Take Me to Infinity

The sun was beginning to set, so Autum and Kandi’s tanning came to a close. The guys had built a huge bonfire, and Autum could feel the heat radiating against her shins. She and Kandi were sitting side by side on a huge chunk of driftwood that the group of guys had hauled up the beach. There were three other hunks of wood serving as benches around the flames. Logan, Kandi, Autum, and James were cramped up on one, in that order.

James had finally came in from the surf when the sun began to set, but Autum still felt no differently about him. She just didn’t feel the sparks.

Her friend couldn’t comprehend what Autum was telling her; Kandi always felt sparks.

Logan was roasting marshmallows, twirling them around in the flames until they caught on fire. Kandi would blow them out, then one of them would eat one, and then the cycle would start all over.

Four days. How could people be like that in only four days?

James was sitting beside her, sipping on a can of Bud Light and laughing at whatever the people around them were talking about. Autum thought they were talking about past party experiences, but she hadn’t been paying much attention until she noticed that he had asked her something.

“Would you like a beer?” he asked, tilting his empty can back and forth to show that it was empty.

Autum didn’t normally drink beer, she thought it tasted like piss, but she felt like she needed something, so she took him up on the offer.

As soon as she said yes, Kandi raised her eyebrow, her stupid grin spreading across her face.

“You’re totally feeling him,” she said, twirling a lock of hair from her ponytail around her finger.

“No, not really. That’s why I need the beer.”

“Aw, come on,” Kandi whined, pushing her friend’s arm. “At least be nice to him.”

“I’m being nice to him,” Autum sighed and flashed her a faint smile.

“Yeah, okay,” Kandi responded with an eye roll and turned back around towards Logan. Apparently he, whom she had known for only four days, was more interesting than her best friend of five years.

Autum loosened up once the can of cold beer was clenched in her hand.

“So…how were the waves today?” she asked. She knew absolutely nothing about surfing, but she was making an attempt to be friendly.

“Pretty good. I got a little scraped up,” he said, holding his arm closer to the flames so that she could see the gash that stretched from his wrist to his elbow.

“Wow, does it hurt?” she asked before realizing what an idiot she sounded like. Of course it hurt, it was a fucking gash in his arm.

“Not as bad as it did. I should be used to the battle wounds by now, but I’m not,” he laughed. “So are you having fun?”

He seemed nice enough, so she decided to lie. “Yes.”

“Good. You should hang out with us more often.” He smiled.

“Yeah, maybe I will,” she replied, knowing well that she wouldn’t. She tried to stop and rewind to figure out when she had become such a pathological liar, but she only drew blanks.

Autum had to admit that she loved his smile. Unlike most of the things she had seen in this town, his smile wasn’t fake. It was genuine; she could tell by the way his brown eyes lit up and his face twisted up. He was too pretty to let his face contort that way unless he truly meant it.

“So do you surf?” he asked before he chugged half of his beer.

“Nope. There aren’t really surfers in South Carolina, plus, we lived nowhere near the beach.”

“You should learn how to surf since you’re in California now. I could give you and Kandi lessons…”

Autum laughed to herself.

“What’s so funny?” James asked, smiling at her.

“Kandi can’t swim. I don’t think it would be safe to give her surf lessons, but I’m down,” she said, and she actually meant it. She had kind of always wanted to learn how to surf, as completely unlike herself it sounded.

“Cool, we can come back down here tomorrow,” he said, and she wondered if he’d even remember their conversation the next day with the way he was pounding down beers. He didn’t seem fazed though.

“Are you sure? I mean…” her voice trailed off as she tried to articulate what she was thinking, “I don’t want you to feel like you have to hang out with me because our friends are dating or whatever and I’m new in town.”

“Nah, I don’t hang out with people if I don’t want to. Who does that anyway?” he chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

Before Autum could fire back a smartass remark, they were interrupted by cheers and hollering.

As soon as she noticed what they were carrying on about, only one word flashed through her brain: shit.

