Chapter 44
Hannah
Hannah Marie Cortland, as I live and breathe!” Keri Marisculo sprints down the beach. “It’s been too long!”
I stand up from the bonfire just in time to get tackled.
“God, Keri, you haven’t changed a bit.” She’s got the same streaky highlights, same nose ring, that Bugs Bunny tattoo—she even smells like that supersweet Victoria’s Secret perfume we all wore back in high school.
She hugs me so hard we almost tip into the sand.
“Don’t light Hannah on fire,” Guppy warns, poking the bonfire so sparks fly. “Then she’ll never come back.”
“Sorry.” Keri rights me. “I’m just so excited to see you. You haven’t been answering my texts, girl. But I guess you’re forgiven since you went and turned famous.”
I tuck my hair behind my ear. “Hardly.”
“Listen to you,” Ginny teases. “So modest.” She’s sitting close to the fire, watching our reunion. “Keri still looks seventeen. Can you believe it?”
I can’t believe any of it. Seeing my friends from high school standing around a beach bonfire makes it feels like time has rewound.
After Theo had sworn to Principal Herrera that we would never darken Bonita Vista High’s doors again and we’d raced away in our van, practically dying of laughter, Theo’d announced he had one more trick up his sleeve and taken the exit for the beach.
How he’d orchestrated this with Guppy and Keri and the rest of the old gang, who I haven’t talked to since Ginny died, I have no idea.
And all he’d say about it was that he owed me one for brunch with his mom.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” booms a deep voice. Carlos Flores appears at the top of the sand dune, holding a white take-out bag. I recognize the label stamped on the side.
“No way,” I say. “You come bearing gifts?”
“Azteca burritos, baby.” Carlos jogs over and holds out the bag. “Figured you might’ve missed these.” I open the bag and inhale the best, most nostalgic smell in the world. “You and Ginny only lived on them through high school.”
Ginny closes her eyes. “What I wouldn’t give to be corporeal right now.”
“This is the single greatest culinary creation of all time,” I tell Kenny and Ripper. Kenny starts to protest and I cut him off. “Don’t even start with your Northern California burrito supremacy nonsense.”
“I’ll pledge allegiance to this burrito,” Ripper says, holding out his hands. “I’m starving.”
“What, I don’t get a hug?” Carlos’s hands are on his hips. “You only want me for my food?”
I hand the bag to Ripper and squeeze Carlos. “It’s really good to see you.”
“Been a while.” He pats my back. “Too long.”
“Guppy, your house is great,” Theo calls, jogging over the sand. “You undersold it on the phone.”
“Just my little beach shack,” Guppy says. “A place to hang my boards. Beer’s in that cooler with the NOFX sticker if you wanna get cracking, by the way.”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Keri warns. “Guppy’s little ‘shack’ on the beach is worth more than a mil. House prices around here have gotten out of control. California sucks as an adult, man.”
“A million dollars?” I gape at Guppy. “You barely graduated high school.”
Ginny rolls her eyes. “No disrespect, she means.”
He shrugs. Matt “Guppy” Gupperson’s short, wiry-haired, and has worn clothes a solid three sizes too big for him since middle school, singlehandedly keeping JNCO afloat after the rest of the world moved on.
“I’m as surprised as anyone. My CBD business took off this year. Your boy’s an entrepreneur now.”
I look around the bonfire. Everything is the same, but different.
Bonita Vista still has some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.
Above us, the night sky is pitch-black and studded with stars.
There’s less light pollution here, so it feels like you can see deeper into the universe.
The overall impression is one of vastness: a never-ending sky on top of a boundless ocean. The California version of the sublime.
Where we sit is only a few miles from the stretch of beach where Ginny died. I’m trying very hard to not think about it.
“Earth to space cadet,” says Ginny. “Don’t forget you’re at a party.”
My thoughts snap back. There’s got to be at least fifteen people I used to know laughing, talking, and vibing to the music coming out of Guppy’s Bluetooth speaker. It sounds like one of those punk mixes we used to burn off YouTube and swap around when we were too poor to afford CDs.
I clear my throat as Keri and Carlos settle around the bonfire. “Sorry for forgetting my manners. Meet my bandmates, Kenny and Ripper, and our label rep, Theo.”
Keri hits my shoulder. I forgot she was a hitter.
“We know who your bandmates are. We were in the audience the last time you played the Hideout. Which you’d know if you bothered to pick up any of our calls.
” Luckily, her expression is teasing. “If you think we haven’t followed every step of your career, you’ve smoked too much weed.
I’ve got a poster with your face on it in my garage, ya goof.
And you.” She points at Ripper. “Be glad I’m married. That’s all I have to say.”
“I’m open to nontraditional arrangements,” Ripper says smoothly, rising for the beer cooler.
