Sunshiner

I hadn’t told Johnny Boy where I was going that night in the fear that he might tag along as well. Candace had told me that she had only invited me and no one else from my team, and for whatever reason I didn't want to ruin that. I knew that the rest of her team would be there, but still. I felt pretty damn special.

I was afraid that Johnny Boy was going to ask too many questions. I was a fantastic liar – a characteristic of mine that I wasn't particularly proud of but I constantly took advantage of it nonetheless – but I hated lying to my best friend. Fortunately, he had scored a date with that bubbly brunette from the ice cream parlor earlier, and therefore it hadn’t even crossed his mind that I was out partying without him.

I didn't realize until later that Candace hadn't told me a time to show up at the party. Then again, though, I couldn't expect much from her. She was too spontaneous to ever keep track of time. I decided that it would be best to go half an hour after sunset, when it was dark enough so that no one from afar could see what we were up to out on Devil's.

The best part about partying on a lake was that you never had to worry about who was going to be the designated driver for the night. Drunk driving in cars was highly dangerous, but drunk driving in boats was not. What was there to hit, anyway? Water? Besides, everyone who lived here knew this lake like the back of their hand. Whether they were sober or not they knew exactly where the rocks and the sandbars were, and they knew just how to avoid them. I had never heard of anyone crashing their boat after a party or getting hurt on their way home. And my parents had never told me any stories of that sort, nor had my grandparents. It just never happened. You had to be a complete fucking idiot to get yourself killed out here.

I drove my grumbling put-put out past the lily pads through the secret path in the water. This little path was only known to the kids my age, which was a huge advantage because that meant that no parents could get through without their boat's propellers getting tangled in the water weeds. As I neared the island, I could see from the glow of a campfire that the party had already started.

After carefully clambering out of my boat and onto the dock, I tied my boat up next to the two other ones that were already here. I was dressed in a decent-looking shirt and jeans: nighttime was the only time in Dayton when we cared about what we looked like, and it was the only time when it was cool enough to actually wear pants. (And shoes, for that matter.) Sweatshirts were never necessary – as long as we remembered bug spray. We had to remember the bug spray. Living near a lake meant a horrendous amount of mosquitoes, and if you forgot to wear bug spray, then you were screwed. That was one of the few downsides of living here.

The actual party area of Devil's was over the peak of the island and nestled in a miniscule valley-type place, which meant I had to trudge up a hill to get there. The hill was always the worst part; it wasn't so bad on the way up, but on the way down – when I was blindingly drunk – well, that's when I always managed to trip.

As I walked closer and closer to the party scene, I could hear the chattering voices getting louder. I could distinctly hear the crackling of the bonfire and the muffled splish of ping pong balls landing in beer cups. But, as I stepped into the clearing, everything fell completely silent.

There were only three guys here. I recognized all of them as Candace's old team members: there was Chad, and Finn and Quincy, the twins. It was not a very big party, but by the unwelcoming looks on their faces it seemed that they were very against having an additional person. Especially if that person was me.

I suddenly wondered where Candace was and I wished that she was here to break the tense silence. I wanted her to explain to them that she had invited me, that I wasn't here to pull a prank or crash their party or any shit like that.

"What the hell are you doing here, Kasey?" Quinn asked in a gruff voice, and Finn backed up his comment with a lame, "Yeah, what are you doing here?" Quinn and Finn were identical in their looks and took it upon themselves to be identical in every other way as well. In fact, up until they were about eleven, they even wore the same outfits; they only stopped because my team (especially me) harassed them about it mercilessly. But to this day they still tried to finish each other’s sentences – though they failed miserably and just sounded like idiots with an echo.

Despite the fact that I was outnumbered three-to-one, that didn't mean that I was going to lose my cocky I-don't-give-a-shit attitude. "Just thought I'd have a drink or two," I said casually, stepping over enemy lines as I neared their cooler. "Mind if I have a beer?"

"Actually, yes, we do mind," Chad said, squaring his shoulder and taking a step towards me, as if he was trying to threaten me or something. I refrained from scoffing; it would take a lot more than that to get me to back off.

I gave him a smile and shrugged. "You'll get over it." With that, I opened the cooler lid and pulled out a Natty Lite.

I’d like to say that we Daytonians were classy and drank beer that didn’t taste like piss mixed with water, but hey, then I’d be lying. But it’s not like we could be picky about our beer. The fact was, we were all under-aged and we’d settle for any sort of alcohol. Chad and the twins probably had to bribe some of the Older Kids to get them a case of this stuff – and chances are the Older Kids made them pay way too much for something that was so cheap.

"Dude, back the fuck off," Chad barked, and I wanted to laugh at how unreasonably angry he was getting. It's like we were fucking animals or something, the way we got so defensive over our "territory."

"Chill," I said simply, knowing full well that my cool demeanor was going to get him pissed off even further. "It's just a beer. And it's not even good beer at that." Okay, the truth was, I probably couldn’t do better, and everyone here drank cheapo beer anyway. But of course that wasn’t going to stop me from making fun of him. “Seriously, Natty Lite? I thought you pussies could do better."

And that's when he swung at me.

Now, fights were not unfamiliar to me, and I was able to dodge Chad's punch easily without even spilling my drink. Quinn and Finn sprung at once to back him up, and within half a second they were both on me. Three against one was completely unfair, and I knew I was going to lose, but that didn't stop be from grabbing the collar of Chad's shirt and, with Finn and Quincy still trying to take me down, I pulled back my fist and aimed it for Chad's face.

