“Oh, shit,” she said, reaching out of her towel cocoon to take his hand. “Just like that?”
“He stopped to say goodbye on his way to the airport.” Jules hadn’t told this to anyone, not even his mother. And his intense, tunnel-vision year of David had left him distanced from his other friends. “I was completely blind-sided.”
“Oof,” she said. “And then thrown into the trauma of moving and being the new kid and not even having your friends there to hug you and sayFuck you—what’s his name? No, you don’t have to tell me, he doesn’t deserve a name.” She shouted, “Fuck you, you no-name asshole fuck! You suck!”
Jules laughed. “His name is David. We were together for, well, it was about a year.”
“Shit,” Belle said again. “Really? What is wrong with him?” She turned to look at Tom, narrowing her eyes. “Youbetter not dump me when we graduate. I’ll hunt you down and... ugly cry and get snot on your shoes.”
“No way am I risking that.” He twinkled his eyes at her, then leaned forward to say to Jules, “We really don’t have to talk about this, if you don’t want to. But if you do want to rant, we’d be deliriously happy to shoutFuck you, David, with you.”
Okay, red alert, a crush on a straight guy was very uncool. Except it was really kinda perfect for this moment in his life.Fuck you, David, indeed. For such a long time, Jules hadn’t so much as looked at other guys, thinking he and David were it, forever.
Thinking David felt the same, because he’d said so—words whispered in Jules’s ear, so many times, so many nights...
Jules had believed him. How naive was that?
Jesus, maybe hewasas much of a child as Hobbit. They should make a play-date to build a Lego castle.
“Group hug!” Belle commanded as she tried to shuffle her towel mountain with Tom toward Jules. But Sadie and Shelly immediately leapt into action, nearly lifting Jules off the beach-sheet and pushing him toward Belle even as they draped themselves around his other side and back. Hobbit came firing out from his umbrella shelter like he was a professional baseball player diving for home plate, wrapping his arms tightly around Jules’s lower legs.
“Oh, wow,” Jules said as even Tom reached out from where he was towel-locked in on Belle’s other side to put his hand—gentle and very warm—on top of Jules’s head. “This isn’t...” Necessary, he was about to say, but it suddenly was. What the hell had he done last year, making his world David, more David and only David? He couldn’t stop the tears that suddenly filled his eyes so he closedthem and just let himself be hugged by these lovely weirdos.
And to answer his own question, it was beyond obvious that sex had played in. Strongly. His body was still seriously confused after having so much regular sex for so long, and now absolutely none at all. None in a non-solo setting, that is, which was sadly almost worse than none.
But this kind of fearless contact and warmth and yeah,love, from this funny group of kids who barely knew him, it made his heart ache less.
As this hug went on and on andon, it was starting to be a little too-much, so Jules tried Belle-ing it. “Okay,” he said. “Thank you. That’s enough. Hobbit, back to your umbrella.”
Just like with Belle, he got immediate compliance to his commands. Although that was the wrong word. Hisdirection. These were theater kids and they were extremely good at taking direction.
Belle was looking at him as if she were still worried. Even though his eyes were dry again, she’d been close enough to see them fill with tears. “My mom went to school with your mom,” she said, and he knew exactly where that was leading.
And no, he did not want to talk about his dead father, please and thank you.
Tom to the rescue. “My mom’s older. She probably babysat for your mom. I mean, I don’t know that for sure, but she likes saying that. It’s that small-town thing. Everyone knows everyone, and has a history, and really probably should mind their own business.” Those words were directed to Belle, before he turned back to Jules. “We’ve been interrogating you—your turn to interrogate us.”
“Is it safe?” Jules asked, and bingo, they all laughed. He figured this motley crew would be familiar with the mostfamous, dentally-inspired interrogation scene in the cinematic world from the classic movie,Marathon Man.
But okay. Hedidhave questions. His first was to Hobbit. “Your feet are decidedly non-furry, what’s up with that, and isn’t it almost time for second breakfast?”
It was Sadie who laughed the hardest at that. “Sadly, he’s not the Lord of the Rings fan, that’s me. He’s just tiny and adorable—although he does appreciate a good second breakfast.” She reached into one of the many bags she’d lugged from the car and pulled out a box of granola bars, tossing one to each of them.
“Who’s Sandy?” Jules asked. There’d been a lot of talk in the car about someone named Sandy.
“He’s my boyfriend,” Shelly answered.
“Is he, though?” Sadie said. She then told Jules, “He was supposed to come to the beach with us today, but, big surprise! He bailed the way he always bails when there’s no chance of getting Shel naked.”
Shelly exhaled her exasperation. “You’ve always hated him.”
“Kinda because he’s an asshole,” Tom said mildly.
“But he’smyasshole, so back off,” Shelly shot back.
“Next question,” Jules jumped in, aiming his words at Belle and Tom. “How long have you guys been together?”
They answered in unison. “Fifth grade.” They both laughed and immediately said, “Owe me a coke.” Then laughed again.
