| |
Zoe
Zoe played on her phone until she was certain Gramma was asleep. Then she slid out from under her blanket and carried her shoes to the door. She paused with her hand on the doorknob, listening for any stirring from the bedroom behind her.
There wasn’t any.
She slipped out into an empty hallway, softly shut the door behind her, and then slid her shoes on. Then she was down the stairs and out the door.
The cold night air felt fantastically refreshing. She loved her grandmother, but she hadn’t had a moment alone since she’d gotten to Maine. It felt good to be outside, alone, in motion.
But she had no idea where the Cove was. It was on the ocean, but Carver Harbor was on a peninsula. She couldn’t just head toward the water because she was surrounded by water.
She stepped onto Main Street’s sidewalk and looked both ways. Two gas stations. Only one with lights on. And it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. She headed toward the lights.
There was no one there but a clerk.
“Can you tell me where the Cove is?”
He frowned. “Why?”
Why? What kind of a question was that? Why not?
“Um, because I’m new here, and my friend told me to meet him there, but I don’t know how to get there.”
He gave her a lewd smile. “Ah, I see.” He straightened up and looked out the window. “You on foot?”
She didn’t answer.
She didn’t have to. “It’s a long walk.”
She sighed. “Are you going to tell me where it is or not?”
He held up a hand. “Easy! All right, I’ll tell you. It’s all the way on the other side of the peninsula. The easiest, shortest way is to cut through the woods.” He looked her up and down. “But I’m guessing you don’t want to do that.”
It was clear this was an insult, though Zoe didn’t know how that was insulting. Why should she want to take an unknown shortcut through the woods, alone, at night?
“But if you keep going this way”—he pointed back the way she’d come—“until you see Battle Ave on your right, you can take that and follow it until it ends. It’s quite a ways, but it will come out on Hill Street. Then turn right onto Hill Street and go down the hill. The beach is right at the bottom. The road keeps going, curves off toward the right, but you’ll see the beach.”
“Thanks.” She turned away, eager to get away from his leering.
“Have fun!” he called after her, and she suddenly wanted a shower. She walked briskly, motivated to put some distance between that guy and herself, and soon she was back beside her grandmother’s building. She strongly considered ducking back inside, abandoning this whole idea.
But Jason.
If he was there, she wanted to be there. And it had sounded as though he would be there, maybe even against his will. She should be there, then, to keep him company, to cheer him up. Oh, who was she kidding? She shouldn’t be entertaining thoughts about Jason. That was insane. He would never be interested in her. She knew that. And yet, she still wanted to spend time with him.
As she walked down Battle Ave, Main Street’s streetlights faded behind her, but it was still light enough to see, thanks to the moon. She patted her back pocket to check for her phone just in case.
The road narrowed, the sidewalks stopped, and the houses thinned out. How long was this road? Maybe she should have cut through the woods. Nah. The last time she’d gone off into the woods it had taken her an entire day to find her way back out. She cringed at the memory. She was still very embarrassed. Lots of kids had run into the woods that night, but she was the only one who had spent the night there. She was the only one who had fallen off a cliff and then spent the night passed out in the dirt.
Her stomach churned. No wonder her mother wanted to get rid of her. She was an embarrassment.
A stop sign came into view. Thank God. Battle Ave did have an end. She didn’t know how long she’d been walking, but much longer and the party would be over. If it even was a party. She couldn’t believe these people partied on a Monday. They were hardcore. She turned right on Hill Street and saw the ocean. The water was smooth and calm, and the moonlight reflected off it beautifully. The ocean really was something. She’d missed it.
She started down the hill, hoping she wouldn’t have to walk back up it. Maybe Jason would give her a ride home. Jason and Alita, she corrected her thinking.
She heard them before she saw them. Sounded like the whole school.
But it wasn’t. It looked like only a few dozen kids, but they were loud. Six pickups sat backed in with their tailgates down. Kids sat on the tailgates, their legs swinging, holding red solo cups or beer cans. She didn’t see a keg.
