The Third Twin (14 page)

Someone bumps me so hard that I take a step back on the grass, and I whirl around to see a guy with extremely short hair way too far into my personal space. “Alicia! What the fuck?” He’s so close to me that his warm beer breath hits
me full in the face. I try to pull back, but he’s got one hand wrapped around my wrist, the huge tarantula tattoo on his forearm flexing with the effort.

“Let go of me!” I shout, trying to pull away, but that only makes him squeeze harder. I have no idea who this guy is, but his eyes are flat with anger, and my heart races as I try to twist away from him.

He pulls me closer, and the crowd nearest to us backs away, confused by the confrontation in front of them. “You think you can screw with me? Lead me on like a little pussy and then just take off when you feel like it?” He grips my arm more tightly, and I yelp in pain. I can feel the waves of his anger and see his nostrils flare with each exhalation.

Suddenly my hand is free, and I stumble into Linzey, who puts a protective arm around me.

“Don’t touch her!” Zane pushes him, and the guy scrambles backward before catching himself and pulling up to his full height. He’s tall, much taller than me, but even from here I can see that Zane’s years of surfing have given him strength that this guy can’t match.

“Is this the new one?” The guy ignores Zane completely and comes after me again. “This the guy you fucked me over for?”

He reaches for me again, but Zane blocks his arm, so he turns to Zane with a blow that smashes into his cheek before he can react. Zane pauses just for a moment before thrusting forward and meeting the guy with a fist that lands squarely on his jaw. The guy is thrown to the ground, and then staggers to his feet, his lip cracked and bleeding.

“Get out,” Zane says firmly, standing between me and the guy. I can see Zane’s hands clenching, and I know he’s dying to hit him again.

The guy wavers, unsteady on his feet, as if deciding whether it’s worth it to take Zane on again. He looks over at me one last time and aims a wad of bloody spit in my direction before turning toward the gates.

Linzey looks into my eyes, and I fight back tears, holding my arm and trying to rub out the pain. “Let me go get you some ice,” she says gently, not asking for an explanation.

“Who was that?” Ava asks, rushing up to me as Zane follows the guy out.

I watch them reach the curb with some additional angry words. “You tell me,” I say, my voice still shaky. “From what I can tell, he’s one of Alicia’s rejects.”

Ava looks back at him and shakes her head. “Not one of mine. I’ve never seen that guy before in my life.”

I stare at her. “Shaved head? A giant spider tattoo on his arm? Doesn’t ring any bells?”

“No. Come on. I’d remember if Alicia had gone out with someone like that.”

Eli reaches us two steps ahead of Maya. “What happened?”

“Jesus, Lexi,” Maya says. “I thought that guy was going to kill you. What a freak!”

The air around us seems to go quiet as everyone absorbs what Maya just said. I hope that Eli hasn’t heard her, that he doesn’t realize what she just called me, but one look at his face tells me that I’m not going to be so lucky.

“Lexi?” Eli says, his voice rising above the murmurs in the crowd.

Maya puts both hands over her mouth and squeaks, “I meant Ava. Uh … Alicia. I meant Alicia.”

“What’s going on?” Eli looks from me to Ava, suspicion growing in his eyes.

“Nothing.” I try to keep it light, but I can hear my voice shaking. “Maya just got confused. Happens all the time.”

Eli stands in front of me. “What’s your real name?”

I stand there for what feels like hours, but I can’t get anything out. If I tell him the truth, it’ll all be over.

Maya turns and mouths “I’m sorry” to me. But it’s too late.

“You’re Lexi.” He shuts his eyes and shakes his head. “I knew it!”

This is not what I expected. “You knew?”

“You’re the one I met at the café that day, right?” he asks, pointing to me.

I nod, afraid to say anything.

“And I met you in Leucadia at the show,” Ava volunteers. “It’s not her fault,” she says hurriedly. “This was all my idea—”

He takes a step forward. “What? To make me look like an idiot? To get home and talk about how funny it is to fool the jackass who thinks he’s dating a triplet?”

