Chapter 18

The group was living on borrowed time as the summer came to a close with frustrating speed. They went to town that Friday to celebrate that Abby and Eric hadn’t gotten fired. They knew this was their last lazy Friday night at Summer Lake with nothing better to do than cruise around in Nicole’s car. The next weekend was Labor Day and the resort would be overflowing with guests for the closing festivities, with their full work schedules they didn’t think they’d have time to go on another aimless excursion like this.

Esmie had been so worried that Eric would get fired. She had been mad that he’d fought the bullies out on the terrace, but it was understandable when she heard the full story. He had to protect his sister, and it was good that they’d gotten revenge for what those awful girls had done to Lacey. She just didn’t want Eric to get fired for it, that would cause all kinds of problems for their plans.

Their plans. They didn’t have any plans except the vague idea to run away together at the end of the summer and get jobs. That had been all fine and well in July when the end of the summer seemed like some impossibly distant date, but now it was late August and she could literally count the days until the summer season ended. Ten days, to be precise, and Friday was almost over by the time they piled into Nicole’s car that evening. She couldn’t believe the summer had gone by so quickly, but she supposed that’s how life was.

They didn’t even know how they’d get away from Summer Lake. Eric was officially leaving with Abby when his uncle picked them up on Monday evening. She figured they’d actually sneak out just before that, cash out all their money and get a bus ticket.

There was a song with a lyric she liked “she took a midnight train going anywhere”. Well, that felt like what they were going to do, she’d reach the time in her life when that was the logical move. Eric said they should go somewhere south where there would be construction laborer and landscaping jobs almost year-round for him. She teased that he’d be working with Mexicans but he hardly minded. He was running away with her, obviously. She could get a job easily enough herself, although she shuddered to think of that. It would be the sort of work her mother did, where they hire any woman who will work ten hours a day scrubbing floors and not complain. It seemed like a horrible waste, she was smart and well-read, but she’d be lumped in with the illiterate Mexican farm girls fresh off the truck. She’d probably be pregnant like them too, she thought, she’d been having unprotected sex with Eric now for weeks. But that too felt so right.

“Baby you’re too tense,” Eric said as she sat in his lap in the cramped back seat of Nicole’s BMW, “Relax! It’s Friday night!”

She sighed and leaned back into Eric’s chest. He was right, they should enjoy this night. “What are we even doing?” she asked.

No one had much of an answer initially.

“We could see Die Hard 2 again,” Abby said. It had been one of the big blockbusters of the summer but nobody had thought it was anywhere near as good as the original.

“Please, it’s called Die Harder,” Nick joked. “That movie has so many plot holes. Like, the planes can circle around the airport for hours and will run out of fuel if they can’t land at the airport, but they can’t fly to another airport to land? They could have made it to Miami!”

“Oh man I had this dream that I was in the original Die Hard,” Lacey said, cuddling up with Nick over on the other side of the back row of seats. “I was a female Bruce Willis, climbing through vent ducts and shooting terrorists. Oh and the best part it was at Summer Lake, like, our resort tower instead of the office building in the movie.”

Everybody laughed at the thought.

“Like terrorists would ever bother coming to Summer Lake,” Nicole said as she drove down the highway, “It would break up the monotony though.”

“I could see Eric being like Bruce Willis, fighting the terrorists,” Esmie said.

“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” Eric said.

“I could see Abby doing it,” Nick said, and everyone laughed again. “Or Nicole.”

“Thank you!” Nicole said as if she didn’t want to be left out. “Who would you be Nick?”

“He’d be the terrorist’s computer nerd,” Eric said.

“Hey!” Nick said defensively, but he was laughing with everyone, “Can’t I at least be the pussy cop on the radio who was afraid to fire his gun?”

“I know who the head terrorist would be,” Nicole said, “Laura fucking Ballard. And all the lifeguards would be her flunkies.”

“God, the only role for me is the bimbo who got caught was naked in some dude’s office when the terrorists struck,” Lacey said.

“Nah you could be the news anchor lady!” Nick said, and Esmie was proud of his brother for trying to make his girlfriend feel good.

“You think?” Lacey said, sounding uncertain.