Nor did she see Jason. She stopped at the edge of the sand, scanning the crowd nervously. Where was he? At this point she would even be excited to see Alita.
“Hey!” someone cried, and then a round kid was coming toward her.
Nelson.
He tried to throw his arm around her neck, failed because it was too high, staggered back a bit and laughed while simultaneously trying to take another drink from his plastic cup. He choked, coughed, and then lowered the cup to give her an excited smile. “Whass you name again?” he slurred.
“Zoe.”
He tried to fling his arm around her neck again, and this time she lowered her shoulders so he could do it, though she didn’t know why she’d done this. She was afraid of disappointing Nelson, apparently. “Hey, everybody!” he hollered, his spittle hitting her face. “Look! It’s Zoe!” He lowered his voice. “Less get you a drinkie-drink.”
He dragged her toward the second pickup, and someone shoved a cup into her hand.
“What is it?” she asked, and they all laughed.
He removed his arm, and she straightened up and sniffed what was in the cup.
Smelled like straight whiskey. She took a sip. Yup. If there was a mixer in there, there wasn’t much of it. It tasted like fire and burned her throat going down. It was so warm it was almost hot, and she put her hand over her mouth, afraid she was going to throw it right back up.
But the feeling passed, and soon the familiar relaxing warmth filled her, and she started to breathe again. Nelson introduced each of them by name, but his slurring and the loud music made it hard to hear anything. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like she was going to remember any of their names, and even if she did, she wouldn’t be able to attach those names to any faces once she saw these people in the fluorescent lights of Carver Harbor High.
When Nelson finished with his lengthy introductions, Zoe said, “I can’t believe the cops let you drink here.”
One of the girls let out a high-pitched squeal. “They don’t! They could come bust us up any second.”
This made Zoe nervous. She did not need to be running from the cops again. “So why haven’t they?”
Nelson shrugged. “Lazy,” he said, and all the girls laughed.
Zoe noticed Nelson’s girlfriend wasn’t there. What had her name been? Someone took the cup out of her hand.
“So what’s Missouri like?” one girl asked.
Zoe didn’t want to talk about Missouri. It made her sad. “Where’s your girlfriend?” she asked Nelson.
Nelson tipped his head back and barked a laugh. “Girlfriend?” he cried. “What girlfriend?”
The anonymous server slid the cup back into her hand. It was even fuller this time. “Thank you.” She took another swig. It was going down easier now, and she was feeling much better—so relaxed, so blissfully numb. “I don’t know. That girl you were with this morning.”
“June?” he cried. Then he laughed again. “June’s my cousin!”
The small circle erupted into hysterical laughter. “And she’s over there.” He waved an arm at the ocean.
Embarrassed, Zoe decided to stop talking and just listen. She took another drink and leaned back against the pickup. She tried to follow their conversation, but she didn’t know any of the people they were talking about. She found herself gazing out at the ocean. It was so beautiful. The reflection of the moon stretched all the way to the land, making it look like a giant wide path of moonlight that one could walk on. She headed that way, leaving the loud chaos behind her.
She reached the water’s edge. Now that she’d walked away from the music, shouting, and laughing, she could hear the water lapping at the shore. The moon-path started only inches from her feet. She wanted to step out onto it. It wouldn’t hold her, of course. She knew this. She couldn’t walk on water. But still, she wanted to try.
As she contemplated, Nelson appeared beside her. This time, he slid his beefy arm around her waist. No boy had ever done this to her before, and despite Nelson’s profound unattractiveness, she liked the feel of his arm around her.
He stood on his tiptoes to press his lips to her ear. “Let’s you and me go for a walk.” His breath was hot and wet on her ear, and she jerked away from it, but his arm was strong around her hips. He stepped around to face her, and he was uncomfortably close. “Come on, don’t be like that.” He laughed and stepped closer. “Don’t play shy.”
