Landlocked (A water witch novel) (14 page)

“So, as long as Clarissa comes, I can go?” I asked putting on the biggest smile I could muster.

Dylan shook his head. “No, me and Sylvia need to meet him and then you can go as long as Clarissa goes,” he corrected.

“So why is he sending Junior Mints instead of roses?” Sylvia asked as she peered into a box.

“Well, he had said he was going to get me and Clarissa some candy, I asked for Junior Mints, she asked for Dots, but a family emergency came up,” I said looking at Clarissa communicating the fact that the movie night as it went down wasn’t to be told to them. “So he says this is what he owes us plus interest.”

Dylan laughed. “I like his style,” he said grabbing a box of junior mints. “So, where can I meet this guy? He isn’t hiding in your closet or camping out on the dock right?”

“Of course not!” I shouted a little too fast. “He’s staying at that gray house over on the east side, the one that is out on the water like ours.”

“All right, you girls have fun shopping, I’ll go have a chat with Romeo,” Dylan said, looking out the window toward the house in question.

“What!” I sputtered. I was hoping to be present for the meeting. He would be so embarrassing without me there to reel him in. “Why don’t we just meet up in town right before you two go out with Johnny.”

Sylvia piped in. “That’s a great idea, Dylan. Us girls will be in town anyway, why don’t you give Jaron a ride, and we’ll meet up there.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s the plan, let Jaron know that I‘ll be picking him up, Mari. Now, you girls go have fun.”

I groaned and looked over at Clarissa as my uncle and aunt left to the kitchen for a private conversation. “Do you believe them? I hope they don’t embarrass me too much,” I whispered.

Clarissa popped a red dot into her mouth and spoke while chomping it down, very un-debutant of her. “I would usually side with you, but after he bailed at the movies—” I opened my mouth to protest, but she glared at me. “Don’t give me the family emergency thing. Even if it was one, he couldn’t come tell us really quick, or told a theater employee to pass on the message?”

I pursed my lips, she was right, but I wanted to argue. “If something came up and he didn’t think to say anything, that just shows how big of an emergency it really was,” I narrowed my eyes, daring her to argue.

She raised her hands. “Like I said, I’m on your side. I just think it’s a good thing to be a little cautious after something like that. I’m not telling you to write him off, I think he’s kinda funny, and he almost killed Brad for touching you, which shows he has a protective side. Just don’t throw your heart at him until you know he won’t break it.”

I hated that everything she was saying made so much sense. But I didn’t know if the advice was given too little too late or if it ever would have mattered. I was about to tell Clarissa what happened last night—after all she was my best friend and I couldn’t wait to tell her about my first kiss—but Sylvia walked into the room.

“Let’s get going girls! And try not to fill up on candy, I wanted to take you both to brunch,” Sylvia said in a pout. “Honestly what are you supposed to do with all of that?” She rolled her eyes and opened the front door ushering us out.

“Better than getting flowers, all they do is die a slowly,” Clarissa said while walking out into the sunshine. “How is that romantic?”

After brunch and three dress shops, Clarissa finally found a boutique full of dresses that she felt had the Ka-Pow effect, though I didn’t know what batman sounds had to do with anything. The shop was painted and decorated in soft blush tones with gray accents. The waiting room had a clamshell couch stationed in front of three dressing rooms. Clarissa was in the left room trying on a royal blue ball gown that would have been too much for me, but I thought it suited her perfectly. Sylvia was sitting next to me on the couch still looking stressed out. “Are you stressed about the painting, or me dating?” I asked her, pulling her out of her thoughts.

She smiled at me. “A little of both I guess, it’s hard for me to know what to do when it comes to this next phase of your life,” she said biting her lip. “I’m responsible for your safety and happiness, but I am unsure as to what that means in regards to boys…I just wish I could talk to your mother. She always knew what the right path was.” She looked at me holding back tears and threw her arms around my neck. “Most of the time, with you around, it’s like I never lost her. You are alike in so many ways. But now, I just feel so lost without her.”

