My Wish for You (8 page)

“Uh…no. Not my
scene.”

“Yeah, well I
don’t want to go either.”

“So, let me get
this straight…I have to endure your pain with you?”

“Sounds about
right. Cara is making me go. She told me to bring you and Brian. So, that’s
what I’m going to do.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Please Sarah. I
need someone who is sensible to be there,” I pleaded with her.

“Fine. You’re
lucky I have sense in me. What time?”

***

“Hey,” the guy
who just walked up to me said. He was tall and looked like a surfer, extremely
tan and buff.

“Hi,” I replied.
It was nice to talk to someone I didn’t know. Everyone there seemed to go to
our school. It wasn’t even that great of a party; it was only about an hour in,
but I was bored out of my mind. Sarah was dancing with some guy she seemed to
show interest in. Brian and Alisha were God knew where, and Cara was off
schmoozing on Chad, the friend of a friend who owned the houseboat. He seemed
to be enjoying himself with her.

I’d seen Sean a
few times, all from a distance. He danced with a few girls, I danced with a few
guys...as far away from each other as we could get. Things were still extremely
awkward between us. We stayed away from each other, and when we were in close
proximity we did not make eye contact, unlike this newcomer standing next to
me.

“I’m Lance,” he
introduced himself to me, smiling.

“Samantha, but
everyone calls me Sam.” I smiled back at him.

“Well, now I
know one person here besides my cousin,” he chuckled. “I was starting to get
discouraged.”

I laughed
lightly. “I was just thinking the exact opposite. I know almost everyone here.”

He laughed with
me.

“So, who’s your
cousin?”

“Chad Lancaster.
So, you know them all how?” Lance inquired.

“Most go to my
school.”

I explained the
students and their families; how our school wasn’t a private school, but it
could easily be misconstrued as one. It was the most highly acclaimed school in
the northern area of Nevada.

Lance lived on
the coast of California with his parents, who after twenty-two years were still
happily married. He had a few brothers and sisters. Every year they could
choose anywhere they wanted to vacation. Lance, tired of all the fancy living
and the expensive overseas trips, told his parents that he wanted to go to the
mountains with his cousin.

I told him about
the fight I put up to not come, and that I rarely came up to the cabins, but my
father made me this year.

“I’m glad,” he
said sincerely. I liked Lance. He was easy to be around. Lance wasn’t absorbed
with the high class living like some rich kids were. Surprisingly, he was down
to earth, and to top it off, he was a surfer, just as I’d guessed. I loved it
when I was right.

The music was up
enough to dance, but not too much so that conversation was impossible. By now,
we were dancing while we were sharing stories.

“So, we slip
through the door real quiet. Just when I think we’re in the clear, Brian slams
the door, waking my parents up.” I laughed at the recalled memory. “Needless to
say, we both were in huge trouble.”

He joined in my
laughter a short moment before stopping mid laugh.

“Wait a
second…you’re the girl from the other night!”

I racked my
brains for a time that we had been together in the last few days. I would have
remembered, wouldn’t I?

“The one that
got in the middle of that fight,” he added.

I turned a
violent crimson.

“You saw that,
did you?”

“I think
everyone saw it,” he chuckled.

I shuddered.

“It was a kick
ass fight. I couldn’t believe you got in the middle of it. That took guts.”

“Thanks... I
guess.”

“So, you think
this is a good party?”

Crap. What do
I say to that? His cousin is the one putting on this stupid party
. I hated
being put on the spot.

“I didn’t think
so. I don’t either.”

“Things just
need to get shaken up a little.”

“So, let’s shake
things up.”

We were standing
close to the edge of the boat. Lance pulled off his shirt and kicked off his
sandals, got up on the edge of the boat, and dove in. Everyone looked over at
me with shocked expressions. I laughed freely, pulled off my clothes, revealing
a bikini, and jumped into the lake.

Many gave us
looks of insanity, but we were quickly joined by Cara and Chad. The rest of the
party quickly assumed that swimming was alright and jumped in after us. Few
stayed on the deck and danced. Some were too prissy to get wet. As it was, the
real party had begun.

Chapter Ten

I stood across
from Cara, a table between us.

