Hale Maree (10 page)

#

“
Hale?”

I’m lying on the couch and Oscar is hovering
over me, tapping my cheek. When my eyes open, Oscar lets out a
breath and says, “Oh, thank God. You scared me to death.”

“
What?” I say, and then, I
remember the water and look down. My shirt is missing. So are my
shorts. I’m just lying there in my bra and panties with a towel
bunched up beside me. I grab it as I sit up, trying to cover
myself. I spot my shorts and shirt in a soggy heap on the floor. I
gape at Oscar. “You
undressed
me?”

For whatever reason, my words startle him.
He takes a step back, glancing at the clothes and me and runs a
hand through his hair. “No...I mean, yes, I did, but...no.” he
stammers. “It’s not what you’re thinking. Not at all. You passed
out and I thought the wet clothes were doing it...”

“
My clothes?” I glare at
him. “You think it was my clothes, and not that you pulled me into
the water after I told you I’m
fucking
afraid
of it?”

The towel doesn’t cover anything and it
keeps slipping. But Oscar’s not looking at my body. He’s combing
his fingers over his face, frustrated.

“
I thought it’d calm you
down,” he says.

“
Dunking me, or undressing
me?” I ask.

“
Both, actually.”

“
Bad call,” I tell him,
getting off the couch. When he looks back at me, his eyes slide
down my body, and I shout at him, “QUIT LOOKING AT ME!”

I slip past him and scramble up the stairs,
but Oscar’s right behind me.

“
Hale,” he says, but I don’t
stop to listen to him. I’m all the way to our bags, still heaped on
the floor, before he says my name again. I ignore his pleading tone
and rifle my bag for the first shirt and shorts I can find. Oscar
stands two feet away, watching me as I yank on a shirt and step
into my shorts, my cheeks hot. From my peripheral vision, I can
tell he hasn’t looked away once, but I keep my eyes on the floor,
even after I’m completely dressed again.

“
I was just trying to help
you get over your fear,” he says softly.

“
That’s not the way. Don’t
help me like that again.”

“
I won’t,” he says. “Not
until you ask me to.”

“
Oh, I won’t ask,” I snap,
but instead of turning and leaving like I think he should, Oscar
steps closer to me.

“
You’re right,” he says and
his smirk is back. “You won’t ask. So, I’ll promise you this: I
won’t, until you beg me. Fair enough?”

Before I can answer him, he turns away and
goes down the stairs, without looking back.

#

I stay upstairs, crunched into the catcher’s
mitt chair, unsure of what to do. Oscar moves around downstairs and
even though he’s not slamming doors or banging cupboards – in fact,
everything sounds pretty peaceful, as if he’s being careful not to
wake me or something – I still have to assume he’s angry. When I
think of it, I made a huge deal out of nothing. It’s not like I was
naked. The thought of being naked in front of Oscar makes my mind
wander, until I feel tingles running all through me.

Someone knocks on the door downstairs. My
thoughts quickly re-focus on Oscar’s footsteps treading across the
living room to the front door.

“
Hey!” his voice is excited,
welcoming. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming
up until Friday! Come on in!”

The door creaks wide open, and I hear the
thunk of suitcases banging against the door frame and a syrupy
female voice say, “What’s going on with you, Oscar? Soph’s been
worried sick about you!”

“
Good to see you, Amy,”
Oscar says, but his voice is tight. Amy and Landon. Landon, Oscar’s
best friend and Amy, Sophia’s bestie. I’m so screwed.

“
You up here by yourself?”
Landon’s voice wanders, as if he’s craning his neck to look
around.

“
No, actually,” Oscar says.
“I’m not.”

“
What do you mean?” Amy’s
tone is sharp now. “Soph’s home right now.”

“
Obviously, it’s not
Sophia,” Landon says, as if it’s all a good joke. A game. “Where is
she? It is a
she
,
isn’t it?”

“
Very funny,” Oscar says.
“Her name’s Hale and she’s upstairs.”

