Take Me To The Beach

by K. L. Grayson, Karina Halle, A. L. Jackson, Marni Mann, Monica Murphy, Devney Perry, Kristen Proby, Rachel Van Dyken

  “Silly, Fallon!” Maggie winked. “Oscar loved jumping off the boardwalk with you, remember?” No. No, I didn’t. Because I was allergic to cats.

  “Well,” Demetri said, grinning, “you’re in luck. We’re just taking a break from recording because dip shit can’t seem to get anything right.” He pointed to Zane. “We have a two-hour break before we need him back. Just be sure he makes it in one piece, and don’t let him steal your V card, and we’ll be good.”

  “She’s not a virgin. But thanks, dude.” Maggie gave him a thumbs-up while I blushed twenty shades of red and covered my face with my hands.

  This morning I woke up normal. Boring.

  Now? Cat owner and sex addict extraordinaire. I was going to murder my friend.

  “Oh good, no worries then.” Demetri saluted us. “Play nice, Zane.”

  Zane opened his mouth, probably to argue, but Alec’s expression said it all.

  “Look.” Alec sighed. “You need to find some damn inspiration, man. Whatever the hell just went down is clearly a symptom from you holing up inside the house for the last two months.” He sized me up. “Maybe she can be your new muse. God knows you need one, or Jaymeson’s going to kick all our asses.”

  Alec and Demetri left.

  Maggie coughed into her hand. “Oh sorry, Dad’s texting, gotta run, you know how he gets when I don’t answer!” She waved and then skipped away.

  Her dad was basically the most lenient parent I’d ever met. He was probably calling her to make sure she was alive.

  That was it.

  Literally, his texts said, Are you breathing?

  And she replied back with a yes.

  And they went on their merry way.

  “So, four eyes.” Zane turned the full force of his gorgeous gaze in my direction. “You ready to inspire me?”

  “You must be desperate.”

  “I’m always desperate for inspiration of the female variety.”

  “I’m not one of those girls.”

  “The female kind?”

  “The stupid kind,” I clarified, forcing a smile. “The ones who would do anything for your attention. You’re hot, but I don’t even know you. For all I know, you could be one of those crazy murderers! You know, the ones that are really good looking, lure girls into their crazy mansions, and then kill them because they’re bored with their lives.”

  He blinked then frowned. “Holy shit woman, what kind of TV do you watch?”

  “Don’t change the subject.” I shoved my finger into his chest. “I’m just… I’m a lady.” Thanks, Grandma. Thank you very much for ingraining that into my head so fervently every day that I just quoted you to one of the hottest superstars on the planet. Real nice. Good. Great. Fantastic. I’m a lady?

  “Yes.” Zane’s lips twitched with a smile before he grabbed my hand and kissed the top of it. “And thus, I shall treat you so.”

  “Did you just British accent me?”

  “Depends.” He offered a casual shrug. ”Did it work?”

  “Stop it!”

  “What?”

  “No!” I grinned as a laugh escaped. “That’s unfair.”

  We walked a few feet before he pulled out his keys and whispered. “Your carriage, fair maiden.”

  He was driving a big white truck.

  I loved trucks.

  Truck meant safe.

  A truck told me he was trying to fit in, at least a little bit.

  “I’m going to need a list of weaknesses in alphabetical order starting with foods. Go.”

  “What?” I couldn’t keep up. “What are we talking about?” Thank God, at least the British accent was gone.

  Zane pulled open the door. I was getting kidnapped. Then again, I was willing. Did this stuff really happen?

  Apparently it did.

  Because I found my stupid self getting into the truck.

  And this, ladies and gentlemen, was how Ted Bundy did it. Charm, wit, and a killer smile.

  And yet. I was still in the truck as he leaned against it and smirked. “I don’t like the word no. It’s short, clipped, and completely negative in its effect on the world. Therefore, I need to know what your weaknesses are so I can use them against you. Favorite foods, drinks, songs you sing in the shower, places to go, things to see. TV shows — do you prefer Friends or Big Bang Theory. If I was a superhero, which one would you want me to be?”

