Shaken Not Stirred (Mixology) (27 page)

Now, I know what you’re thinking. This is
going to be one of those stories about the death of a loved one
spurring a girl down a path of self-discovery. It’s not. My cousin
is alive and well, and at the time of this story was in Malawi with
the Peace Corps. The list was her way of preparing me for the wilds
of college (her words, not mine). Amy was under the impression that
I was entirely unprepared for the life of a coed.

I still remember her exact words. We were
hanging out in her room at her parents’ house while she packed.
“Juliet, sweetheart, you know I love you, right?”

I glanced at her apprehensively. “Yeah…”

“So know that, when I say this, it’s out of
love.” She tossed a huge pile of t-shirts into her large black
duffel.

I tensed. “Should I be scared?”

“No.” She smiled her million-dollar,
brings-guys-to-their-knees smile, and I knew I should actually be
terrified.

“Okay.” I clasped my hands together, refusing
to look at my chipped nail polish.

She flipped long, dark hair off her shoulder.
“I’m worried about you.”

“Worried?”

“I don’t want you to totally drown next
year.” She shoved a small, pink envelope into my hand. “Here, don’t
open this until after graduation.”

“But you won’t be here. You leave
tomorrow.”

She gave me her signature ‘duh’ look. “I’m
well aware. Just open it, and do exactly what it says.”

“This kind of feels like the beginning of a
YA novel.”

She laughed. “No. Trust me. The contents of
this letter are not YA appropriate.”

My stomach dropped. What was Amy getting me
into?

I brought the envelope home and stared at it
about four times a day for the next two weeks. Obviously, I could
have just opened it, but I’m usually kind of a rules person. Each
time I started to tear open the envelope, I chickened out. I kept
picturing Amy’s perfectly made up face yelling at me. I know that
description doesn’t quite fit with a girl who joined the Peace
Corps, but if you knew Amy, you’d understand. She was just Miss
Perfect. It wasn’t until I got home from a graduation party at a
friend’s house that I finally opened it. As I unfolded the pale
pink paper, a Georgia driver’s license saying I was twenty-two fell
into my lap. I set aside the fake ID and read the note.

Juliet’s Must-Do Before College List

1) Get drunk (and no, a buzz from sugary
drinks does not qualify as drunk).

2) Go to a bar. Any bar will do, but you need
to at least know what they look like inside.

3) Wear something you know would give your
father a heart attack if he saw it.

4) Kiss a random guy, and don’t let it go
further.

5) Go skinny dipping.

I’m sure you expect me to detail how I
crossed the first four items off my list, but this story isn’t
about the first four. It’s about what happened when I did number
five.

Finally alone, I reveled in the silence,
looking out the large floor-to-ceiling windows of my family’s beach
house. My grandparents had bought the house located just outside of
Charleston, South Carolina years ago, before Kiawah became a
retreat for millionaires. They were generous and let the entire
extended family use it whenever we wanted. After two weeks of
sharing the house with five other people, I was excited to have it
to myself.

I’d decided to stay an extra day, craving
some alone time before I had to give up all of my privacy and move
in with some random girl. The whole idea of having a roommate
sounded good in theory, but knowing my luck, I’d be living with my
exact opposite or something even worse.

Sitting cross-legged on the ultra-comfy bed
(now that everyone had left, I had moved up from the pull-out
couch), I took the now crinkled letter out of my green REI
backpack. Go skinny dipping. If I was ever going to do it, an empty
beach house was the perfect place. Besides, I was running out of
time. School started in just a few weeks.

It was already after nine, and the last
remnants of the sun had disappeared. I picked out my favorite red
bikini and changed. I’d have to ease into the whole thing, maybe
jump in the pool and then take it off. It’s funny that getting
drunk and kissing a random guy didn’t scare me, but getting naked
in a pool seemed terrifying. I just wasn’t comfortable being naked.
I knew my body wasn’t bad. I was decently thin with curves in all
the right places—namely my chest. The few guys I’d been with always
seemed happy enough with my body, but I still didn’t like shedding
my clothes. I know some girls walk around their rooms naked. Not
me. I was dried off and in clothes within minutes of getting out of
the shower. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I loved sitting around
in a towel, but you had to be careful doing that when you lived in
a house with a couple of brothers.