“
Hale?” Amy’s voice splits
the pause like a hunting knife. “What are you talking about, Oscar?
You’re still dating Sophia, Mr. Faithful. At least, as far as she
knows. You just went missing, and you haven’t even bothered to tell
her that it’s because you’re seeing someone else? Do you know how
asshole-ish that is?”

“
Quit busting his balls,”
Landon says.

“
Why shouldn’t
I?”

“
Because it’s none of our
business, hon.”

“
My best friend’s boyfriend
snuck away to be with some other girl,
hon
. I think that makes it my
business.”

“
No.” Oscar’s polite grin is
obvious in the way his words turn up. “Land’s right. I appreciate
the concern, but it’s not your business.”

There is a long pause and a sigh.

“
She’s my friend,” Amy says,
but her tone throws up its hands in surrender. “At least call her
and tell her what’s going on, so I don’t get in trouble for
knowing. And bring down your new one.”

“
Don’t call her that,” Oscar
says. “Her name is Hale.”

“
So you
are
playing the field,” Amy’s voice
shoots up in the middle of the word. “I thought you weren’t looking
to do anymore of that?”

“
I wasn’t, but this girl
slammed it out of the park,” Oscar says. And then, as if to stop
Amy, he says, “You guys wanna meet her?”

And that’s when I start feeling like I
should’ve been prying the window open about ten minutes ago.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

“
HALE,” OSCAR CALLS FROM THE
bottom of the stairs. I don’t want to answer. I think of every
excuse, that I’m sleeping, or sick, or even passed out again, but
all it will do is bring them up here.

“
Is there really somebody up
there?” Amy asks. But by then, I’ve moved across the room to the
stairs, and the top step creaks when I step down on it. Amy goes
silent, while each step decides to whisper a squeak as I come down.
By the time I reach the bottom, it seems like the stairs have
silenced everyone.

Oscar is waiting with a grin. Landon gives
me a curious, but welcoming, smile. And Amy, a girl with a natural
slope to her eyebrows that makes her look angry, actually stands
there with no expression. Her mouth hangs a tiny bit, and her eyes
are so bland that they appear almost sorrowful as she takes me
in.

“
This is Hale,” Oscar says,
stepping in front of Amy and reaching for my hand. I guess it’s
time to really sell the charade, but I blush a little when I spot
my clothes still in a heap near the couch. Amy’s eyes dart after
mine and she sees them too. I wonder what Oscar’s friends would
think if they knew that, a half hour ago, I wasn’t slipping out of
those clothes on my own, and that I wasn’t even coherent when Oscar
did it for me.

“
I’m Landon,” Landon says,
juggling all the bags hanging off him, with his hand out. He gives
my hand a shake so quick that it could snap me like a towel, if
he’d used the full-range of my arm. Landon’s a thick, blond monster
with cargo shorts, and hair that is carefully spiked on top. He
says, “Good to meet you.”

He seems to mean it, just like Oscar said he
would.

“
And this is Amy,” Oscar
says, when Amy doesn’t introduce herself first. Besides the
eyebrows, Amy is a tall, blond Popsicle stick of a woman with a
long nose and beautiful curls. She puts on a grin and reaches for
my hand, doing a light fingertip-to-fingertip shake, gone before it
was really ever there. She turns to Oscar.

“
Should we just haul
everything upstairs, honey?” she asks. Something in her
honey
drizzles a little
too warmly. I don’t know why, but I wrap my arms around Oscar’s
waist and tell myself I’m just doing it for the show. I feel oddly
good about wanting to convince Amy that Oscar is mine and our
relationship is real.

“
You’re okay with sharing
our bed?” I ask, looking up into his eyes. I let the rest of the
thought trail away. Oscar’s eyes flash devilishly before he ducks
down and kisses my forehead, as if he’s done it every day for
years.

“
No, I’m not,” he says.
“We’ll put the inflato-bed down here, if that’s good with you,
Land?”

