Long Time No Sea, page 17
‘I’m so sorry,’ the young man says. He grabs a resort towel from one of the sunloungers and dabs Mike’s feet.
‘You want to watch what you’re doing,’ Mike snaps at him, snatching the towel from his hands to clean his own feet.
‘So sorry,’ the young man says again. ‘I’ll get you another.’
The mood suddenly shifts from giddy celebration to sobering silence.
Mike’s always had a temper. I thought he might have grown out of it by now. Still, let’s not let it ruin a victory. We won the bar tab, so tonight should be interesting. Now that we’ve decided to lean into this place, to let our hair down and have fun, if this is how things have started then I’m terrified to see what tonight will bring. Terrified, but in the best possible way.
I can’t wait.
20
During the day, lounging by the resort pool is for enjoying the warmth of the sun on your skin, and sipping cool, refreshing drinks, taking dips in the pool in a very typically daytime atmosphere. Of course, you are still surrounded by the same young, drunk, horny clientele you see everywhere else here, but chilling is what the space is for at least – if you’re into that sort of thing.
At night, things are very different. As if from nowhere, the area is packed with large speakers and bright lights – it’s still only evening, and time for more party games – so I haven’t seen what the full nightclub transformation looks like yet, but I’m eager to see it. It sounds amazing.
Once again, seating areas are laid out in front of the stage, clearly ready for the next round of games to start, so we’re all gathered together, already hitting our free bar tab hard. The water in the pool is so still and so flat it almost looks like glass reflecting all the twinkling lights around it. The night sky beyond us is dark, but everything here is illuminated, like we’re in our own little bubble of fun.
The atmosphere is alive with laughter and chatter. All of the seating areas are full, with people waiting to take part in the competition, everyone already enjoying themselves with drinks in their hands. It’s almost as though no one ever finishes a drink here, because another one replaces it the second it’s finished, like some sort of boozy magic trick.
‘So, whatever this is, we’re doing it, right?’ Maxi says.
‘Okay, calm down,’ I joke.
‘I just mean that, if we’re playing, we’re playing – agreed?’ she continues. ‘If the game is anything like the one earlier, and Tom makes it sound like it is, then I think we need to set our stalls out, and say if we’re playing, or if we’re watching.’
‘I’m in,’ DJ says excitedly.
‘Obviously I’m in,’ Clarky adds. ‘This is all I’ve wanted for this whole trip.’
I rarely believe a word that comes out of Clarky’s mouth, but I definitely believe that.
‘I’m down for whatever,’ Cam adds.
‘Then so am I,’ Mikey replies, almost competitively.
And that just leaves me, and everyone staring at me, waiting to see if I’m game.
‘That’s all of us then,’ I announce.
I am a little apprehensive, given the nature of the competition earlier, but if I can get through that, how bad can it be?
‘Okay, kids, this evening’s game is…’ Geri pauses suspensefully. ‘Premature Evacuator.’
Then again, maybe I’m wrong.
Geri is all glammed up for the evening, standing on the stage in a full-length gold dress, occasionally flashing an enormous pair of heels underneath. The spotlight pointing at her makes the little sequins on her dress twinkle, turning her into a sort of human disco ball.
The sound of clinking glasses mixed with the beat of the music filled the air until Geri spoke, now everyone is quiet. Who knew it would be such a competitive crowd?
‘Are you all sitting comfortably in your groups of friends?’ Geri enquires. ‘Well, you won’t be for much longer.’
She says this in an almost threatening tone. I glance to Cam, in that way you often turn to look at someone when something happens, when you hear a joke – anything. Don’t they say that when you find something funny, you always look to the person you like the most to laugh with? I don’t know how true it is, but I do find it interesting, seeing who looks to me if I’m watching a comedy on TV with friends or family. It’s even more interesting to see people looking at other people, though, trying to work out what their relationships are.
‘Your party coordinators are watching over you,’ Geri continues. ‘They’ll be timing you, once again, to see who is the fastest – and our winning team tonight wins a whopping ten per cent off their final bill.’
