By The Sea, Book One: Tess (27 page)

He became aware of the crack of branches
underfoot as one of the boys he didn't know took up a position
behind him. Instinctively he glanced over his shoulder at him. At
the same instant, Dagger Burton grabbed his binoculars out of his
bike basket.

Dagger turned away and aimed the binoculars
straight at her breasts while Ken and the others remained in their
standoff. Everything seemed to go on hold while Dagger did his
thing.

"Shit, I can't see anything," Dagger said
after fiddling with the adjustments. "Everything's blurry. I must
be too close."

Stupidly, Dagger began backing away from her
in an attempt to get in better focus.

So that left three.

"Leave her alone," Ken said, controlling the
quaver that hovered at the back of his voice. "Get out now, and I
won't tell anyone."

Will Burton was only a year older than Ken
but just then seemed twice his size, minimum. He snorted and said,
"Who's gonna make me? You—Skinnykenny? What a dork."

Ken tried to make his voice sound strong.
"Leave her
alone."
But his voice broke and the last word
came out like a hiccup, and everyone laughed, except her, of
course.

He didn't dare look at her; he was so
totally mortified. For her, for him, for both of them. He was rich
and she was poor, but at that moment both of them were equals.

Hulking Will Burton waited until the
snickers died down, and then in a voice that was way calmer and
deeper than Ken's, he said: "Dork."

It was true. Ken was a dork; he knew he was
a dork. But there was something about being called one in front of
her
that made something inside of him snap. He threw down
his bike and went wading into Will Burton: head down, arms
flailing, landing punches half in the air. But he made contact,
too—for the stolen allowances, for the snickers, and mostly for
that exposed nipple, which he knew was now burned into his memory
for life. He hated them all, hated them for their contempt for
anyone who wasn't as cool as they were.

They punched him and kicked him and he
tasted his own blood, but still he kept flailing. His eyes were
shut, so he couldn't tell if she was taking off or not. Before he
could get the chance to look, he felt a hard whack on the back of
his head—he was pretty sure, from his brand-new binoculars.