Deep Betrayal Page 0,9

me up to get the better of Colleen. All I could think about was how clumsy and awkward I felt with Rob struggling beneath me.

Colleen rammed into me, and Rob staggered. The world pitched at a forty-five-degree angle and hung suspended for a second before I splashed into the lake, now deeper. Iron and silt tinted the dark water. The soft leh, lee, leh, lee filled my ears.

“Again,” said Rob, but I backed away, treading water.

“I don’t think Chicken is my game,” I said.

“We don’t have to play, then,” Rob said. “Let’s do something else.”

I sputtered water from my lips and pushed my hair off my face. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

He put both hands on my arms and gave me a look that said something I didn’t want to hear. Oh, no. Oh, no no no. I turned one shoulder into his chest, laughing so I wouldn’t offend him. I looked to Colleen for support, but she and Scott had not-so-subtly turned their backs and were focusing on each other.

“Listen, Lily, I was thinking—”

“I already have a boyfriend,” I said, hoping it wasn’t a lie, hoping I wasn’t embarrassing myself by misreading where this was going. I turned toward the beach and swam until it was shallow enough to stand.

Rob was still right there, but at least now it was his turn to look awkward. His cheeks flushed as the sun reflected off the water and up at his face. “That guy from up north?”

“Jules told you?”

“Yeah, but I guess I thought you were making him up.”

“Oh, c’mon, Robby. Why would I do that?”

“Well, you never dated anyone around here, and you weren’t up there for that long; I thought maybe you were only saying that because I hadn’t asked you.…”

“My ego isn’t that fragile,” I said.

“Oh, I know, I didn’t mean …” His hand was back on my arm.

“Whatever.” I kept moving.

“Don’t be like that. We’d be great together.”

“Don’t be like what?” I asked, spinning on him. “Reasonable? Not idiotic? We’re friends.” This would have been embarrassing if it weren’t so maddening. What was wrong with guys? It must by the Y chromosome. Even if this made sense, we were leaving for college in ten weeks.

“Right! Friends!” said Rob. “We already like each other.”

“I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”

Rob rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me?” He plucked at my bathing-suit strap, and I slapped his hand away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“God, Lily, you are such a tease.”

His words punched the wind out of me. “Take. That. Back.”

“No,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “I won’t.”

“What have I ever done to you?”

“Exactly my point,” he said, his face turning smug.

“Are you for real? Since when did you become such an ass?” I turned and slogged through the water, then marched up to the picnic table. Jules and Colleen were fighting over a chip bag. Sophie was nearby, burying herself in the sand. By the time I’d squeezed the water out of my hair, Scott, Zach, and Rob had resumed their football game, although I noticed Rob throw a few furtive looks my way, too.

Stupid, stupid, stupid boys. Ruining everything with their stupid assumptions and stupid hands and stupid promises to come back for me. I wrapped my towel around me like a sarong. I needed a few minutes to myself. When no one was looking, I stole away, following a line of oak trees thirty feet from the shore, north toward a wobbly boat dock. There were three aluminum rowboats on the shore, turned on their sides. A perfect, shady place to sit. And hide. And wait for it to be time to go home. Home. Wherever that was these days.

I drummed my fingers on the first metal hull, which rang hollow. Same with the second. The bow of the third row-boat rested against the dock. As I prepared to sit beneath its shade, a hand shot out and grabbed my ankle.

5

REUNION

I stifled a shriek and hit the sand as another hand reached around my waist and pulled me under the small metal boat.

For a moment all we did was stare. His green eyes brooding, yet as frightened as my own. His wet hair hanging in dark, twisted ropes against his olive-tanned face. His soaking-wet board shorts pressing against my thighs.

The hull closed in on us from all sides, and the small confines amplified my senses. Even the silence bounced around, echoing in my ears. The smell of patchouli hung heavy in the