The crowd woos. Everyone loves a discount, but I doubt everyone here has had to fork out for the swingers’ suite. It would be good to win this for Maxi – she must have spent a fortune on us so far.
‘So what’s the aim of the game?’ Geri says. ‘I will read out a series of instructions and the appropriate members of your team need to follow them. When your party coordinator is satisfied you’ve completed the challenge, they will give you the go-ahead to throw back a shot each. There will be a point for each team who completes a challenge the fastest. So simple even a bunch of drunks like you can do it, right?’
Everyone cheers.
‘Okay, here we go,’ she says.
Maxi looks to Tom, who has just finished spreading shots out on the table, and is now brandishing his stopwatch, ready to begin.
‘Will it be obvious what to do?’ Maxi asks him.
‘Definitely,’ he replies.
‘Keeping in mind, in this competition, when we say kiss, we mean really kiss… The youngest boy and the youngest girl should kiss,’ Geri commands.
We all glance at one another as our slightly drunk brains try to compute her command. Well, Maxi is younger than me, and the youngest boy is…
Maxi and DJ jump to their feet and snap together like magnets. Honestly, it’s like they’ve never been apart, like muscle memory, the way their lips meet before their entire body follows suit, Maxi locking her arms around DJ’s neck while he grabs hold of her bum, squeezing it with both hands, like he’s trying to stop it getting away from him.
Cam and I exchange another glance. Okay, this is definitely kicked up a gear from the game we played earlier.
‘Go on, lad,’ Clarky cheers DJ on. ‘This is what we’re here for.’
This is not exactly what you would call a game for your typical married person – then again, Maxi is clearly having the time of her life.
‘Okay, shot,’ Tom commands.
Maxi and DJ both sink their shots. DJ cheers victoriously while Maxi just slumps back into her seat with the biggest smile on her face.
Okay, now I feel like I know what we’re working with, and I’m low-key terrified.
‘Now we’re warmed up,’ Geri practically cackles. ‘Next. The boy whose birthday comes first in the year should get into a sex position with the boy whose birthday comes last. And then we’ll see who comes first.’
My eyes widen at Geri’s joke, and the idea that two of the boys in our friendship group are going to find this within their comfort zone.
Clarky springs to his feet.
‘DJ, quick,’ he commands.
DJ stands up with less enthusiasm than he did for Maxi.
‘Mate, I’m not sure…’ DJ starts, but Clarky clearly wants to win, so he wastes no time in jumping up into DJ’s arms, locking his legs around his waist.
‘Is this actually happening?’ Mike asks no one in particular.
‘This is actually happening,’ I confirm.
‘Okay, great, now have your shot,’ Tom tells them.
Clarky hops down and grabs his drink, thrusting another one into DJ’s hand. DJ throws it back like he needs it. I don’t think he ever expected he would get so up close and personal with Clarky in his lifetime.
‘I feel dirty,’ DJ says as he sits back down.
‘Because he’s a boy?’ Maxi says, raising an eyebrow.
‘No, because he’s Clarky,’ DJ jokes. ‘And I’m not even sure of the physics of that position.’
‘Oh, trust you to find a way to make this nerdy,’ Clarky complains. Then he turns to Tom. ‘That counts, right?’
‘Yeah, I’m happy to sign off on that,’ Tom jokes. ‘Get ready for the next one.’
‘The tallest girl…’ Geri starts, which I know is me. Please let it be Cam, please let it be Cam. ‘…should kiss the shortest boy.’
No! Not Clarky, again.
‘Come on, let’s get this over with,’ he half jokes.
‘Someone get him a chair to stand on,’ DJ teases.
We don’t meet with the same enthusiasm as Maxi and DJ, that’s for sure, but Clarky goes for it, wrapping his lips around mine, trying to jab at mine with his tongue but I keep them tightly closed, like a barrier, and bring my hands up to his face to hide the fact that I’m not really giving back what I’m getting.
‘Okay, shot,’ Tom commands once he’s happy we’ve done our job.
