NOT A LOT OF SOUNDS compare to Emery’s laugh. From the octave that vibrates her throat, the smile brightening her face, to the happiness that shines in her eyes.
My gaze is fixed on her as she laughs again at something Brit says.
It’s weird being around so many people who have known each other for years, people who have inside jokes, their own lingo and looks. But I still feel comfortable. Like I fit in with them. Like I belong.
Back home I have two close friends. One of my buddies was my neighbor growing up and the other is a guy I met when I started surfing. But the three of us never hang out together.
Not like Emery and her friends. They’re a unit. And for tonight, I feel like I’m a part of it.
At some point between the waitress coming to take our order and Emery ordering three tacos with a side of chocolate lava cake for dinner, our chairs move closer together. I can feel the heat of her body mixing with mine and as she laughs, her body pressing into my side, I don’t want the pressure to subside.
Moving faster than she can pull away, I wrap my arm around her shoulder. Keeping her near.
She looks up at me, eyes sparking, and gives me a knowing look.
I smirk back, pretending not to know what she’s seeing. Or thinking.
These mornings of surfing with her have been some of the best practice sets I’ve done in almost a year. She doesn’t know it but our mornings together are my favorite part of the day.
Even sometimes when there aren’t any waves and it’s just the two of us out on our boards, bullshitting around, it’s the most fun I’ve had in years.
For so long my career has been the only thing that’s mattered in my life. It’s been all I’ve focused on. I had been living with tunnel vision, only seeing surfing.
But being around Emery and her friends has made me realize just how much I’ve been missing.
A hand squeezes my wrist and I meet Emery’s eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just—” I lean in closer. “Thanks for inviting me tonight. I’m having fun.”
“You’re hardly talking!” she points out.
I have been quiet tonight.
Quieter than I usually am, but I don’t know if Emery realizes what a strong bond she and her friends have. There’s a dynamic between them I’m unfamiliar with, but I’ve been having fun sitting back and trying to figure it out.
“But you’re welcome. Any time, Bash.” She gives my hand another squeeze. “Any time.”
“Careful, Firecracker.” I tighten my arm around her shoulder. “I might just take you up on that.”
“I’m counting on it, Surfer Boy.” She tries to wink. It looks more like a squirrel having trouble mid-sneeze and now it’s my turn to burst out laughing.
Her cousin, Nori, and Xavier, who were talking (er, more like arguing) about something I haven’t cared to follow, are now looking at us, seeing Emery’s “wink.”
Geer is on his phone, the same activity he’s been doing all night, and his sister has adopted his method of distraction as well.
“Oh gosh,” Nori giggles and Xavier gives her a look so soft I almost wait for him to produce a blanket and wrap her up in it. “Emery, you can’t wink! Why do you keep trying?”
I’m laughing again, harder this time, as Emery gives her cousin a dark look. “If I don’t practice, how can I get better?”
“There are some things you can’t get better at.”
“Oh please.” Emery waves away the words. “You’re an athlete, you should know that practice makes perfect.”
“What? Now that you don’t surf, you’re a competitive winker?” Xavier teases, and it’s then that I remember that no one here knows she surfs.
No one besides me, Brit, and Geer that is.
Next to me, Emery sits a little stiffer, smiling a bland smile. “Just because I stopped competing in one sport, doesn’t mean I stopped being competitive. I had to find something to fill the void.”
Suddenly, Brit throws her phone down on the table and looks over her shoulder. She gives someone a quick wave before turning back around.
“Hot date, Brit?” Xavier quirks an eyebrow.
“No, but hopefully a hot hookup afterwards.” She waggles her brows and Xavier laughs, holding out his fist to bump when Dez appears at the head of the table.
“Sup?” He looks around the table, nodding at me, before sliding into the only seat left. Brit passes the lone menu on the table to him. He takes it with a nod and a smile.
“Desmond,” Emery says.
“Emerson,” Dez quips back.
I raise a brow at Emery. “Is that your real name?”
