Page 45 of The Other Side of Paradise
We chatted like that, for a while, Ryan actually telling me for once what was going on in her life, with all the cadence of like,well, you never asked,which, I guess, sure. We’d found our way here now, and this was more fun. Talked about my studies, about my internship deal back on the mainland and got to mope wondering what my friends were doing, which felt stupid, like, pitying myself for being on a luxury beach vacation, but Ryan seemed like she got it.
The sun was fully gone over the horizon by the time we wrapped, the sky dusky in twilight shades with a soft glow at the horizon, and the air was cooling off when Brooklyn called across the beach towards Ryan, and I sprawled out comfortably on the towel taking in one more minute of lying down before we had to go.
And then Allison threw a cup of water on me.
“The fu—” I gasped, sitting up sharply, wiping the water away, turning on where Allison looked like the cat that got the canary, beaming and laughing. “Allison!”
“You thought I wouldn’t take revenge for earlier?” she laughed, throwing the cup aside, a challenging expression on her face, and I jumped to my feet.
“I’ll pull your hair out,” I said, lunging for her, and she laughed, slipping out of my reach, and I took off after her—shewasn’t kidding, though, that she was faster on the sand than I was, and I only caught up with her when she let me, slowing down so I thumped into her with my arms around her waist, squealing with laughter trying to pull away. “You’re lucky I’m not throwing you in the ocean.”
“Psh. Try. I’m a good swimmer.”
“You’re evil.”
“Oh, but it’s not when you do it?”
I laughed. “No, it is. I’m evil too.” I stepped back, grinning at her, arms folded. “So? How did things go?”
“I was just swimming. You could see me.” She wouldn’t look right at me. I raised my eyebrow.
“You disappeared for a good few minutes…”
“I needed to go to the bathroom.” She still wouldn’t look at me. And she was blushing a little. I narrowed my eyes.
“Allison. Did you have a quickie with Jessica in the bathroom?”
“No—what?” She whirled on me with a look of shock, horror, confusion, appalled-at-being-called-out-ness. “Huh? No—of course not!”
I put my hands on my hips. “With who, then?”
“Nobody! There was no quickie?”
“You’re blushingsomuch. Who was it?”
“Well, yeah, because you’re here talking about me having…quickies,” she said, whisper-shouting the last word, clearly too embarrassed to say it loud.
“You are such a liar,” I laughed. There was this tumbling sensation in my chest, like Idesperatelyneeded to know who Allison, of all people, had stepped off to the side for some action with. I mean, I believed her that she wasn’t fucking in the bathroom, but a little sneaky make-out off to the side wasn’t even remotely unusual, and I needed to know which girl she wasmaking out with or I’d die. “Are you really going to hide the details from me?”
“There’s nodetailsto hide! Oh my god. Let’s just—let’s get going. Ryan and BB are packing up.”
“Oh, well isn’t that convenient,” I laughed. “We’re not done here, young lady!”
“We objectively are because there’s nothing else to say. I went to the bathroom. It’s normal! Humans do it all the time! Oh my god.” She stormed back towards the others, her face beet-red the whole way, and I laughed, following along with her, even though I wanted to grab her and saytell me now dammit.Was it Jessica? I hadn’t seen her around since Allison vanished. Maybe Jessica went back and Allison was going to meet her where she was staying. It better not have been, not without Allison telling me where she was going.
We all took turns in the shower up at the top of the beach, washing off the sand and rinsing our feet before we got back into our shoes and clothes, and we were all in the parking lot around my car when I said, “I should probably get back to the resort. Mom’s going to lose her mind if both her daughters are AWOL. Get back and tell her Ryan’s doing perfectly fine.”
Ryan sighed with a small, grateful smile. “Thanks, Stella… I honestly appreciate that,” she said, and she paused. “And thanks for helping Allison find her cute swimmer girlfriend. I look forward to asking Allison all about her.”
Allison’s eyes bulged. “I wasn’t—” She fumbled, looking horrified at me. “What? Who? Oh, god, Stella, what did you say to her?”
I grinned. “Oh, just told her all about how you and that girl were, like… making out on the sand.”
Allison shot me a wild look, shoulders hunched. “I told you it’s not a thing! She’s probably one hundred percent straight and she was just chatting about our vacations!”
Not a thing except for stolen moments in the girls’ bathroom. “Chatting about taking off,” I said, “or chatting about what she’d like to take offyou—”
“I’m never talking to you again,” Allison huffed, turning away, arms folded, looking like she wanted to fold up into herself and disappear. She was cute like that. I laughed, opening my car door.
