Page 2 of Six Years
Now I keep the people I have close, and the rest can fuck off.
“Enjoying the silence,” I answer, side-eying Luan. “But someone’s making it really hard to enjoy the silence while talking.”
“Ah, well.” He shrugs like he doesn’tcareabout what I’ve insinuated. “What book were you reading?”
Book?
Oh. Right.Thebook I was reading which made Luan talk to me because I turned off my phone.
“A friend wrote it.” I don’t exactly consider Sofia afriend. She’s Aaron’s girlfriend and although she seems to be quite fun, I barely ever talked to her, and it’s been almost six months since she’s been around. Sure, we hang around each other a lot, and if she called me out of the blue and said she needed my help, I’d run to help her, but that’s just being kind, isn’t it? I am not actively trying to get to know my friend’s girlfriend. Emory’s a whole other story since we’ve lived in the same house for a few months.
“Well, they’re freaky. What’s the name of the book? I want to buy it.”
“I don’t know.” I don’t think Sofia even came up with a book title yet. Aaron asked me to read it so I could give honest feedback because Sofia believes Aaron would tell her it’s great no matter what. She’s right, of course, but he’d never admit that.
Luan hums, probably due to my lack of helpful answers. “My ex-boyfriend used to write poetry, but he was really bad at it. I’m not just bashing him because he cheated on me or something, he was genuinely so bad at it. He tried to rhyme “chaos” with “Laos,” which, yes, kind of works, but the whole poem hadnothingto do with Laos. He only used it because he couldn’t think of anything else. I think he went something like:the pain in my heart is in such chaos, now fly with me to Laos.”
I sigh heavily. He reminds me of my sister. Sun, too, talks a lot and doesn’t know when to stop. It’s kind of refreshing to find out there’s not only this eighteen-year-old girl who shares the same DNA as me having this weird urge to fill silence with unnecessary conversation.
Nonetheless, I get up. Apparently I have two choices; stay and listen to some stranger whom I have no interest in or go back home and listen to my sister tell me all about whatever she wants to talk about. I choose the latter.
“Are you going to the beach party tomorrow?” Luan comes running after me. Can’t he take a fucking hint? “You’ll find it pretty easily.” He points toward where people already start to build up a stage, probably for some live entertainment.
He’s persistent, I can give Luan that much.
I stop in my tracks, now looking at Luan for the first time.Reallylooking at him. He’s got bright eyes, so it looks, but I’m not sure. It’s a little too dark to be able to tell. It could be green or blue, maybe a very light brown. But I’m certain his hair is a dark brown with alotof curls. The hairs on his sides are shorter than the top of his head, like most guys wear it. He’s got a fit body, defined muscles. His skin glows, the water drops reflecting from the moonlight. His nose is surprisingly small for someone his size, and his lips full. He’s a whole lot of confusion at once.
He also seems to be around my age, maybe a little younger, maybe a year older, I can’t tell. The choice of his tie-dye swimming trunks also doesn’t give me an answer to that question.
Luan has a yellow shirt draped over one shoulder instead of wearing it, but since his skin is still covered in water drops, I suppose he had just gotten out of the water before he walked up to me.
How didn’t I notice him?
“Maybe,” I eventually answer. I don’t have anything else to do, so I might as well stop by and check it out.
“I will be waiting for you, stranger.” Luan winks and thenfinallytakes the hint. He turns around and starts walking away.
I don’t know what comes over me, but before I even know, words leave my mouth loud enough for him to hear. “I’m Grey.”
Chapter 2
“you’re more than a sunshine in my mind”—Sunroof by Nicky Youre, dazy
June 2022
Grey.
I keep looking around, trying to spot him somewhere. How is it so difficult to find a six-foot-four guy with black hair and tattoos around here?
“He neverconfirmedhe would come,” Dorothy-Jane, my best friend in the whole wide world, reminds me, laying her hand on my shoulder.
Doro is the only person who always stuck with me despite everything. Through middle school when kids called me names for no reason, she would always throw her lunch at them, then proceed to eat mine instead. Or in high school when I had my first boyfriend and he broke up with me, that blonde evil girl went behind my back and toilet-papered that guy’s house because he broke my heart. And then in College, when my newest ex-boyfriend cheated on me, Doro went and slept with his new boyfriend just to get back at my ex.
She’s the only one I trust a hundred percent with everything. Especially with making sure I don’t humiliate myself. Before that happens, this woman would throw me into the ocean to drown.
“Do you know where he’s staying? I can go there and do… something.”
I almost laugh at that. “You can’t beat him out of his own hotel room just so he’d meet me here. Plus, he said he wasn’t alone in Malibu, so maybe he has a friend he travels with. Agirlfriend, even.”