Her roommate and some other girl were a few feet away from the bonfire, pulling each other’s hair and screaming obscenities at each other. Kandi swung at the girl’s face, and the girl's leg extended to kick her in the stomach. Obviously, Kandi had chosen to harass some sort of ninja and was going to get her ass kicked.

Autum rushed over and pulled her friend back. “Goddamn it, Kandi! What the fuck is going on?”

“That bitch was staring at my man, so I had to lay the smack down on her,” she shouted back, her southern accent getting thicker and thicker with every word she said. The girl came back at her, and Kandi spit in her face.

“Time to go!” Autum yelled at James and Logan, who were just standing there, watching the whole situation.

Autum sat in the backseat with her friend, trying to talk some sense into her and find out exactly what had happened.

“What were you thinking? You’re not even drunk,” Autum whispered sharply, low enough so that the guys couldn’t hear her.

Of course, Kandi couldn’t whisper to save her life.

“She was staring at my man with me sitting right there.”

“Okay, first of all, I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend. Second of all, she was probably staring at him because he fucking wears sunglasses at night. You affiliate yourself with…freaks…you’re bound to get some stares. And I mean that in the most polite way possible.”

She could’ve sworn she heard James chuckle in the seat in front of her.

“I don’t have a boyfriend!”

“What is wrong with you?” Autum yelled in her face, her hands planted firmly on her friend’s shoulders.

Kandi just started sobbing. “I don’t know.”

Autum sighed; so much for the two friends they had in L.A. And she could kiss those surf lessons from James goodbye. As much as she hated to admit it, he did have a nice body. “It’s okay, we’re almost home.”

The guys dropped them off at their building, and the craziest part of it all was that Logan actually offered to come up with them after all of Kandi’s psychotic behavior. Autum told him Kandi needed a night alone, and James gave her a concerned smile. She sort of halfway waved at him as she walked Kandi to the door.

When they got to the apartment, Kandi just trudged into her room and locked the door behind her.

“Sall, let me in,” Autum said, leaning her head against Kandi’s bedroom door. It had only been closed once since they’d moved in.

Her best friend slowly peeked out from behind the door. “Are you going to yell at me?”

Autum shook her head, and Kandi let her in.

They sat cross-legged on the plush beige carpet in Kandi’s room. Someone had fashioned a makeshift pallet in the corner of the room, near the only window.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, pushing her side swept bangs back from her face. “I’ve never felt that way before, I didn’t know what to do.”

“So you smashed the girl’s face in?” Autum laughed uneasily. She wasn’t sure if they were on joking terms about the incident yet.

Kandi just sort of smiled and nodded.

“I still don’t get it, you mean you’ve seriously never been jealous before?”

She looked away and slowly shook her head. “Nope.”

“Never?” Autum asked, trying to catch her friend’s eye contact.

“Never ever,” Kandi grinned. “So how’d it go with James?”

Autum couldn’t believe it. Here she was, trying to sort out this emotional breakdown that her friend was having, while all Kandi wanted to do was get her together with James. Typical.

“Actually, it went a lot better than expected,” Autum said, deciding that she would pleasure her friend with that tidbit.

Kandi smiled. “Told you.”

Autum rolled her eyes, running her hand self-consciously through her short, highlighted hair. “Back to you, do you like, love this Logan guy? Because if you do, then I can make my peace with him eating all of our food and leaving his shit everywhere. Basically, I’ll accept his existence, but only for you.”

Kandi watched the blades of the ceiling fan whip around as she spoke. “I don’t know, I don’t think so. How do you know?”

“What?”

“How do you know if you’re in love? You said you loved Brad.”

Autum took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to explain it, you just know. You mean you’ve never been in love before?”

“I don’t know. Love and lust's the same thing to me.”

“At least you’re aware of that,” Autum laughed. “I guess the best way to explain it would be to say that you hurt when you’re not with that person. Well, maybe not the best way. You hurt when you lose your flip flops.”

“I guess I get what you mean. I’ll let you know if it happens. So are you going to start dating James now?”

“Oh my god Kandi shut up and go to sleep.”