  I shook my head. “Do you ever… pause? Stop? Take a time-out? And why do you need to know these things?”

  “Because,” he said, pulling back, “I think they’re right. I’m not finding inspiration in the house. Therefore. I’m bringing you to the house.”

  “To kill me.”

  “To ravish you, my lady.”

  “Oh good, the accent’s back again,” I said as much to myself as to him.

  He lifted one shoulder. “It felt right again.”

  I sighed. “You’re taking me back to your cave and expect the fact that another female body in your presence is going to make you spew out words about love and devotion?”

  He angled his head and seemed to think about it and then nodded. “By jolly, I think you’ve got it!”

  “Are we a Scotsman now?”

  “Eh, harder accent.” He grinned. “I’ll take you to the house for two hours, and in return, I’ll do you a favor.”

  “A favor for a favor.” I tossed the idea around in my head. “What about a rain check for a favor?”

  “That works too.”

  “Do we shake on it?”

  “No, we kiss. We always kiss. That’s how these things work between boys and girls, four eyes. Just like you always circle yes.”

  “Circle yes?”

  “When I ask you if you want to skate with me then be more than friends.” He grinned. “Or when I ask to hold your hand then share your Mountain Dew, you always say yes.”

  “Because no is a bad word?”

  “The worst,” he agreed with a solemn nod.

  “You’re a dangerous man, aren’t you?”

  His eyes did that shutter thing, like a layer of his true self peeled back before he looked down at the ground. “We all have our secrets, don’t we?”

  “Yeah.” I stared at him blankly before putting on my seatbelt and fully committing to the insanity that was my day. “We do.”

  He moved to the other side of the truck then started it. “But first, we mallow.”

  “Mallow?”

  “Don’t ask questions, four eyes, questions get you killed.”

  “Really quick, you aren’t on any drugs are you?”

  “Marshmallows are my drug. That’s all you need to know. Everything else? All me.”

  “Lucky me.”

  “Right?” He winked and then we peeled out.

  Zane

  She’d caught me by surprise by completely throwing me off my game, then pissed me off so horribly that I seriously wanted to do physical damage, something — anything.

  Ribs.

  She said she’d seen ribs. Like I was hungry.

  And of course, because words had the power to bring back memories and with those memories feelings — I was transported, like I was living it all over again: the hollow feeling of being starved, the helplessness as she gave me more of her food since I was a growing boy. And the guilt, that while she tried to strengthen me, she grew weaker and weaker.

  “When you said marshmallows were your addiction, I thought you were exaggerating.”

  “Does this look like an exaggeration?” I pointed to the four grocery bags we’d just loaded up from the store and shrugged. “Besides, you never know if they’ll run out or if zombies take over the world. I mean what if the only food zombies can eat to return to their natural human state is marshmallows?”

  “Yes.” She nodded seriously. “What if?”

  “You’re mocking me.”

  “You’re making it painfully easy.”

  “How old are you, four eyes?”

  “Old enough to get
the Friends reference, not old enough to drink.”

  “Twenty.”

  “Nineteen, actually, turning twenty next month.”

  “And you’re not in college because?”

  “I didn’t jump in the truck so you’d play twenty questions with me.”

  “No, you jumped in the truck because your cat died, remember?”

  “Yes, um, Olga.”

  “Oscar.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “What color was he?”

  She nervously licked her lips and then narrowed her gaze like she was trying to remember. “He was an, um… orange calico, with a black nose.”

  What a little liar! It was too amusing to call her on it, so I played along.

  I took a right and headed toward the cliff that overlooked the bay. “How’d you get him?”

  “You know…” She gripped the seat with her hands and grimaced. “I’m boring, let’s talk about you. Besides Ultron makes me sad.”

