Thundering Luv (3 page)

“Hey, you coming or what?” Jake waved him over to the three girls standing next to the candy shop on the rickety wood boardwalk. His blond hair and blue eyes always worked to lure in girls.

“Yeah. Hurry up, man,” Chad joked, his brown skin and buffed muscles a contrast to his white t-shirt. He flexed his muscles at the girls just to get a few blushes out of them.

Colin grinned at them. His friends were determined to hook him up with a new girl. Maybe it was time he moved on, so he jogged over. “What’s up?”

Jake elbowed him. “This is Sheri, Taylor and Pam, they want to come to the beach house and hang out with us tonight.”

Colin raked a hand through his hair. It never failed. Jake always made it known that they were at the beach house alone. It impressed girls, big-time. If his father knew he’d probably hang out there more often, but Jake made it seem like they were hanging out doing nothing whenever his father dropped in to check up on them.

“Hi, Colin.” Taylor smiled and stepped closer.

Colin eyed her long red hair and green eyes, thinking he got the best pick from the group. “Hey, did you want to go get some ice cream, hang out on the beach up there and talk?” He tilted his head in the direction of his friends. “Away from these guys?”

Taylor’s mouth made a surprised O and Colin frowned wondering what he’d said wrong. The hairs on his neck rose. He could’ve sworn he felt the warmth of someone’s breath tickling his ear.

Jewel smacked her teeth from behind him. “Did he tell you he has a girlfriend?”

Colin spun around to see Jewel standing there, her honey brown hair draped over her dark tan shoulders, a yellow bikini top covering full breasts, and her hands on her curved hips. She pursed her lips at him.

Taylor stuttered. “You…she? Oh!” Her hand shot out like lightning as she slapped Colin in the face then stormed off to catch up with her friends.

“What did you do that for?” Colin yelled and stepped closer to Jewel who was bent over laughing. He couldn’t believe Jewel would seek him out to do this kind of damage. Now he knew she was exactly like his cousin stated, a tease and a manipulative witch.

“That’s payback, for this.” Jewel pointed at the small bump over her eye.

“It’s not what you think!” Colin ran his hand through is hair. He couldn’t keep his eyes from traveling down her chest to land on the bellybutton ring, shaped like a butterfly, above her shorts. What the heck was wrong with him? This was Jewel, reigning breakup Queen of Hearts, and the last girl he wanted to see practically naked and sticking out her pouty lips at him.

“Yeah, I bet, it’s on. You haven’t begun to pay for this.” Jewel pointed at the bump. “I had to cover up the bruise with makeup. You’ve ruined my summer.” She glared at him. “So I’m ruining yours.” With a huff she twisted around and sashayed away.

Instead of him being angry, he couldn’t help the buzzing in his chest, as her swaying hips strutted down the boardwalk.

Jewel stared at her reflection in the mirror and patted on several extra layers of makeup hoping it hid the purple spot on her forehead. Then she put more foundation on the circular spot at the base of her neck. Her dreaded birthmark that she wished would just go away. Although, ever since she was a little girl, the brown mark taunted her by getting bigger. Finally the mark stopped growing when she’d reach twelve. Before her father had left, he used to tell her the birthmark was fairy kissed and it held her magic. For the longest time she believed that—until he’d left. Ever since that day, the birthmark was harder to look at. It reminded her that her father hadn’t loved her or her mother enough to stick around.

Even with thoughts of her dad, her mind couldn’t stop skipping to Colin. How tall Colin was, how his voice sounded, how he made her feel. The short time she’d followed him to catch him at just the right time to exact her punishments made her chest tickle with butterflies, her tummy feel weird and her hands shake. The truth was, it took a lot of self-control to make herself walk away and not peek back over her shoulder when she taunted him in front of that girl. What was wrong with her? Why Colin? The guy who slammed her upside the head with a volleyball and ruined the only bikini she had the money to purchase by saving all her money from her part-time job.

It’d been a few days since her prank on the boardwalk, but she made sure to see Colin every chance she got. Casually, peering at him from under her shades while pretending to be sunbathing. Also, she was guilty of checking out his broad chest from her vantage point in the beach waves, while he was helping his friend Jake fix some of the wood planks on the deck. All of this was because she was trying to figure out another way to prank him.

Her phone rang and her mother’s face appeared on the screen. No way she was answering that one either. Jewel picked up and applied her cherry lip-gloss and waited for the final beep of her phone that signaled her mom had hung up. Talking to her mom lately had always resulted in her biting her tongue, hoping to not tip her mother’s mood swings over the edge. When her mother had a new guy, she’d want to talk about him all the time. Then she would tell Jewel she should be more polite to the guy. It would end in Jewel finally losing her temper, being unable to hold in all her anger at her mother waltzing one guy after another into their home who snatched more and more time she had with her mom away from her. It wasn’t as though she didn’t want her mom to be happy, it was that only Jewel really noticed that her mom wasn’t happy at all – not one bit, since her father left them. But how could she blame her mom for being a fake? Jewel couldn’t deny that she herself had been perpetrating the fraud of being the happy, funny cheerleader who didn’t have issues for the longest time.

