Seventeen

 

 

Indie

 

“You really need to stop throwing me over your shoulder every time we leave a room together,” I hissed at Jack the moment he put me on my feet in my room.

“But it’s so much fun seeing him all riled up. He hates it when I manhandle you.”

“So do I,” I said and went straight over to the door that joined the two rooms and unlocked it. Jack threw his head back and laughed.

“Did you do that?” I asked, pointing at the door.

“Of course not! I’m offended that you could even suggest such a thing. But Bailey…”

So that was why she hung around yesterday while I got ready for lunch. What else did she do?

“You two are incredible!”

“Why, thank you.” Jack placed a hand delicately on his chest and tilted his head down with a shy smile.

“Not a compliment.”

“Maybe not to you. So?”

“So, what?” I knew what he wanted, but I wasn’t giving details that easily.

“What happened last night?”

“N-nothing.”

“That doesn’t sound like nothing.” Jack opened my suitcase and began rifling through it. “Spill.”

“Nothing. We danced, got caught in the rain, and watched a movie.”

“Dirty Dancing?”

“Yes.” I angled my head to the side. “How did you know we watched that?”

“What? No,” he said before ripping something out of my case excitedly. “Aha! I meant did you dirty dance together, not the movie. You actually watched that?”

“Yes. No. I mean—grrr, you’re so confusing sometimes. No, we didn’t dirty dance together. We waltzed, in the rain. And, yes, we did watch that movie. Linc’s never seen it.”

“I bet he looks mighty fine dripping wet in the rain.” Jack raised his eyebrows at me.

“Well, duh.”

“And then what?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying.” He narrowed his eyes and threw a bikini in my face.

“He kissed me,” I muttered and turned to walk into the bathroom, hoping to escape Jack before he realised what I said.

“He what?” Jack screeched as he followed me into the bathroom.

“It was nothing. He just walked into the bathroom, much like you right now, and took the towel from me and dried my skin then kissed my shoulder a little.”

“A little?”

“Maybe my neck too.” I felt the heat creeping into my cheeks. Why I found it so hard to talk about, I didn’t know, but it was embarrassing. Possibly because Jack tended to overreact.

“Yes! Baby cakes, this is what we’ve been waiting for our whole lives!” Jack wrapped his arms around me and spun excitedly. Overreacting.

“We?”

“Yes, we. I’ve dreamed about a guy like Linc forever, so I’m living vicariously through you. Tell me more.”

“There’s nothing else to tell. We fell asleep, and I woke to find his hand, umm…”

“Umm?”

“Here.” I held my hand in front of my chest.

“He grabbed a fun bag?” Jack grinned.

“A what?” I asked, sure my face looked as shocked as I felt.

“A fun bag.”

“What are fun bags?”

I regretted asking at once. Particularly asking Jack, the one person who didn’t have boundaries.

“These, baby cakes.” He reached out and grabbed my breasts with both hands.

“Stop. What are you doing?” I tried to push his hands away, but it only made him squeeze them more.

“Playing with your fun bags,” he said and laughed.

“Why?”

“Because they’re fun, Indie, hence the name,” he said, jiggling them in his hands.

“Okay, enough now, please.” I squirmed.

Jack dropped his hands in defeat. “Just trying to help.”

“Well, stop. I don’t need it.”

“A solid C, remember?”

“Have I told you how much I hate you?” I grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him out of the bathroom.

He poked his head back through the door. “Nope. Because you love me. I know it.”

“Don’t get too cocky.”

He turned serious all of a sudden. “You know this plan of mine is going to work, right?”

“Hmmm.” I wasn’t sure what I thought about his plan anymore.

“Baby cakes, I love you, and I want you to be happy. Trust me?”

“Of course. But I feel wrong about lying to everyone.”

“No one needs to know we’re lying. Except for Linc when you two finally hook up.”

“We are not hooking up.” Oh God, what if that’s all Linc saw me as? A hook up. All this flirting and back and forth, what if he only wanted sex? I wanted more. I wanted everything. I couldn’t just be another girl, someone to pass the time while he was on holidays.