“It’s not like that!” I say. I feel him slipping away from me as the crowd around us has gone quiet.

“Then what’s it like,
Lexi
?” he asks, anger radiating off him.

“I … I’m not sure.” I look to Ava for help, but she doesn’t
seem to know what to say either. “But we didn’t do it to make you look stupid, I swear.”

Linzey approaches with a towel full of ice, but stops when she sees the seriousness of our confrontation. Rebecca pulls up behind her, eyes wide.

Eli looks at the two of us again. “I should have gone with my gut.” He turns to me. “I knew you were different from before, but I tried to convince myself that I was being ridiculous.” His blue eyes sear into mine. “You know, the sad thing is, I really liked you.” He gestures to my clothes. “Even with all this, I could tell that you were the same smart, funny girl I met in the café. That’s who I wanted to get to know.”

I step forward. Eli knew, and he liked me. Not Alicia. “I didn’t think you’d like me,” I say, my voice quiet. “The real me.”

He shakes his head again. “Now we’ll never know.” As he turns to go, Rebecca grabs his arm, but he shakes her off and keeps walking. She glares at me and then runs off after him.

Linzey stands still for a second, watching them go, and then, with one last look at me, follows them across the courtyard.

“Are you okay?” Zane asks, joining us on the grass, oblivious to what has just gone on.

“Fine,” I say, my voice cracking and hot tears pushing against my eyes. I look up at his face. There’s a red spot on his cheek where he got hit. “You?”

“Good,” he says.

“Thanks,” I say. There’s an awkward silence between us. There should be sympathy and explanations, but right now
there’s just empty air. He walks back over to the blonde, not even glancing back at me.

My face feels hot, and my mind is racing. That’s it. It’s over. Everyone around us is pretending not to notice, pretending not to have witnessed my total humiliation.

“Should we go?” Maya asks, one hand lightly on my arm.

Without answering, I unzip both of my boots and let them flop over onto the grass, feeling the cool, damp blades under my bare feet. There’s only one thing Alicia would do in this situation. I walk calmly toward the edge of the pool and, without hesitating, dive in, letting the cool blue water surround me, shutting out everything that’s going on at the surface.

“Finally!” Ava says in frustration, opening the car door before she’s even set the parking brake. It’s taken us almost twenty minutes to find a spot remotely close to the beach, even though it’s two o’clock on a Tuesday, because almost everyone else is on spring break too. And we’re still a pretty long walk away. She squints in the direction of the water and looks with disgust at all the other cars parked along the road. “I swear they need to do something about all of these people. This part of town should be for locals only. I’m sick of having to walk miles to get to my own beach.”

“I didn’t realize this was
your
beach,” I say, sliding a glance at her from under my hat. After everything that happened last night I didn’t even want to come today, and Ava’s mood isn’t making this any easier.

“You know what I mean.” She sweeps her hand toward some of the cars. “All of these people probably live miles
and miles from here, and they’re taking up valuable parking spaces and beach real estate. Dad didn’t spend a ton of cash to live here so that we’d have to walk to the beach.”

“Maybe next time we should get him to buy a house right on the water,” I say, grabbing my backpack.

“Whatever,” she says, but we both know that would never happen. Dad loves to stand on the balcony outside his room and take in the view of the ocean way down the hill. “Better to be up here and see the sparkling sea and white sand instead of the seagull shit and cigarette butts” is his motto. Ava squints up at the sun, strong for the first time all spring. “At least the weather’s decent. I’m going out with Dylan on Thursday, and I need to get a little color.”

Dylan? I can’t believe she’s still going to do it, even after all the trouble Alicia’s caused. “I thought we were done with Alicia.”

Ava shrugs. “Maybe
you
are. My Alicia is still going out with a hottie basketball player.”

Even the thought of dressing up and putting the diamond pendant around my neck gives me a stomachache. “Seriously. Alicia needs to disappear. Now. We’ve already been caught once. You want a repeat of last night?”

