Summer Love (11 page)

YOU
wave back to the fisherman.

“Two for two?” Tasha says to you. You figure, Why not?

“Sure,” you say.

“Hey!” Tasha calls down to them from the boardwalk.

“Hey back!” the jean-shorts fisherman yells back. “You girls want to come down here?”

You look at Tasha. “Wanna?” she asks.

“Yeah, let's,” you say. “Why not.”

“That's what I like to hear!” Tasha says. “Happy birthday to you.”

You laugh as the two of you get up to toss the trash from your lobster rolls and then head down the stairs to the fish-loading dock.

When you make it down, the two fishermen are
waiting for you. Also, it reeks of freshly caught fish.

“Sorry about the smell,” cargo shorts says. “I'm Will, by the way.”

You introduce yourself and then say, “This is my cousin Tasha.”

“And I'm James,” jean shorts says.

“You come here a lot?” Will asks you. And you have to laugh because it sounds like a pickup line from a movie.

He starts to laugh, too. “Sorry, I didn't realize how lame that sounded until I said it. But seriously, are you from around here?”

You laugh again, and so does Will. You wonder how many cheesy pickup lines he'll spout if you let him keep going. But you decide to spare him further embarrassment and answer his questions.

“I usually come about once a summer,” you tell him, “to visit Tasha. She's here all summer long. Down the street.” You gesture toward Tasha's house.

“All summer long?” James asks, tilting his head to the right, his eyes on Tasha.

She smiles back at him with her lips closed. “All summer long,” she says.

“I think she just made his day,” Will tells you. “Maybe his month. Or season.”

“Dude!” James elbows Will.

These guys are hilarious. You and Tasha exchange a look—you can tell she's really enjoying this.

Then James clears his throat. “So we just finished on the boat and were thinking about having a Jet Ski race. Any chance you two want to be our lucky charms?”

You and Tasha exchange a look. You nod at her. Because, why not? You're only sixteen, celebrating your birthday at the beach, once.

“We'll see who's luckier,” she says to you, and walks over to James. “Let's do this.”

“So I guess I'm yours,” you say to Will.

“I was hoping you would be,” he answers. “And just so you know, I'm supercompetitive.”

“Well then, we'll have to make sure we win. Is there anything I can do to make us go faster?”

He leads you to a Jet Ski with a white and silver bottom and a red top. There's a black lightning bolt down the side. He flips up the seat, and there are two life jackets underneath. He hands you one.

“We just have to be as streamlined as possible,” he says, as he slips his life jacket on and zips it up. “Stay seated, keep your arms tight around me, and make sure your head is lower than mine.”

“That should be easy,” you say, looking up at him. He's at least five inches taller than you.

Tasha and James are at the Jet Ski next to Will's. It's hot green, yellow, and white. Not your favorite color combination. Tasha looks over at you as she's zipping herself into a hot green life jacket and gives you a thumbs-up. You give her one back.

“Ready?” James calls over.

“Ready!” Will calls back.

He helps you onto the back of the Jet Ski and then climbs on and unties the rope holding it to the dock. He clips a cord attached to his key to a hook on his life jacket and slides onto the seat in front of you.

“To the buoy and back?” he yells to James. “Like usual?”

“Like usual!” James yells back. “On my count.”

Will inserts the key into the Jet Ski and waits.

“One,” James yells.

Will turns the key in the ignition.

“Two!” James's voice is harder to hear over the engine.

Will puts his hands on the handlebars.

“Three!” James shouts.

Will squeezes the levers behind the handlebars and you're off.

The wind is whipping through your hair, and you hold on tighter to Will, feeling his muscles flex under your fingers.

“Woohoo!” he whoops as you speed forward and pass James and Tasha.

“Go, Will, go!” you shout.

He squeezes the levers harder, and you shoot forward again.

“We're so going to win!” you yell, as your hair whips you in the face and the smell of fish and ocean and boy fills your nostrils.

And just then you decide it doesn't matter if you win. It doesn't even matter if you see Will again after this Jet Ski race. But this, this wind-in-your-hair, anything-can-happen, exhilarating feeling is what it's all about. You get to live only once, and you decide then and there that you're going to make every moment of your life as exciting as possible.