“You’re overthinking.” Jack rubbed his thumb between my eyes. “You’ll get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that. ‘Hook up’ might have been a bad choice of words. You don’t want to start off your relationship with Linc on a lie. You’ll have to tell him the truth, but no one else needs to know.”

“Relationship?”

“Yes. That’s why we’re doing this whole charade. Now quit wasting time and trying to use your womanly wiles to make me straight.” He winked and pulled the door closed, giving me a moment of quiet to change into my swimsuit, if it could be called that. Pretty sure it was missing a piece or six. What on earth would that cover?

I grabbed a robe from behind the door to cover myself up with once I was changed. Seriously, my underwear covered more than that bikini. “You didn’t happen to buy me some board shorts to go with this, did you?” I asked Jack the moment I was back in the room.

“How could you even ask such a question?” He smiled. Hope blossomed in my stomach. He had something I would be comfortable wearing. “Of course not! You’re not going to win Adonis’s heart by dressing like him.”

“Adonis?”

“I think it’s more fitting than Linc.”

“Right, well, for your information, Linc told me he prefers me in his tank than my clothes, anyway,” I responded with a smug smile. If I knew it wouldn’t start an immaturity war, I would have stuck my tongue out at him.

“Well, of course, he does. Seeing you in his clothes automatically makes him think about waking up next to you. Which in turn makes him think about you sleeping next to him. Which then leads to him thinking about ripping your clothes off and having his way with you, ultimately leaving you no choice but to wear his clothes to bed.” Jack opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

“He thinks about having sex with me?” I choked on air, gasping for breath. Hook up. Hook up. Hook up.

“About every three seconds of the day.”

I eyed him sceptically.

“Scout’s honour. It’s a guy thing. Trust me, I know. I am one.”

“Right. Let’s just go and meet the others.”

I didn’t want to discuss Linc with Jack anymore. All he did was make me panic and cause me to worry more.

 

***

 

The pool was quiet when we got outside, except for our friends splashing and making so much noise I was concerned someone would come and tell us to be quiet. But no one did. I lay back on one of the deck chairs next to Bailey and Kenzie, making myself comfortable and hoping to get a bit of colour on my skin.

The boys were all in the pool playing with pool toys. Kids’ ones. There were pool noodles and kickboards, a beach ball, a floating beanbag, a raft—that Nate was lying on—a blow-up basketball hoop and basketball that Linc and Brody were playing with, and a blow-up seahorse that Ryder was sitting on. Jack kicked off his shoes to join them, running for the pool and jumping straight over Ryder’s head, splashing water everywhere.

“Well, looks like they’re having fun. Where did they get all that stuff?” I asked.

“Stole it from the kiddie pool over there.” Bailey sighed and shook her head.

Of course. And I was willing to bet it had been Nate’s idea. He was a big child sometimes. I often wondered which of us was actually older.

I settled back in my chair and closed my eyes, once I realised Bailey had pulled out her book to read, and Kenzie had plugged in her earphones, drowning out all the noise around us. Fine by me. I wanted to relax, maybe have a nap, and this was the perfect way to do it.

Until I woke up as I was flying into the pool. I screamed just before I hit the surface, sucking in air and water at the same time. I came up spluttering and coughing. My chest burned, and my nose stung.

“You okay, baby cakes?” Jack stood on the edge of the pool with an amused smile on his face.

“No, I’m drowning, you idiot.”

“Doesn’t look like it to me.”

“Shut up,” I answered maturely and swam to the edge to pull myself out.

“Want to play a game?” Jack asked everyone, pushing me back into the water.

“What?” I was cautious. Jack was unpredictable and could come up with the weirdest games.

“Marco Polo.”

“Ha, really?” I asked.

“Yeah, why not? It’s fun in the pool. Guys?”

A chorus of yes and sure followed. So I spent the next two hours playing Marco Polo in a swimming pool filled with accessories for six year olds, with five males in their twenties.

Good times.