A tall dude sticks his head out from the refrigerator, a bottle of water in his hand.
“You’re sober, right?”
Jake nods. “Why?”
“Can you drive my sister and me to the hospital?”
Jake’s glance wanders to Camila, whose body is surging up again. I can hear her whimpering.
“Everything’s fine,” I whisper, while moving my hand in calming circles on her back. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Of course,” Jake says, coming to our side and handing Camila the water. “Here. Drink this on the way to the car, okay?”
Camila is chalk white, there is vomit on her cheeks, and a single strand of hair has gotten caught there. Her fingers trembling, she takes the bottle while Wyatt puts his muscular arms around her and nods to me. Tense jaw, stony expression.
I watch the three make their way to the door. Camila can hardly walk without slumping, so Wyatt puts his other hand under her knees and lifts her up to carry her.
An annoyed snort tears my gaze away from the front door. Wyatt’s bikini-clad friend is plucking at the skimpy band of her bikini bottom and looking at me like she’d strangle me with it. “You like him?”
“What?”
“I asked whether you like him.” She picks a red cup off the counter, looks inside for a moment, then gulps it down.How stupid, I think,drinking out of someone else’s cup. How stupid.“Wyatt.”
I stare at her. “Why in the world are youaskingme something like that?”
She clicks her tongue, tosses her blond hair over her shoulder, and gives an affected laugh. “Why else would you have interrupted us?Intentionally?”
I blink. She can’t be serious. “I have no idea if you had anything butWyatt’s dickin mind over the last few minutes, but his sister was just…”
“Oh, Camila.” She waves her cup as if I was about to tell her something she’s known forever. “She’s always like that.”
I’m filled with rage. I can feel my blood beginning to boil. “Oh, I see, and because someone’s like that all the time, naturally it’s just fine to leave them to themselves? Even when theyquite clearlyneed some help?”
Her fingers twitch. I wouldn’t have noticed if she wasn’t clutching the cup, which is becoming slightly dented. “It’s Camila,” she repeats as if there simply wasn’t any response. “She does that every time.”
“For God’s sake.” I take the cup out of her hand before she can have another drink and dump it in the sink. “You ever wonder why? Did it ever occur to you that she feelsfar too muchand so takes any opportunity to not feel at all?”
The girl stares into the sink where I just tossed her drink. And doesn’t say a word.
I snort, push myself away from the kitchen counter, and walk past her without another word. It makes me sick to see how people close their eyes to reality. The world isn’t just beautiful and full of colorful flowers. There are bushes and poisonous plants, too. The sun doesn’t just rise; it also sets. Every day it’s new, and it makes sure that darkness falls. Life can be ugly, so ugly, and if we do nothing about it, if we look away as soon as the beauty fades, then the days get darker and darker. And we will have failed. Failed all along the line.
I discover Knox in the pool. He’s floating on his back, his eyes on the roof. It looks like the world has stopped turning for him. Asif he didn’t notice anything going on around him. Everyone seems to be making out with everyone else, right next to him some guy tumbles off that stupid zip line into the water.
A woman is pouring beer over her chest and letting two guys lick it off, which is super nasty and makes me think of all the tongue bacteria, and that later on this girl will go to sleep drooling with Streptococcus mutans all over her body, but there’s Knox floating there, like it’s nothing at all. He’s just there, like a waterlily or a tanned corpse with anincredibly rippedbody. I want to yell at him until I’m hoarse, I want to pound my fists against his chest until my knuckles hurt and ask him if hereallybrought all these people over. I do all of this in my mind, I can see it right before me, crystal clear, but in reality…
Well, in reality, I just stand there in my slippers and colored knit socks, staring at him and thinking that he’s both December and July. Which makes sense, because his skin is snow-white but warm, it really is, every time I touch him. He’s December and July.How beautiful he is, I think.
Howbeautiful.
Okay, I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to stay focused or in less than a minute I’m going to jump off this zip line myself and let my skin be smeared with Knox’sStreptococcus mutans. And that wouldn’t be a good idea, we all know that—bacteria is bad.
I push myself through the half-naked bodies and gasp for air as I slide the huge glass door open and step outside. It is damn cold. God. Maybe I should hop into the heated pool myself to fend off the frostbite I’m sure to get.
“Knox,” I say, reaching the side of the pool. My teeth are chattering. Around us there is nothing but total snow chaos; even the silhouettes of the Aspen Highlands are difficult to make out. He doesn’t seem to hear me though; no wonder, he’s off in his own world, so I crouch down next to him and splash water in his face. “Knox!”
He jerks up. I’ve disturbed his corpse position, but it’s no big deal because he’s gone completely underwater, sparing me from having to see disturbingly lovely upper body. Okay, maybe it is a big deal. Just a little bit.
“Get out.”
