I jumped off my bike and walked the rest of the way to the beach, pushing my bike next to me. The day was beautiful and it made me glad I had chosen to walk. It gave me a chance to think about everything that had happened since the night of the party. After Creepshow told me about his promise to Shane, the ambulance had arrived about two seconds later. He had been whisked away on a stretcher, and other paramedics had treated Sixx and Jett on the scene for some cuts and bruises they had received from flying shrapnel. Of course, the whole party heard the commotion and flooded out of the house to check it out. Out of all those partygoers, we never saw Mason again.
Later, we learned from the police report that the driver of the Camaro had been a partygoer who had left a different gathering on a beer run. He was an older college student from the university up north. He was pre-med. The police had found several twelve-packs of beer in the trunk of the car, and one open can in the cup holder. Another glaring reason I was glad my friends and I weren’t into the drinking thing. It gave me chills to think of how close I had come to losing someone because of it.
I reached the beach parking lot and sighed when I saw The Gator parked in the usual spot. That meant Creepshow had beaten me here already. My pace quickened as I headed down to the sand. I spotted Sixx near the water’s edge. I walked toward her and parked my bike near the rocks.
“Hey, Sixx.” I took off my backpack and flopped down beside her.
“Hey, Juice. Take a load off.” I reached into my backpack and took out a couple waters and handed one to Sixx.
“Thanks.”
We leaned back and I scanned the horizon for Creep and Jett. There were about a dozen or more surfers out beyond the breakers but I spotted them easily. I watched as they took the next set and rode it all the way into the beach. They both came out of the water at the same time, shaking the water out of their hair, surfboards tucked under their arms. I heard Sixx suck in her breath.
“Wow, Juice. How did we hang around that all the time and not realize how hot they were?”
I had to agree with Sixx. It was a pretty nice sight. Creepshow reached me first and slipped his free arm around my waist. I got wet but I didn’t care.
“Hey, Juice.”
“Hey, Creep.” I hugged him, leaning into his side but being careful not to squeeze too hard. He still had bandages on. He shouldn’t even be surfing, but suddenly he couldn’t stay away from the water. It seemed as if he was making up for lost time. We all knew why, we just didn’t talk about it.
“Hey, the limp is almost gone, Creep.” Sixx pointed out that lately he had been walking without the noticeable gait the leg injury had caused. We had all thought his leg would have been broken by the car accident. Creep had been so happy to learn it was only a sprain. He’d been worried about a summer with no surfing. He’d stopped using the crutches almost a week ago. He couldn’t wait to get back in the water.
“Give me another week and you won’t see it at all. Then I’m taking this one out dancing.” Creep twirled me in demonstration. “How about it, Jett? You coming?”
“Yeah. Dancing. Can’t wait.” Jett looked less than thrilled.
“I’m just so happy that you’re almost back to normal, Creep.” That was an understatement. Considering I almost lost him, I was ecstatic.
“Okay, normal might be a stretch. Creepshow’s never been normal, Juice.”
And secretly I thought, thank goodness for that. A normal boy would never fall in love with me and I would certainly never love one back.
Jett and Sixx got up and said they were going for a walk. I watched them walk away. When they were far enough away that they didn’t think we could see, Jett let his hand slip down and grab Sixx’s. And to her credit, she let him. They made an interesting couple. While I was watching them, Creepshow came up beside me.
“Funny how they finally got together, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Almost as funny as us.”
“Only to you maybe. I knew we’d be together. You were the only stumbling block to my grand plan, Juice.”
“I was? I think the only stumbling block to your anything was you, Creep.”
Creepshow moved me around to face him. “You’re probably right. I’m glad I finally found my nerve. So glad.” Creep bent his face to mine and locked lips with me in one of those swoony, to-die-for, soft, sweet kisses he had that made my legs just turn to jelly. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the kiss.
When I opened my eyes again I found myself staring into his, expecting his dreamy brown ones. For an instant, they weren’t brown. I found myself gazing instead into the clear denim blue eyes of my sweet ghost, Shane. Instead of being startled, I was pleased. “Thank you,” I whispered. I hoped Shane would know I silently thanked him for so many things. I was grateful for his friendship, for teaching me to appreciate myself, for his bringing me and Creepshow together, but most of all for saving Creep’s life. It was something for which I could never thank him enough.
“Thank you for what?” Creepshow had heard me.
I looked up at him again. Into his chocolate brown eyes, the blue ones being replaced once again by the velvety, warm brown ones of my weird and wonderful new boyfriend. “For just being you, Creepshow.”
“You’re crazy, you know that.” Creepshow gave me a huge bear hug, picking me up and almost hefting me over his shoulder.
I threw my arms around his neck and as I hugged him back, I realized I could see behind him in the sand. Clear down by the water’s edge, the words ‘Anytime, Juice’ were written in the sand. My heart swelled at Shane’s reply to my thanks. As Creepshow hugged me, the tide came in and the water washed the words away.