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“Wait, have you two already seen each other since he’s been back?” Carrie questioned when she noticed the look of recognition in my eyes.
Neither of us answered her; keeping our eyes trained on each other. Even though I’d heard Carrie’s question, it was as though she wasn’t there right now; it felt like Jackson and I were the only ones on the whole beach.
“Hey, Felicia,” Jackson said with a wide grin. “Have you missed me?”
I scoffed. “Have you known it was me this whole time?”
“Maybe,” Jackson answered with a smirk.
“Okay, seriously,” I began, feeling the anger rise to my cheeks. “You might think acting all mysterious is cute or something, but it’s really not. And if you really want me to believe that I caught your interest last night, I don’t. Not after this.”
Jackson stared back at me intently. He opened his mouth and then quickly closed it. Finally, he said, “Who says I’m acting mysterious?”
“You never answer my questions directly,” I pointed out.
“You weren’t too direct about this so-called crush I hear about,” Jackson replied with a grin.
I felt my cheeks reddening. He knew about my crush?
“Guys, can one of you fill me in on what’s going on?” Carrie asked impatiently.
I turned to her. “Why don’t you ask him? I’m done here. I’m sorry. I tried to do this for you, but . . . this guy’s a jerk.”
“Felicia?” Carrie called as I walked away from her and Jackson. “Wait! Don’t leave!”
I didn’t wait. I walked as briskly as I could until I was back at my Gram’s house, where I quickly closed the door behind me and breathed a sigh of relief.
My crush on Jackson had probably just been some big joke to him. I wouldn’t doubt it if he had made fun of me for it to every one of his friends at the party last night. Now, our whole sophomore class would follow suit.
I never let people get a rise out of me, but Jackson had done just that. I don’t know why he pushed my buttons so much—or why I let him.
*
That night, I spent a quiet evening at home playing Scrabble and eating popcorn with Gram. I told her more about Tyler, and she said she couldn’t wait to meet him. At Gram’s encouragement, I’d texted him, and he’d agreed to meet her that Saturday night. He’d promised to make dinner for us, which had seemed to impress her.
Carrie had called and texted me several times . . . and I couldn’t help but ignore her. I knew it wasn’t her fault about what had happened with Jackson, and I wasn’t even mad at her for it. It’s not like she had done anything wrong. But I wasn’t ready to talk about why I had stormed away like a spoiled brat until I had fully collected my thoughts.
Shortly after I had crawled into bed and pulled my satin comforter over my head, my phone bleeped. Glancing over at it, I found that I had one new text message. It was from Tyler.
What are you doing?
Nothing, I texted back, hoping that I didn’t sound as lame as I felt.
Tyler texted back right away. Do u want to go to the beach with me?
I hesitated. I didn’t want to miss out on hanging out with Tyler—especially since I hadn’t seen him today—but it was late.
I have to be up early to lifeguard tomorrow morning. How about tomorrow night? It’s Friday, and I don’t have to go to work until Saturday afternoon, I texted back.
There was a long pause before my phone bleeped again. O ok. I understand.
Sorry, I texted back, hoping that Tyler didn’t think I just didn’t want to see him.
Resting my head against the pillow, I closed my eyes until I eventually drifted off to sleep.
*
I found myself standing barefoot on the island again. This time, the sand under my feet was damp with moisture, even though the tide was pretty far out. Wondering if a wave had washed me onto this shore again, I began to walk into the jungle, and this time, I could hear the song loud and clear.
I wasn’t sure what it was about this song, but its melody captivated me. Glancing around, I tried to figure out where it was coming from. I wanted to know who was singing. Part of me still believed Scarlett was the one whose voice drifted through the trees, sending this lovely, whimsical music to my ears.
As I walked further into the jungle, I didn’t even think about what sorts of danger may be lurking inside. Sure, there was always that risk that the voice could be dangerous, that something in this forest would pounce on me or slither from a tree branch and coil itself around me before injecting me with its poisonous venom, but I wanted to believe that whoever was singing had good intentions. I got the feeling that they would protect me from any threats or obstacles that might come my way.
Far off in the distance, I noticed something orange and fluid-like out of the corner of my eye, and I quickly realized that it was a flame. Smoke drifted into the sky, but I could barely see it through the darkness of the night.
Afraid that I was walking into a wildfire, I panicked. There were lots of trees, which were sure to go up in flames. I supposed that I could just run to the water — assuming that the fire didn’t envelope me before I had the chance.
I was about to back away and run towards the water, when I heard it. The whispering began a few feet away from me and traveled steadily closer. Crouching behind the tree nearest to me, I listened.
“What are we going to do now?” a female voice asked. I noted the fear and panic in her voice. “Phorcys isn’t going to be happy about this.”
“Screw Phorcys,” a second voice said, and this time, I froze. The second voice, which was sweeter than the first, sounded just like Scarlett. I tried to see the girls through the trees, but I couldn’t, and I was afraid that trying to move any closer to them would blow up my spot. I knew I couldn’t get caught eavesdropping because I wasn’t sure what would happen to me if they found out I was listening.
“Just because you don’t care what Phorcys thinks doesn’t mean I don’t,” the first voice said. This time, I thought there was a sense of hurt—betrayal, almost—in the girl’s voice, and I wondered why. “He’s going to be really pissed over this. We promised him this wouldn’t happen again. Do you really want to make us look bad?”
“You know that I have my own thoughts about that,” the girl-who-sounded-like-Scarlett shot back. “Phorcys is a God damn hypocrite. From now on, I’m doing things my way.”
There was a long pause, and I heard a whooshing sound. Someone had put the fire out. The sound of feet crunching over the brush echoed through the forest, but they weren’t coming towards me. They were walking away.
Suddenly, I began to feel tired—so incredibly tired. The last thing I felt was my head nodding - the way it did when I was trying to stay awake during a boring Math class lecture— before everything went black.