Page 48 of Perfectly Us
“People started throwing dollar bills at me,” Alex chimes in with a big smile, proud of himself. “I stuck them in my underwear.”
My stomach hurts as I laugh again, hard. It doesn’t take much to imagine Alex like that. It sounds exactly like something he’d do.
Alex grabs my arm and leads me around the area, introducing me to his friends. I meet a guy named Dylan, who has strawberry blond hair and looks stoned out of his mind. He offers me a brownie, and Alex shakes his head, telling me not to fall for the trap.
“I ate one before not knowing it was a damn pot brownie, and I ended up buying a bunch of shit online,” Alex tells me as we walk away. “Apparently I go on shopping sprees when I’m high.”
My cheeks ache from smiling so much.
Who knew being around people could be this… fun? That’s the only word I can think of. Because as I meet more of Alex’s friends and hear stories about stupid shit he’s done, I realize I’m having a lot of fun. More than I’ve ever had. And the crazy part? No one’s giving me strange looks or being mean. They don’t laugh behind my back or whisper as I walk past. They’re treating me like I’m one of them.
It’s different. Nice. I let my guard down a little. Alex stays with me the entire time. He doesn’t run off and leave me to hang out with someone else. Anything he does, he includes me too.
“I’m Melody,” a brunette girl says, waving at me. She’s cuddling against Ruben’s side, a wine cooler in one hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You have?”
She smiles. “Are you really Alex’s boyfriend?”
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Alex says, his voice a higher pitch than normal. His cheeks are pink, and I don’t know if it’s from the sun or if he’s blushing. “I told you guys that we’re just friends.” He looks at me. “Sorry. I didn’t say you were my boyfriend. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you were, but I didn’t tell them that. They just assumed.”
I reach for his hand. He looks so nervous as he rambles. He also looks worried, like he’s afraid I’m going to freak out on him and leave or something.
“It’s okay,” I say, linking our fingers. I don’t think about my actions much. I just do what feels right. And holding his hand feels right. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the privacy of my car or out in the open for all his friends to see either.
Alex smiles and grips my hand a little tighter.
“God, that’s adorable,” Melody says, staring at our joined hands.
“Hey, Mel?” Tyler walks over and touches Ruben’s chest. “Does this turn you on?”
She laughs and swats at him. That then leads to Ruben joining in, and in seconds, people are falling into the water, laughing as they splash each other. One guy picks up a girl and throws her into the lake. She squeals as he then goes in after her. They’re making out in no time.
Alex guides me over to the water’s edge. “Ready to swim?”
“Yeah.” I kick off my shoes and shove my socks inside them before placing them beside Alex’s beach bag. I grab the bottom of my shirt but hesitate in taking it off, too self-conscious. I’m not muscled like some of the other guys around me. I’m lanky and thin.
“You don’t have to take it off,” Alex says with a reassuring smile. “But I won’t complain if you do.”
I laugh as he suggestively moves his eyebrows up and down, a flirty little gleam in his green eyes. Before I can talk myself out of it, I tug my shirt up and over my head. A warm summer breeze tickles the skin of my belly, and the sun’s rays glare down on my shoulders.
Alex swallows as he stares at me, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the action. “You, uh, want some sunscreen?” He rifles through his bag and pulls out a bottle. It’s the spray-on kind. He sprays his arms, then squirts some in his hand before rubbing it on his face. “Your turn.”
I stand still as he sprays my arms, front and back. Then my shoulders. When he sprays my chest, he swallows again. I’ve never seen him so out of sorts. The cool confidence he typically carries is gone. He’s breathing a bit harder too.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Mhm.” He tosses the sunscreen back in his bag before stepping out of his flip-flops. He grabs my arm. “Come on.”
The water’s chilly at first, but my body starts getting used to it. The hot, humid day helps with that. The muddy bottom of the lake feels weird on the soles of my feet, squishy. My toes sink into the mud as we walk farther into the water.
Alex stops when I’m chest-deep and turns to me. He’s shorter than me, so the water almost reaches his chin. “Feels good, right?”
“Yeah. It does.” Being with him feels even better.
The sudden influx of those kinds of thoughts confuses me. The more I get to know Alex, the closer I feel to him. It’s like that with everyone though, right? You don’t start off close to someone; it’s gradual, something that builds over time.
“Sorry again about the whole boyfriend thing,” he says. “I swear I didn’t say that. Ruben has a big mouth. A shit stirrer. He means well though. I haven’t been this crazy about a guy in areallylong time, and I think he’s just excited for me, ya know?”
