2 Deja Blue (5 page)

“So, tomorrow,
Nico
and
Rubino
, you both just go on to the beach by yourselves and have a good time with your friends. We will probably get there a bit later, and then we can all head to lunch together, okay?” He was smiling, looking back and forth from Nick to me.

Wait. I must have missed something. Apparently, Nick and I were going to get some more alone time…well, almost-alone time. Anya and Brennan would be meeting us
at the beach
, but still. We’d be parent-free! This trip was turning out better than I thought! I looked over at Nick, who was smiling. “Mom really loves those craft booths,” he nodded.
Ahhh
.
They were going to walk through the arts and crafts
fair
that was set up for the festival, instead of going to the beach with us.
Excellent.
More time for me to ogle my hot new boyfriend
,
shirtless in his swimsuit. Just the thought of lying on the beach next to Nick’s
tanned,
muscular body
was making my insides twist
with excitement.  I gazed dreamily at Nick
,
and I almost got goose bumps thinking of rubbing sunscreen over his broad shoulders and back. I wanted to lean over and kiss those soft smiling lips right now. Yikes. I better relax. I still had to get through the next twelve hours and sleep in the same hotel suite with these people. I didn’t want his parents to think I was some ho-bag. By the time dessert was done and Nick grabbed my hand to walk me out of the restaurant, I hardly gave Mr. Creepy Dark Shadows guy a second thought.

Chapter 6

It was early when I woke up in the morning. Or
,
should I say when
somebody
woke me up. I was curled up on my side,
tucked under the sheets on the q
ueen-sized pull-out bed, with my head cradled in the super-soft pillow (which was ten times nicer than the one I had in my stupid twin bed at home…I wonder if I could stuff one of these pillows
into my duffel bag before I leave
?) Suddenly
,
chills r
an
down my spine
,
and the side of my neck tickled. Nick (who was already fully-dressed) had silently crawled into my bed (on top of the blankets)
,
wrapped his arm around my waist
,
and nuzzled at my neck to stir me out my sleep. At first, I laid there smiling in contentment for a second
,
and then I jolted upright
,
yanking the covers up under my chin, “
Ohmygosh
hh
! Your parents! They’re right next door! Get the hell outta my bed-couch-thing-
whateverthehell
it is! They’re
gonna
think I’m a ho-bag!” Nick started laughing, “Relax, Ruby! It’s cool…my dad just went down to breakfast to read the paper
,
and my mom is in the shower.” I relaxed back against the couch-bed-headboard. Whew, I
sighed
a breath of relief. Nick leaned forward to kiss me again and my eyes got wide as I jerked my hand up to cover my mouth. I’m pretty sure I had stinky morning breath. Oh God! He can’t kiss me now. It would totally gross him out. “I
gotta
brush my teeth first,” I mumbled underneath my hand. Nick shook his head. “
Whatev
,” he
said as he sprawled back, folding his arms behind his head and crossing his feet in front of him. I scurried off the other side of the bed and trotted into the bathroom to vigorously brush my teeth. While I was in there, I quickly threw on my sky-blue, not-too-revealing bikini bathing suit and pulled on my cutoffs and a white tank top. I also took a few seconds and ran a brush through my snarled hair – no use showering right now because we were just going
t
o the beach to swim anyway. I walked back out (hoping to look sexy, but probably just looking dorky) and crawled onto the bed, sitting on my knees, next to Nick. “Ready,” I sheepishly smiled at him.

That sexy, amazing smile spread across his face
,
and he pulled me down to his chest and laid one on me. And I mean he
really
laid one on me. This was a super-intense, face-mashing kiss that took my breath away, literally. Nick’s hands started roaming down towards my butt, and frankly, I think I lost all ability to think at that moment. That’s when we heard the door to the other bathroom unlock and open. I jumped up faster than a jack-rabbit
,
and Nick sat up awkwardly as we both whipped our heads in the general direction of the bathroom door. Sure enough, Mrs. Martino stood there in her white, terrycloth bathrobe and her hair wrapped up in a towel.

“You two are being respectable, aren’t you?” she smiled, only half-looking at us while adjusting her twisted towel on top of her head.

“Yeah, yes.
Um.
Yes Ma’am.” I stuttered out. Oh crap. She is
so
gonna
think I’m a skank ho-bag….
sprawled out
all over her son on a queen-sized un-made bed!
Gahhhh
! I wanted to crawl somewhere and die of embarrassment.

“Okay, well I’m going to finish getting dressed and meet your father for breakfast in about 30 minutes. You kids head down whenever you want. We’ll see you around 1:30 today for lunch, okay? Dad and I probably won’t make it to the beach.” She smiled, walked through the suite and poured herself a cup of coffee from the little kitchenette and then leisurely walked back to her bedroom. Whew. I guess she really didn’t notice us doing anything inappropriate. I let out another big sigh. Nick sat up and started kissing me again, but this time I was able to control myself. I pushed against his chest and shook my head, “
Nuh
-uh, your mom is right next door and could walk back in at any sec. C’mon, let’s go eat so we can get to the beach early.” Nick let out a deflated sigh, “Alright, alright,” he said, shaking his head as he climbed out
of
the un-made bed. He stuck his hand out to pull me up
,
and I took it, smiling. We quickly folded the bed back into the couch and headed down to the breakfast buffet. Frankly, I was still a bit jittery from that kissing and then Mrs. Martino walking in on us, and couldn’t
really imagine trying to eat right now, but I knew I’d be hungry soon. 