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU'VE FOUND YOUR HAPPY
ENDING!

YOU
take Jade's phone and look at her picture again. She really does look better than both of the actresses.

“Let's stay,” you say to Tasha. “And Jade, if you're serious, I'd love a makeover!”

“Wait, for real?” Jade asks, sitting up straighter in her lounge chair.

You nod.

“Can I do anything?” she asks.

“Ja-a-ade,” Tasha says, pulling her name out into a three-syllable warning.

“I mean, I won't, like, dye her hair purple or anything!”

“You can do anything within reason,” you tell her. “Anything as long as it won't make my parents flip.”

Jade gives you a once-over, as if you're an antique
dresser she might purchase for her dorm room. “How strict are your parents?” she asks.

“Medium strict,” you say.

“Like mine,” Tasha adds. “No purple hair, no eyebrow piercings, no tattoos, that sort of thing.”

Jade nods. “Okay,” she says, standing up. “We're done out here. Follow me to the locker room.”

You walk downstairs into the locker room, which really resembles a plush relaxation room in a spa more than it does a locker room in a gym. There's a steam room, a hot tub that women are lounging in, and a sauna, plus glass pitchers filled with a mixture of water, ice, and cucumber slices.

“Okay, you take a shower,” Jade tells you. “I'm going to ask the women in the spa for a few things. They know me.”

Of course they know her! Jade has spent the last decade of summers at this country club. And you suspect a lot of that time was in the spa.

You go into one of the showers, and when you turn it on, there's water coming at you from four different showerheads, one on each side. There's also a little bench in there, but you're not sure why someone would need to sit in the middle of showering. You use the fancy shampoo and
conditioner in dispensers on the wall, and when you're all soaped up and rinsed off, you use the plush towel and bathrobe you grabbed from a credenza in the bathroom.

When you poke your head into the changing area, Jade and Tasha are waiting for you.

“Oh good! You're ready!” Jade says, a huge smile on her face. “I cleared some things with the spa people and enlisted the help of some of the girls I know there. They're only a year or two older than Tash and me. Anyway, first I'm going to cut your hair, and then Lia's going to highlight it. After that Gabriela's going to dye your eyelashes. Then I'll do your makeup and we'll figure out clothes and stuff. I have some old dresses that I leave here for just in case, like if I've spent the day at the pool and Dex wants to go out afterward. I have a feeling there's something in that collection that'll be perfect for you!”

“You're cutting my hair?” you ask. “And high-lighting it? And I've never heard of dyeing eyelashes.”

“Just trust me,” Jade says. “I swear you're going to look like you, but just enhanced. And I've been dyeing my eyelashes since I was fourteen.”

Jade bats her eyelashes, and you notice that they do look pretty good.

“I did it at the end of last summer,” Tasha tells you. “It's not a big deal at all.”

Jade takes you into the hair salon area of the spa and turns you away from the mirror so you can't see what she's doing. She cuts and snips, but it doesn't seem too drastic. Then she looks at you critically.

“Short bangs?” she asks Tasha. But before Tasha can respond, Jade shakes her head. “Nah, I don't think you have the right face for it.”

You're not sure what that means, but you're a little grateful for your face shape, because you're not so into bangs.

Instead of a fringe, Jade cuts a few short pieces around your face. “To frame it,” she tells you, “and to bring people's attention to your eyes.”

“Okay,” you say, nodding. There's something kind of exciting about getting all of this done without knowing how it's going to look. It's like you're on a reality TV show or something.

Then a girl with purple streaks in her hair comes over and puts her hand out. “I'm Lia,” she says. “Jade asked me to give you some highlights.”

“Nothing too dramatic,” Jade tells you and Lia together. “I just want it to look like she's spent the last month on the beach.”

“Got it,” Lia says, running her fingers through her own purple hair. “I know exactly what you mean.”

She goes off to mix something together, and you wonder if you should maybe call your parents and make sure it's okay to get your hair highlighted. But then you decide it's better to do it and ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission and have them say no. Besides, you're sixteen! That's certainly old enough to make decisions about your own hair. You can practically drive!