“You’ve never
been able to handle A Short Trip to Hell, Cara. You might as well stop now,
while you’re
not
ahead,” I egged her on. I hadn’t been so involved in
drinking games in a while, but tonight, I had thrown everything out the window
and decided to have some fun. Of course, if—more likely when—I had a hangover,
I wouldn’t be having so much fun.

The drinking
games had started about an hour earlier. Different games were being played and
some were just drinking, but Cara and I were being watched by almost everyone.

“Trash talk isn’t
attractive, Sam,” she scolded.

“Yeah, well
neither are you. So, we’re all even.” I smiled at her taken aback face and she
shrugged it off.

“Let’s just get
on with it.”

Chad poured our
drinks and handed us our shot glasses. Lance put his hand between us as our
marker.

“On the count of
three. One…two...three!”

I dropped the
shot glass in the cup and chugged. The watchers were cheering profusely. I
emptied my glass quickly and slammed it on the table. I waited for Cara, who
wasn’t even close to being done. When she sat her glass down, she scowled at
me, and I gave her a glittering smile.

“You win this
time.” She turned to Chad. “Come on Chad, this is ridiculous.”

“It’s only
ridiculous to you Cara, and that’s only because you never win,” I teased her.
She flipped me off as she walked away. I laughed at her sourness.

“Always the sore
loser,” I said.

Lance excused
himself to go find his cousin. I was watching the party, which had ended up
being pretty fun, partially thanks to Lance and myself. I was glad to be
enjoying myself, and extremely glad that Lance was around or I probably would’ve
gone insane. I really liked him. I hoped that we would get together again after
this.

All my thoughts
were crashed by Sean, roaring drunk, stumbling over to me. I was shocked. I had
never seen him even the slightest bit drunk. He could usually hold his alcohol
well.

“Sammy, you need
to shot race me,” he slurred.

“You’re drunk,
Sean. You don’t need any more to drink,” I tried to reason with him. He shook
his head and almost lost his balance.

“I am
not
drunk. You are just chicken. I am not going to leave you alone until you race
me.” He tried to stand firmly to make a point, but failed miserably.

“Who’s this?”
Lance walked up and put his hand on the small of my back. Sean’s eyes narrowed
slightly.

“This is my
father’s best friend’s son, Sean. He has convinced himself that I am going to
shot race him.”

“So, do it. It’ll
keep him busy. We won’t be on here much longer.”

“Why?” I asked.

“We’re headed
back to shore. Chad and I came to the conclusion that there were too many
drunks on one boat to be good.”

He glanced at
Sean, who was staggering. I could see Lance visibly sizing him up and being
content with what he saw, probably feeling that he wasn’t much competition. I
felt a pang of guilt…if only he knew our background. I quickly shoved down that
feeling of guilt and put on a look of frustration.

“Fine, Sean.
Line them up.” I turned to Lance. “After this, don’t let me drink anymore.”

“Why?”

“I know when to
quit,” I answered simply. I was already pretty buzzed. These shots were sure to
send me to the edge of getting drunk. I knew that being drunk would not help
anything tonight. Lance wasn’t drinking. He told me that he would make sure I
got home safely. Despite only knowing him for a few hours, I trusted him. So, I
had let go a little, but I wanted to remember anything that might be important.

We lined up the
glasses and I had Lance pour the weakest drink there was on the boat.

“I thought you
were the heavyweight,” he joked as he poured the alcohol.

“It’s not for my
sake. It’s for his,” I muttered darkly. Sean was barely standing as he threw
back his row of shots. I went through mine faster than he did, of course. When
he looked up after his shots were finished, his eyes were filled with scrutiny.

“You cheated,”
he accused.

“I
did
not.” I got defensive.

“Yes, you did,”
he pointed a wobbly finger at me.

“How?” I said
incredulously.

“I don’t know,
but I know you did. I want a rematch,” he pouted.

I walked around
the table, put my hands on his shoulders, and steered him to an empty space to
sit.

“I’ll tell you
what,” I reasoned with him like a child. “You sit here and think about the ways
I could have possibly cheated. If you guess right, I’ll give you a rematch.”

I turned back to
Lance.

“He’s not gonna
guess right, is he?” he smirked.