“It’s okay,” I said hugging her tightly. “I feel that way too sometimes, but we have each other and Dylan, and we should just be thankful for that. So many people don’t even have that much.” She pulled away and I tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

“Just tell me that you will be careful and won’t do anything stupid, like run off to Vegas with this boy or something equally stupid,” she said straight faced.

“Are you serious?” I laughed, though the thought of doing anything like that with Jaron was a welcomed fantasy.

“Yes I’m serious, teenagers are scary!” she said.

“Yes, we’re terrifying, if you feed us after midnight or get us wet.” I laughed, thinking of gremlins. Sylvia’s eyes grew as wide as tea saucers and I spoke quickly. “No, I won’t run to Vegas or anything equally as insane.”

“All right.” Sylvia let out a breath. “I guess I’ll try to get used to the idea of you dating… Responsibly,” she added.

The curtain to the dressing room swung open. “Ka-Pow! Right?” Clarissa said ,making her way to the platform surrounded by mirrors. The bodice was tight and covered with silver sequins that trickled down the full skirt. The silver against the blue was striking and reminded me of stars in the night’s sky.

“I don’t know about Ka-Pow, but wow is accurate,” I said, standing up. “You look so gorgeous girl!” I felt bad that Clarissa’s mom wasn’t there, but she was absent at all of Clarissa‘s other activities, so I shouldn‘t have been surprised. She was always at a salon or luncheon or some other completely self-involved activity. But the debutant ball was something that Clarissa’s mom had insisted on, so I thought this would be different. Then she didn’t even want to come and help her daughter pick out a dress.

Whenever I glimpsed their relationship, I felt lucky. I thought it would be worse to have a mom who didn’t care to be around me than it was having a mom who was dead and had no other choice. That woman had no idea what she was choosing to go without. Clarissa was honest and loved deep. I hoped my friend realized her mom was the one missing out, not the other way around. Luckily she had her father and she was a Daddy’s girl through and through.

“Oh, Clarissa,” Sylvia said, coming up behind me. “I have never seen you look so beautiful; you have to let me buy the dress!” She ran her hand down the skirt.

“No, it’s okay. Mom gave me a credit card,” Clarissa said looking down.

“No, I insist. It’s not every day Maribel’s best friend becomes a debutant,” she said, walking to the attendant. “Not another word, it’s on us.”

Clarissa laughed as the attendant took Sylvia to the cash register. “You want to help me get out of this thing?” she asked me.

“Sure.” I said following her into the room.

“Blue is like the opposite of pink, right?” she asked me as I fastened the curtain.

“Uh…I guess. Why?” I asked undoing the buttons that ran down the back.

“Oh, I’m sure you could guess.” She laughed, but it almost sounded like a cry.

I pursed my lips, oh jeez. This was the hair all over again. Clarissa’s mother had told her to wear her thick long hair in tight ringlets like she had at her own ball, and like ever debutant should. Clarissa agreed and her mom set up an appointment at the nicest salon in town so they could go over different styles, but when she didn’t show up after two hours of waiting, Clarissa had them bleach her hair and chop it off into a pixie cut. “Your mom wanted you to wear pink?” I asked.

“Yes,” she sniffled. “But if she really cared she would have come here with me.” She slipped out of the dress and pulled her, well my, silk blouse back on. “I don’t really care, I like blue better anyway.”

“Me too.” I smiled. “The blue was pretty on your skin.”

“What do you think, Mom?” she asked pulling the credit card out of her purse and holding it up. “No objections here,” she said laughing.

“Good, we’d need to have a talk if you heard voices coming from your credit cards.”

“What? I hear them all the time.” Clarissa held the credit card to her ear and whispered in a funny voice. “Buy things, buy things.”

