Snakebite Hearts & Bubblegum Smiles

I noticed that Brooke had been acting differently since the night of the bonfire. She was much quieter than usual, always looking deep in thought, and whenever Alex made one of his snarky remarks to her, she’d just laugh it off instead of playing along like she normally did. I wanted to bring it up to her, but I wasn’t sure how. I remembered how defensive she’d gotten the morning after, when I’d teased her about hanging out with Alex while everyone else had been sleeping. Maybe she felt weird about kissing him during our game of Spin the Bottle. I knew I would have felt weird if I’d had to kiss my best friend, who was also my other best friend’s boyfriend.

To be honest, I probably would have been embarrassed if I’d had to kiss anyone here, so I was extremely happy that the game ended before anyone landed on me. Of course I wouldn’t have minded kissing Jack, but I’d never actually kissed anyone before and the thought of having my first one in front of a bunch of people seemed terrifying.

We were at the beach now, all of us girls relaxing on the sand in our sunglasses and swimsuits while the boys clowned around a few feet away. I noticed Alex and Rian sneaking towards me from my side view. “I will kick your asses into tomorrow if you try to throw me in the water,” I said without so much as a glance in their direction. A surge of power coursed through me as they slowly retreated. I was beginning to feel much more comfortable around everyone, which seemed to unlock a confidence in me that even I didn’t know I had.

“I think I’m actually going to go in,” Kara said, fanning herself with her hand. “I’m burning over here.”

“Yeah, me too.” Lisa followed Kara’s lead and put on another coat of sunscreen before the two of them got up and headed for the water. “You coming?” Lisa called back to Brooke and I mid step. I shook my head. It was hot, but there had been a report of jellyfish the other day and even though the lifeguard had assured us that the water was clear today, I didn’t want to risk it. Brooke looked at me though she clearly wanted to go. I waved her off and she joined the other two, leaving me to crisp in the sun by myself.

I decided to put on some more sunscreen too, noticing that I was turning a light shade of pink. I never did tan very well. I grabbed my towel and draped it over my shoulders to keep the sun from damaging them further. Then, out of nowhere, Jack plopped down beside me.

“Why are you sitting all by yourself?” he asked, gently tugging on the end of my towel.

“Because, call me crazy, I don’t want to get attacked by a jellyfish.”

“But the lifeguard said they’re gone!”

“So? It’s his job to save people. Maybe just wants us to think they’re gone.”

Jack shook his head, laughing. “You are something else.”

I looked down as a warm glow flooded my face and brushed back my hair. Play it cool, Jane, I told myself.

“Well I would like to go swimming and it’d be pretty great if you came too,” he said, getting to his feet. I shook my head.

“Nope. Sorry.”

“You know I’m much bigger than you right? I could probably put you over my shoulder and toss you into the ocean if I wanted to.”

“Are you kidding?” I laughed, staring up at him. His shadow cast over me and though I wasn’t totally sold on the tossing me over his shoulder part, he certainly had been right about being much bigger than me. “With what? You’re like a stick.”

“Hey now.” He put his hands on his hips, trying to look serious but failing. “I’ll have you know I work out…occasionally.”

“Okay…”

“All right, you asked for it.” He grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder just like he said he would and started down the beach, toward the water.

“Jack!” I screamed, my arms and legs flailing. “Put me down right now or so help me—”

Despite my protests, he threw me right into the oncoming wave, laughing maniacally as I splashed around, my face scrunched up from the overwhelming salty taste in my mouth.

“How’s the water, Jay?” he called out to me before running in himself. Brooke, Lisa, and Kara were watching from a little further out, their heads bobbing up and down in the dark blue water. The rest of the guys had been too busy tossing around their football to notice what had happened.

“You’re dead,” I told Jack when he reached me. The water was shallow enough for us to stand, our chests and shoulders poking out through the surface.

“Do you see any jellyfish?” he asked.

“I’m going to kill you. I actually, really am.” I splashed some salt water in his face, taking delight as he gagged on it for a moment. When he recovered, he splashed me back and we ended up tackling each other, the next wave pulling us under and pushing us back to the shore. Still laughing, he helped me up and we walked back over to the spot I’d been sitting in before to dry off.


Brooke and I had pulled the comforters off our bed and dragged them down to the living room for a movie night with the rest of the house. After spending all day out in the sun, no one had much energy left to do anything except lie around and eat a bunch of food. We threw our blankets down on the big couch and wrapped ourselves in them, feeling so amazingly comfortable that I was 100% sure I wouldn’t have gotten up even if someone were going to pay me to do it.

“Who said you two could take up the whole couch?” Zack came in, his hair still wet from his shower.

“Guess you should have been faster,” Brooke said with a shrug. I scooted down to make room for him and he sat down between Brooke and me, pulling on her blanket just to annoy her. Next, Rian came in, making a beeline for the kitchen to make the popcorn. Not long after, everybody else filed in and claimed their seats. Jack, Lisa, and Alex sat in a row on the floor in front of the TV, and Kara sat in the lounge chair to my right. When Rian came back with two steaming bowls of popcorn, he sat down next to Jack and we all got settled to watch Friday the 13th.

Jack kept texting me throughout the movie, making comments about each murder scene.

Too much gore. Not enough boobs, he’d sent after watching the blonde girl get slashed. I started giggling and tried to contain myself, earning stares from Zack and Brooke.

You’re making me disrupt the entire movie! I sent back.

I know :) I can hear you laughing.

Stop making me laugh!

Nooooo it’s cute :P

Thankfully the lights were off because I was pretty sure my face my beat red at that moment.

After the movie ended, Lisa, Rian, Kara, and Zack went up to bed. Jack had migrated up to my side on the couch and Brooke had somehow found herself sitting on the floor next to Alex. I watched them for a moment, wondering what they were whispering to each other.

“Did you enjoy my commentating?” Jack said, breaking my focus. I turned back to him, my eyes heavy and my mind in a haze. I didn’t think I could make it back up to my room at this rate.

“Oh yeah,” I said dryly. “So great.” I glanced down to where Brooke and Alex were and realized they were gone. “Where’d they go?” I asked mid-yawn. Jack only shrugged and leaned into me, resting his head on my side. I reached forward started playing with his hair. Usually I would have overthought every move, action, and word to the point where I ran off because I didn’t know how to handle anything, but right now with my fingers combing through Jack’s hair and the warmth of his breath on me, I felt comfortable and secure. I’d never felt that way around anyone except my parents.

“Jack?” I whispered and his lifted his head slightly.

“Hmm?”

“I like you.”

“I like you too.”