“
I can sleep any place,”
Landon shrugs, letting all the bags finally fall off his shoulders
and onto the floor. He leans over to kiss Amy’s cheek, even though
she’s still staring at me. Her expression makes her look like a
statue in a wax museum. She sways from the peck on her cheeks, and
snaps out of her stare in time to catch Oscar’s eye, then turns to
plant a kiss on Landon. She open-mouths it. Landon’s body goes
rigid a second with surprise. Oscar and I exchange an uncomfortable
glance.

Amy comes up for air and, looking back at
Oscar, says, “It’s fine. I can sleep any place too.”

#

“
Your friends are really
weird,” I whisper to Oscar. He’s lying on our bed, and I’m sitting
beside him. We’d retreated upstairs after Landon and Amy had blown
up the inflato-mattress near the front windows. When they laid down
on it, and started touching each other’s hair and giggling softly,
Oscar suggested that he and I go upstairs to give them their
privacy. I was happy to escape the two of them, especially Amy and
the glares she kept shooting at me.

“
Not Landon,” Oscar whispers
back. “He’s the best guy you’ll ever meet, but Amy...yeah, she’s
weird sometimes.”

“
She’s just looking out for
her friend,” I say darkly. “I can’t blame her for that. Sher would
do the same for me.”

I stare at his phone on the nightstand and I
think of Sher.

“
Can I use your phone?” I
ask.

“
You want to call your
dad?”

“
No, my friend, Sher.” I
say. I’ll never want to call my dad. Not anytime soon, at least.
Oscar thinks on it for a minute.

“
What are you going to say
to her exactly?”

“
I don’t know.
Why?”

“
Are you going to say you’re
trapped at some guy’s beach house?” I see the nervousness when he
says it. He’s trying to act like he’s kidding, but he’s
not.

“
No,” I say, although it had
occurred to me. “I was going to tell her that I was kidnapped by a
dude that is forcing me to marry him.”

“
Forcing? No, that wouldn’t
attract any attention,” he says. “Sorry, I think my phone is out of
order.”

“
Come on,” I say. “I was
just kidding. I was going to tell her I was at my cousin’s
house.”

Oscar sits up, his chest touching my
shoulder, the side of his leg touching my back. His raw energy
crashes right through me in waves. My body comes alive, prickling
as if it’s waking from a ten-year sleep. The stinging tickle
centers itself between my legs.

“
You want to use my phone?”
he asks. His breath is on my cheek. “I’ll let you.”

But as I reach for the phone, Oscar grabs my
hand.

“
For a kiss,” he says. I try
to pull my hand away, but he doesn’t let go.

“
Forget it, ya perv,” I
say.

“
What’s the problem? You’ve
already kissed me once. I think it’s fair to say you enjoyed it.”
He draws back my hair over my shoulder. “But I’m not even asking
for
a kiss
from
you
. I’ll tell you what – I’ll give you the
phone, if you just accept a kiss from me.”

I think of how nice it would be to talk to
Sher. How nice it would be to have him kiss me again like he did
downstairs.

“
Fine,” I mumble, staring
straight ahead.

“
Then lay back,” he says,
moving aside.

“
Nope, that wasn’t the
deal,” I tell him, but Oscar pulls me backward and jumps on top of
me, pinning my arms to my sides with his knees.

“
It’s definitely the deal,”
he says, lowering his chest down until it almost touches mine. His
hair brushes my cheek as he whispers in my ear, “You just didn’t
ask for the details, Hale. And you know what they say...the devil’s
in the details.”

His lips run like a sigh along the base of
my jaw, warm and soft. He stifles a groan against my mouth and his
fingers slide into my hair. I struggle to get my arms free, but
he’s still got me pinned at the wrists with his knees.

“
Oh no you don’t,” he
whispers into my mouth. “You stay right where you are and let me
kiss you, like you promised.”

He nips my collarbone and an electric
current flows down my spine. It feels so good; I close my eyes
tight and let myself drift into his kiss. He places a kiss where
his teeth were a moment before, the sting taken away by the soft,
moist, warmth and I arc off the bed a little to meet his body as it
presses against mine, stretching up to meet his mouth.