Atlantic

Chapter One

The song above is the song that I had, in my head, depicted playing at the party, even though it's not directly stated.

A deep, shaking bassline. Deep, slurred lyrics sung by Morrissey. Smeared eyeliner and mascara. Grey tears. Inky black skies with pinpoints of fabulous light that scientists named stars and planets. Janet Windsor lay on the deck of some high school senior's mansion, drunk out her mind. She was looking directly upward at a particularly bright pinpoint that I could've told her was the planet Venus. Bottles of Heineken formed a semicircle around her head making her look like a beer angel. She was probably one of the only girls at the party who wasn't crying or swimming or getting impregnated by some six-foot dumb shit. She wasn't wearing any makeup at all which always surprised me. She wasn't like other sixteen-year-old girls. She didn't bleach her naturally luminescent red hair or get a fake tan or get a belly button piercing. She didn't wear crop tops and mini skirts and she had never once tried to smuggle vodka or weed into her classes. She was good and pure and kind. Yet she was still popular and my best friend.

The senior's family's unnecessarily extensive estate was on the beach. Even though it was October, a season that was normally too cold to swim in the northern Atlantic, dozens of teenagers were paddling around the shallows. Whether or not they were wearing swimsuits, I couldn't tell. Probably not, knowing them. I could spot Chelsea Malone's pale pink curls bobbing on the waves. She was with—freaking Aaron Banks. I subconsciously growled under my breath.

"You okay Kev?" asked Janet, her words startlingly clear. She looked me in the eye. "It's Aaron, isn't it?"

I nodded sheepishly. I had been in love with the sophomore captain of the soccer team since I was nine. Even though he was only four months older than me, he was an entire grade ahead. I know he skipped the third grade. He was just that genius. Plus, he was cute with his twinkling brown eyes and dimpled cheeks. I also knew he posted song covers and Let's Play Pokémon videos on his secret YouTube channel. But I was too scared to tell even Janet, who was a devout bisexual herself and the president of our high school's minute GSA, about my stupid little crush. It was kind of wimpy, actually.

"Look, I know you like Chelsea—I mean, sure she's hot but must you teenage boys develop petty crushes on something so superficial as a girl's appearance?—but she's claimed her love and ownership of Aaron Banks on, like, every single social media site they both have. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+—not Tumblr, though. She even made cutesy little videos on YouTube and Vine saying that she is in 'loooooove' him as she says it." She gave a bitter little laugh. "Can't wait for the day that bitch gets pregnant and he abandons her."

"He wouldn't do that," I interjected hotly.

Janet raised one of her bushy brown eyebrows. "And how would you know, Mister Kevin?"

"I—I—" My face flushed bright crimson. I could tell from the burning in my previously freezing cheeks and the smug look on Janet's face. She brushed a few stray frizzy curls away from her face. She had sobered up by now.

"How much have you had to drink?" she asked.

I glanced down at the full, unopened bottle of beer in my hand. "Nothing. You?"

"Too busy staring?" She laughed again. "Nothing. None of these bottles have touched my lips, actually."

"You haven't drunk anything? That's so unlike you, Jan." She attempted to kick me. "You did look quite intoxicated."

"Well...maybe I had a few. None of these are mine, though." She flicked one of the green bottles above her side part. "I went around the estate and picked these up out of the grass and stuff. It's amazing how careless people can be when it's not their place." She tutted. "I was planning on filling each with seawater from the beach and daring people to drink from them—stoned and drunk people do crazy shit, you know?—but then I realised some people might get sick and go to the hospital and I might be held accountable for murder, etc., etc. Did you enjoy our little outing?"