“Yeah! You’ve got the looks, and you’re training your voice to sound all professional,” Nick said, then put on his deep radio announcer voice, “Hey guys, did I tell you I’m training Lacey on how to sound like a DJ? All that and the Top 40 with Rick Dee’s, coming up after news and weather.”

“Whoa how’d you do that, Nick?” Abby said.

“I got skills, I told you,” Nick said, “You had your chance to go out with me and blew it.”

Everyone laughed once again. They were all just joking around and Esmie loved it. No one ever got offended or took something the wrong way when they were hanging out.

“Geeze Abby,” Nicole said playfully, “Now I’m getting jealous. All I can do is swim and shit. But Nick’s got so many talents.”

“Yeah but he’s got a penis,” Abby said, and everyone cracked up more hysterical laughter.

“God I’m going to miss you guys,” Esmie said, almost crying from laughter as the BMW sailed down the highway toward town and darkness fell all around them. “Although we still haven’t decided what to do tonight. Hey. we could go to the city cineplex and see Pretty Woman! It’s still showing there...”

Everyone booed that suggestion, even Eric. She’d already dragged them to see it when it was still showing in town at the one-screen main street theater. But was it her fault they had no taste in cinema?

They got to town still without any good idea of what to do so they decided to walk around and see if they could have some fun.

“Remember, no fighting!” Lacey said as they got out of the car, teasing them a bit. Everyone knew they’d been banned from brawling with the lifeguard clique after the big twin melee, which was now a famous event at Summer Lake. Lacey was thankful that the twins had gotten revenge on the girls who’d jumped her, but that wasn’t going to stop her from teasing them.

“Hey there’s no guests here, we can fight all we want!” Abby said.

They all got dinner in a pizza place that sold by the slice, which was good since there was no way all six of them were going to agree on toppings for a single pizza. Everyone got one massive slice except Eric, who got two slices, breadsticks, and baked ziti.

“I wish I could eat like that and still be an athlete,” Abby said as they sat down.

“Hey you kind of can, with as many laps as you swim,” Eric said, “Remember when we used to have pizza eating contests at Mr. Lando’s Super Pizza Buffet back home?”

“Shhh!” Abby said.

“Mr. Lando’s Super Pizza Buffet?” Nicole asked incredulously, “Baby, did you really have a pizza eating contest with your brother at Mr. Lando’s Super Pizza Buffet?”

Esmie snickered, finding this hilarious. She didn’t particularly mind if her boyfriend had done something so trashy, but Nicole’s haughtiness was funny when it reared its head like this.

“I was 14!” Abby said defensively, “At least I won though.”

“Oh god,” Nicole said, “You beat him at a pizza eating contest?”

It was a comical sight, Abby was like a rail and her brother was so large, with the build of a very well-fed football player.

“Yes,” Abby said, giggling with everyone, “I’m sorry baby, I wasn’t eating salads and sipping Evian like you through my formative years.”

It was all in good fun and they enjoyed dinner, then walked as a loose group through the seven blocks or so that constituted “downtown”, all those quaint shops shoulder-to-shoulder in old brick and stone buildings on Main Street. The group went from store to store aimlessly, sometimes all together, sometimes a few going ahead while others hung back in a store that interested them.

At one point with Eric and Nick looking with great interest at sports cards, something which Esmie did not care about in the slightest, she crossed the street to a drug store. The local drug stores back home had been replaced by chain ones, but this town still had an old-fashioned one that looked very 1950s inside where there was a classic hand-operated soda fountain and old black and white square tiles on the floor.

She’d have preferred the anonymity of a chain store for this, though. She got her item and stood in line. It was warm and dusty in there on a hot summer night, the place had been a drug store for decades and felt like it. Ceiling fans swirled around lazily overhead and the fluorescent bulbs in the banks overhead hummed lazily.

The clerk was a teenage girl, not much older than Esmie, and it was tempting to take heart in that, but you could never tell with women, some of them had no empathy at all for the plight of a sister. Esmie hated doing this on such a happy night out with her friends, but it was her only shot to buy something like this. She put her item down on the counter and sighed with relief as the clerk wordlessly rang it up, took her money, and put the pregnancy test into a discreet plastic bag, which Esmie then hid deep down in her purse.

