Awaken (2 page)

The sound of the front door closing
interrupted Diane, and I turned to see Maddox coming down the hall
with his younger brother, Noah, several steps behind.

I swallowed. I’d only seen Noah a few times
over the years, with the most recent being Christmas when he’d come
to visit his mom. I think I’d managed three words. And right now,
with his skin tanned golden and his deep green eyes looking amazing
beneath the sandy flop of his sun-streaked hair, three words would
have been hard to come by.

“Oh hey,” Maddox said to us as he came into
the room, a paper bag of groceries in his arms. Dark as his brother
was light, Maddox took after their father, while Noah had his
mother’s hair and eyes – though with their height and muscles, they
both looked like crosses between surfers and bodybuilders. Maddox
set down the bag. “When’d you all get in?”

“Just a few minutes ago,” Baylie said,
grinning as Maddox came over and gave her a hug. “You guys went
shopping?”

“Eh, well, you know. Gotta help out
occasionally.” He smiled at me as Noah gave Baylie a hug as well.
“Hey Chloe.”

“Hey,” Noah added to me, twitching his chin
in greeting.

“Hi.”

Feeling something of an idiot, I looked back
to the view beyond the windows, hoping the glare hid any treasonous
blushing my face might have decided to do. It was stupid. There
were plenty of decent-looking guys that I saw every day back home.
Of course, they were local boys and most of them knew me as that
girl with the weird parents – which, obviously, wasn’t particularly
appealing.

And besides, Noah went way beyond
decent-looking, straight on to hot.

I could feel my face getting red. Taking a
deep breath, I focused on watching the water rolling in.

“So you boys want to get the grill started
up?” Diane suggested.

“Sure,” Maddox said. From the corner of my
eye, I saw him head for the patio door, and Noah followed.

Air escaped me and when I looked back toward
the kitchen, I found Baylie watching me curiously.

I pushed a smile onto my face. “Want to get
unpacked?”

“Alright,” Baylie said.

She headed for the stairs, motioning me to
follow.

“You okay?” she asked as we left the
kitchen.

“Uh-huh.”

She didn’t look convinced. And I didn’t
really want to explain.

“So what one are we in?” I asked as we
reached the second floor. I glanced at the doorways lining the
hall, trying to cover for the awkward moment.

Baylie led the way to a large bedroom at the
end of the long hall. White carpet covered the floor, the same as
in the hallway, but the walls here were pale blue. Sheer curtains
hung over the window that faced out onto the backyard and the
ocean, and two queen-sized beds flanked it. A woven chair stuffed
with pillows sat to one side of the room, while a dresser stood
nearby, fashionably flaked and vintage-looking paint covering it.
Starfish and seahorses were nestled in corners of the ceiling, as
were fishermen’s nets, while twin skylights let the sun shine down
on each of the beds.

“Wow,” I said.

“Diane loves decorating almost as much as
cooking,” Baylie replied with a grin.

I felt like repeating myself, and settled for
nodding appreciatively. We headed for our bags, which had been set
on the beds. Unzipping my backpack, I hesitated over the contents,
and then drew out a sundress. A couple days in a bag hadn’t done it
any favors, and I glanced toward the rest of my meager wardrobe,
trying to recall if I’d stuffed anything else appropriate in
there.

My gaze caught on the window. Through the
glass, I could see Noah and his brother getting the grill
prepared.

Baylie cleared her throat. I flinched.

“Uh-huh,” she said.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

I glared.

“What? Noah’s pretty cute.”

There was something weird in her voice. My
brow furrowed.

Baylie grimaced. Casting a glance back to the
open door, she sighed. “It’s just… Look, Noah’s great. Really. But
lately…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s not like he used
to be. He’s… quieter.”

I gave her a skeptical look. I couldn’t
understand how that was a bad thing. At least, not to the degree
that she seemed worried about it. “Quieter?”

Appearing uncomfortable, Baylie shrugged.
“It’s probably nothing.”

Her expression belying her words, she went
back to pulling clothes from her bag.

