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Malia-Tarni
The crowds thicken as we get closer to the bar, and panic begins to claw at my throat. I grind to a halt and Summer looks back at me with concern.
“What’s wrong, MT?” she asks.
“I…can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
“I can’t…go over there, Sum. I need…I can’t…breathe,” I gasp in snatches.
“We can go, but we’ll have to walk through the bar to get out.”
I frantically shake my head and pull the leather jacket from my shoulders in a desperate attempt to cool myself. “What about the water? It’s quieter down by the shoreline.”
I nod, wringing the jacket in my hands. There’s so many voices in my head, that I almost can’t make out the ones reaching my ears. I see Summer’s lips moving but nothing reaches my brain. She takes my hand and shakes me a little, but when I don’t respond she simply leads me back down the beach towards the water’s edge. I wish I had my headphones with me, but Summer made me promise not to bring them tonight. I wish I’d never listened to her now. Hell, I wish I never came at all!
We pass the beanbags where we discarded our shoes, and Summer takes the leather jacket from me and tosses it on top of her stuff. My phone is in the pocket, but it’s probably safer on the beach than in the sea. Besides, Summer’s the only one who ever calls me anyway so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if it got stolen or broken.
At the water’s edge, a guy is waiting in a small dinghy with a motor on the back.
“What’s that for?” I nod to the boat.
“Eric’s shuttling people out to the raft if you don’t want to swim.”
I look at Summer properly for the first time since she saved me from Reef and realise that she’s soaking wet.
“Did you swim?”
“I swam back. Came down the slide at the end and it seemed silly to shuttle back once I was already wet. You up for it?”
She’s already waded through the shallow water and climbed into the little boat, so I’m left feeling like I have very little choice. Go swimming with Summer, face the crowds at the club, or risk being found by Reef coming back for another stab at kissing me. This feels a lot like Hobson’s choice to me.
“Sure.”
“Wanna get in then? I don’t have all night,” the boat driver – Eric? – complains.
“Hush, you. You literally do have all night, you’ve been paid to sit and shuttle.” Summer laughs and drops herself down onto Eric’s lap. My eyebrows reach my hairline, but Summer just winks at me before nuzzling into our boat driver’s neck. I should probably call him the captain, but to be honest, the dinghy barely feels buoyant enough to support the three of us, and Eric barely feels competent to steer us.
I cling on for dear life as he starts the engine and takes us out to the giant, floating obstacle course. I have to say, he does well considering Summer is sucking on his neck the entire time. We only almost capsize once. He pulls up alongside the starting point of the course. He’s even kind enough to help Summer and I out of the dinghy, though I’m not convinced he needed to push me up by the ass, with his hands under my skirt.
I throw him a filthy look and Summer hastily pulls me away before I can say anything to him. Or react with my fists.
There’s loud music on the raft, and although there’s plenty of people dancing and tackling the various obstacles, it’s a lot less busy than the beach. Some of the tension in my chest eases as I take a deep breath for the first time in several minutes.
“You okay?” Summer asks me. I nod.
“So you and Eric…?”
She giggles at my attempt to change the subject. “Christ no! He charges for the shuttle otherwise. Making out just saved us both paying.”
I’d rather pay all the money I have than kiss Eric, so I thank Summer for taking one for the team. She laughs and waves me off like it was nothing before grabbing my hand and pulling me along the inflatable rainbow raft towards a giant white unicorn.
“Left or right?” She asks when we reach a T-junction.
“Left,” I reply, because left means moving clockwise around the obstacles and I could never go anticlockwise. That’s just wrong. Which Summer should know.
I shudder at the thought of having to go the other way if she didn’t give me a choice, and my stomach gets painfully twisty.
