Vampire Beach: Initiation (8 page)

Zach
gave Jason his usual cool nod as Jason sank down on the blanket between him and Tyler. Jason had known Zach long enough to know that he wasn't the
most friendly
guy ever born. He was always polite, but never especially enthusiastic. Zach liked to keep to himself.

Jason leaned across Tyler toward Sienna. "My friend has only recently been released from a
...
let's call it a mental health facility," he told her in a loud whisper. "Compulsive lying is a side effect of his treat
ment.”

Sienna gave him a light push and turned her atten
tion back to Tyler. "So think any of what you heard about me is true?"

"You'll have to tell me," Tyler murmured, ignoring Jason.

"Okay. So what are these mysterious things you've heard?" Sienna asked, and even Adam leaned in to lis
ten.

"Well
...,"
Tyler said, drawing it out as long as he could. "Apparently, you like the way Jason's aunt dresses."

Sienna's eyebrows shot up. "
Wow, that
is
mysteri
ous." She laughed. "What else?"

"That's pretty much it, actually," Tyler said, lying back on the blanket.

Adam and Sienna laughed.

She looked up at Jason. "You suck at gossip," she informed him.

"Well, what can I say? I don't like to talk behind people's backs," Jason replied virtuously, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Not true. I've heard you describe our history teacher as a
ho
tti
e
on more than one occasion," Adam put in. "He likes the way Ms. Buchanan's butt looks when she reaches up to write at the top of the black
board," he added to Sienna and Tyler.

"Oh, really?"
Sienna asked laughingly.

"Hey, Buchanan's got back. Can I help it if
I
notice?" Jason grabbed a beer, trying to cover his embarrassment. He knew they were just teasing him, but somehow it was always worse when Sienna was involved.

"So you can give us all the dirt on Freeman, huh?" Brad asked Tyler, admirably unphased by the fact that Tyler was practically sitting in Sienna's lap.

"Whatever you want to know," Tyler replied.

"Who was his first love?" Sienna asked immedi
ately.

"Wait!" Adam cried. He rummaged in his back
pack and pulled out his mini
-
camcorder. "This I have to get on camera."

"Tyler, don't you want to hit the water?" Jason
asked.

"Are you kidding?" Sienna said. "I'm not letting go of him until I hear all your secrets."

Tyler shot Jason a mischievous look, then leaned in and whispered in Sienna's ear.

"Hey, share it with the rest of the class!" Adam complained.

"Sorry," Tyler said to Adam, drawing back from Sienna, but only a little. "Jason's first love, I'm sorry to say, broke his heart."

"Liar," Jason reminded Sienna.

Adam spun to focus the camera on Jason's face. Jason reached out and plucked it from his hand, turn
ing it off.

"Broke his heart how?" Sienna asked.

"She left him for another guy," Tyler explained sorrowfully. "Unfortunately, for Jason, he just couldn't compete with me."

"You?"
Sienna cried.

"You hit on your friend's girlfriend?" Zach asked.

Jason took special note of Zach's question, since he rarely deigned to join the conversation. He couldn't help wondering if Zach had somehow picked up on his feelings for Sienna.

"Nah, she hit on me," Tyler said. "That happens a lot, you know?"

"Right, because you're irresistible," Sienna said, try
ing to look serious.

"I'm glad you noticed," Tyler replied.

Jason shook his head.
Yeah,
he thought, laughing.
Tyler
can
charm
anyone.

"So she hit on you and you went out with her?" Sienna was sa
y
ing
,
her gaze focused on Tyler even though Brad's arm was around her.
"You bad boy!"

"I was only eight," Tyler replied with a wink. "All I did was sit with her at lunch one day."

Sienna and Brad laughed, and Sienna turned to Jason. "Did you forgive him?"

"I made him give me his top three baseball cards and lend me his Game Boy first. Then I forgave him,"

"Fascinating though this is," Adam put in, "I'd rather hear about the more recent adventures of our boy hero. Don't you have any good Freeman
-
in
-
high
-
school stories?"

"Sure," Tyler said. "Which do you want to hear first, the time Jason stole a keg from a 7
-
Eleven, or the time he had three different dates to the same dance?"

Sienna was still holding Jason's gaze. "The one with the dates," she said.
"Absolutely."

"I don't
need to hear this. I was there," Jason said. He stood up and grabbed his board. "Besides, I need to get some practice in before my next lesson with the Surf Rabbi."

"Those waves look about your speed," Adam
joked, gazing out at the ocean, which remained as smooth as glass.

"It's all about feeling the water with your soul, hea
then," Jason answered. Then he ran toward the surf. The baby waves wouldn't be much of a challenge, but he had a feeling that watching Sienna as she listened to a rundown of his love life might be.

Except that the very fact she wanted to hear about said love life showed that she had some interest in him.
An interesting kind of interest,
Jason thought, grinning to
himself
as he splashed into the water.

When he returned to the flotilla of blankets, Dani had joined the group.

Jason dropped down on the blanket next to her. "Not going in the water?" he asked.

"Maybe later," she replied, yawning. "I think I'm going to nap first. I got no sleep last night."

"Why?" Jason asked. He was damn sure Danielle hadn't been awake for the same reason he had.