“No,” she tells me, rolling her eyes. “He used to call me that because he said it sounded like a better retort for when I used his full name. It’d work even better if it wasn’t a lie.”
“Emery,” Brit warns. Her tone pleading. Emery glances at her best friend and I catch Brit mouth the words you promised.
Dez gives me a look. My mind goes back to our conversation the other night, about me surfing with Emery, and she doesn’t know I mentioned it to him.
I take out my phone and shoot him a text.
Don’t mention anything about the surfing.
He reads the text, nodding. His fingers fly over the screen before he locks it, sliding the device into his pocket.
My phone goes off with his reply saying:
Wasn’t planning on it. Not my business dude.
I don’t bother replying.
Brit pulls Dez into a conversation about a movie they saw recently or something.
The waitress comes by, not saying a word to Emery or me, dropping off our food and takes Dez’s order. The trivia announcer comes on with the first four categories.
“Trivia is about to begin, but I’d like to remind everyone to turn their cellphones off. Cellphones are not to be used during the game. There are four rounds with four different categories. After each round, all tables will be put in a pitcher and whoever gets drawn will win a free pitcher of beer.” Cheers ring out, including everyone at our table. “The first four categories are state capitols, politics, pop culture, and lakes.”
Groans ring out throughout the bar.
“Lakes?” Nori asks. “Has that always been a category?”
“Yeah, Nor. It has been,” Xavier says. “A category I’m hoping you’re an endless pit of knowledge on, since we always get that one wrong.”
“It’s a wide variety,” I tell the table as the announcer comes back on with the first question. The one for state capitols.
“What is the state capitol of Missouri?”
Everyone falls silent. Nori rubs her eyes. Geer locks his phone but doesn’t contribute to the brainstorming. Xavier is thinking out loud, mumbling words. Brit is asking Dez, but he appears as confused as she is. Me? Missouri is a state I always forget about.
Emery is the only one who doesn’t look lost. She has a look of concentration as she moves her head in a silent beat of her own, until she leans across the table so fast she blurs. “Jefferson City!”
Brit hesitates before she writes it down. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She rolls her eyes. “But only bet six and let’s save the eight for pop culture.”
The way this trivia game is set up is that the game is divided into four rounds and each round teams can bet a two, four, six, or eight on their answer but they can only bet each number once.
Brit writes the answer down and passes the paper to Geer, who gets up to deliver it to the host. Brit writes the answer down again on another sheet of paper to record the results.
We have to wait a few more minutes for the answer to be revealed, but when Jefferson City is announced, cheers ring out—our table being one of the loudest.
“How’d you know that, Em?” Nori asks before she yawns. The poor girl doesn’t even wait for her cousin to answer before she folds her arms over the table, resting her head on them.
For the first time since I’ve been hanging out with Emery, she looks sheepish. And she blushes. I’ve never seen that reaction from her, but I want to know what else makes that pink color brush her cheeks. “I might have listened to this one song about the state capitols for the past week to prepare.”
“You studied during break?” Geer gives her a look.
“Yeah? So what?” she challenges. “Learning isn’t something confined to a classroom.”
“Is that why you dropped out of college?” Brit asks, but she’s not looking at Emery. She’s watching Dez at the bar, flirting with our waitress. The table quiets and Brit looks at Emery with her mouth slightly open, eyes wide.
Emery sits next to me, glaring at her best friend. “You are no longer privy to secrets.”
Nori denied coffee earlier, but hearing her cousin dropped out of college is like the espresso shot that she needs. Her head pops up. “You dropped out?”
“Says the girl who already has a diving scholarship. You have your wants and I have mine.” She’s deflecting. She does that enough around me that I’m familiar with it.
“Are Brit and I the only two that stuck with higher education?” Xavier asks.
Not many people know I went to college, but I am going to shock the hell out of him. “I have a Master’s degree in International Business.”
Eyes rotate from Emery to me, and I feel, more than see, her deflate in relief.
Dez comes back to our table soon after I tell them about my Master’s. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing as important as getting that girl’s number,” Emery snaps and even though she might be mad at Brit, she’s still sticking up for her best friend.