I changed into my bikini and headed outside.
One side of the house bordered the woods, and the house on the
other side had been empty for the two weeks I’d been at the beach.
I knew that well. I’d been disappointed when the Bradleys failed to
show up.

Something was still missing. If I was going
skinny dipping, I was going to do it right. I went back inside to
get my iPod. I plugged it into the outside stereo system and
selected my workout list. I needed something upbeat.

Satisfied with the musical selection, I
jumped in. I wasn’t good with the whole easing myself in slowly
thing. It was too cold that way.

It was only after I’d jumped in that I
realized I’d forgotten one important thing—a towel. I thought about
getting out for one, but then I’d get cold. There was no sense
going through it twice.

I dove under the surface and tried to make
myself relax. It wasn’t a big deal. I needed to pretend it was a
bath—a big, outside bath. I pulled the elastic out of my hair,
letting my long, light brown hair fall down my back. My mom called
my hair dirty blonde, but I hated anything with the name dirty. It
was light brown.

I finally made myself do it. I untied my top
and slipped off the bottoms. Oh my god, I’d done it. I was actually
naked. I flung both pieces to the side, trying to get them to land
on one of the lounge chairs, but somehow they ended up on the
decking underneath. It didn’t really matter since I wouldn’t be
putting them back on. I’d just run up to my room and change.

Amy hadn’t specified how long I needed to
skinny dip, but I figured I needed to at least swim around a
little. The more I did it, the less weird it seemed. It felt
liberating. The water was warm enough, and with only a few lights
illuminating the pool, I didn’t feel overly exposed.

That excitement lasted maybe another five
minutes until I saw headlights pull into the neighbor’s driveway.
Unfortunately, they had one of those windy driveways that curved
around to a garage in back. If the driver happened to look through
the trees and shrubs, I’d be spotted. Before I panicked, I
reassured myself that it was too dark for anyone to actually see
anything.

I didn’t have much time to worry. The car
stopped, and a tall figure stepped out.

“Hey, is that you, Juliet?” It may have been
dark, but I’d know that voice anywhere. It was deep and incredibly
sexy.

I wanted to slip under the water and never
come back up. Dylan Bradley was talking to me while I was naked.
“Uh, yeah. Hi, Dylan.” To this day, I blame it on the music. If
Katy Perry hadn’t been blaring, he might never have looked.

“Isn’t it a little late for a swim?”

“Not really. I like staying up late.” Could I
sound lamer?

He disappeared, but I knew it wasn’t over. He
reappeared a moment later through a patch of trees.

I treaded water in the deepest part of the
pool, hoping the dim lighting hid how completely naked I was.

“Mind if I turn that down?” He pointed up at
the speakers.

“Sure. The controls are—”

“Behind the bar. I know.” Dylan had spent
plenty of nights swimming at our house. Even though his house was
far bigger, his dad had refused to put in a pool. Mr. Bradley
claimed that if you were at the beach, you didn’t need a manmade
concrete hole to swim in.

Dylan turned off the music. So much for
turning it down. “I heard you’re going to Harrison this year.”

“Yeah. I’m actually starting college.” I
continued treading water, praying he wouldn’t move any closer.

“Cool. I’ll probably see you around
then.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you were still up there.”
Total lie. I was well aware Dylan was a senior at Harrison
University. I hated to admit it, but I Facebook stalked him. I’d
probably have real life stalked him if we didn’t live five hours
away from each other. To say I had a crush on Dylan would be the
understatement of the century.

His expression let me know how little he
believed me. “Yeah. It’s my last year, but Kyle’s going to be a
freshman.”

“Yeah?” I, of course, knew that too, but not
from internet stalking. I couldn’t care less about his brother,
Kyle. It was Dylan who always had my attention. I’d found out about
Kyle’s plans from my mother.

Dylan looked even better than I remembered.
Despite the dim lighting, I could see his slight tan—normally it
was a lot deeper. I guess his summer internship had kept him from
spending as much time at the beach as usual. His brown hair still
had just a little bit of a curl to it. He wore it shorter than I’d
ever remembered seeing it.