“Nope.”

“How are you
feeling?”

“Rather buzzed
and a little tired.”

We found a place
near Sean to sit and talk. Lance explained to me what surfing was like since I
had never been near a surfboard. In detail, he told me how to get up, and to
watch out for waves that you didn’t want to get hit by. At one point I asked
him if he had ever seen a shark while surfing. Lance laughed and said, “No, and
if I ever did, I would probably never surf again. I’m terrified of sharks.”

Every now and
then, Sean would burst out with an idea. The ideas ranged from me dumping out
the drinks to me having an evil twin. My personal favorite: I stole Santa’s
elves to do my drinking. Each idea was quickly dismissed with a resounding “no”
and he went back to thinking. He stayed focused on finding a way so I would
have to rematch him. With no interruptions, it made it very easy for Lance and
me to talk.

The boat pulled
up to the dock and the guests piled off, heading to their transportation. I had
to help Sean get off the boat without falling. Lance helped me without
complaining. We dragged Sean over to where Sarah, Brian, and Cara were standing
with Daniel, a boy Sarah had met that night, Alisha, and Chad. They were
discussing modes of transportation.

“I can take two
more in my Jeep. So, I’ll take Alisha and Brian.”

“We’ll take one
of the quads. Sam and Sean can take the other one. There, everything is taken
care of.” Sarah had Daniel’s arm draped over her shoulder. They all laughed
when they saw Sean leaning on me.

“Brian, take
Sean home, please...,” I begged as I stumbled up to them.

“No can do,
little sis.” He knew that bothered me. I needn’t remind him that he was only a
minute older than me. He smirked as I glowered at him.

“Brian, I can
barely even hold him up!” I protested.

“I’ve got plans,”
he shrugged as I stared hopelessly at him.

“You have got to
be kidding me! I am the smallest one of the four of us. How do you expect me to
get him inside quietly? He’s the biggest!”

“You touched him
last. You know the rules,” Cara interjected, glad to get payback from her
losing streak earlier.

“Yeah, we were
all the same size then!”

“You still
agreed. Sucks to be you,” Cara laughed.

“We’re leaving,
Sam.” Brian wrapped his arm around Alisha and headed towards the Jeep. Everyone
went their separate ways.

“Yeah,
well...you can all kiss my ass!”

Brian turned
back towards me.

“Remember Sam,
if one goes down, we all go down. Then, you get your ass kicked.” He tossed the
keys at me.

“Whatever,” I
grumbled as I grabbed the keys out of the dirt. I turned to the quad and
started her up.

Lance had his
own quad and offered to follow me home. We made our way awkwardly through the
woods. Sean, who could barely keep anything coordinated, was placed between the
steering column and my body. I had problems trying to steer and the buzz didn’t
help. Although the cool air blowing in my face cleared my head, I drove slowly.
Lance kept pace along with me with no complaints. We drove mostly in silence.

We pulled up to
the quad shed and I stopped near the side that faced away from the house. I
pushed Sean lightly and he fell with a soft thud and a groan onto the ground. I
got off and dragged him out of the way of the quad. Lance helped me move him to
a bench placed against the wall.

I moved the quad
inside the shed. When I came out, Sean was lying on the bench and Lance was
standing there, waiting for me.

“I wish I could
hang out longer, but I got the short end of the stick. I need to make sure he
gets in quietly.”

“Why?” he asked
sincerely; no agitation, no anger, just simple curiosity. Man, he was amazing.

“It’s a part of
a pact we made when we were kids. We cover up for each other. And when one goes
down...we all do.”

“That’s cool.
That camaraderie.”

“Yeah, I guess.
It’s also a hindrance sometimes.”

We both laughed.
I looked up at him and he took a step closer. He lifted his hand to sweep a
strand of runaway hair out of my face, then leaned his face down towards mine.

“Could I maybe
get your number? I had a really good time to—” He cut me off, closing the gap
between us. I saw it coming, unlike the kiss I shared with Sean. I wasn’t taken
by surprise, except maybe by the fact that I really liked it. His lips were
cool from driving in the night air. His hair was frazzled as I weaved my
fingers in. I wanted to stay that way, in this cool, calculated bliss.