But before I could land my blow, her voice rang out in the air, immediately stopping the fight.

"Christ, I stop babysitting you guys for two minutes and you’re already getting into a cat fight?" Her words were playful but her tone was sharp, as if she was silently saying, If you don't stop, I'll have to kick allfour of your asses.

Quinn and Finn let go of me, but I refused to loosen my vice grip on Chad's shirt. My first was still directed towards his face and he was panting heavily.

"You know what I say about pranks, boys," she said. "Either play fair or don’t play at all. That goes for fights, too. And three against one definitely is not fair." I felt a small hand fall on my shoulder. "That goes for you, too, Kasey Ray. Beating up poor little Chad here is so not right. It’d just be too easy for you to take him out."

Chad's hurt expression made me smirk. Apparently he thought that Candace was supposed to be on his side; she wasn't supposed to break up the fight, and she definitely wasn't supposed to insult her own team member while she was at it. Deciding that Candace's words caused Chad enough pain for one night, I released his collar and lowered my fist.

"But Kasey just showed up here – " Chad began, but Candace cut him off.

"That’s because I invited him," she said coolly, as if she was stating the obvious. In truth, the fact that she invited me seemed like it was breaking every rule in the book. The confused looks on all of the guys' faces were priceless. "Can we please start the drinking games now?" she asked, playfully rolling her eyes.

That was when I really looked at her for the first time. She was wearing a simple long-sleeve shirt that hugged her curves in all of the right places and a pair of ripped dark jeans. I could easily assume that Candace didn’t buy her jeans with holes in them; she had probably ripped them herself while doing numerous reckless things. Besides, Candace was the sort of person who thought that buying already-destroyed clothes was just stupid. I didn't like her pants either way, though. They didn't show enough skin. I had finally gotten used to the bikini-clad, shorts-wearing Candace, and I had actually begun to like her that way. Not that I would ever admit that out loud, of course.

Now that the guys knew that Candace had okay-ed my presence, they seemed to loosen up a bit. Chad still seemed tense and a bit resentful, but I could care less. I thought that he seemed less bothered with the fact that I was here than with the fact that Candace wanted me here. I could assume that, after she had returned looking so hot and everything, that he probably had developed some sort of crush on her already. I could also assume that there were plenty of other guys who felt the same way, even guys on my team. I couldn't blame them. Candace was just irresistible. We were drawn to her like bees to honey.

The first game of beer pong was awkward, to say the least. But as more and more cups disappeared, and as more beer was consumed, we all seemed to start liking each other a lot more. Quincy, Finn, and even Chad were laughing at my jokes, and as we finished up beer pong and then moved to sit around the bonfire, I realized just how friendly alcohol could make people.

The warm feeling buzzing around in my stomach had me in a cheerful mood and I couldn't wipe the goofy grin off of my face. Candace was telling a drinking story from her home-home, and it seemed that every other word that came out of her mouth made me laugh obnoxiously. She liked the attention, though. And although I was tipsy and my vision was getting blurry, I could see that she would always stand closer to me than any of the other guys. And every time I said something funny she would place her hand on my arm and give me one of those looks out of the corner of her eye. And when I wrapped an arm around her waist, she didn't pull away.

The jealousy that was written all over Chad's face made me smirk.

"Truth or dare?" Candace suddenly shouted as soon as her story was over. "C'mon, boys, we've run out of drinking games. Chad!" She pointed at him. "Truth or dare!"

A perverted glint gleamed in Chad's eyes. "Dare," he said with a smirk.

"I dare you to eat a handful of dirt."

The smirk on his face fell immediately. If he had been anticipating a kiss from Candace or something at least a little bit perverted, he had been dead wrong. "You're kidding, right, Candace?" he asked dully.

"Nope!" she said cheerfully, and I absently noted how hyper she got when intoxicated. "You have to do it. It's a dare."

But Chad just rolled his eyes and walked off towards the picnic table, where Finn and Quinn were starting a new round of pong.

“Your turn,” she chimed, turning to me. “Truth or dare?”

I knew that she wanted me to pick dare, and I knew that she was going to make me eat dirt as well. Or kiss one of the boys. So I went with the other option. “Truth.”

She pouted, probably at how boring I was being, but then a thoughtful expression passed over her features as she thought about what she could ask me. “Okay, okay, I got a good one,” she finally said. “If you could do anything in the world, anything at all, what would you do?”

I was caught by surprise. I was expecting her to ask an embarrassing question, such as ‘Who would you rather sleep with?’ or something like that. But a question like that…it seemed a bit too deep for someone who was drunk.

“I dunno,” I shrugged. “I guess I would want to go back and see the dinosaurs or something. Or go to Mars.”

She sighed. “That’s boring,” she stated glumly.

“Well, what about you?” I asked. “What would you do?”

She didn’t answer and just looked at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes; I knew what she wanted. She wanted me to ask her the proper way. We were still playing a game, after all, and although Candace was always one for breaking the rules, she always liked to play fair when it came to games. “Truth or dare?” I asked her.

She smiled, glad that I had obliged with her silent requirement. “Truth,” she answered.

“What would you want to do if you could do anything in the world?”

She obviously already knew the answer to this question, but she pretended to think about it for the sake of retaining at least a bit of mystery. She looked at the now-dwindling fire and then up at the sky, at the stars glittering across the velvet blanket of black.

“I want to live forever.”