Vampire Beach: Legacy (3 page)

‘Please tell me one of you knows who Baz Luhrmann is,’ Adam pleaded.

‘Can’t help you,’ Brad said.

‘Didn’t he direct those Chanel commercials with Nicole Kidman?’ Maggie asked.

‘Yes!’ Adam cried. ‘They show some of his trademark Italian operatic influences.’

‘Like in
Moulin Rouge!
,’ Ryan added.

‘Thank God!’ Adam exclaimed. ‘I thought I’d entered some unholy dimension where I would never be able to communicate with the natives.’

‘I’ll watch anything that’s set in Paris,’ Ryan said. ‘It’s hands down my favorite city. I hated coming back after living there last semester – although it was almost worth leaving just for the going-away party. It was wild; we snuck down into the catacombs. I was having so much fun I lost track of time. Almost missed my flight.’

Maggie ran her fingers through Ryan’s curly blond hair. ‘Well, we’re all glad to have you back.’

‘You’re going to be extra glad, because I’m throwing a Valentine’s Day party that will be extreme,’ Ryan continued. ‘It’s a week from Friday and you’re all invited to come and make complete fools of yourselves.’

‘Too bad Zach’s still going to be in Australia,’ Maggie commented.

‘Yeah, it’s so horrible that he has to be out of school, spending days on the beach, hanging out with all the actors in his mom’s movie,’ Sienna joked.

‘My party is going to be wilder than any movie set,’ Ryan said. He turned to Jason. ‘Think you can be there?’

Why is Ryan singling me out?
Jason thought.
He hardly knows me.
But a Valentine’s Day party – with his new Valentine, Sienna? He wasn’t going to pass that up. ‘Absolutely,’ Jason told Ryan. ‘Thanks.’

‘Cool. Bring your sister. If she wants to invite some of her friends, that’s cool too,’ Ryan said.

‘Oh. OK.’ Jason frowned as he took a swig of his Coke. He had the strangest feeling that Ryan was really just trying to make sure Dani would show.

Sienna pulled him out of his thoughts by leaning close and whispering into his ear. ‘There are no parties
this
weekend. But I have an idea,’ she breathed.

The bell rang. Jason stood up, grabbing his tray and Sienna’s. ‘So what is it?’ he asked as they walked back inside together.

‘Gotta go,’ Sienna teased. ‘I’ll have to tell you later. Just make sure you have Sunday free. All day.’

Jason dumped their trash and stacked the trays on top of the garbage can as Sienna headed off to class. ‘A hint. I need a hint,’ he called after her.

‘I’ll be there,’ Sienna threw back over her shoulder. ‘Do you need to know more?’

Actually, he didn’t.

It was Sunday morning, and Jason was driving toward the marina with Adam.

‘I’m definitely not complaining about an invitation to spend the day on a yacht,’ Adam said. ‘But wouldn’t you and Sienna prefer to be alone?’

‘Sienna likes to make sure Belle has plans every weekend since she’s still so ripped up about Dominic. And she didn’t have anything going for today,’ Jason answered. ‘Besides, it’s not like the yacht is so small that we all have to be on top of each other.’

He pulled into one of the parking spots in the marina’s lot. Sienna’s Spider was parked a few cars away. ‘They beat us here.’

‘Well, I hope they waited for us,’ Adam joked. ‘Otherwise I’ll have to go home and watch
Titanic
just to console myself.’

Jason led the way over to the Devereux berth, slowing as they approached the gigantic boat anchored there. ‘
That’s
the yacht?’ he asked, disbelieving. ‘I mean, it’s beautiful, but it looks more like a paper airplane than a yacht.’

‘I heard that,’ Sienna called from the top of the gangplank. ‘I’ll have you know this is a WallyPower one-one-eight. There are only three of these in existence.’

‘Wait. This is the yacht from
The Island
? The
Renovatio
!’ Adam exclaimed.

‘Not this exact one. But one of them, yeah,’ Sienna told him as they walked up the gangplank toward her.

‘Hardcore,’ Adam said approvingly. ‘This day is going to be even better than I thought!’

When they reached the top, Sienna took Jason’s hand. ‘This is Lee Osbourne, our captain for the day,’ she announced, smiling at a tanned, thirty-something guy who’d appeared next to her. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he wore an easy grin.

‘Call me Oz,’ he said. ‘You guys ready for your first Wally ride?’

‘Absolutely,’ Jason replied.

‘Head on into the lounge then, folks,’ Oz instructed. ‘Lunch will be served later. Until then, there are some drinks and snacks to hold you.’

‘Come on, guys,’ Sienna said. ‘Belle’s already in there.’