I looked to the window. By the grill, Maddox
said something, and Noah nodded, his eyes on the horizon. And then
he turned, glancing directly at the window behind which I
stood.

Alarmed, I stepped back, and then scowled at
myself for being so excitable. There wasn’t anything odd about what
he’d just done. He’d just happened to look up at where I was
standing, right when I happened to look down at him.

Which surely was a coincidence.

My goose bumps didn’t want to listen. Still
scowling, I took the dress and headed away from the window,
determined not to let a silly reaction to what had obviously been a
fluke moment ruin my evening.

~~~~~

“So I told him ‘Only if you take the lobster
back too!’”

Everyone laughed, though Noah and Maddox
couldn’t quite hide an expression like they’d both heard their
dad’s joke before. Flames crackled in the fire pit in front of us,
and the empty plates from dinner still lay to the side of our deck
chairs.

“Well, I should get dessert,” Diane
announced, rising to her feet. Smiling at Peter, she headed for the
house.

Silence fell for a moment, and the rush of
the tide on the sands filled the quiet. My attention drifted toward
the horizon, and the dark water there.

“So you have any summer plans, Chloe?” Peter
asked. “Besides this, of course.”

I blinked, pulling my gaze back to him. “Not
really,” I replied, knowing I’d probably be grounded for at least a
few weeks when I got home, so there wasn’t much point. My parents
wouldn’t take kindly to me coming out here without their
permission. “Just hanging out, I guess.”

Peter smiled. “Sounds like fun.” He glanced
up as Diane came out, a tray of bite-sized cakes in her hands.
Bringing them over, she held the tray out to each of us, letting us
choose one of the fruit-topped desserts.

“Well, I could go for some volleyball,” Peter
announced as he finished his cake.

Baylie gulped down her bite of dessert. “But
it’s dark,” she countered, surprised.

“Eh, the court has lights.” He gestured
toward the sandpit on the far side of the yard. “Besides, it’s so
dark beyond the court, you can pretend we have spectators watching,
like at the Olympics or something.”

She laughed as he climbed to his feet. “So
who’s with me?” Peter asked us.

I couldn’t keep the doubtful look off of my
face, but the expression just seemed to amuse him.

“Oh, come on,” he said, chuckling.
“Volleyballs are stored over here.”

“I’ll join you in a minute,” Diane offered,
taking up the empty tray and then heading for the house.

Peter nodded. Motioning to the others, he
started toward the shed in one corner of the yard. Grinning, Baylie
followed him, and Noah shared a humored glance with Maddox as they
stood to do the same.

I watched them go, and then turned back to
the water. Pushing away from my chair, I headed for the wooden
steps leading to the beach.

The stairway ended at the base of the bluffs,
and as I left the stairs, my flip-flops sank into the cool sand. A
few yards away, the tide slid up the beach and then pulled back,
returning to the black water that stretched out until it blended
with the sky. Stars glittered like diamonds overhead, their tiny
lights pushing past the ambient glow of the city, while far in the
distance, clouds gathered, their shapes picked out by the
moonlight. For only a heartbeat, a flash of lightning shot down,
illuminating the thunderheads and revealing the line of the
horizon.

It was beautiful, and everything I’d hoped to
see.

My gaze drifting up to the pinprick stars, I
walked closer to the water. At the edge of the wet sand, I slipped
out of my sandals and then stepped into the gently moving tide.

Tingles spread across my skin as the cool
seawater slid around my feet. It felt so
right
here. So
perfect and peaceful, yet filled with an energy so vast, I could
only begin to perceive it.

And if I could, I’d have spent eternity here
just to try.

“Incredible, isn’t it?”

Startled, I turned. Noah sat on a fallen rock
at the base of the bluffs, his eyes on the horizon like he was
reading something in the rolling water.

Frustration hit me, pushing back the edge of
the calm that had encompassed me only a moment before. I couldn’t
figure out how he’d gotten down the steps without me noticing, but
I didn’t want anyone else here, taking this. Not understanding
this. No one ever had, and now that I was standing here, on the
edge of the deep, protecting how much it meant to me felt more
important than ever.