"Tyler was on the phone all night," Dani said, keep
ing her voice low. "The wall between our rooms is so thin. I kept waking up because he was talking so loud."

"Who was he talking to?" Jason asked.

"How should I know?" Dani said. "But he got at least four calls, and it sounded kind of serious. I heard him say he needed more time. He kept saying that two days aren't enough."

"Enough for what?"

"I don't know." Dani bit her lip. "He's been acting weird ever since he got here."

"So you noticed too," Jason said.

"Of course, I noticed. It's totally not like him," Dani said. "Tyler's usually so funny and laid
-
back
-
 which
he still has been, some of the time
-
but the rest..." She shook her head. "I don't know. He's been kind of hyper."

Jason didn't answer. He knew Tyler had been acting differently since before they left Michigan, but Dani didn't know that. And he didn't want to tell her. Although her crush was long gone, she still had a major soft spot for his old friend. Why ruin that?

"He sounded pretty upset last night," Danielle said thoughtfully. "I think he may be in some kind of trou
ble. I'm a little worried about him." She stretched out on the blanket and closed her eyes.

Jason also lay back. He wanted to catch up on his sleep. But, though he was tired, his mind refused to switch off and let him relax. Tyler had him more than a little worried, too....

Was
Tyler in trouble? Jason didn't know what to think. What were the mysterious, middle
-
of
-
the
-
night phone cal
ls
about? Why would Tyler need more time? Jason had assumed Tyler's moodiness was because of his less than stellar home life. But maybe there was more to it.

Jason figured he would try to find some time to sound Tyler out about his situation later. Now wasn't the time
-
there were too many people around. Eventually, he drifted off to sleep.

By the time he woke up, the sun had moved halfway across the sky. Somebody had repositioned the umbrella to cover him, and the entire group was gone. Jason sat up groggily and looked around. He spotted Tyler in the water with Brad and Dominic, Adam filming them from the shore. Belle stood with the surf breaking over her toes, watching.

Danielle was swimming nearby. Her friends Kristy and Billy had shown up.

"I think you were drooling," said a voice from behind him.

Jason quickly wiped his mouth, then turned to find
Sienna laughing. "You've caught the lying thing from Ty," he accused with a smile.

"You're definitely more gullible than I expected,'' she replied
. "
Have a nice nap?"

He stretched his arms above his head, working out the stiffness that came from lying on the sand. "I didn't get much sleep last night," he explained.

“How come?”

Because I was thinking about you,
he thought. "I don't know. I probably ate too much," he said aloud, hoping his voice sounded casual.

Sienna looked at him sil
ently
for a long moment, and Jason felt a sudden pang of nerves. It was almost as if she knew what he was thinking. Or else maybe she wanted to talk about the fact that they'd come close to kissing the other day. The air between them buzzed with ener
gy. He wasn't sure if he moved toward her or she moved toward him, but suddenly they were only a foot apart on the blanket, her long, bare leg touching his.

"Sienna!
Come help me," Brad called from the water.

She turned away, and Jason felt cold.

Brad stood shaking droplets of water from his hair. "Can you bring me my goggles?" he called to Sienna. "I got salt in my eyes."

Sienna rummaged around in Brad's bag. As she stood up with the swim goggles, she reached out and ran her fingers through Jason's hair. He shaded his eyes and looked up at her.

"Your hair's a mess from sleeping," she said quickly. Then she was gone.

Danielle and Tyler passed her on their way back up from the water. Tyler bent over and shook his long hair over Jason, purposely flinging water on him.

"Ass hat," Jason commented.

"Sweet life you have here," Tyler said, dropping down onto the blanket. "The ocean is great!"

"Does it make you miss the swim team?" Jason asked, figuring that the question didn't sound too
leading
but might give him some info about what was going on with Tyler.

Tyler gazed out at the horizon. "If the school pool had a view like this, it would."

Dani pulled her wallet from her big straw bag. "Adam and I are going to get some bubble tea," she told Jason. "You want?"

"What the hell is bubble
tea?"Tyler
asked.

"It's this disgusting iced tea with big, round globs of tapioca in it," Jason told him. "The tea is fine, but when you suck up a tapioca ball, it's like ingesting a
loogie
."

"Oh, gross," Dani cried. "You are such a Nean
derthal. It's delicious."

"I think I'll pass," Tyler said.

"Suit yourselves." Dani walked off across the sand toward the snack
bar a quarter of
a
mile away. Adam jogged over to join her. That left Jason and Tyler on the beach.

"Only in Malibu does the snack bar serve bubble tea and lobster rolls instead of Coke and hot dogs," Jason said.
"Crazy place."

"I could get used to it," Tyler replied.

"Too bad you have to leave so soon." Jason searched his friend's face. "When do you have to be back in Michigan?"

Tyler shrugged, still gazing at the ocean.
"When
ever.”

"Oh." Jason hesitated,
then
plunged ahead. "Be
cause Dani heard you saying you only had two days." "What?" Tyler asked, his attention snapping back
to Jason.

"She heard you on your cell last night, I guess.
Thin walls."
Jason tried to make his voice sound casual.

Tyler grimaced. "Sorry. I hope I didn't keep her up."

"I think you did a bit," Jason replied. "And she was a little worried about you. She said you kept saying you needed more time. Who were you on the phone with?"