Sienna led the way into a vast combination lounge/dining area/cockpit. Jason stopped at the top of the stairs and took it all in. Windows wrapped around the whole enormous area, so it felt like you were outside, even though you were inside. The view was breathtaking.

Belle was already in full-on relaxation mode, clad in a tiny bikini and lying on her back on one of the cushy sofas. The diamond of her belly ring sparkled in the morning sunlight. ‘Do you think Captain Oz has some lemons on board?’ she asked. ‘I want to squeeze some juice into my hair.’

‘I don’t think Oz is in charge of lemons, but I’ll check with the chef,’ Sienna promised. ‘Be right back.’ She disappeared down the stairs.

‘The
chef
? This is all a little too much for the child of the poor, humble Chief of Police,’ Adam joked. ‘How am I ever going to be content when you return me to my hovel, now that I’ve seen how the other half lives?’ He stretched out on one of the sofas and gave a sigh of contentment.

Jason took a seat across from his friend. ‘We’ll start a fund for you,’ he answered.

‘I’ll contribute,’ Belle volunteered.

‘Really?’ Adam asked. ‘Will you hock that sparkly you’ve got stuck in your belly button, because that’d go a long way toward—’ He stumbled to a stop, and Jason could see why: Belle’s eyes had filled with tears.

‘Hey, are you OK?’ Jason asked.

‘Yeah. Sorry,’ Belle said, wiping away her tears. ‘It’s just that Dominic gave me this.’ She pointed to her belly ring.

‘I didn’t . . . Sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you of . . .’ Adam’s voice trailed off. He looked miserable.

‘It’s OK,’ Belle told him. ‘Really. It’s not your fault. I think about him all the time anyway.’

She’s so torn up
, Jason thought. He tried to imagine how he’d feel if anything ever happened to Sienna. But his brain refused to go there.

‘Lemons!’ Sienna called as she ran back up the stairs. ‘I scored a whole bag!’ She hesitated on the top step. ‘What’s up?’ she asked, clearly sensing the change in mood.

‘What’s up is that we want our lemons,’ Jason answered, his voice coming out a little too loud and jolly, like somebody on a low-budget TV commercial.

‘Jason decided he needs some highlights,’ Adam added. ‘He’s going to juice his hair too.’

Sienna laughed and tossed one of the lemon halves at Jason. ‘You should. I think you could use some streaks, don’t you, Belle?’ She dropped onto the couch next to her friend and put a CD in the player.

‘Absolutely,’ Belle answered, managing a smile. She took one of the lemon halves and squeezed some juice onto her short blond hair, then used her fingers to comb it through.

‘How about a game of "I never" before lunch?’ Sienna asked. ‘Belle rules at that game.’

Jason and Adam exchanged a
huh?
look. ‘Never heard of it,’ Jason told her.

‘I guess it’s more of a slumber party thing,’ Sienna said. ‘We haven’t played it in forever.’

‘Ooooh, I’m in,’ Adam said immediately. ‘I’ve always wanted to know what goes on at a slumber party.’

‘OK, here’s how it works. We all start out with, like, ten Tic Tacs each.’ Sienna pulled a plastic container of the mints from her bag and shook ten out into her palm, then handed the container to Belle. ‘Then we go around in the circle, and—You know what, it’s easier just to start. I’ll go first. I never ate an artichoke. Now, if you
have
eaten an artichoke, you have to give me one of your Tic Tacs,’ Sienna announced.

‘Wait,’ Adam said. ‘Are you telling me you’ve never eaten an artichoke?’

‘They smell like feet,’ Sienna told him, wrinkling her nose. ‘But if you’ve eaten them anyway, you owe me a mint. That’s how it works.’

‘Bor-ing,’ Belle teased. Everyone gave Sienna a mint. ‘My turn,’ Belle said. She glanced from Sienna to Adam to Jason, an actual smile on her face now. ‘I never made out on a first date.’

‘You’re not supposed to lie in this game, by the way,’ Sienna pointed out.

‘I’m not lying!’ Belle protested. ‘Although maybe it depends on how you define "date". Or "making out". By my definition, I haven’t. Now give me a Tic Tac, wench.’

Sienna flicked one of the little mints at Belle. Jason handed one over too.
We definitely made out on our first date
, he thought.
Hell, we made out when Sienna was still with Brad. But was she thinking of me when she gave Belle that Tic Tac, or somebody else?

Adam sighed loudly and hung onto all of his mints. Belle winked at him. ‘Now we know who the hos are,’ she joked. Then she turned to Jason. ‘You’re up.’

‘I never went on Jerry Springer with my two girlfriends and my chimp,’ Jason said.