I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s okay,” I said,
the words so neutral compared to the shivers still running through
me that they almost hurt.

He glanced to me, his brow furrowing
slightly, as if that hadn’t been the answer he’d expected.

“Huh,” he replied, a touch coldly. He
returned his attention to the ocean.

I bit my lip. My gaze twitched to the horizon
and the distant storm there.

“I love it,” I admitted.

Looking back, I caught sight of a half-smile
flickering across his face. He nodded.

I hesitated and then walked back through the
water toward him. He motioned to the large rock, and said nothing
as I climbed up next to him.

“Aren’t the others going to miss you?” I
asked, nodding to the top of the bluffs and the glow from the
volleyball court lights.

He shrugged. “They have enough players.”

The rush of water became the only sound. My
gaze slid around, skirting over the ocean and the sand and trying
to find somewhere to be with him only a few inches away. With
natural ease, he sat on the rough stone, his feet braced on its
side and his elbows propped on his knees. Moonlight traced the edge
of his face, silvering his tanned skin and casting him partly into
shadow.

I swallowed. He looked incredible. And
earlier, he’d been creepy as anything, suddenly glancing up at the
bedroom window like he had.

Though that’d just been a coincidence, I
tried to remind myself. I was being ridiculous to let it freak me
out.

“So you’re Baylie’s neighbor,” he said into
the silence, a question twisting through the statement.

“Yeah.”

“Live near her long?”

“Since we were four.”

He paused, the timing clicking. “Oh.”

The awkward pause stretched.

“Yeah,” I filled in. “Her dad moved there
before…”

I trailed off. Baylie’s mother had died of
cancer that next year. It was part of why Baylie and I knew each
other so well. She’d spent a lot of time at my house, after school
while her dad worked, before he’d married Noah’s mom.

Noah nodded.

“You ever been to the ocean before?” he asked
after a moment.

I shook my head. “I always wanted to see it,
though.”

A heartbeat passed as he watched the water.
“You could’ve come with Baylie to visit us sooner.”

I glanced at him. He didn’t look at me. “It’s
complicated.”

Silence returned. I swallowed, still feeling
awkward. It was just the two of us for as far as I could see in
either direction, and from the way he was sitting there, he seemed
like one of the stones, comfortable with the idea of remaining
silently by the seashore for eternity.

Quieter, Baylie had said. I didn’t have much
to go on for how he’d been before, but now… he was certainly
that.

I looked down to my legs, absently noting the
drying salt from the water glistening faintly on my skin. I
probably should just go back up to the house. I wanted to stay, to
get as close to the deep water as I dared, but with him here…

“I’m glad you came,” Noah said.

I blinked.

“Even if,” he acknowledged the words with a
shrug, “it’s complicated.”

I hesitated. “Me too.”

He smiled and returned his attention to the
water. “I always wondered what it would be like, growing up
somewhere else. Somewhere away from the ocean. It’s just such
a…”

“Force,” I filled in when he trailed off.

He looked back. “Yeah,” he replied, as though
pleasantly surprised.

I could feel heat spreading like wildfire up
my neck and I turned my face away, hoping the shadows hid the
blush.

“And I can’t imagine what that’d be like,” he
finished. “Not having it nearby.”

I hesitated. I didn’t know what to tell him.
I’d always wanted to come here, and now that I was sitting only a
few yards from the water…

It was like a sound you’d heard all your
life, but so faintly you’d never noticed it. And now, being so
close to the source, almost
immersed
in the amazing,
overwhelming source, you suddenly realized what you’d been
hearing.

And what you’d been missing.

“Not as nice as this,” I whispered.

He looked over at me. I could feel the blush
coming back.

“You think everyone feels like that?” he
asked.

My mind tossed up a few shining memories of
my parents. They’d thrown away every picture of the ocean that I
drew in school. They’d ripped pages from books that mentioned the
sea. They’d punished me for asking them to paint my room blue.

“No,” I answered, certainty hardening my
voice more than I intended.

He paused.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure some people don’t,”
I amended, trying not to grimace and hoping he wouldn’t ask for
more.