“Man this town sucks,” Lacey said as she walked down the sidewalk of Main Street with her boyfriend.

“I dunno,” Nick said, “It’s kind of quaint and nice. Very American. Would you prefer they open a mall, a bland windowless building in an ocean of parking spaces, full of soulless chain stores, and make all these buildings shut down and board up Main Street because all the douchey guys and girls trying to look like Madonna went to spend their parent’s money at The Gap?”

“Yeah a mall would be dope,” Lacey said, giggling at one of her boyfriend’s trademark rants, “Get some cool stores. The only place here with women’s clothing is Maryjane’s, and they just sell clothes my mom would approve of.”

“I bet stoners go in there thinking they sell something else,” Nick said, and Lacey laughed.

“Where is everybody?” Lacey asked. They were at the courthouse square, with its weird old cannons, boring historical markers, and of course the towering courthouse which seemed to be the tallest building in town. It was four stories with beige brick walls, some fancy stone columns in front and a big metal dome on top. It looked relatively new to her due to the metal dome but one of the historic markers said it was built in 1906.

“Dunno, guess we’ll meet back at Nicole’s car eventually,” Nick said.

“I like how there’s no chance you guys would ditch me, or anybody in the group ... if someone isn’t there when we meet up, we’d turn the town upside down looking for them. Most teenagers would just say fuck ‘em and drive back.”

“Yeah, well, the group’s pretty great,” Nick said.

“You wanna climb on top of the courthouse?” Lacey asked casually.

“What?” Nick asked incredulously as if she’d just proposed going to the moon.

“There’s a fire escape or whatever around back, you can climb up and see this whole dinky town. I’ve done it before.”

“They let you do that?” he asked.

“Well we have to sneak up but it’s no big deal,” she said, “This town has like one cop and he’s Barney Fife.”

“I don’t know Lacey,” Nick said, “Cops aren’t always so harmless and friendly when they’re dealing with a brown kid.”

“Aww don’t be like that,” Lacey said, “It’s summer! You’re a teenager! Do something wild for a once.”

“Fine,” Nick said. He was pouting, but she could tell he was into this. Left to his own devices was so inclined toward playing it safe, but she knew he’d liked all the new stuff he’d gotten into through the group over the summer – sipping bourbon, having casual sex, what wasn’t to like? She was always the type to take a little risk to have fun, and she was glad her boyfriend wasn’t a total stick-in-the-mud about it. In fact, it was fun to wear down his defenses and make him do something a little crazy.

They went around back and found the fire escape with a little gate at the bottom, but that was easy enough to climb over and they made their way up onto the roof.

“See? Easy peasy,” she said as they crossed the catwalk above the metal roof, the big old dome to their left.

“Remember I’m afraid of heights,” Nick said as they got to the edge. There was no safety railing, as Lacey figured probably only maintenance workers were supposed to get up here. It’s not like it was an official observation deck.

“Psssh,” Lacey said, “If you start to slip I’ll catch you.”

“Thanks,” Nick said, “Sorry I’m such a wuss.”

Lacey shrugged. “Hey don’t be so down on yourself, Nick. I don’t want to date some macho asshole, I want to date you. You’re different.”

Nick shrugged. She sat down easily in front of the dome, her feet dangling over the catwalk, and then gave Nick her hand to balance him as he sat next to her.

“Baby, don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem a little downcast, even by your standards,” she said.

“Just worried about the future is all,” Nick said. He never truly hid his feelings from her, or got mad about talking them over, which was another way he was different than the typical teenage dude, and was a positive as far as Lacey was concerned.

“Oh well, what happens will happen,” she said, “You mean like going back to Alabama?”

“Well that will suck,” he said, “But I’ve dealt with it before. No, I guess I’m just worried about the future of the group. Like ... I doubt we’ll all be here next summer. With what Abby and Nicole are going through, they won’t really come back, right? This is probably it. Just ten more days.”

Lacey put her arm around him. “You and me can come back,” she said, “Don’t they want you back? You did a great job all summer, all those events went off without a hitch.”

“Yeah in a fair world,” Nick said, “But...” He trailed off.

“Don’t hide it,” Lacey said, “Obviously you have something on your mind.”