“You look kind of cold. Where’s your towel?”
He glanced around.

“Oh, I’m okay.”

“Come on, you can’t stay in the pool all
night.”

I would stay as long as I had to.

“Wait a second.” A small smile spread across
his face. He walked toward the chairs, and my heart sunk. When he
turned back toward me, he had my bikini top wrapped around his
hand. “Are you skinny dipping?”

“Umm, maybe.”

“By yourself?”

What was that supposed to mean? “Isn’t that
part obvious?”

He grinned. “Wow, I never took you for an
exhibitionist.”

“This is a private pool.”

“Now you really need to get out.”

“Shut up. Not until you leave.”

“You’re too cold. You won’t make it that
long.”

“You’re wrong.” I sure hoped he was.

“All right. If you’re not getting out anytime
soon, I’m going to join you.” He pulled off his t-shirt.

Oh my god. Was Dylan Bradley about to get
naked in front of me? I had to be dreaming. This was not the kind
of thing that ever happened to me—at least not when I was
awake.

I was so busy freaking out that I didn’t even
try to stop him. The next thing I knew, he stood buck naked in
front of me. I admired the view in shock for a second before he
jumped in. He swam over to me, but held back. “You’re eighteen,
right?”

“Yeah. Why does that matter?”

He smiled. “Because I’m not getting busted
for swimming naked with a minor.”

“It’s stupid, isn’t it? I mean it’s not like
I magically changed from a kid to an adult on my last birthday.” I
stupidly used hand motions and unwittingly gave Dylan a front row
view of my breasts.

His eyes widened. “You haven’t been a kid for
a while.”

“Yeah, you either.” I cringed. I really
needed to filter.

He laughed. “No, no I haven’t.”

The way he stared unnerved me, and I needed
to keep us talking. “What are you doing here? School starts in like
two weeks. Isn’t this a weird time to come to the beach?”

“I’ve been working all summer. It’s the only
break I’ve had.”

I really looked at him. To be honest, he did
look tired, although it was hard to look at his face when I knew he
wasn’t wearing anything.

He suddenly grinned. “You’re going to be such
trouble.”

“Excuse me?”

“I figured you’d spend all of your time in
the library, but now that I know about this side of you, I have a
feeling you’re going to make things interesting.”

“You make it sound like we’re going to be
hanging out.”

“We’re not?” He moved into the shallow
water.

“Do you usually hang out with freshman
girls?”

“Sometimes.” He leaned back against the wall.
I didn’t need the show he was giving me. He definitely felt
comfortable in his own skin.

“I’m not going to bite, Juliet. You can come
over here. You can’t tread water all night.”

“Not all night, but for a while. I was on the
swim team, and I’m a lifeguard.”

“Come on, don’t be a baby.”

I shouldn’t have let his words get to me, but
they did. I let out a breath and swam over. “Who are you calling a
baby?” Of course, I was on my knees to keep myself under the
water.

“Not you. I’m definitely not calling you
that.” He pulled on my hand, catapulting me through the water and
against him. He slid down, so that I was practically on his lap. Oh
my god. If being naked with him was scary, having the evidence of
his arousal pressed against me was unreal.

I tried to move off him, but all that did was
shift me closer.

“You’re gorgeous.”

I’m sure I blushed. “Oh, thanks.”

“I mean it. I’ve thought so for a while, but
you always seemed so young.”

“Yeah? I thought that about you, too.”

“The gorgeous part or the young part?”

“Neither. I mean. I just mean I always
thought you were attractive.”

He smiled. “I know.”

“You know?”

“I assumed that’s why you always put on the
tiniest bikinis and lay out right in front of us. Unless that was
for Kyle’s benefit…”

“No. It was for yours.” My wardrobe and
schedule had always been strategically planned to result in the
maximum amount of exposure to Dylan. I was pathetic. I’m not even
going to try to deny it.

He grinned. “I knew it.”

He ran his hands up and down my arms. “You’ve
got goose bumps.”