Ptah! I lift my head and spit out sand. Tiny grains trickle down my V-neck.
Mina and Farrah apped me to the beach.
I’m lying on my stomach at the unpopulated end, facing the ocean. In front of me, the two of them twiddle their fingers.
“Oh,” Mina says, “we came by to say a quick ‘hi.’ So you knew we weren’t lying about wanting to come to dinner.”
Farrah gasps, but I laugh. “At least not this time, I say.”
“Touché, Sister.” Mina gives me a wry smile. “But we do have to decline your mom’s invite.”
Farrah changes her black headband to silver. “That anemic boy asked us out.”
Us?
Mina dabs gloss first on her own, then on Farrah’s lips. “And Azra?” she says, puckering. “Zar sisters always kiss and tell. Text us your details and we’ll text you ours.”
Ours? Really?
They disappear and I make a mental note to delete all incoming texts from Mina.
I prop myself up onto my elbows and wipe my face. My heart’s pounding from apping but also from a feeling in my gut that, for once, Farrah was right. Nate wasn’t inviting me. I was simply too invested to think clearly.
Flopping back down, I lie with my cheek on the sand and listen to the gentle break of the waves. Hypnotized by the sounds of the surf, at first I think Nate crouching down next to me is a mirage.
“Azra?”
But mirages don’t speak. Right?
“I was waiting for a text that you were coming,” he says. “We must have missed each other at the entrance somehow.”
So Nate’s text was an invitation. I should have known better than to doubt Mina’s well-honed expertise.
I scramble to sit up and discreetly brush grains of sand off my new cleavage, but Nate’s too close for me or my new cleavage to be anywhere near discreet.
Looking into his dark caramel eyes, I call on the confidence of my red bra. “Yeah, strange. Must have slipped right by you.” I push my hair behind my ears. “Anyway, sorry about not responding. I wasn’t sure until the last minute. I’ve got a family thing tonight.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to pull you away.”
“You didn’t. My family thing is why I’m here and not there.”
He laughs. Nate actually laughs at my joke.
“It’s getting dark.” I realize I have no idea how long I’ve been here. Mina and Farrah neglected to app my phone along with me, and I never wear a watch.
Nate looks at the darkening sky. “I know people come here for the sun and all, but I love it at night.”
And with that, my fleeting worry that I’m late for dinner goes out with the tide because I couldn’t agree more. The deserted beach at night, lit only by the moon and the stars … magic couldn’t do any better.
“Me too.” I tilt my head at the rolling surf. “It’s like a private screening. All this, just for me.”
Nate starts to stand. “And here I am interrupting. Sorry, do you want me to go?”
“No,” I say too loudly. “I mean, I think there’s maybe one more seat at this showing.” I am the definition of looks being deceiving. No matter how sexy the bra and being Jinn may make me, my brain cannot keep up.
Maybe Nate’s a fan of corny, because he sits on the sand so close to me that our shoulders touch. He then fills me in on the beach gossip I’ve missed. Ranger Teddy busted a group of football players from our school who weren’t even trying to disguise the beers in their hands. Chelsea, desperate to deepen her tan, refused to put on sunscreen and her body is now as red as her lipstick. A stopped-up toilet overflowed, and the bathroom attendant quit rather than clean it up.
“Oh, and the best part,” Nate says as he lays his hand on my knee. Even through the thick denim, his warmth penetrates, flushing my body with a heat ten times stronger than apping.
He arches his back. “I saved someone.”
“You … you what?” Though not even this can make me forget about his hand on my knee.
“Rescued from the clutches of death,” Nate says dramatically. “Okay, well, not exactly, but this guy was swimming really far out and got a wicked cramp.” His grin is both self-deprecating and proud. “I reached him before anyone else.”
I’m not surprised, which I say before I think maybe I shouldn’t. He already knows I’ve watched him running. I need to be careful not to cross into stalker territory. But Nate’s genuinely taken aback. He seems touched by my compliment.
It’s gotten late, and though I don’t want to, somehow the decision is made to head back.
I sweep the sand off my jeans and bend to pick up my shoes. In a single smooth motion, Nate plucks my sandals off the ground with one hand, rights himself, and slides his other hand into mine.