He gives her a look, sitting down. “What’d I miss?” he repeats to Brit, who doesn’t look at him when she answers.
“Emery’s not going to college in the spring and Bash has a Master’s degree in International Business.”
“Dude, you do?” When I nod, he leans across the table for a knuckle touch. “Badass.”
I shrug, shifting in my seat.
The only reaction I’ve gotten from people when I tell them I have a Master’s is, why? Why do you have one when you already have a career? Isn’t it splitting your focus? Do you really need it?
My parents didn’t even know I was enrolled in online classes until I invited them to my graduation. Finishing high school early thanks to being homeschooled had me able to enroll in classes at an early age, which led to early admissions, finishing my BA at twenty and graduating in August with my Master’s.
No one talks more about Emery leaving school and as the second round of trivia begins, I drop my hand on her knee. She looks up at me, mouthing thank you.
I give her knee a squeeze.
“Why haven’t we won our free beer yet?” Xavier asks, fists on the table.
I’m starting to like him a lot better than I did. I’m not a jealous person. I’m a competitive person, but last weekend I didn’t like seeing him all over Emery. At all.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been living in a bubble where it’s just her and me. And in that bubble I forget we have friends here outside of the two of us. At least she does anyway.
I just have Dez.
So, yeah. Reality set in a little but I’m adjusting.
“Maybe when we stop listening to you, we just might,” Emery says, smiling. “The one time you’ve decided to help and we’re losing.”
Xavier feigns hurt. His hands clutch over his heart, frowning. “I am a well of knowledge.”
“Of Xavier knowledge. Not facts,” Nori adds, her head resting on her folded arms on the table.
“Et tu, Anora?” He turns puppy dog eyes on her.
My feelings toward Xavier are also getting better because it’s obvious he’s not into Emery. But her cousin is another story.
At least, she’s the one he’s been heavily flirting with all night. I wonder if Emery has noticed.
Emery makes a sound at the back of her throat, eyes on the pair. I think I have my answer.
Dez and Brit are oblivious. For different reasons.
Dez was busy flirting with the waitress that wasted no time following him over and Brit is glaring at the back of his head. Looks like her night isn’t going as planned.
We make it to the third round of trivia before Nori starts to really crash. “I gotta get home.” She throws an arm over her closed eyes, mumbling noises.
Xavier stands up, walking around to help her out of her seat. “You can’t drive, Nor.”
She falls against his chest, fisting his shirt. “I can’t drive. But I gotta get home. I’m so sleepy.”
Emery stands up, my hand falling away. “You follow us in her car and bring me back here to get mine,” she tells Xavier and he nods.
Disappointment.
I feel like a dick for feeling like I do since I don’t want Nori driving home either. She can’t. She looks like she’s about to keel over. And if she falls asleep at the wheel, no telling what would happen to her.
One thing though—it wouldn’t be good.
“I’ll bring her to the car.” Xavier gathers Nori’s things, pulling a set of keys out of her bag. He says goodbye to the table before gathering Nori close and walking out.
Emery gives hugs to everyone but Dez, although he doesn’t seem bothered by it. He’s wearing a smile and waves bye before turning his attention to the waitress. Brit’s shoulders slump. Emery goes in to hug me, but I tell her, “I’ll walk you out.”
She smiles, sliding her purse onto her shoulder.
It’s a quick walk to the parking lot and too soon, we’re there. “That’s her car.”
I spy her cousin’s car before eyeing Emery. “You good to drive?”
“Yeah,” she says. “I promise. I only had that one drink earlier and didn’t even finish all of it. It’s been a few hours now, I’m good.”
“Okay.” I pull her into a hug now, but I don’t want to let her go. In my arms, it feels right. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” The question’s more rhetorical.
I see her every morning.
“Actually, I was wondering.” She smiles at me, her arms still around my neck. “Can I come over once I get my car? I don’t want tonight to be over yet.”
I don’t want tonight to be over yet, either.