Eric starts throwing popcorn at Cassie from a few seats away, and she turns around and flips him off with her other hand hiding it. He laughs and settles into his chair. Aubrey stands up a few minutes later and walks over toward the center of the auditorium in front of the screen. “Okay, guys. We’re watching Finding Nemo tonight. Everyone turn off their phones and enjoy!” Some of the older boys whistle at her, but she ignores them. I watch as she searches over the crowd. I’m wondering who she’s looking for when they land on me.
A small smile rises from the corner, and she gives me a slight wave. I wink, and a rosy color rushes to her cheeks. God, I love that.
I watch her from a few rows away as she whispers to Cassie, they eat all their popcorn, and finally settle down long enough to watch the movie.
“Damn, how long is this? Feels like it’s been six hours.” Eric asks, shutting his eyes. “I just want to get out of here and sneak to Cassie’s cabin. We’re gonna have some fun.”
My head snaps his way. That means Aubrey is going to be by herself. Suddenly the movie feels like six hours long to me, too.
When the last of the kids are hauled out of the auditorium I find Aubrey pushing the overhead back into a side closet.
“Hey.”
She jumps, hitting her elbow against the wall closet to her. “Shit,” she says. “You scared me.”
Smiling, I reach over her to push the overhead the rest of the way into the closet. “Sorry. I guess I have a scary face.”
She mumbles something I don’t catch, then says, “I hear our roommates are going to have a sleepover tonight.”
“Yep. I heard that, too,” I say as she falls into step with me. “So, where are you gonna sleep? I mean…it’s not like you have an actual room you can go to.”
She shrugs. “I was thinking about going to one of the other girl’s cabins.”
“Well, if you want, you could come with me. I was just going to go to the field. I know last time didn’t go so well but—”
“I’d love to.”
I grin like a damn girl. I can’t help it. “Follow me.”
I make sure we have enough blankets to keep an army warm. I smooth them out in the bed of the truck while Aubrey watches the sun set against the backdrop of the trees. Her shoulders are bear with her strapless shirt. It makes her tits look swollen, delicious enough to eat.
“I’m glad you brought me out here. I love it. This is the perfect time a day, too.” She swings her feet off the tailgate of my truck, leaning back against her palms.
“It’s getting chilly, why don’t you come up here with me?”
She twists around and bites down on her lip. Fuck. I want to beg her not to do that again, but I don’t. I won’t. I want her too much to ever tell her to stop.
She crawls next to me, then slides underneath the blankets. She rests her head against one of the pillows, and a sigh escapes her lips. We lie there for a long time, staring at the darkening sky. Birds fly above us, the wind blows the weeds making a quiet song.
“Tell me about you,” she finally says. “You seem so put together. Is that a southern thing?”
I laugh, my voice deeper than I imagined it to be. “I’m not put together at all. I never have been.”
She snuggles into the blanket more and turns her head to face me. She isn’t wearing a lot of makeup, and I can see a splash of freckles across her nose. Her naturally pink lips look plump. Warmth spreads to my dick, and I focus to keep him down.
“Tell me about you,” she says again.
“Well,” I clear my throat. “I grew up in Arkansas in a small town south of Little Rock. We never had a lot of money, but I felt like we were the richest people in the world—until my dad started drinking. He tore down my family one wall at a time. Then he left. My mom remarried and then he left, too.” I sigh and rub my hands over my face. “That’s where Austin comes in. After years of my mom being verbally abused, Austin’s dad brought him out here to California. My older brother moved out here, too, and it left Mom and me by ourselves. My oldest sister had been long gone to college. She never wanted to come back. I couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t long until my no-good dad came crawling back. Mom—feeling lonely—let him in. He never left.”
“Why did you move out here?”
“To get away from it. From Dad, Mom and Amand—” I have no idea why I said her name. Why I even brought her up. It’s been a fucking year. I should be over her by now.
I feel Aubrey’s fingers lace through mine. “A girlfriend?”
“She died a year ago.” I choke out. “She was coming home from class and ran off the road trying to return one of my texts. I couldn’t stand to be around her family anymore, knowing I ruined their lives. I just…I just needed to get away from those memories and make new ones.”
Aubrey nods and squeezes my hand. “You can’t blame yourself. You know that, right?”
I nod. Do I know that? I have no fucking idea whether I do or not. I tell myself that, but it never seems to stick.
“What about you? You feel like telling me the story? Why you don’t swim anymore?”
Frowning, she turns to look at the blackening sky. She doesn’t say anything for so long, I’ve almost made my mind up that she isn’t going to say anything.
“I see him all the time. Whether it’s in my nightmares or out of the corner of my eye, I always see him.” She presses her eyes closed and a tear runs down her cheek. “I was a senior in high school. I’d been on the swim team since I was a freshman. My mom used to call me mermaid because I was always in the water.” A blank expression travels across her face, and I see the memory start to consume her.
Aubrey
“I thought I had it all. The swim finals were coming up, and I was the second fastest freestyle swimmer in the state. I was going to beat Becky Peters this year. I knew it.” A laugh breaks from my throat. It doesn’t even sound familiar. “Hannah, my friend from high school, and I decided to go out to a party an on September sixteenth. I remember that day like yesterday. We spent the entire evening getting ready. Our hair had so much hairspray in it. I used an entire bottle.” She pauses and shifts.
“Maybe I should tell you this first. Two years prior, there was a guy on our swim team name Michael Powers. He was the fastest swimmer in the state. He was popular. Everyone loved him… including me. We dated for a year until he suddenly…changed. The once-a-day phone calls turned into four-a-day calls and then into two an hour. He had become obsessed. My parents made me stop seeing him. I wasn’t allowed to talk to him. We even had a restraining order against him. He didn’t stop. Somewhere deep down inside me I knew he wouldn’t stop…”
“Aubrey, get your cute ass over here. The party is this way,” Hannah pulled me toward the small alleyway close to Seventeen. It was a club where high school kids could get in.
“I would if I wasn’t wearing these deathtraps you call shoes. Shit, my feet are throbbing.”
Hannah flips her black hair and tugs me closer. “Oh, there’s Aaron and Jace.” She squeals into my ear, and I hold back a laugh. I had started seeing Jace a few months after the Michael incident. He was good-looking. Nice. Sweet. He never pressured me into doing anything I wasn’t ready to do. “Well, don’t you look pretty tonight,” he said, trailing a kiss along my jaw.
I smiled into his touch and let him drag me toward the building. When we stepped in line, I reached around for my purse. “Shit, I forgot my wallet. I’m gonna run back and get it really quick.”