"You're pretty damn good to keep up!"
I glanced at the two guys who kept playing frisbee in front of us girls, obviously trying to impress. Being the first day of summer, they didn't waste any time. Not that we minded. They definitely were eye candy.
"I didn't think you were this slow," the sexier of the two guys shouted back to his buddy. He whipped the frisbee, and it sailed, a red disk across the clear blue sky.
His buddy plucked it from the air then flicked the disk back. The wind off the bay caught it, and after floating on an air current the frisbee landed at my bare feet, shooting up a little sand.
The sexy guy ran up to me, grabbed the frisbee. "Sorry about that," he said, his shaggy blond hair flopping over his forehead.
I smiled. "It's all right."
He smiled back, locking his eyes for a few seconds on mine, then took off for the open beach, and I watched his tanned, muscled body run. He snapped his wrist, and the frisbee floated into the air back to his buddy -- whose head it flew over, forcing him to chase after it before the waves pulled it out to the water.
The sexy one glanced my way. Surely he knew I'd been staring at him. While his buddy ran after the red disk rolling on the wet sand, he came over to me.
"Hey, sorry again about that. I'm Brandon." His eyes scanned my body.
"Taylor," I said.
"You've got the prettiest green eyes, Taylor."
And your ice blue eyes are damn hot themselves. I smiled. "Thank you. Great first day, uh?"
He nodded. "Will you be hanging around a while?"
"Probably."
"Cool. When Randy gets tired of frisbee, I'll look for you."
I giggled. "Sure."
Brandon moved along the shore to find Randy, who looked like he was halfway down the beach.
"You certainly made that easy," my friend Ariana said from the beach towel next to mine.
"How's that?"
"You basically said you'd wait for him."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Make him work for it, girl."
"Who said I won't?"
Elle, the chubby one in our trio, sat up on the other side of me. "Ah, the old hook, line and sinker. Nice move, Taylor."
"I hear he's another Central High player," Ariana said, "so it's more like Taylor is on his hook."
Ariana laid back down, then so did Elle and me, soaking in the sun. We were finally free, enjoying that first day of summer between high school graduation and college. There were days that past spring I was so bored that I never thought we'd get this far; West High felt like a prison sentence that never would end. But now we had a summer off, to do whatever.
"Yeah, but girls," I said, "did you see his firm butt?"
***
After a couple of hours of laying in the sun, I sat up. The thick layer of coconut-scented sunscreen had sweated off, and I applied more. The morning felt like it was lasting forever.
"Hey, you guys want to do something?" I said.
Ariana remained still. "We are doing something."
"I mean besides tanning." I started drawing in the sand. With each furrow made, granules tumbled back in, half filling the indentation. Laying there doing nothing was not much different than sitting in school doing nothing. "And we've already got a tan."
"I want a deep tan."
Elle sat up as well. "Wanna get something to eat?"
Not really, I thought, but it was better than doing nothing.
"You two go without me," Ariana said, "so I can tan in peace."
Elle and I looked at one another and shrugged. Rising, we headed toward the white clapboard concession stand at mid-beach. Warm sand squished between my toes.
I ordered a lychee Hawaiian shaved ice, and Elle got sour gummies, her go-to whenever she was bored. We sat at a high top overlooking the beach.
"What's lychee taste like?" Elle said.
"Kind of like strawberry and pear mixed together," I said and held out my plastic teaspoon with a heaping of the white ice.
Elle leaned her mouth to the spoon, took it in, then grimaced. "Not my thing," she said then proffered the open bag of gummies to me.
I shook my head.
Brandon and his buddy had disappeared since the frisbee encounter, and as we ate I scanned for them on the horizon. Oh well, there were other fish. Maybe none as big as Brandon, but I'm sure they'd be tasty nonetheless.
"Looking for the frisbee boys?" Elle said.
"No. Yeah."
"I've heard the same thing that Ariana said about the guy talking to you. Story is it's a new girl every week. Don't be another notch in his belt."
"You're right, best to stay away from him."
She nodded.
I soon finished my shaved ice, but Elle was intent on getting through her entire bag of gummies before we left. The morning dragged on, as I rested my chin in hand, elbow propped on the table, the chair's flat, wooden seat pressing into my butt.
The first day of summer was turning out to be as magical as coleslaw.
***
"Hi Taylor."
My spirits went from 0 to 60 in an instant. I turned around on the high top. "Find your frisbee, Brandon?"