Page 24 of Brick Wall
I plop down on an Adirondack chair facing the water, and Tristan sits beside me. Ryan remains standing with all hispuppy dog energy. We’re opposites. I’m tired and want to chill, and well, he doesn’t.
“Let’s play volleyball!” he exclaims. I guess I can read his thoughts, too, because there was no way that man was going to sit and relax with Tristan and me.
“I’m going to call Annie! We can play two on two!” Ryan grabs his phone out of his pocket.
“I don’t think either of us said yes,” Tristan mumbles, but Ryan is already on the phone and out of hearing distance. I smirk at him in agreement. Neither of us wants to play, but we both know we are still going to.
Five minutes later, I look up and see Annie walking towards us. She’s wearing a white baseball cap with her brown hair bouncing in a ponytail out of the back hole. She’s wearing bright blue athletic shorts and a simple white T-shirt. Her feet are bare with her toes dipping into the sand.
I notice Tristan is taking off his sandals, so I do the same with mine, leaving them by the Adirondack chair before walking toward the volleyball net.
I think the last time I played volleyball was during Phys Ed in high school, not including impromptu water balloon volleyball yesterday with Annie, of course.
“Okay, this isinformalbeach volleyball,” I hear Annie say with some sass, looking directly at her brother Ryan, and he rolls his eyes at her with his hands on his hips. I do not understand the reference, so I observe instead.
Annie simply lifts an eyebrow at Tristan, and he mutters “six” in return. Ryan says “three,” and then all three heads look at me like I know what this conversation is. I don’t.
“Pick a number one through ten, and whoever is closest gets to be on Annie’s team,” Tristan clues me in.
“Nine,” I pick because I should probably go high and pick something a little different from them.
“Lucky seven,” Annie responds, and Tristan pumps his hand in the air, which is the most energy I’ve seen from the man all week.
“My man,” Ryan says, giving me a low five. “We’re going to do great,” he says with false energy. “Do you want to serve first, or do you want me to?”
I put my hand out silently, sayingall yours,and Ryan heads to the back of the court to serve.
His serve goes to Tristan, who quickly hits it back over the net to me, and I barely get to the ball and hit it up in the air. Luckily, Ryan is there and spikes it to Annie, but she blocks the ball, and neither of us can reach it in time.
We play a few more rounds, and Tristan and Annie are already up by six points, whereas we haven’t scored a single point yet.
“Going to lose to your little sister?” I taunt Ryan.
“Yes,” he deadpans, “especially if you are this terrible.”
I shrug. I was not built for volleyball. The only reason I won yesterday was because I had the smartest team in the bunch, plus it wasn’t really volleyball.
I’m still enjoying this impromptu game, though.
It’s a beautiful night out, with the sun slowly drifting down and a cool breeze in the air.
I also have the perfect view of the water, not to mention Annie and her tiny shorts and white tee, which lift every time she does a spike. Of course not. Why would I be looking at her instead of the water or the game itself?
Shit, I should pay better attention to the game at hand.
The ball drifts by me, and Ryan moans.
“Match point,” Tristan says as he serves the ball directly to me. I make some contact with the ball, but it’s not enough for Ryan to save the ball and hit it over.
Tristan and Annie celebrate with both their hands in the air, meeting for a double high five.
“All right, time to switch up the teams,” Ryan declares.
Annie takes a swig of her water but shakes her head. “Sorry, fellas, I’m out. I’m exhausted and need to head to bed.”
Tristan agrees with her, and so do I. Bed is sounding pretty good about now.
We all say good night, but somehow, I feel depressed for the first time in a long time that I’ll be going to bed alone.