I laughed out loud and hung the dress back up on the hanger. “Well since Sylvia is getting your dress we should use that to go get you some jewelry or a pair of new shoes.”

“Why not both? A girl only has one eighteenth birthday party slash debutant ball,” she said as she stashed the card back in her purse. “You still haven’t told me what happened with Jaron. How did he know you were here, anyway?”

I thought about our last meeting and my cheeks warmed.

“Holy Hannah, something happened, tell me!”

I cursed myself for being so easily read and reminded myself that I had wanted to tell her. “Well the house that he is staying at is pretty close to ours, and I saw him jump into the lake from his deck, but I didn’t know it was him. When I didn’t see the person come out of the water, I was going to jump in to rescue him, but he popped out of the water right in front of me. And it was Jaron,” I said, shrugging.

“And… I know there’s more. You wouldn’t have turned bright red if that was all there was to it,” she prodded, and I sighed. She always had to know everything.

“Well I took off my shoes and my shirt to dive into the water and still had them both off when he decided to make an appearance.” I cringed at the memory, but knew that wasn’t at all why I blushed when Clarissa prodded. I realized I didn’t want to tell her about the sweet stolen kisses that Jaron and I had shared. They were a secret that only he and I knew about, and it was nice having something that was just ours, even if it was just the memory of a fleeting moment.

“Did you at least have a bra on?” Clarissa said too loudly and clasped her hand over her mouth.

“Yes!” I whispered, hoping that Sylvia hadn’t heard.

“That’s good, I would have thought that Jaron had even more magic than I realized if he could see you topless that quickly,” she teased.

I laughed. “What do you mean even more magic?”

“Well he has to have some to have you notice him doesn‘t he. I mean, you’ve never paid attention to any of the other hotties at school,” she said.

I thought about last night and how I'd felt drawn to him like a magnet, and how his lips had felt on mine. Just the memory had all of my nerves standing at attention.

“Maybe he has some,” I allowed as we stepped out of the dressing room.

Sylvia was waiting for us by the door. “Hey, girls,” she said as we approached. “I have the dress ordered in your size. It will make it to your house before the ball.”

“That’s lucky. I’ve put it off so long waiting for… I’m just glad that I’ll have a dress to wear. My ball is so soon.”

“Don’t worry about a thing. I can tailor it so it fits perfect!” Sylvia assured.

Clarissa eyes glistened for a moment before she shook off the emotion. “Thanks, Sylvia, you always do too much for me.” She cleared her throat a few times.

“Well I love that Mari has such a spunky friend to watch out for her when I‘m not around.” Sylvia gave Clarissa a hug. “Now let’s go find those boys!”

I tensed up and opened my phone to re-read the text Jaron had sent me after I messaged him my uncle’s plan. My phone dinged and I read his text.

If I don’t show up with him, form a search party ;)

I knew he was just joking, but I was still nervous about the thought of him with Dylan.

***

We showed up at Johnny’s before Jaron and Dylan, and he told us to wait out front while he closed up shop. He came out with a little white box in his hand.

“This is for you Maribel,” he said with a grin.

I looked up at Sylvia, but she shrugged. Apparently she wasn’t any more clued in than me. The box was about three inches square and took up my whole hand. I lifted the lid off and drew in a breath. Nestled in a layer of cotton laid a beautiful charm bracelet. It was made of the gold and coral beads that had caught my eye the day before. It had three charms hanging from it. I took the first one I recognized in my fingers. It was a small golden book. I didn’t know how Johnny knew of my love for reading, but the charm suited me well. The second had an uneven circular shape, and when I inspected it closer, I realized that it looked like an island of some sort. The third charm was a bit larger than the others, and at first glance, I thought it was the letter S. But when I brought it up to my eyes, I jumped. It was a snake, no not a snake; the creature was more human looking than a snake. The small figurine was very detailed. I could see every scale along its body, and its life-like arms seemed to be reaching out as if to grab me.