So what her mom had a nice house, but what no one else knew but Jewel was, they were about to lose it to the bank. Her mother had been posing around town like she was wealthy, but all those divorces cost her mother everything. And lately, the men her mother fell for were freeloaders, who didn’t have a reliable job and milked her mother of loads of money for their habits. Gambling habits, drug habits, or spending habits. Jewel’s chest ached just thinking about this.

A broken sigh slipped from Jewel’s lips as she started to apply eyeliner. “Ugh!” Jewel threw the eyeliner on the dresser. What was she doing? She was supposed to be forgetting about this stuff and having a good time.

Megs came in the room and tied her sundress straps behind her neck. “What’s got you in a mood? This isn’t like you. Remember we’re on vacation.”

Jewel smacked her teeth. She loved her cousin, and figured when school started back she would ask her mom if she could move in with Megs. That way she wouldn’t have to change schools, and she’d be out of her mother’s hair, which was what her mother had been hinting at since she got a ring from her new, much younger fiancé.

“Hey, really, you have to lighten up. If you don’t you can’t go with us.” Megs smiled and nudged her with her elbow.

Jewel couldn’t help it, she smiled. “Okay, who wants to stay in the beach house all day? Where are we going?”

“Next door. Jake and I, well…he likes me and we are going down the beach to have a bonfire with his cousin and best friend, Colin.” Meg was playing with her hair.

Jewel narrowed her eyes at that, because Megs only played with her hair when she was hiding something. “Please tell me you don’t plan on setting me up with anyone.”

Megs bit her lip. “What makes you think that?” She pivoted away and picked up her purse.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’ve been my best cousin forever and I know what it means when you play with your hair.” She laughed.

“Okay, if you want to sneak it out of me, Jake’s friend from the beach house up the road thought you were cute, and um, he’ll be there. Oh, and Colin—you know the guy you pretended to be his girlfriend, and dumped a bucket of sea water on from your window?” Megs put her purse on her arm and smiled coyly. “He’ll be there too.”

Jewel couldn’t hold back a laugh, the image of a frowning Colin teased her and she recalled that prank being almost as good as the first one she did on him.

“So? I don’t care if Colin is going to be there – or this other guy. Do you remember that I recently broke up with Matt? Why would I want to go jump out and get another boyfriend? I don’t ask for these guys to chase me, they ask me. Then you and Amy pressure me into being their girlfriend saying I’m being mean and that I need to give these guys a chance. But that’s not working. It never has. Maybe…maybe I need to be alone for awhile. It’s like I’m alone when I’m dating these guys anyway.” Jewel plopped on the bed, “On second thought, you go on without me.”

Megs pulled at Jewel’s arm. “No! You will not hide out in the beach house. I didn’t bribe my aunt to let you come so you could sit around and feel sorry for yourself.” She gave up her tugging on Jewel’s arm to sit next to her.

“I’m not feeling sorry for myself.” Jewel threw up a limp smile. “Okay, maybe a little. But you know my mom. I don’t want to be like her. It bugs me how she jumps to the next guy that seems interested. That’s been my mistake. I want something real.”

“Real? Well I get that, but the only way you are going to find something real is to get out there and meet prospects. Especially, when we are on a beach vacation. I mean, when was the last time you’ve been to the beach?” Megs bumped elbows with her.

Jewel smirked and tapped her finger on her chin. “When my father was married to my mom. He liked the beach then.”

“Yeah, I remember Uncle Richard did love the beach, before what’s her name came along.” Megs snorted.

“I guess so, but,” Jewel shrugged, “let’s not go there.”

“Fine. You coming? It’ll be fun and you’ll get to play another prank on Colin.” Megs winked. “I’ve seen your mind working and the ‘I’m gonna take a picture of your glare’ staring in his direction when you don’t think anyone’s watching.”

“I really shouldn’t. I got him slapped last time. I should apologize. That’s so not like me to be that catty.” Jewel’s chest fluttered. Maybe she was, just a little bit catty. But if she didn’t want him to dislike her like all her ex-boyfriends, maybe she should just leave him alone.

Jewel watched Megs practically skip over to Jake. She’d been avoiding Colin and the others for a few days. After she pulled her water prank on him she felt stupid and silly but didn’t have the guts to confront him and apologize.

Something about him made her come out of herself, want to play and tease. With her boyfriends she played the sweet girl who always acted perfect. Most of the time, they never even wanted to listen to her, they just went on and on about whatever sport they played, or who they didn’t like. Oh, and they told her time and time again how ‘hot’ she was. Then usually, they tried to see if she was ‘ready’ for the big step in the relationship. Unfortunately, quite a few of them got forceful and scared her. That’s usually when she felt the need to dump them. It became almost a burden to make sure that whenever she was walking the halls at school, her friends were around her to make her feel safe. The confrontations she’d had with one guy left a bruise and bump on her head after she’d broken up with him.

It wasn’t that she didn’t think about having sex with the right guy and all. It was just that she didn’t want to be manipulated into it. But the thing was, everyone, even her cousin, had thought she’d already done it. They assumed that just because she’d had tons of boyfriends, she got them and kept them wanting her because she had sex with them. Funny but they seemed to want her the more she told them no then their previous girlfriends who had no problem saying yes to sex or whatever else her ex-boyfriend wanted from other girls.