“Absolutely not,” I warn. “That would be way too weird for me.” A guy we nicknamed Cheese kicks a log into the fire. “You’ve got to know you’re a hero around the Vista, Han.”
“All right.” I shake my head. “Everyone can talk about something else now.”
“You’ll never believe why they’re back,” Guppy says, ignoring me. “They played the Fall Bash.”
Keri almost spits out her beer. “No way.” She turns to Carlos. “Herrera didn’t die, did he?”
“So casual with the D-word.” Ginny sniffs.
Kenny leans in and grins. He has a talent for making himself at home with new people; I’ve relied on it since college. “I wouldn’t say we played the Bash as much as blew up the Bash.”
“Oh, man,” Carlos says, staggering to his feet. “I need a beer for this.”
Keri widens her eyes at me. “What’d you do?”
“Okay, remember how Ginny had that epic plan to lose her virginity after her Fall Bash?”
“Still can’t believe she held on to her V-card until senior year.” Keri shakes her head. “What a prude.”
“Late bloomers are nothing to sneer at,” Ginny protests. “I more than made up for it in college.”
“I’m sorry, but having a plan to lose her virginity after a school dance sounds like the plot of a teen sex comedy,” Theo says.
“Oh, it was better.” Kenny snorts. “Banana, remember how she called you and demanded you pick her up?”
I flash back to Ginny’s irate phone call that night and laugh. “So, Ginny’s senior year,” I tell Theo, “I was already a freshman at Cal State with Kenny and Rip. Ginny and her date had this plan to lose it on the beach with candles and flowers, real romantic—”
“Don’t say another word or I’m knocking your toothbrush into the toilet tonight,” Ginny says. “I’ll use ghost powers.”
I ignore her. “But when they got to the beach, he couldn’t get it up because he drank too much at the dance.
So they decided to go skinny-dipping to get sober.
Nothing like the freezing Pacific Ocean to clear your mind, right?
Only they came out of the water and Ginny’s clothes were nowhere to be found. ”
A laugh bursts from Theo and I meet his eyes.
His wide smile causes warmth to wash over me.
“So while Ginny’s looking for her clothes, her date proceeds to pass out, like dead-to-the-world asleep, leaving her stranded.
She obviously couldn’t call a taxi naked and there was no way she could’ve called my parents—my mom would’ve eaten her alive. So she called me.”
“All of us drove an hour to get her in Bowie’s old Bronco,” Ripper says. “We found Ginny on the side of the road—naked, wet, and fuming.”
“To this day,” I finish, “she has no idea where her clothes went.”
“Proving my theory that beach sprites exist,” Ginny insists.
“So we wrote a song based on her night,” says Kenny. “Called it ‘Too Drunk for Love’ after that Dead Kennedys song, ’cause Ginny was punk rock like that.”
“I one hundred percent thought the song was a joke.” Theo gives Kenny a look. “I’m pretty sure you told me it was.”
Kenny ignores him. “We played it as our closer tonight.” He raises his fist. “And we nailed it.”
“Are you serious? In front of Hererra?” Keri’s mouth drops open.
“He must’ve gone postal.” Cheese swigs his beer. “He wouldn’t even approve sex ed classes ’cause he didn’t want to ‘give us ideas.’”
“Oh, he fully chased Hannah out of the auditorium,” says Ripper. “I’ve never seen a silver fox run that fast.”
“I think I twisted my ankle somewhere near the science lab.” I bend over to rub it. “I might be getting too old for pranks.”
Theo’s shining eyes reflect the firelight. “I had to stand next to the guy all night. I heard about the tapir.”
“Oh, no.” Carlos cackles, bending over to slap his knee. “I forgot about the tapir.”
“I still can’t believe Cheese found that thing at a gas station.” Ginny shakes her head.
Keri thrusts her finger at Guppy. “It was his idea to put it under Herrera’s desk.” “See?” I give Theo a look. “I was an angel in high school. I just got blamed for everyone else’s bad decisions.”
“Bullshit,” Guppy coughs into his beer.
Theo grins. “Sure, Jan.”
“Wait, I’m sorry, rewind to the part where you put a live tapir under your principal’s desk?” Kenny looks between us. “That poor baby. Please tell me it wasn’t scared.”
“Nah, man, he was happy as a clam to be out of the zoo. Besides, we had Ginny keeping a watchful eye.” Keri snaps her fingers. “Remember how she made us wrap it in blankets and feed it leaves and berries?”
“She researched that shit.” Carlos shakes his head.
“She was always the smart one,” Cheese agrees, tipping back and exhaling a plume of smoke.
“Ginny was the mastermind,” Keri tells Theo. “No offense, Hannah.”
“None taken.”
“Finally.” Ginny sits up straighter. “My long-overdue credit.”