It was still only about 8 a.m. when we made our way out to the beach.  Anya and Brennan wouldn’t be meeting us at the beach until about 10. I smiled to myself…two whole hours of alone-time with
Mr. Hotness
. I was a lucky girl, indeed.

The beach was still deserted since it was so early in the morning
,
and we
spread
out our towels on some of the white lounge chairs in a prime spot. I peeled off my cutoffs as lady-like as I could and sat down to wriggle out of my tank-top and g
enerously spray
on some sunscreen
.
Nick stood
,
surveying the water and peeling off his bright yellow t-shirt. He stood there looking out across the horizon,
squinting
his eyes, in his orange and white board shorts
,
looking absolutely fantastic. He turned down to look at me and caught me staring. “Wow, Rube. That suit looks cool on you. Totally
makes your eyes look blue. Aren’t they normally green?
”
H
e smiled at me and I started blushing.
I wasn’t going to correct him and tell him that my eyes were always blue. Boys don’t really notice those kinds of things anyway…right?
I felt my cheeks warming as I looked down and tried to keep busy with shoving my sunscre
en back into my beach bag. “Uh
…
t
hanks,” I mumbled.
Geesh
.
I’ve been dating the guy for weeks now and he still make
s
me all tongue-tied! I stood up and looked out at the water, still aware that Nick was checking me out. I looked over at him, “Race
ya
to the buoy?” I
smiled with a devilish grin. I am a super-fast swimmer. Having grown up on Lake Missaukee, I swam almost every day the weather would allow it…
From
spring
,
as soon as the ice melted
to
fall, just before the lake froze over. Northern Michiganders have cold blood. We’ll even wear flip flops in the winter for Pete’s sake! Nick was a good swimmer, but I was pretty sure I could beat him out to the buoy. “You got it!” Nick shouted as he took off running towards the water, kicking up sand in his wake.
“
Heyyyy
!”
I called after him, “CHEATER!” He turned back while still running, “
Ya
snooze,
ya
lose!” He chuckled and started running into the water. Dammit! I ran after him. He got a huge head start on land, but I’ll catch his cute butt in the water. He’ll be sorry. It was pretty shallow for a while, so I had to run a good 20 to 30 feet into the surf before I dove forward and started swimming. Nick was about ten feet in front of me. I went under and propelled myself forward with almost lightning speed. Within seconds, I came up for air and realized I had caught up to Nick, “Damn, Ruby!
You caught me!”
Nick shouted as he struggled to maintain his pace and keep up with me. I went under water again and zipped through the water like an eel. I felt fast. Was I swimming even faster than I could before? It seemed effortless. It was like all I had to do was think about swimming and my body knew how to react. Feeling weightless, I jetted under the water and could see the buoy bouncing in front of me under the waves
.  I came up for air again,
turned to look for Nick
,
and saw
that he was now about fifteen feet behind me, swimming with all his power towards the buoy.

“Holy
c
rap!”
Nick gasped as he approached me, “I (gasp)…
I
….didn’t think…you… (
deep
gasping breaths)…were that fast R
u
b
e
!” He was panting, hanging on
to
the buoy and struggling to catch his breath, while I just easily treaded water, smiling like a goofball, not even a bit out of breath. Huh. It
did
seem a little odd that I wasn’t even the slightest bit
winded
after that swim. Then, a feeling of dread
sunk into
me and my smile slowly faded as the realization came: a new
Fairy
super-power…Super-fast swimming. Well, I suppose it made sense.
Sirrush
was
a
dragon –
and Anya had
said
to me
that
he
was part
of the Water Court of Fey.
Though not Royalty, h
e was a creature gifted in both the water and in the air. You see,
Sirrush
also had the talent of flying. (Not all dragons could fly. Just like not all dragons could hide their appearance with cloaking.
Sirrush
could fly, but couldn’t cloak
himself with invisibility
.) Another sensation of dread washed through me again.
Awww
crap.
Am I going
to
sprout wings soon? So far, I hadn’t noticed any scales growing (Thank God), but wings could get a bit tricky to disguise. I silently freaked out about this new revelation, but I tried to calm myself because logically, I knew I probably wouldn’t suddenly
grow
wings. Anya or Brennan would have told me something like that. Wouldn’t they?  Nick finally let go of the buoy,
fully
recovered from the laborious swim.
A look of
concern spread across his face as he asked,
“Hey, you okay?” Shoot. I guess I kind of spaced out there for a while during my sudden realization of my new “gift” of swimming super-power from
Sirrush
. Oh boy. Say
that
ten times fast. Swimming super-pow
er from
Sirrush
…I shook my head at my own distracting thoughts and silently scolded myself.
Stay in the moment
,
Ruby!

“Yeah,
yeah.
I’m fine. Just a little tired from that swim I guess,” I chuckled uneasily, as I grabbed onto the buoy, hoping my little lie seemed believable. I guess being able to swim really fast isn’t so bad. I mean, it could come in handy one day…if I ever had to get away from another dragon…or perhaps a runaway shark? Hey! Maybe I can make the Varsity Swim Team this year at school! I tried to nonchalantly look over my arms and feel around my neck, just to make sure I didn’t have scales or gills…When Harry Potter grew those weird gi
lls on the side of his neck in
The Goblet of
Fire
,
that
really grossed me out.
Fah-reeeaky
.
Okay. Everything
seemed
normal. No gills or scales
…
yet.