I wipe my wet lips with the back of my hand, trying not to pull a grossed-out face until I’ve knocked back my super-strong shot, so at least I can blame it on that. Come on, it’s Clarky, he’s like a (older, confusingly) little brother to me.
‘You’re an unusual kisser,’ he tells me as we sit down, clearly oblivious to what I was going for by keeping my mouth closed.
‘Thanks,’ I reply with a laugh.
‘Good work, my short kings,’ Geri says. ‘Who put you up to doing that, ey?’
All of Geri’s jokes are met with laughter but that one definitely sounded like far more girls were laughing than boys.
‘Next,’ Geri says. ‘Now this one should be interesting. The shortest girl should snog the person she fancies the most. This will be a fun one to watch.’
Once again, Maxi and DJ snap together, locking lips like there’s no one else here.
‘Old habits die hard, eh?’ Clarky jokes quietly – actually, it’s probably not that quiet, but Maxi and DJ are too oblivious to hear them.
As they knock back their shots, I wonder about what’s going to come next. When the competition calls for a girl, it’s always going to be me or Maxi, and I don’t know what I’ll do, if I get a question like that. I’d probably have to kiss Maxi, just to avoid the mess that would come from me choosing one of the boys, because while there very much may be one obvious choice, I don’t know how well it would go down if I made it.
‘The girl whose name comes first alphabetically should kiss the boy whose name comes last alphabetically,’ Geri commands next.
Oh God, that’s me. Me and…
Mike stands up.
No. No, no, no. It would be less awkward to kiss Clarky again.
I can feel Cam’s eyes on me as I stand up. I’m trying to keep my brain from darting back to the past but it’s all I can think about. I didn’t even kiss Mike when we were together – in fact, it was a whole thing, he went around telling people I had some sort of problem, and then there’s the fact that Cam told me how jealous he was, when me and Mike were together, and while I’m sure he doesn’t care now, in the context of this game – does he care? Is it bad that I want him to?
Mike gives me a friendly smile before moving his face close to mine, but as our lips touch, I don’t know, something about it just freaks me out. It reminds me of when I was younger, of feeling like I was stuck with something I didn’t want, and I know this is just a game, but I can’t do it.
I can only describe my next move as unsubtly recoiling in horror. I pull away quickly, and I can tell by the look on Mike’s face what he must be thinking – that I still don’t want to kiss him, not even in a game – and so I stumble back into the table, knocking over some of the shots, which knock over other shots like dominoes. I snatch up my camera, which was sitting on the table, just as one of the drinks hits it.
‘I’m sorry, I, erm, I’m not feeling very well,’ I babble. ‘I think I just, yeah, I need to lie down. You guys stay here, have fun, I’m fine.’
‘Are you sure?’ Maxi asks.
I think she realises that I need to get out of this situation, and that I’m not ill at all. That or she just really wants to keep playing this game that gives her a free pass to get off with her ex-boyfriend.
‘Yeah, honestly,’ I insist. ‘Bye.’
I weave through the tables, heading back towards the hotel, desperately seeking the solitude of the swingers’ suite.
I turn on my camera to make sure it’s okay. Thankfully, it springs to life, but it’s a bit wet on the outside, and very sticky.
I use some of the material from my dress to give it a wipe, inadvertently clicking through the photos I’ve taken on the trip so far as I clean the buttons, like a really fast slideshow.
I just about feel like I’ve cleaned it up when something catches my eye. I flick forward a couple of photos again and I can’t believe what I’m looking at. It’s the photo I took, back when we thought we were shipwrecked, when I got up in the night to try to see what was going on in the dark, to try to scare away whatever terrifying creature was lurking in the bushes. The photo I took when I flashed my camera for the light wasn’t a creature at all, although it is still terrifying. Clear as day, with no room for interpretation, the photo shows Maxi and DJ, at it against a tree. She has her legs locked around his waist, he’s kissing her neck – they’re both clearly into it. I quickly avert my eyes, feeling like a pervert for making a Kodak moment of it, before turning my camera off.
