The Beach

Chapter 6 - Never Take the Summer From Me

“Tay!” I yell. It’s around noon, and I’ve been meaning to get her alone.

Tay turns around. “What?”

I sit down on one of the benches and motion for her to come over. Once she’s sitting next to me, I decide to get right to the point. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

She raises an eyebrow. “You’re going to have to be a little more specific.” Playing dumb. Of course.

I sigh. “With Alex.”

She shrugs. “I’m just showing him what he’s missing. Taking charge. Making a move.”

"But I’m dating him," I say slowly.

She snorts. “Not for long. I’ll have him wrapped around my finger in no time.”

I think this girl is crazy. “But…I’m dating him,” I repeat, because I’m not sure how to get through to her. “I would like you to stop kissing my boyfriend.”

She makes a face. “Tell you what: I challenge you to a volleyball game.”

I narrow my eyes. “What does this have to do with—”

"The winner gets a chance with Alex," Tay explains, as if she’s had this planned for a while now. "The loser backs off. Today at sunset." She holds her hand out to me. "Deal?"

After a few seconds, I shake her hand. “Okay, fine. Whatever. Deal.”

What did I just do?

—

It’s about six p.m., and I am standing alone on one side of a volleyball court. On the other side is Tay, who looks ready to kick some ass. My ass, specifically.

I’ll admit, this is kind of a stupid idea, but I refuse to let her keep trying to fuck everything up for us. So now the sun is starting to set, and here we are.

"ALRIGHT!" Zack yells, uncharacteristically loud. He’s going to be the ref, apparently. "I want a good, clean match!" he says. "If either of you break the sacred rules of volleyball, you will be promptly disqualified."

"Is that how professional volleyball works?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

Zack glares at me. “Shut up, Jack. I’m making a fucking speech. As I was saying, do you both know the sacred rules?”

"Yes," Tay and I say. The truth is that I really don’t know all that much about volleyball, but I figure it should be enough.

"Okay," Zack says, tossing the ball to me. "Jack gets the first serve."

Tay scoffs. “Why?”

Zack rolls his eyes. “Chill out, princess. It’s because Alex is already dating him.”

I can’t help but laugh a little. Zack isn’t like this most of the time, but when he is, it’s entertaining as hell.

I take a step forward and toss the ball up before spiking it over the net. With that, the game begins.

I quickly realize that this may have been a bad idea. Tay could probably be a professional volleyball with the way she’s beating my ass. I can serve and hit as well as the next guy, and I’d be doing pretty good if I was playing against an average person, but when it comes to volleyball, Tay is clearly not an average person. She hits so fast and smooth that I barely have time to react before the ball is past me, and she hardly ever misses.

There’s a small crowd of people watching us, and I think most of them are rooting for Tay—they all know I’m fucked. Zack does, too, judging by the looks he keeps giving me. But I don’t give up. I can’t.

I don’t know how real volleyball works, but we agreed beforehand that the first person to twenty-one points would be declared the winner. At this point, Tay has twenty and I have six. Unless I can make some spectacular comeback, it’s all over.

I take a deep breath, spiking the ball. Tay hits it once, popping it up into the air, and then hits it again, across the net. I hit it back, thinking that maybe I’ve got a chance, but her hands fly out faster than I’ve ever seen and whack the ball over my head, right into oblivion before I can even think about hitting it back.

"That’s twenty-one points for Tay—the winner!" Zack calls, and the crowd cheers. He glances at me, biting his lip.

I can’t believe I just lost Alex because of a fucking volleyball match.

As if on cue, Alex Gaskarth himself bursts through the crowd with Rian right behind him. Both of them look confused. “What’s going on?” Alex asks, and then he spots me. “Jack, you were playing volleyball and you didn’t tell me?” He smiles.

Tay smirks and heads over to him. Before he can protest, she kisses him.

Alex pulls away, narrowing his eyes. “Tay? Stop. I told you, Jack’s my boyfriend.”

"Not anymore," she sings.

Alex turns back to me, looking even more confused. “What? Jack, is something going on?”

I sigh and make my way over to where he’s standing. “Tay challenged me to a volleyball match. So we could…settle some things.”

He just stares at me. I can see him piecing everything together.

"She said that the winner would get a chance with you," I continue, "and the loser was supposed to back off."

Alex shakes his head. “But, Jack, that’s stupid.”

And as soon as he says it, I realize that he’s right. It is stupid.

"So you lost, then?" he says.

I nod. “Yeah. But I don’t want to break up with you, Alex. I really like you.”

"And I really like you, too," he says, flashing me a smile. "And that’s all that matters. So what if you lost that bullshit game?" He turns to Tay, who is watching us from a few feet away. "Sorry, Tay, but I’m in love with Jack."

It sounds so strange when he says it, that he’s in love with me. Strange, but…wonderful.

Tay nods slowly. “Alright then,” she says, surprisingly not objecting. “Whatever. This was fun, though.”

Alex and I exchange glances. “What?” I say. She sounds so different from who she was only moments ago.

Tay glances at Alex. “Alex, I know you don’t know me that well, but think about it. What am I good at?”

At that moment, something seems to dawn on him. “Jack,” he says, “Tay was always the leader of the drama club. Always had a major role in high school plays. She’s…an actress.”

Tay nods, smiling. “That’s right. I’m taking an acting class over the summer, and one of my optional assignments was to make a short film, but not tell a couple of the main stars that they’re in the film—until afterwards, that is. We’ll delete the whole thing if you want us to. Most of these people are extras.” She gestures around us. “I decided to play a cocky, crazy-in-love bitch who can’t take no for an answer.”

"Wow," I say, dumbstruck. "That was…you were really, really good at it."

Tay’s cheeks turn a bit red. “Thanks.” Then she frowns a little. “I’m sorry if I caused a rift between you two with that kiss, though.”

"We’ve got it all worked out," Alex says, shrugging. "I’m just…amazed." He turns to me and smiles, taking my hand. "But it’s all over now. We’ve still got two days left, so I say we celebrate—a successful short film for Tay, and an awesome boyfriend for me." Then he kisses me on the cheek, and Tay gives us a thumbs-up sign. (I’ve decided that I like the real Tay much better.)

—

The weekend goes by in a blur, and before I know it, it’s Sunday. Alex and I exchange numbers and find out that we actually live really close to each other. “This doesn’t mean it’s over,” Alex says. “I promise. This is only the beginning, Mr. Barakat.”

That makes me happy, because I don’t want it to end, and when the summer inevitably does, I’ll still have this. I’ll still have him (even if we break up and it’s only in my memories). I’m in love, dammit. I didn’t plan to be, but I am. I can’t deny that.

Before we leave, we rent the four-person bike again and ride it up and down the boardwalk. “I want to go somewhere one more time,” Alex says suddenly. He winks at me, and I narrow my eyes, confused.

"Where?" I ask.

"You’ll see," he sings. "I think you’ll remember it once we get there, Jack." Then he starts to give directions to us, which aren’t that complicated, since all we need to do is ride down one way.

I recognize a lot of the shops and restaurants we pass, but I’m still not sure exactly where he’s planning on taking us.

Suddenly, I notice a particular logo of cartoon frogs with big eyes. “There!” Alex says, pointing at it and grinning.

"Oh my God," I say, laughing as we hop off of the bike. "Sweet Frog."

Alex smiles widely. “That’s right. Some fro-yo for the way home.”

"Dick," I say.

"Asshole," he replies smoothly. Then he leans forward and kisses me softly.