Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid Page 0,71

passed out, the pile of ash in the fire pit, their clothes surrounding the towel like a blast radius. There were bird tracks in

the sand, and Julia, amused, pictured those animated bluebirds singing

around the two of them as they slept. The sun was already burning the

fog away, and by the time they would get back to San Luis Obispo, it

would probably be a perfectly clear day, the sky a deep shade of blue.

Ridiculous.

Dave was quiet as they picked up the mess they had made and got

dressed. Julia figured he was worried about getting caught by the cops,

worried about getting to school on time, which there was no way they

were going to do. It was his nature, and she tried taking his mind off

those small worries by joking around. “By the way, there’s a video of

you running naked into the ocean all over the Internet now.”

“Liar,” Dave said, kicking sand into the fire pit, bending over to grab

the cap for the jug of tea.

“I was very sneaky about it. Don’t get me wrong, I felt awful doing it

and e-mailing it to the entire school but it is explicitly mentioned in the Nevers, so I figured recording the event was kind of a must. I probably

shouldn’t have added your grandparents to the e-mail, though.”

Dave chuckled, then picked up the towel and whipped the sand off

it a few times before draping it over his arm. “Ready to go?”

“You mean we have to go back? I thought we might stay here for a

few more days. Live off the land. Grow beards.” Dave was not laughing

nearly as much as he should have been. This was golden material. “We

could have really beardy sex. That’d be hot. Actually, can you even

grow a beard? You can be honest. I’ll still be attracted to you. I would just prefer to know if I’ll be the more bearded one in our relationship.

For logistics.”

Dave didn’t respond, and there was a brief flutter in her stomach,

like something was wrong, though what could possibly be wrong?

She went up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing

herself to his back. “You know the joking around isn’t all I’m feeling,

right?”

His arms went over hers and he gave her hand a squeeze. “I know.”

“Good.” She kissed him through his shirt, sincerely hoping they

might not leave at all. “You wanna, like, talk about it? Us . . . you know . . .

242 NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES

sleeping together. And how we’re feeling about that?” She burrowed

her nose into his back, thrilled and a little weirded out by what she’d

just said.

Dave chuckled, then turned around to face Julia, wrapping her up

in a hug. The ocean breeze blew by, the morning sun weak against it,

sending chills down Julia’s spine. Held tightly in Dave’s arms, sensing

the tenderness in his embrace, she’d bet that he was feeling the same,

reluctant to leave. After a few moments, Dave loosened and pulled

back, kissing Julia quickly on the lips.

Julia followed behind Dave, a little slow because she’d woken up

about six minutes ago and the sand felt nothing short of magical

between her toes. The whole world should have been filled with sand.

Dave was already up by the highway shoulder, walking a little too

quickly. Julia glanced back at the spot, because the day could survive

another cliché. She took note of the surroundings, the trees on the

other side of the road, the wooden fence that must have belonged to

some unseen property. Oh, how trite it was to be a girl memorizing the

details of her first time.

She turned back and saw Dave was already in the car, which they’d

parked behind some boulders to avoid being spotted. He was in the

driver’s seat with the engine started, squinting though the sun wasn’t

completely on his face. They were a bit more than a couple of hours

outside of San Luis Obispo, and Julia was going to relish every mile of

the drive back home.

She put her feet up on the dashboard, undid her hair tie, and let the

DAVE & JULIA 243

wind whip away the sand as they pulled onto the freeway. She grabbed

her sunglasses from the center console but didn’t put them on, not

wanting to lessen the brightness of the day. “I wish we’d brought some

breakfast snacks,” Julia said, plugging her phone into the car for music.

“You wanna stop at a diner somewhere?”

Dave leaned his elbow on the car door, looking worried. “We should

probably get back soonish.”

“So cute, still worried about school.” Julia reached over and poked

him in the stomach. “All right, no diner. But we need some road-trip

food. I want Flamin’ Hot