Breathe (Sea Breeze #1)(9)
Author: Abbi Glines

"Please tell me you put on sun block. Even the best tanners get burnt in this sun." "Yes, I’m slathered up."

"Come this way," he said, pulling me behind him through some really tall grass, which grew in the sand. A simple rectangular in-ground pool stood in the center of the yard, surrounded by guys in swim trunks and girls in bikinis. They were slinging back slime from a shell, and I reminded myself not to grimace when they talked to me and ate those things. Marcus squeezed my hand and pulled me into the party.

"Marcus, it’s about time you got here. Al the shells are almost empty," called a guy with long, brown dreadlocks.

Marcus smiled down at me and whispered, "I won’t eat any in front of you, I promise." I shook my head. "No, really, it’s fine." He laughed and pulled me over to the group of guys standing with the dreadlock guy. Several people called out to Marcus, and he waved and nodded. My stomach churned with nervousness when I realized the majority of the people here were staring at me.

"Hey, guys, this is Sadie, Sadie this is Rock," a rather large muscular guy with a shaved head, "Preston," what I considered a beach bum, with long blond hair and dark tanned skin, "and Dwayne," the dreadlock guy, who also happened to have several tattoos and piercings. "We’ve been friends since second grade."

Dwayne flicked the dreadlocks out of his eyes and grinned. "Ever since Rock beat the shit out of Preston and ol’ Marcus here jumped in to take up for him, who then started getting pummeled by Rock, until I jumped in, and about that time we all got suspended from school." The four of them laughed at the memory, and I tried to picture them all as little boys fighting.

"Our parents were al so proud. They had elementary school delinquents." Dwayne grinned and flipped back an oyster. "Dwayne will reminisce al day if you let him.

Don’t act like you enjoy his stories. He won’t stop," Marcus said, smiling. The friendship between these four made me feel warm inside. It wasn’t something I could relate to.

"So, Sadie, how did ugly butt Marcus here find a beautiful blind girl," Rock asked as he flipped a burger. I glanced at Marcus to see him smiling at me.

"We work together. He came to my rescue on my second day there, and my eye sight is 20/20." One of them let out a low whistle, and another laughed wickedly.

"Marcus is a regular ol’ knight in shining armor, I tell ya," Dwayne said with a flick of his dreadlocks.

Marcus shoved him playfully, and Dwayne burst into laughter. "I’m going to take her to meet other people, if you three can’t behave." "What did I do?" Marcus sent him a mock glare before turning to me.

"Are you thirsty?"

Dwayne reached into a cooler behind him and held out a soda. I took it, thanked him, and listened to the four of them talk about a beach volleyball game going on next weekend between them and a rival team. They would ask me questions or bring me into the conversation occasionally, but mostly they just planned and strategized. I had no idea beach volleyball was such a serious sport.

A blond in a hot pink bikini, which barely covered the important stuff, walked up behind Rock, wrapped her arms around his waist, and kissed his neck.

"Sadie, this is Trisha, Rock’s fiancee, and Trisha, this is Sadie, a friend of mine." Trisha smiled at me and ran her hand over Rock’s head. "If you get bored with this bunch’s conversation, you are welcome to come lay out with me and the girls."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Are you bored? Want to go in for a swim and cool off?"

I wasn’t real y sure I wanted to take off my sundress in front of al these people. My hand me down red bikini wasn’t nearly as skimpy as the ones the other girls were wearing, and I didn’t fil one out like they did either. I thought of my long skinny legs in comparison to the curvy large-chested girls lying out and wanted to keep my clothes on. However, I also wanted to make friends and not let Marcus down, so I needed to lay out or swim. Since swimming kept me covered most of the time, I decided it would be the best option. "Swimming sounds good." He grinned and pulled his tee shirt off to reveal a very tanned and muscular chest. I swallowed hard and wished I didn’t have to do this but I knew I would have to sooner or later. So I slipped the sundress off and laid it beside Marcus shirt. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone and wished I could just go jump in the water without having to actual y walk calmly over to it and get in.

A low whistle from behind startled me and I heard an "ouch." I turned to see Marcus glaring at Dwayne and Preston.

"Sorry, Sadie, these two have no manners." He took my hand again. He always held my hand casual y. It’d never bothered me before, but being half naked made it uncomfortable.

"Come on. Let’s go swim." He grinned at me and didn’t even pay attention to my body. It relieved and embarrassed me at the same time. I didn’t want Marcus to like me as anything more than a friend, but I also didn’t want to be so boyish in my bathing suit he didn’t notice me at all. I decided to stop thinking about everything so hard, and I followed him into the water via the stairs. We joined in on a game of basketball with a floating goal in the middle of the pool. I stunk at it, but no one other than Marcus and a guy name Rick seemed to be any good, so I didn’t worry too much.

After racing Marcus the length of the pool and winning one out of three times, we got out to get something to eat. I walked over to my sundress about the time Marcus came up behind me and wrapped a towel around me. "Thank you." He smiled. Our friendship was working out nicely, and it made me smile a little brighter. Maybe my personality wasn’t as bad as Jessica said.

Marcus leaned down and whispered into my ear, "Burger, ribs, or both?"

I thought of the mess ribs make and all the people in the small backyard. "Burger," I whispered back. He nodded and made his way to the grill. He got me a burger and a slab of ribs for himself.

We walked over to a table set up with stuff to put on the burger, and I added a little ketchup and cheese. Marcus grabbed us both a drink, and we headed over to an unoccupied shaded area. We sat down and ate in silence for a few minutes. I watched him go through at least fifteen napkins and laughed when he reached for more and all the clean ones were gone. "You think my mess is funny, huh?" I shrugged and let out another laugh I couldn’t hold back. I reached under my plate and handed him my napkin.

"Thanks." He took the napkin and cleaned himself up. "Are you having fun?" he asked after he cleaned the barbecue off his face.

"Yes, I am. I feel like the youngest one here, but I am having fun." Marcus nodded. "You are the youngest one here. I forget my old crowd has all aged just like me." "No, I have real y enjoyed myself." Preston, whose attention seemed to be focused our way, shook his head.