  Holy epic shit. It was so hard not to laugh. When was the last time someone made me actually laugh? Dani. She made me laugh. But she wasn’t mine, and I’d known it right away when I saw her with Linc, which meant she was off limits. Besides, she was a friend. And she needed a friend back. But Fallon? I might just adore my little four eyes more than I should.

  “Ultron made everyone sad. He was a killer,” I said with a shrug.

  “I wouldn’t go so far as to say Ultron was a killer…” She laughed nervously, still not getting the reference.

  “Iron Man created him for killing.”

  “What?” She blinked up at me. “Iron Man doesn’t have a cat.”

  “And neither do you.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You just called your dead cat Ultron.”

  “That’s not right…” She outwardly cringed. “Odwalla?”

  “That’s a drink. You’re actually getting worse at lying the more you talk.”

  “Oz.”

  “Oscar. Your fake dead cat’s name was Oscar. Ultron wanted to kill the Avengers, big difference.” How does she not know this?

  “I’ve never seen The Avengers.”

  I slammed on the brakes and gave her a look of complete and utter horror, “Get out of the truck.”

  Fallon grabbed the door handle and let out a little scream. “What’s wr-wrong with you?”

  I smirked and hit the gas pedal before she could open the door. “There was no one behind us, and even then we were going twenty-five. To answer your question yes, yes I was willing to get into a minor accident in order to visually express my utter shock and disappointment that you’ve never watched The Avengers.”

  She bit her bottom lip, causing it to go slightly white as all the blood left. “Well, I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. I mean they fight each other and save the world, and it always ends up the same.”

  “Valid point.” I pulled onto my street. “But the process, four eyes, is always different.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You’re going to explain it to me aren’t you?”

  “Lucky day, isn’t it?”

  “That’s not really how I would put it.”

  “The process—” I ignored her grumbling protest “—is the most important part, the storyline, the arc, if you will. You saying that The Avengers is the same as every other action movie is just like me saying that songs are all the same. They have notes that make music, and they all end.”

  “That’s completely different.”

  “The same.” I winked. “The process, however, is different. Get it?”

  “I get that marshmallows have addled your brain. And somehow it’s seeped into the air, making it so that I’m just as crazy.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I got in a stranger’s truck. My grandma taught me better than this.”

  “You kiss all strangers that way?”

  She gasped in horror as her cheeks took on an adorable red hue. “I did not kiss you, you kissed me!”

  “You liked it.”

  Fallon stiffened and adjusted her ugly as hell glasses before she reached for the handle of the door again, as if she was trying to melt her body against the side of the car so she could get away from me. Huh, that was a first. Had to admit, I didn’t really care for it. “I like cats too.”

  “And yet, you don’t have one, so by that comparison, I’d have to also draw the conclusion that you don’t have a boyfriend you kiss that way either.”

  “You have bad manners.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Sorry, I swear I’ll treat you like the lady you are.”

  She groaned and once again pushed the glasses up her nose.

  I put the truck in park and turned it off, then grabbed my stash of marshmallows and walked over to her side of the truck to open the door but she was already hopping out. And when I say hop, I was a bit nervous she was going to fall out of the truck and get a concussion. She wasn’t the most athletic girl I’d ever met, and she was short enough to need a booster seat.

  “What?” She crossed her arms protectively over her chest.

  I smiled, taking in her askew glasses and nervous lip biting. “Nothing.”

  “So, how long am I your prisoner?”

  “Three hours.”

  “You said two!”

  “I changed my mind.”

  “But,” She swallowed convulsively. “That’s kidnapping.”

  “Kidnapping would be tossing you over my shoulder while beating my chest and screaming ‘man take woman home!’”

  She wasn’t amused.

  “This,” I said as I led the way to the beach house, “is friends who kiss, driving to a house so they can kiss some more.”

  “Whoa!” She held up her hands.

  “Chill.” I winked. “Kidding. I won’t kiss you. Not unless you beg me, and even then I may hesitate on principle alone. After all, you are a lady.”

  “I’m not living that one down anytime soon, am I?”