Lia brushes some goop into your hair, but you're still facing away from the mirror, so you can't tell what's going on.

“I think you're going to love this,” she says. “It'll be really subtle; you'll look sun-kissed. Perfect for summer.”

“Thanks,” you say to her. “That sounds great.”

When Lia's done, Jade has you follow her into a treatment room, where Gabriela is waiting to dye your eyelashes a dark black.

“This is the best invention,” Jade tells you. “Like, even if you go out without makeup on, you're basically still wearing mascara. It's so good for, like, the gym and the summer when you want to go swimming or if you get sweaty. You won't end up with raccoon eyes.”

That, of course, immediately makes you wonder if you've had raccoon eyes all day and nobody's told you. But then you figure Tasha would've told you for sure. She'd never let you walk around with makeup smudged on your face.

Gabriela puts wet cotton balls underneath your eyes and then tells you to close them. She paints something on your lashes and then tells you to relax for a few minutes while the dye is working.

“If it stings, just give a holler,” she says.

You don't think she means it about the hollering, and you really hope it won't sting. But maybe that's the price of beauty?

A few minutes—and no stinging—later, Gabriela is back and wiping the excess dye off your lashes. Then Jade appears and whisks you back to the hair salon, where Lia takes out the foil your highlights were wrapped in. “How do you want it blown?” she asks.

“I'll do that part,” Jade says. “I just need a round brush and a dryer.”

Lia raises her eyebrows. “Okay,” she says, “if that's what you want.”

“It is,” Jade confirms.

You close your eyes while Jade pulls and blows
and brushes you. The heat from the blow-dryer is intense, but Jade never holds it to your scalp for longer than you can handle. The blow-out feels pretty professional, in fact.

After Jade turns the dryer off, you look up at Tasha, and she's smiling. “Oh, you're so going to love this,” she says.

“Close your eyes!” Jade commands, and you do.

Then she turns your chair around so you're facing the mirror and says, “Open!”

When you open your eyes, it looks like the very best version of yourself is staring back at you in the mirror. Your hair has body and bounce to it, but it looks totally natural, not styled at all. And Lia was right, the highlights are really subtle—it does look like you spent a month on the beach and the sun kissed your hair. And your eyes! They're framed by thick, dark lashes.

“Wow!” you say. “You seriously are good at this, Jade.”

“We're not done yet!” she says.

She takes you down to a different part of the salon and sweeps creams and powders on your face and, before she lets you look, heads to her locker, which is really more like a small closet, and gives
you a drapey green silk dress. “I think this will look perfect on you, and it never really looked quite right on me anyway.”

You put it on, and then Jade pulls a bracelet and necklace out of a pouch in her locker. “These are on loan,” she says. “And keep your earrings on. Studs are in.”

You slip on her jewelry.

“Okay,” she says. “Now you can look.”

You walk over to a mirror with Jade and Tasha trailing you. And you stare. And stare. In this dress, with that makeup and that hair, you look as if you could be in Tasha's magazine. You look like a movie star.

“Oh my gosh,” you say. “I can't believe it's me! Thank you so much, Jade!”

“It wasn't just me. You gave me great material to work with.”

You can feel yourself blush, but you're not sure if anyone can see it through your makeup.

“So,” Tasha says, “now that you're all dressed, should we head out and see about flirting with some boys?”

You look at your new self in the mirror again.

“Actually,” you say, “can we see what Lia and
Gabriela are doing tonight? How about we all get dressed and have a girls' night on the town? We don't need to dress up for boys, we can just dress up for us.”

Jade puts her fist out and you bump it. “I like how you're thinking,” she says. “I'll talk to Lia and Gabriela. Girls' night out. And no worries about boys to ruin it!”

“Awesome,” you say. There's always time to think about boys, if you want to. Tonight, you're just going to think about how fantastic it is to have great girlfriends with fabulous fashion skills and a beautiful summer night to spend with them.

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU'VE FOUND YOUR HAPPY
ENDING!