Riptide

Chapter Six: Cupid's Bow

Kris is wearing her light blonde hair in a high ponytail tonight, so I decide to wear mine down. Sometimes at a party when there’s alcohol and new friends involved, people can’t tell us apart. It’s easier if we’re wearing different hairstyles. She wears a skirt and I wear denim shorts. We say goodbye to Mum and head next door to the Fletcher-Galloway house.

Their house is much newer than ours, with a beautiful glass and dark wood exterior, perfect for amazing views of the ocean. We walk into their fresh modern kitchen, where Tammy and Rose are sitting on bar stools, drinking pink drinks.

‘Hey, Tammy,’ I say. ‘I got you a six pack of vodka cruisers.’

‘Oh my gosh, thanks Indy,’ Tammy says, jumping out of her seat and grabbing the six pack from me. She pulls me into a hug. She’s wearing a black bikini top that has underwire to give her more cleavage, and a pair of ripped denim shorts.

‘I already made her a drink with my white rum,’ Rose says, pointing to the two pink drinks on the counter. ‘Do you guys want some?’

‘I’ve got my own, thanks,’ I say, but Kris says, ‘Sure!’

Tammy grabs me around the wrist. ‘Don’t be too mean to Rose. I like her,’ she whispers.

My eyes widen. ‘Was I being rude?’

Tammy shrugs. ‘Just be nice, okay? She’s great.’

I pour myself a drink with vodka and orange juice, just as Ryan’s mum, Sally Fletcher, walks into the kitchen.

‘Oh hi, girls,’ she says. She’s wearing a knee-length black dress and high heels. ‘Dom and I are going out for dinner. Have fun tonight!’

Sally Fletcher and Dom Galloway are both lawyers who run the law firm Fletcher Galloway. They are more in love than any couple I know, and their relationship inspires me. They’ve always been total equals, in love, marriage, business and family.

Tammy, Kris, Rose and I head out to the front deck, where there is a large outdoor table. We take a seat and look out to the ocean, admiring the view. We can see a couple of the guys already down in the park, kicking a ball around. Beyond the park, where the grass gives way to sand dunes and the beach, the lifesavers are packing up their flags and equipment for the end of the day.

I finish my first drink and I go to the kitchen to get another one. I’m just pouring myself another shot when I hear movement behind me, and I turn around to see Ryan, wearing nothing but a towel, with hair dripping from a shower.

‘Oh,’ he says. ‘Hey, Indy.’

There is a single drop of water sitting on his cupid’s bow of his lips. I look at it rather than his eyes as I say, ‘hey, Ryan.’

‘I didn’t know you guys were already here,’ he says. I can see he’s suddenly tense. Maybe he’s thinking about what happened the last time I was in this house.

‘I’m going to get changed,’ he says, and he withdraws back down the hallway and into his bedroom. I watch him go, and I see the wet footprints he leaves on the hardwood floors. He closes the door behind him, and as soon as he’s gone I turn back to the drink I’m making, forgetting if I’ve already added vodka into the cup. I add another shot, just to be safe.

I am so in love with Ryan Fletcher-Galloway, I think to myself as I walk back out onto the deck with a newly made drink. And he’s got a pretty girlfriend, and he doesn’t seem to care about me any more. And I need to get over it.

Kris, Tammy and Rose are in a carefree conversation about senior year of school when I return to the table. They don’t seem to notice that I’ve suddenly become tense and frustrated. Or maybe Kris does, but she ignores it.

Ryan eventually joins us, now wearing a black shirt and tan shorts. We drink until the sun sets, and then pack our alcohol into an esky with ice and walk it down to the beach. There are speakers in the park, and a bonfire on the sand. We’ve brought towels to sit on, and we spread them out on the dunes above the bonfire so that we can watch the ocean over the flames.

‘Where’s Hayden?’ I ask Tammy, and she quickly points him out. He’s with a few friends, at the water’s edge. They’re tossing a glow-in-the-dark Frisbee to each other.

A group of girls comes down to the beach, with Meg the juice girl amongst them. Almost instantly Kris stands up. I try to kick her ankle, because she’s making it too obvious, but she dodges out of my reach and jogs over to the girls.

‘Meg, hey,’ I hear Kris say, and then Meg introduces Kris to her friends.

I turn to Ryan, hoping that he’ll laugh with me about Kris running off to the girl she likes, but when I look over Ryan is cuddling Rose on the towel. Rose has her camera out and she’s taking shots of the bonfire.

I feel a jolt of jealousy that turns into crashing pain. I turn to Tammy. ‘Hey, let’s go talk to the local guys.’

Tammy eagerly stands up, and the two of us make our way down the beach, past the bonfire. The boys are still playing Frisbee, but a few of them stop when we approach.

‘Hey,’ one of the guys calls out. He has dark tanned skin, like most of the locals, and elaborately styled brown hair. He’s wearing a v-neck blue shirt. Something about his angular face is familiar to me, but I can’t pick it.

‘Hey,’ Tammy says.

‘I’m Mac,’ the guy says. He points to a couple of his friends, a short, dark haired, freckly guy and a guy with impressive red sunburn. ‘This is Raff and Gordy.’

‘This is Tammy,’ I say, because I can see she’s distracted watching her crush Hayden catching the Frisbee. ‘And I’m Indy.’

‘You’re Indy? As in one of the twins?’ Mac asks me.

‘Yeah,’ I say.

‘You weren’t here last summer, right?’ Mac says.

I nod.

Mac smiles. ‘My brother knows you,’ he says. And then, before I can stop him, Mac looks over my shoulder and yells out, ‘Nathan!’

I spin around and notice a group of guys and girls, my age, sitting on the sand near the bonfire. I didn’t see them before because the fire blocked my view.

My stomach drops as Nathan stands up and casually saunters over to us. He’s much taller than I remember. He still has black hair and dark tanned skin. He’s wearing nothing but bright red shorts that serve to accentuate his tan. There’s a line of dark hair from his belly button to the top of his shorts.

‘Indy,’ he says when he is meters from us. ‘I didn’t know you were coming back.’

‘Nathan,’ I say, my breath catching.

// Author's Note

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