‘I have to go now, or I’m not going.’ I groaned.
She said nothing – no yes, go, but also no objection to my leaving. I dismissed what I saw in her eyes – a moment of hesitation that said I could be more than the rebound her friends meant me to be. Imagined, no doubt. I kissed her forehead and the tip of her nose, but not her tempting, luscious mouth, murmured, ‘Later,’ and left her room, my thoughts disordered and my body on the verge of rioting.
15
Landon
Having grown up in a small, private school, I knew something of small towns. The way nothing ever remains a secret. The way secrets spread like wildfire. The way that fire doesn’t die out until a bigger fire consumes it.
Over spring break, four college girls rented a house on the beach – a Richards property. Clark’s father sent him over to deliver the keys when they arrived. Word was, he stopped by with a couple of his bros from the varsity baseball team, and they hadn’t left for an hour. That might not have been a big deal – but they returned that night with another guy. And nobody left until the next morning.
At least one of those guys couldn’t resist bragging about the alleged orgy trade-off – not that anyone could blame him for talking. Strip poker with Cuervo shots and college girls, two guys and two girls adjourning to each bedroom and multiple partner swaps? Most guys are going to talk. And talk. And talk.
Some aren’t content to stop there. Some want to take pics and video clips as proof and send them to friends, usually when they’re too drunk or high to realize that a buddy with a long-term girlfriend was in one of those videos. The one where a mostly naked girl straddles him in a chair, moving and moaning in such a way that no imagination is required to know what’s going on.
Boyce and I saw the video early the next day.
Melody had seen it by the time Clark went to her house the next night. There was a huge fight, and her mother threatened to call his dad if Clark didn’t calm down and leave. He nearly flipped his Jeep at the end of their drive, peeling a sharp right and leaving a parallel set of rubber stripes.
I wanted to deck him when he showed up at one of the bonfires dotting the long stretches of sand three hours later, acting as if losing Melody was little more than a minor annoyance. Boyce told me Clark had screwed vacationers before – he just hadn’t been caught. ‘Some guys think it doesn’t count if it’s with some chick who’s short term. It’s a temp f**k.’ As if to illustrate Boyce’s statement, Clark paired off with an unfamiliar girl five minutes later. This one looked thirteen and wide-eyed as a baby deer.
‘Whoa, dude – look,’ Boyce said, gesturing with his cigarette.
Melody slogged through the sand, flanked by Pearl, who was carrying a cardboard box. Marching up to Clark in the flickering firelight, Melody dipped her hands into the box in her friend’s arms and rained ripped up photos and what looked like pieces of stuffed bear over his head.
‘What the f**k, Melody?’ Clark said, standing and letting the startled girl in his lap fall on to the sand. She crawled away like a crab.
‘You. Cheating. Bastard! ’ Melody pulled a gold bracelet from the box and hurled it at his feet. It hit him in the ankle and lurched towards the water, rolling.
‘Those are diamonds, you psycho bitch!’ he yelled, leaping to grab it.
‘You can’t buy me!’ she returned.
‘Who’d want to?’ he snarled, and she burst into tears, stumbling away. Pearl threw the empty box at his head – he ducked and it sailed over his shoulder – and followed her friend.
I tugged the cord to the fort’s door, listening hard. I thought I heard a barely audible sniffle, but it could have been a gust of wind. ‘Melody?’ I whispered.
Her face appeared from above, her hair luminous in the moonlight, like a halo round her entire head. She squinted and then said, ‘Oh – Landon. What are you doing here?’ She hiccupped. It had been over two hours since the scene on the beach, but she was still crying.
‘Just came to check on you. Can I come up?’
She nodded. ‘Sure.’
We sat in silence until she scooted closer and leaned her head on my shoulder. ‘Half my friends are saying I overreacted and half want to help me hide his body. I don’t know what to believe.’
I shook my head. ‘Overreacted? Because he cheated on you?’
She pulled her knees to her chest, curling into me, and I put my arm round her. ‘He came over and apologized,’ she said. ‘He said he’d only gone there for his boys – the other guys are all single. He said stuff like that isn’t for girls like me to ever know about. He said he was drunk, and it was a mistake.’
‘And you believe him?’
‘Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have torn the stuffing out of Beauregard.’
I snorted. ‘Beauregard?’
She giggled, hiccupping again when we both began laughing. At some point, though, her laughs turned to sobs, and she collapsed into my chest. ‘Why would he have sex with some skank when he has me? Why?’
I figured she didn’t want me to attempt an answer to that. I also suspected nothing and no one would ever be enough for a guy like Clark Richards. Like his father, he was never going to be content with what he had. He only saw what he didn’t have. And felt entitled to it.
She quietened after a few minutes, inhaling a couple of deep breaths and shuddering. ‘How’d you know I’d be out here?’