Jason didn’t get any Tic Tacs, but everybody laughed, which was all he was going for. Sienna still needed to up her daily laugh quota. And Belle needed a quota, period.

By the time lunch – cajun chicken and a mesclun field greens salad with champagne dressing – was served up, Adam was ahead by seven or eight mints.

‘Time for you to go down,’ Jason warned his friend, forking a bite of salad into his mouth. ‘I never saw
Citizen Kane.
’

Adam threw a Tic Tac into Jason’s salad. Belle and Sienna didn’t have to pay up. They hadn’t seen it, either.

‘What’s that movie even about?’ Belle asked.

‘It’s about this man who is tortured by—’ Adam began.

‘No, don’t even tell me,’ Belle begged. ‘I had to turn the DVD off in the middle of
Saw
3. The torture scenes were too gross.’

‘Not that kind of torture,’ Adam told her. ‘He was tortured by memories of his past – you know, the choices he’d made.’

‘Sounds kinda boring,’ Belle commented.

Jason glanced at Adam’s head, looking for signs of imminent explosion.

‘I never saw
Apocalypse Now
,’ Sienna challenged, before Adam could formulate a response to Belle.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut in pain, then handed over a Tic Tac. Jason and Belle didn’t.

‘I hate those movies about the end of the world. Everything looks so ugly. Especially the clothes. Who wants to watch that?’ Belle asked. ‘Like the one with the people who were hiding out from zombies in a mall –
Dawn of the Dead.
I mean, they were in a mall, and they never bothered to change out of their grungy clothes! And did I say they were in a
mall
, as in
lots of stores
?’

‘That actually isn’t the kind of apocalypse in—’ Adam stopped himself. ‘You know what? Never mind. It’s your turn,’ he told Belle.

‘I never saw . . .’ Belle hesitated.

‘
Heathers
,’ Jason stage-whispered.

‘I never saw
Heathers
!’ Belle exclaimed. ‘I really never did.’

‘Unfair. I’m being ganged up on,’ Adam complained, giving up another mint. ‘And I can’t believe none of you have seen
Heathers.
’

‘What’s it about?’ Belle asked.

‘This group of girls who torment the less popular—’

‘So it’s like
Mean Girls
,’ Belle interrupted. ‘Grool! You know – "I meant to say cool and then I started to say great"? I just love that!’

Adam groaned. ‘No comparison.
Heathers
isn’t a piece of teen fluff. It’s a revolutionary mix of teen comedy, black comedy, absurd comedy, and social commentary on popularity. Plus, there’s lots of violence. And croquet.’

‘As usual, you’ve lost me,’ Jason told him.

‘You know, I think my sister left a copy of that movie in the cabinet in the stateroom. Not that it ever gets watched – my father practically refuses to remove
The Godfather
from the DVD player,’ Sienna said.

‘"Leave the gun . . ."’ Adam began.

‘"Take the cannoli,"’ Jason finished for him.

Sienna and Belle looked at each other.

‘Do you know what they’re talking about?’ Belle asked.

‘No, and I don’t care,’ Sienna answered, shooting a wink at Jason.

Adam shook his head. ‘I’m giving you that one, because it’s not a girl thing. But
Heathers
? Everybody should see
Heathers.
’

The chef appeared with plates of Snickers pie.

‘I’ll watch it with you,’ Belle volunteered. ‘We can take our dessert to the stateroom.’

‘Sounds fun,’ Sienna said.

‘Not you,’ Belle told her. ‘You and Romeo stay up here and try to come up with something that’s on my "I never" list.’ She winked, then grabbed her pie and headed below deck. Adam grinned and followed.

‘Those are some good friends,’ Jason commented.

‘Very good friends,’ Sienna agreed. ‘I’m glad you got Adam to come. He makes Belle laugh. Not many people can do that lately.’

‘I’m glad he came, and I’m glad he’s gone away for a little while,’ Jason answered.

‘Me too.’ Sienna leaned across the table and kissed him. She tasted like the dessert. But better. Much, much better.

‘Let’s go out on deck.’ Sienna took him by the hand and led him out into the salty ocean air. The sound of Louis Armstrong singing
Wonderful World
blended with the waves.

‘I love this song,’ Sienna said. ‘In fact, I’m decreeing this our official song.’

‘That’s how it works? By decree of Sienna?’ Jason asked.

‘How else?’ she replied. ‘It’s now our song, and that means we must dance to it every time we hear it.’

Jason wasn’t complaining. He’d be happy to dance with Sienna any time, any place, to any music. He pulled her into his arms and began to sway to the rhythm, her body pressed against his.