“Maybe I’ll quit once I cut Dylan loose,” she says, walking up ahead of me so it’s impossible to continue talking. “But until then, I’m going to have a little fun.”

The sand is crowded with colorful towels that people have abandoned in order to bob around in the cool Pacific. Ava shades her eyes and glances toward the place where we usually hang out, waving as she sees people we know. “At least
nobody’s in our spot,” she says grumpily. Our feet kick up arcs of sand as we trudge toward the familiar patch of real estate nestled up against the dunes that separate the water from the multimillion-dollar houses lining the beach. “Looks like Zane out there,” she says, squinting at the water.

“So?”

“So. He kind of saved your ass last night.”

“It was your ass too,” I remind her.

“Agreed. Which is why you might want to be nice to him.”

“I said thank you.”

“Barely,” Ava says, in a tone that makes me feel instantly guilty. And defensive.

“He shouldn’t have even been there,” I say, even though I know that what happened between me and Eli wasn’t his fault. “And then he leaves with some trampy blonde? Anyway, you don’t even like him.”

“I don’t
not
like him,” Ava says. She looks from the water straight at me. “And since when do you care who he goes home with?”

“I don’t!” I insist. And I don’t. Really. Which is why it bothers me that I can’t get the image of the two of them out of my head. “He can sleep with whoever he wants. It’s none of my business.”

We shut up about it as we reach our friends.

“I know you have something to drink for me,” Ava says, flopping down next to Slater, putting her head on his shoulder, and fluttering her eyelashes at him. Even for Ava this is a little obvious. Apparently she’s using the second-grade method of attracting boys.

“Share my Coke?” he says, handing her a bottle.

“Thanks,” she says, taking a huge swig. “We’ve been walking for miles.”

“Not miles,” I say, dropping my backpack.

“You can put your stuff here if you want,” Slater says, pointing to an empty spot under his umbrella.

“Thanks,” I say, spreading my towel out on the sand. “I want to get some sun.”

Apparently annoyed that I’m the one getting a little bit of attention instead of her, Ava stands up to rid herself of her tiny skirt, knowing as well as I do that every eye is on her as she performs her seemingly innocent striptease.

“I’m roasting,” she says, adjusting the rear of her yellow bikini. “Anyone coming in with me?”

Slater and a couple of the other guys stand up and follow as Ava takes off toward the water. I hear her squealing in the shallows as the spray hits her ankles, and the guys start a water fight that looks like it should be the opening scene in
Girls Gone Wild! Beach Edition.

I’m unpacking my backpack when I see Zane walking out of the surf with his board. He stops to laugh with someone in the shallow water, so I get up and brush the sand off my shorts. For once Ava’s right. And I hate it when she’s right.

The sand is hot between our spot and the water, so I walk as quickly as I can between the towels until I can cool my feet in the shallows. Zane’s talking to a dark-haired girl in a string bikini, so I stand a little away from them, kicking at the water and watching out of the corner of my eye. Zane’s back is broad and tan, with droplets of ocean still clinging
to his skin, and I’m suddenly conscious of the way the girl moves toward him, one hand lingering on his arm. It looks like they’re going to walk up the beach together, when she suddenly throws her arms around him and pulls him into an excessively long hug before running into the surf.

Zane turns to walk toward our towels, and I’m not sure if he doesn’t see me or if he’s choosing to ignore me. “Hey!” I call over the sound of the water pounding on the sand.

Zane breaks into a smile and walks over to me. He never was one to hold a grudge. “Hey yourself, Lexi,” he says. He leans down toward me. “Or is it Alicia?”

I can feel my face get red, and I look away. “Stop.” Neither of us says anything for a few long moments, and the air seems heavy with everything we should be saying. Finally I break the silence. “I’m sorry.”

Zane kicks some sand at his feet. “I know.”

“It’s just that things have been kind of crazy lately, and it felt like you were checking up on me.”