I can’t believe it’s been fifteen years and yet, throw us all back together, and we start acting like we did when we were kids again. Maxi is married – happily married, as far as I know, why is she risking it all for a holiday fling with DJ?
Oh, Maxi, what are you doing?
21
THEN – 27 JUNE 2008
It’s hard to believe that today is the last proper day of sixth form. I know, we’re doing our A levels, but there has been something almost comforting about doing them here, instead of going to college. It still feels like we’re at school – because we’re still in the school, obviously – so it feels like we’ve been able to avoid growing up for just a little longer.
It’s lunchtime and Maxi, DJ, Mikey, Cam and I are in the library, where we always love to hang out at lunch. I can’t believe this is the last time we’re going to hang out here.
I think Jemima, the cool school librarian, a woman in her early forties who has always let us call her by her first name, is going to miss us – or at least that’s how she’s making us feel, which is the sign of a good person in education. I swear, some of my teachers probably couldn’t pick me out of a police line-up, but that’s just where being shy and well behaved gets you.
One of the main reasons I think Jemima is so cool is the fact that she doesn’t just sit at the desk, scanning books in and out, she likes to engage with the students, and set us these fun little challenges.
Today, for our final challenge, she has set us the quest of each finding a book with what we believe to be the oldest check-out stamp in it, and whoever finds the oldest one wins. The school has been around for decades – my dad actually went here – so there are plenty of old books on the shelves.
So we all run off to different sections, all hoping to find the oldest book we can. I remember last year sometime picking up a book on etiquette for ladies, that was originally published in the 1940s or 1950s, and having a laugh at all the stuff in it, like the fact ladies had to wear gloves, and men had to stand up whenever a lady entered the room. A book that old must have some old stamps in it, so that’s the one I’m looking for. I finally lay my hands on it, the smelly old book with the browning pages that for some reason I find so charming.
‘Time’s up,’ Jemima calls out. ‘I’ll give a bonus prize to the first person to get a book back to me with a stamp before the 1980s.’
I’m on my way back when I notice Mikey and DJ both rushing towards the librarian’s desk, trying to be the first to present their book for the challenge. They crash into each other, and while DJ manages to stay on his feet, Mikey hits the ground with a thud.
‘What the hell are you playing at?’ Mikey snaps at DJ, his face burning red with a level of anger that is unnecessary given that this was just a silly accident.
‘I’m sorry, buddy, it was an accident,’ DJ says, offering Mikey a hand to help him up from the floor.
Mikey slaps DJ’s hand away, still furious, and pulls himself to his feet.
‘You’re such a careless idiot,’ Mikey snaps as we all gather around, rushing to the scene to try to defuse things.
‘Hey, Mikey, calm down,’ I say softly, taking his arm, but he shrugs me off.
‘Don’t talk to me like I’m a kid, I won’t calm down,’ Mikey insists. ‘DJ is trying to play the clown again, trying to make me look stupid.’
‘You’re making yourself look like a clown,’ Maxi chimes in, rushing to her boyfriend’s defence, standing between them.
‘Piss off, Maxi,’ Mikey snaps.
I feel my eyebrows shoot up.
‘Right, okay, that’s enough,’ Jemima says, stepping in. ‘Mikey, I think you need to take a break. Go outside, get some fresh air, cool off and then come back in and apologise.’
Mikey storms out.
‘What’s his problem lately?’ Maxi says, her voice wobbling from the confrontation.
‘Babe, it’s okay, sit down for a minute,’ DJ says, wrapping an arm around her reassuringly as he ushers her to the quiet reading area.
Now it’s just me and Cam.
‘Shall we go to the computers?’ he asks. ‘Have one last go on that daft learning game?’
I give him all the smile I can muster.
‘Sure,’ I reply.
We take a seat at one of the PCs and Cam fires up the game. He aimlessly clicks around for a bit but I can’t really focus.
‘Are you okay?’ he asks me. ‘Mikey is just being an idiot. He’ll come back and apologise and it will be like it never happened. You know what DJ is like, he won’t hold it against him. He’ll be happy when it’s forgotten about.’
