I wanted to look rested and alive for my first day tomorrow. Instead, I’m going to look like a zombie who drove halfway across the country for two days and then switched gears into being Jade’s humancarryingcase.
I give up the battle for a minute, letting Jade’s head fall onto my lap. I’ve always wanted to camp out near the ocean, so it looks like I may finally get my wishtonight.
“Ohh, look who finally left work,” Jared hoots. I look toward the sound of shoes slapping against the paved ramp we walked down to get to the rocks and see a guy who looks to be the same age(ish) as the rest of us. He silently walks toward the rocks we’re sitting on, and I can’t see much of him since it’s pretty dark out and his face is in theshadows.
“Liammmmm,” Jade perks up for a literal second before she flopsbackdown.
“Again?” he responds to Jade. “You said she was tame tonight. Doesn't anyone ever think to cutheroff?”
Yikes. What crawled up his ass? “Dude, what is the story over there. Why do they have you pulling night shifts all thesudden?”
“It’s just this week. They had a massive party to celebrate the beginning of the summer last night. It’s a yearly thing they do. Plus, we just lost the last ‘helper.’ It’s fine,whatever.”
“B-o-r-i-n-g,” Jade says, sticking hertongueout.
Liam ignores Jade and unbuttons the collar of his dark dress shirt, then the cuffs on his wrists before pushing them up to his elbows, revealing partial sleeves of tattoos onbotharms.
“That sounds like a lot of party aftermath work,” Cale continues the conversationwithLiam.
Liam takes a seat on the same rock I’m on, crowding me, and I feel the need to scoot over with how close he’s sitting, seeing as we have no clue who each other are, nor did he acknowledge me sitting here on this rock that’s not big enoughfortwo.
“Saying it was aftermath is putting it mildly,” Liam says. “It was a disaster.” His voice seems strained, but maybe that’s how he normally sounds. As I’m sitting so close while becoming too personal with the back of his short, golden hair that’s purposely styled in messy erratic spikes, I can’t help but kind of wonder (only a little) what he looks like from the other side. He’s had his back to me from the moment he appeared on this dimly litbeach.
I’m listening to him tell Jared about the various tasks he had to complete tonight before leaving work, and maybe I’m the only one feeling this way, but this is becoming a littleawkward.
“Hi,” I offer as he finishes talking. “I’m Julia.” I’d like to add in how rude he was to sit down beside me and not say a word to the only new person sitting here. Maybe people aren’t as friendly in this state as they are at home, but that would contradict everything Jade told me about this area. At least a thousand times since she got here a month ago, she’s told me how friendly everyone is, but I’m not sure I’m buying itrightnow.
Liam swivels around to face me, making our closeness much too apparent. I can smell his breath, which isn’t bad considering he just got off an apparently long shift. I can also smell the cologne wafting from his body, mixing with the scent of sand and salty ocean water—also not horrible. He’s staring at me coldly with his deep-set menacing eyes, looking at me as if I offended him with just my name. “I know who you are,” he says. With his cold response clarifying his personality rather than just the mood he may be in, he turns back around and continues his conversation with JaredandCale.
Um. Wow, okay. “Did I offend you with my looks or just my name?” I counter his rudeness, making sure he doesn’t confuse me for somepushover.
Andy may have been able to manipulate me with his charm at first, then the domineering behavior soon snuck out, but I promised myself never to let another man talk to me the way Andy spoke to me after his true personality came shiningthrough.
Liam is absolutely nothing to me, but he has no reason to talk to me like I’m a piece of trash. We don’t even know each other. I suppose maybe I’m pissy after sitting in a car for almost two days, or the fact that I arrived to find my drunken best friend passing out, but there’s no need to greet a complete strangerthatway.
Liam only turns toward me enough to show the profile of his face this time. “Nope, didn’t offend me, but you have interrupted metwice.”
“No, I didn’t. You weren’t talking,” Iargue.
“I wasn’t done talking, though. Excuse me for taking a brief second to catch mybreath.”
He’s truly rude, and I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone so crass during an introduction. I wonder what the hell his problem is? This is not how I planned to start the summer. “What's your problem?” I ask, shoving my fingers into his rock-hardshoulder.
He looks down at the spot I just touched as if I shouldn't have come into contact with him. “You're my problem,”hesays.
“You don't even know me,” Iargue.
“Yeah, and I'd like to keep itthatway.”
I'm completely bewildered by his behavior. Does he know me somehow, and I'm the only one sitting in the dark here? “Good, well, the feeling ismutual.Dick.”
“What was that?” he snickersrudely.
“I called you a d-i-c-k,” Iannunciate.
“Jade number two has a mouth on her, huh?” Liam asks Cale andJared.
They both put their hands up, ignoring his question, which tells me it's time to get outofhere.
