first step in any battle. Wallowing in forced silence was my, and will always be my, worst nightmare.

  I took a deep breath and reached down to adjust the crooked triangle on my bikini.

  “Look, I'm going to be honest right now. I think you're really … interesting.” Casper smiled wide and ran his tongue over his full lips to wet them. Already, the sun had dried us both out. “Do you want my number?”

  “I'd love it,” he said, reaching out and taking my wrist between his fingers. As soon as his black fingernails brushed the pale skin of my underarm, I shivered. “And since you don't really have an event tonight, how would you feel about a movie or something?” He grinned. “And I'm going to be honest, too. This would be a first date.” He let my arm drop and my whole body went cold. His, too, I think because I saw goose bumps springing up across his pale skin.

  “I could lie and tell you that I'll go because you saved my life, that I owe you one. But I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to admit that I'm excited. And intrigued.” I paused. “I like your fingernails.” Casper laughed and looked like he was going to say something, but then he paused and glanced over his shoulder. Standing at the edge of the parking lot was a girl with raven hair and eyes like glass, pale and clear and admittedly, a little creepy. When Casper turned back my way, he wasn't smiling anymore. I watched his personality shift from one extreme to the other. A little crinkle popped up right between his eyebrows.

  “Do you know where that old drive-in theater is? The one with the big goose on the sign out front?” I nodded. I knew that place like the back of my hand. It was where all the real action started. When they played the first movie of the season there, that's when things got weird. I'd been wrapped up in other drama lately, mainly stuff with Heidi and her new boyfriend, so I hadn't had a chance to look yet. But I could guess. “Tonight they're opening up for the summer. I don't remember the name of the movie, but I thought it might be fun to go.” Casper tried to smile, but it slid off his face as quick as it had come. “Do you want to meet there at eight?”