My body tenses from pinky toe to earlobe. Nate must feel it because he starts to release my hand, but I tighten my grip, interlacing my fingers with his. I savor the lightning bolt jolt that comes as he guides me through the dark, down the long empty beach, and over the dunes.
Before this, the last hand I held was Lisa’s. It was wet and sticky. I was desperate to let go. Not the case with Nate. Our fingers are still intertwined when we reach the ranger’s office. The first-aid kits are lined up on the table in the center of the room.
Nate stacks the plastic boxes in the metal cabinet. “I was making sure everything was stocked up. No one thinks to replace what they take.”
I hand him the last one. “You’re into this, aren’t you?”
Nate’s smile is slight, almost shy. “I’m a medical-show junkie. Always have been.”
“You’re okay with blood, then?” My mother has healed me so fast my entire life, I’m not even all that comfortable with a blister.
Nate bobs his head. “I think so. If I’m helping somebody, it’d be okay.”
“I assume one day I’ll be calling you Dr. Nate?”
He laughs softly. “Nah. Sports trainer. Maybe a paramedic. Not a doctor.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a lot of school. I … I don’t think people see me that way.”
“What way?”
“You know, smart. My guidance counselor talks to me about lacrosse scholarships, not academic ones.”
It surprises me that Nate sounds so unsure of himself. Based solely on outside appearances, it would be Henry, not Nate, one would expect to be lacking in the confidence department. But Henry exudes confidence while Nate seems almost insecure.
I hesitate before saying, “I think if you’re lucky enough to have control of your destiny, you should take it.”
Nate nods, slowly. “You’re nothing like I imagined, Azra.”
Nate’s imagined something about me?
“Yeah, well, I guess Chelsea’s not my biggest fan.”
“She’s just jealous. Practically half the guys in school want to ask you out, but they’re too afraid.”
Afraid? Want to ask me out? Suddenly I fear Nate’s a mirage after all.
“Right, I’ve got so many dates, I need two calendars,” I say sarcastically.
“You really don’t know? Your whole aloof thing isn’t intentional? Guys have been watching you all year, too scared to approach because of your … your vibe. Me, I figured if I kept bugging you to refill my water bottle, maybe eventually I’d break through.”
I laugh and shake my head.
“I’m serious.” He places a hand on his stomach. “I have never peed so much in my life as I have this summer.”
From the “aloof” comment to the image of Nate’s bursting bladder, there’s so much here I can’t wrap my head around. “But I’m not … I’ve never been popular. With the ‘in’ crowd.”
“That’s because you don’t want to be. But considering how good the summer’s been to you, next year, you may not have a choice.” Nate touches the ends of my hair, which fall past my shoulders. “I really do like it this way. Especially with your old necklace.”
As he touches my A his fingertips graze my throat, and again my skin prickles. Who needs to feel calm when the alternative is this?
Nate closes the cabinet and locks the office door. We walk to the bike rack together. And this is where the inevitable lies to Nate begin.
“Oh, I walked,” I say.
“But your house must be as far as mine.”
I look away so I don’t have to lie to his face. “More time away from my family thing. I needed a break.”
Though I should app to save time, Nate’s adamant that it’s too dark for me to walk home alone. I climb onto his handlebars, which naturally he thinks is too dangerous. It’s only when I say my mother’s expecting me that he secures his helmet on my head and starts pedaling.
The ends of my long hair whipping around my face, Nate’s warm breath on my neck, the single beam of the bike’s front light revealing only a few feet of the path ahead, I forget anyone might be waiting for me at home.
But no one at home has forgotten me. When Nate and I roll up to the curb in front of my house, two doors open, one across the street from the other.
On one side, out comes my mother, Samara, Nadia, Laila, and Hana. On the other, out comes Henry.
Taking in the five beautiful Jinn heading down the front sidewalk, Nate’s jaw drops.
I take off the helmet and hand it to him. “Aunts. And cousins.”
“I see the resemblance,” Nate says.
Henry stays on his front steps. Nate waves to him.
“Well, there she is,” Henry says loudly, looking at my mother. “She’s not lost, then.”
Oh, but I am. Totally lost.