Chapter 6 #2
“Sorry, I’m being totally rude,” I apologized. “Sam, this is Delilah. Delilah, Sam.” They exchanged hellos, though his was noticeably cold.
Sam had replied with exactly three words when I emailed him about my rekindled friendship with Delilah: Are you sure? I was, but evidently, Sam was not.
“You must be Charlie,” Delilah called out, homing in on him like a fox on a baby chick.
“Yeah, hey,” Charlie said as he walked by carrying a box of groceries, paying her zero attention. Unruffled, she turned back to Sam, her big blue eyes twinkling. She was wearing the tiniest pair of coral shorts and a skintight yellow tube top that showed off her boobs and stomach.
“Percy didn’t mention how cute you are,” she said, lavishing upon him one of her signature beaming smiles, all glossy pink lips and fluttering lashes.
Sam’s face scrunched up and his eyes darted to mine.
“Sorry,” I mouthed, then grabbed Delilah’s arm and pulled her toward the car as she giggled.
“Can you come over later?” Sam asked after we finished unloading. “I’ve got something I want to show you. It’s updates one, two, and three.” The way he spoke, like Delilah wasn’t there, filled my chest with helium.
“You haven’t told her about the boat yet?” Charlie asked. Sam rubbed his face and pushed his hair off his forehead in one movement of controlled agitation.
“No, it was going to be a surprise.”
“Shit, sorry, man,” Charlie said, and to his credit, he sounded like he meant it.
“Well, fill us in,” Delilah piped up, her hands on the racetrack curves of her hips.
“We fixed up Dad’s old boat,” said Sam in a baritone of pride. His voice would take some getting used to.
“And he means old,” Charlie added.
“It used to be our granddad’s, and Dad fixed it up and kept it going until . . .” Sam’s sentence hung there.
“It’s just been sitting in the garage,” Charlie cut in. “Mom always promised I could use it once I turned sixteen, but it needed a bunch of work. Granddad helped repair it this spring when they got back from Florida. Even got this guy helping out.” Charlie bumped Sam with his elbow.
“You’ve got to see it, Percy,” said Sam with a crooked smile. “It’s classic.”
Delilah tossed her hair behind a pale shoulder. “We’d love to.”
“OHMYGOD, PERCY!” DELILAH squealed as soon as we took our suitcases up to my bedroom. “Why did you not tell me how hot Charlie is? I would have worn something way cuter than this!”
I laughed. Delilah had become seriously boy crazy over the past year.
“Sam’s not as good-looking, but he’s cute, too,” she said, staring up at the ceiling as though in careful thought. “I bet he’ll be just as hot when he gets older.” The taste of jealousy was bitter on my tongue. I didn’t want her thinking Sam was cute. I didn’t want her thinking about Sam at all.
“He’s okay, I guess.” I shrugged.
“Let’s pick our outfits for when we go over this afternoon!” She was already opening her suitcase.
“It’s just Sam and Charlie. Trust me, they don’t care how we’re dressed,” I said, but now I wasn’t entirely sure that was true. She looked at me skeptically. “I’ll be wearing my bathing suit and my shorts if it makes any difference to you,” I added.
We changed into our swimsuits after unpacking our things. Delilah put on a black string bikini, impossibly held together with flimsy ties, and wiggled into a pair of fresh white denim cutoffs so short the smile of her ass cheeks grinned out the bottom.
“What do you think?” She turned around, and I tried not to stare at her chest, but it was kind of impossible, considering the ratio of breast to bathing suit.
“You look insane,” I said. “Good insane.” I meant it, but the acid burn of envy was spreading down my throat.
Mom refused to let me wear a string bikini, but she had allowed a two-piece—neon orange with wide buckled straps on the top.
I thought it was cool at the store, but now I felt childish, and my jean shorts seemed entirely too full bottomed.
We padded down the stairs to the lake. The sky was clear and the water was blue-blue, rippling from a breeze coming from the southeast.
There was a bright yellow motorboat at the Floreks’ dock, and the tops of Charlie’s and Sam’s heads were visible as they poked around inside.
“Nice boat!” I yelled, and they sprung up like meerkats, both shirtless and bronzed. The perks of living by the lake.
“I can see Charlie’s muscles from here,” Delilah shrieked.
I shushed her. “Sound carries easily on the water.” But she was right. Charlie had filled out, and there was more definition to his arms, chest, and shoulders.
“Wanna come see?” Sam yelled back.
“Do we ever,” Delilah purred, and I elbowed her and raised my hand in a thumbs-up.