  “I was thinking of making wall art,” I said helpfully while she groaned and followed me into the house.

  “Wow.” She did a quick turn around and then slowly walked into the open kitchen and living room. “This is yours?”

  “Negative.” I quickly pulled off my shirt and tossed it onto the couch. “It’s Jaymeson’s.” My jeans were next, I kicked them to the side and lazily made my way over to my bedroom.

  “Oh!” Fallon turned, nearly slamming into me, her hands pressed against my chest and her head lowered. “You’re missing clothes.”

  “So it would seem.”

  “I’m not sleeping with you.” Her statement was made even more ridiculous by the fact that her brown glasses kept sliding down her nose. Clearly, I’d become desperate. I’d not only kissed a girl who probably had to take her cousin to prom, but by the all-around thickness of her glasses, I was fairly confident she was legally blind.

  “Pretty sure I didn’t ask.”

  “But—”

  “Why do people always assume nakedness means sex?” I asked aloud.

  “You literally just pulled off all of your clothes, and you have me alone in your house,” Fallon pointed out, still staring at me, watching me with enough peculiar interest that my body felt the need to strut as blood pumped and coursed through every available vein until I thought I was going to explode on the spot.

  “Clothes are stifling.” I swallowed the terror building up in my chest and tried to shake it off as my hands started to shake. “I’ll grab some sweat pants and then you can work.”

  “Work.” Her big blue eyes blinked up at me. “Work?”

  “You said that.”

  “It’s because you’re still naked. It’s throwing me off. Which is weird, because normally I stutter but with you…”

  “It’s the magic of marshmallows.” I winked, trying without much success to tame the anxiety coiling in my stomach. Meanwhile, her eyes were wandering. “Fallon.” I snapped my fingers. “Eyes up here.”

  “What?” She blus
hed bright red. “I’m sorry I just…” Her eyes darted back and forth like she was trying to focus on anything but me being naked.

  “If you stare at something long enough, you’ll get ideas you need to claim it, and the only way to stake the claim on some things, is a simple lick, so unless you’re going to follow through…” I sighed. “You should probably go wait on the couch, after all. Ladies should never tease, Fallon. And I am, above all else, a gentleman.”

  “Y-yes.” She nodded. “I’m s-s-s-sorry.”

  Hell, and she’d been doing so well; now I had her stuttering again.

  I placed my hands on her shoulders and moved her aside then quickly went into my bedroom and grabbed a pair of Lululemon joggers, the guys always made fun of my obsession with Lulu, but their men’s section was almost as tempting as putting marshmallows in my cereal every morning.

  “Alright,” I popped my knuckles then walked back into the room and grabbed my guitar from its spot on the couch. “Time to get to know you…”

  “Why am I helping you again?”

  “Desperation on both our parts. You looked bored, lied about killing your cat Oscar, and most likely your friend thinks you need an adventure or she would have never pushed you off a five-foot ledge risking a broken ankle right as I was walking by.” I leaned in and murmured, “Or, you told her about the kiss, she saw an opportunity and took it.” I winked as I cupped her face with my left hand. “I wonder, which is it, hmm, four eyes?”

  Her spine straightened as she leaned away from my hand. “She’s obsessed with you, not me, and my guess is she’s vicariously living through me and would be extremely excited if I did a live periscope feed right now.”

  “Hmm, maybe later.” I nodded. “This right here is private. Deal?”

  A slow smile spread over her lips. “So this is it, then? Three hours with you and then…”

  “And then…” I tipped her chin. “You teach me how to make bad ass chapstick.”

  “A-alright.”

  “You only stutter when you’re nervous.” I strummed a few chords. “So let me make you a promise.”

  She gulped and nodded agreement.

  “I’ll try not to make you nervous… and I won’t attack you, strip naked without warning, or try to steal your virtue. I really just need help with this song…” It was as much honesty as she was going to get. I’d never actually kidnapped a person in hopes they would inspire me, but whatever. If it worked, then I was happy.