Chapter Five #5
Eneki is waving his hands in the air, but both Clark and Jeremy blow past them, Jeremy having to veer right to avoid the Gator.
“What the hell!” Eneki yells.
“Who won? Did you see?” Clark asks.
“This isn’t a damn race!” Eneki throws down his hat, “Get serious!”
Clark rides up to Jeremy and tells him, “I was totally first.”
Jeremy rolls his eyes, having absolutely been ahead of Clark at the end.
It’s Jeremy’s turn to ride Kau along with the Gator to the other end. Once there, Eneki says into his walkie, “Okay, ready over here, Radison. Now. Take her easy.”
Taking off his sunglasses, there’s not another spare second before Clark snaps the reins and has Haukea galloping as fast as possible.
The water splashes back at her and Clark with every powerful step.
The glinting droplets catch sunlight in front of Clark’s face, making him seem ethereal as he speeds towards Jeremy.
There is no forgetting how Jeremy feels about Clark.
In this moment, Jeremy understands that he’ll always be hoping that Clark will be running toward him.
The moment is profound, bringing a mysterious mist to his eye and lump in his throat. Clark canters toward the group, golden windswept hair shimmering in the sunlight as his bright smile beams down at them, “How’d that look?”
“Great! Let’s go again!” Eneki tells him.
Once on the other end again, Francis the photographer shows Jeremy some of the shots he took of him and Clark riding together.
They both look unstoppable as the water explodes around them in the force of the horse’s galloping.
He actually likes some of these pictures of himself, asking Francis if he could get these somehow.
The photographer winks at him and says he’ll see what he can do.
They continue riding for another couple of hours, back and forth, until Haukea’s getting too winded to go at full force anymore.
At the end of the last run, the wranglers surround Haukea but Clark asks over them to Eneki, “Actually, I was wondering if Jeremy and I could ride our horses back up to the stables?”
Eneki turns to Jeremy and asks him directly, “That’s double the work for you, getting both Haukea and Kau tucked away. You up for it?”
Jeremy glances over to Clark whose expectant countenance is not well hidden. There’s no telling what Clark has in mind by singling out Jeremy like this. He’d rather not find out, but he knows that’s cowardly.
Nodding, Jeremy trots Kau alongside Haukea and tells Clark, “After you.”
Clark steers them away from the horse wrangling team, walking along the shore’s edge.
The forest creeps down the beach ahead, mangroves elevated above the shallow water.
Clark stops Haukea and gets off the saddle, sights set to the blue horizon.
Jeremy chews on the inside of his cheek, getting off Kau but not daring to stand beside Clark.
“Do you remember the night I kissed you?” Clark asks over his shoulder without looking at Jeremy.
“Yeah,” he clears his throat, toe twisting into the sand.
“Tell me what you remember.”
Jeremy shrugs to himself, exceedingly uncomfortable but playing into Clark’s game regardless, “It was the summer before our freshman year. You convinced me to sneak out. That one kid from our class had scored some beer. God, what was his name again?”
“Simon.”
“Right. Simon,” Jeremy continues reminiscing, “We drank with him and that other girl. And then you walked me home.”
“We were trying to get you on the roof to sneak back into your room when your dad drove up,” Clark adds with a smile in his voice.
“Yeah. You tugged me to that big oak tree to hide. My back was against it and then you just… Kissed me. It was barely a kiss, really,” Jeremy immediately minimizes the act just as Clark had done so long ago.
He adds to that point, saying, “I took it back, right? Told you it didn’t mean anything.”
Jeremy hates the memory, the ultimate pain. He’d lost his friend and gained a lifelong crush that night.
Clark takes Jeremy’s silence as an answer, asking him, “You know why I kissed you?”
Looking off to the distance himself, Jeremy huffs, “Because we were kids and had been drinking?”
“No. It was because of that girl with us and Simon. Sarah. She chose you as her partner in King’s Cup and sat really close to you.”
Eyes flicking back over to Clark’s closed off expression in quarter view, Jeremy takes the bait, “So what?”
Clark turns his head more, fully looking over to Jeremy and telling him, “I was jealous. That was the first time I ever felt like that.”
Blinking, Jeremy can’t take the heavy gaze and looks away. He feels choked, managing to ask, “Why are we talking about this? What does it matter?”
“You with this surfer, and with Barry. I feel that way too,” Clark sighs, “You really nailed me earlier. So there it is. It’s true, I’m jealous.”
Jeremy’s eyes jet back to Clark of their own accord, a string of emotions rushing through his veins and making his heart race. Clark anchors his gaze this time, Jeremy trapped there and left only to ask for clarification, “Clark, what are you trying to say?”
“I’m just being honest.”