We cut through the trail between our properties, emerging from the woods a few meters from their dock.
“Isn’t it great?” Sam beamed at me from the boat.
“Isn’t she great,” Charlie corrected.
“It’s awesome!” I said, and meant it. The boat had a rounded nose with brown vinyl benches in the front and room for six more in the back.
“Totally retro,” Delilah enthused as we walked onto the dock.
“Whoa, whoa, Pers.” Charlie held his hands up. “Your bathing suit plus this boat? I was going to take us for a drive, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to see.” I scowled at him.
“Hilarious,” Sam said, then ran his eyes over me. “That suit’s really cool. Matches the orange in the bracelet. Hop in.”
Sam reached out his hand to help me, and a hot current of electricity buzzed from my fingers to my neck.
What was that?
“We call it the Banana Boat, for obvious reasons,” Sam said, unaware of the zap he’d sent up my arm.
“We haven’t even shown you the best part.” Charlie pushed down on the wheel and a loud aaaah-whoooo-gaaaaah sounded from the horn. Delilah and I jumped and then cackled with laughter.
“Oh my god! This is a horny-sounding boat!” she cried.
“Gives new meaning to the name Banana Boat, huh?” Sam grinned at her, and the electricity that had been running up and down my arm faded.
Once we got the okay from my parents, who were already sitting on the deck with glasses of wine in hand, Charlie drove us south to a little cove and cut the motor.
“This, ladies, is the jumping rock,” he declared, dropping an anchor into the water and removing his T-shirt. I was trying very hard not to stare at his new stomach muscles. I was failing.
“It’s totally safe to jump,” Sam said. “We’ve been doing it since we were kids.”
“Who’s in?” asked Charlie.
“I’ll do it!” Delilah said, standing to unbutton her shorts. I had been too distracted to notice the rocky cliff we’d pulled in front of. I blanched.
“You don’t have to,” Sam said to me. “I’ll stay in the boat with you.”
I stood and took off my shorts. I would not be a baby.
We dove off the end of the boat and swam toward shore, Delilah and me following Sam and Charlie up the side of the cliff. I screamed when Charlie sprinted toward the edge and jumped over without warning.
We crept up to the edge to see his head bobbing in the water, his dimples clear even from this height.
“Who’s next?” he called.
“I’m going,” Delilah announced, and Sam and I stepped back to give her space. She moved back from the edge and then took three huge strides before jumping off. She came out of the water laughing.
“That was amazing. You’ve gotta try it, Percy!” she yelled.
My stomach twisted. It seemed a lot higher from up here than it did from the boat. I looked behind me, thinking that maybe I’d just walk down.
“Want to go back the way we came?” Sam asked, reading my mind.
I scrunched my mouth up. “I don’t want to be a chicken,” I admitted, looking back over the lake and down to Charlie and Delilah.
“No, I get it, it’s really high,” Sam said, surveying the water below. “We could go together. I’ll hold your hand, and we’ll jump on the count of three.”
I took a deep breath.
“Okay.”
Sam threaded his fingers through mine.
“Together, on three,” he said, squeezing my hand tight.
“One, two, three . . .” We dropped like concrete, our hands separating when we crashed through the surface.
I was pulled down, down, down like an anvil was tied to my ankle, and for a fraction of a second, I worried I wouldn’t make it back up.
But then the downward momentum stopped and I kicked, swimming up to the light overhead.
I came out gasping for air at the same time Sam emerged, spinning around to look for me. He wore a full toothy smile.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “But I am never doing that again.”
“What about you, Delilah?” Charlie asked. “Want to go again?”
“Definitely,” she said. As if there would be another answer.
Sam and I swam back to the boat, using the little ladder at the back to haul ourselves up. He passed me a towel and we sat on the benches at the front across from each other, drying off.
“Delilah’s not as bad as I thought,” he said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, she seems kind of . . . silly? But I still have my eye on her. If she says one mean thing to you, I will have to exact my revenge.” His hair dripped onto his shoulders, which didn’t look quite as bony as they used to. “I’ve been plotting it since you told me about her. It’s all planned out.”
I laughed. “Thanks for defending my honor, Sam Florek, but she’s not like that anymore.
” He eyed me silently, then moved to the bench beside me, our thighs pressed together.
I wrapped my towel around my shoulders, very aware of how my skin prickled where it met his.
I barely registered the splashes of Charlie and Delilah’s second jumps.
“What’s in your hair?” he asked, reaching for the section I had wrapped in embroidery floss.