Chapter Forty-Two
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
Derek
I’m on the beach. Same spot I came to with Jae. I cover my feet with mounds of wet sand, wiggle out and start over again. My mind flashes back to a memory of Dad swinging me upside down, me laughing hysterically. My head swoops close to Mom’s toes. I remember her tan skin. Her nails bright pink.
Now, a seagull screams and dives low and I duck. It stops at the edge of the water and takes a short stroll before flying off again over an ocean of rippling glass.
The beach is quiet, and I look over my shoulder to see I’m alone, except for one person standing in the distance in a bright red shirt. I wonder how long he’s been standing there watching me. I wave and he walks over.
His shirt makes his copper hair look even brighter. The sun is a harsh beam on his glasses so that I can’t see his eyes. His lower lip is tucked in, making him look perplexed. I can tell he didn’t expect to find me here alone.
“Swan and William are parking now,” I tell him, holding up the text message I just got from them.
“Okay.” CJ sits down beside me and crosses his legs. His jean shorts reveal legs much hairier than mine. For a nerd, he has calves built like a warrior’s, and I wonder if he’s secretly some martial arts master like in the movies. He stares at the water, avoiding my eyes, and clears his throat.
“Thanks for meeting me,” I say. Even if this is a one-time thing, it’s nice to have someone to talk to.
“Bygones,” he says, pushing up his glasses. Then his face turns bright red and he turns away and takes deep breaths.
I breathe deep too, matching his rhythm. He turns around. Grins.
“I just found out my fish has anemia,” he offers. “She’s been kind of gray around the gills. I have to buy her folic-acid-fortified food. Try saying that three times fast.”
“What’s her name?”
“Juniper.”
“I hope Juniper gets better.”
“Thanks.”
I push more sand over my feet and draw beady eyes and a smile on the mound. I wonder why CJ told me about his fish out of the blue, but I figure it’s a good ice-breaker.
“I have a sticker constellation on my bedroom ceiling,” I say. “Like the ones from the nineties.” I give him a sideways glance and wait for him to laugh, but he doesn’t.
“I have a birthmark next to my belly button that looks like my belly button,” he says.
“I hope I get abducted by aliens one day. As long as I can survive it and make a movie about it.”
“I wouldn’t mind learning how to belly dance.”
“I do belly dance.” I lift up my shirt and wave my stomach.
CJ smirks. “Impressive. I can burp the alphabet.” And he does, and by the end of the loud and extended zeeeeeee, we’re both wiping tears from our eyes. CJ’s smiling so hard his braces almost blind me, and something about that makes me happy.
I hold out my hand and he shakes it. “I’m Derek Patel, nice to meet you.”
“Christopher James Tillman. You can call me CJ or book freak.”
“I guess you can call me book freak too.”
We both turn our heads when we hear a resounding bang behind us. Swan and William are walking toward us, followed by two men, one who’s wearing a red, black, yellow, and green hat beneath long, thick dreadlocks.
Swan waves. “I think I found your guys!” she yells.
I jump up and dust the sand off my jeans. “Yah man!” I yell in my best, or worst, Jamaican accent, and pump my fist in the air.