With other guys their minds had been ciphers, or at least, she knew they were horny for her but that was about all she could ever figure. Quite possibly that was all they were thinking in most cases. But with Nick there were some deep thoughts going on, and she could actually somewhat sense them, or at least know that he was having them.

“I ... um, you know,” Nick said, “The people who run Summer Lake are just fucked up.”

“What happened, baby?” she squeezed him. “I won’t tell anyone, you know that.”

Nick looked at her without saying anything for a while. “It’s really nothing, just frustrated from the bullying, and summer ending at the same time,” Nick said with a sigh. For the first time, she thought like he was actually hiding something from her. “I wish we could work somewhere else together next summer, the six of us.”

“We still can, baby,” Lacey said, “We’ll all trade home phone numbers, and we can call Nicole collect since she’s rich!”

“Yeah,” Nick said with a laugh, “That’s true. What about you though? Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Lacey said, “Not really looking forward to going back to Florida, but I’ll survive.”

“We can still talk, you know,” Nick said, “If you get a computer I can show you how to do e-mail.”

Lacey laughed. “What’s E-what? I dunno, I don’t think I’d ever spend my money on a computer, Nick.”

“Fair enough,” Nick said with a chuckle, “We can write letters, call on the phone. I know how to make long-distance calls for free but we’ve gotta both be on pay phones or Ma Bell will turn off our family’s phone.”

Lacey smiled. No boy had ever been like this, actually wanting to stay in touch just to talk to her, without the expectation or even possibility of sex.

“You don’t have to say stuff like that just to be nice,” Lacey said.

“Who’s just saying it? At least talking to you I’d be able to keep the memory of this summer alive. It’d make me feel good.”

Lacey found herself almost crying. Did a guy really just have to be halfway nice for her to turn into a mess like this? Apparently. Nick didn’t seem to mind her emotions, hugging her close. He didn’t offer to run away with her or try to get her to come to Alabama with him, he was way too realistic and pragmatic for that sort of romantic fantasy nonsense, but he did clearly want to stay in her life even if from a distance. It felt nice.

“I know an even better way to make you feel good...” she said, reaching for his the zipper of his jeans.

“Lacey!” Nick said, scandalized, “Not here! People can see!”

She reached into his pants and felt he was hard. “Your little guy doesn’t agree. And besides, people can’t see up here. Calculate the angle or something, the lower roof blocks their view from down there. Come on, this will make you forget about all your worries...”

“Well okay, you twisted my arm. But my guy’s not that little,” Nick said, in predictable male defensiveness.

Lacey grinned, leaning over now, pulling his cock out of his pants. Nick was such a conservative nerdboy, he’d never done any of this, but it pleased Lacey that he couldn’t resist her no matter how much his natural inclination was to play it super-safe.

Nick gave that familiar groan. Guys were such slaves to their penises, even smart guys like Nick. It was a weakness. But there was no harm in this, it was just a pleasant Friday night and she was going to have some fun with her boyfriend. And why not?

She took him into her mouth and began, taking his fleshy rod into her mouth, moaning herself from the thrill of pleasuring her boyfriend in quasi-public like this. She was going to miss Nick Sanchez so much, but they could enjoy each other’s pleasure with what little of the summer they had left. She took him deep into her mouth and heard him groan in delight. She felt amazing herself.

Abby walked with her girlfriend just behind her brother and his girlfriend. Eric and Esmie held hands shamelessly, only getting a few odd looks, and it was hard to say if that was due to their vast size discrepancy or Esmie’s brown skin. This was a conservative town, no doubt, but Eric was easily twice her size and they made quite the striking couple, so it was completely plausible that was why a few people gave them surprised looks.

“What do you think would happen if we held hands?” Abby couldn’t help asking Nicole.

“Panic in the streets, we might not make it out of here alive,” her girlfriend said, “You don’t seriously want to do it do you?”

“No,” Abby said with a sigh, “It’d just be nice. Someday.”

“Maybe in 20 years, in San Francisco,” Nicole said, “If I’m out by then.”

Abby wanted to argue with Nicole that she could be out much sooner than that, but she couldn’t talk like that now. She’d made a deal with Mitch Ballard not to encourage Nicole that way. He’d made it seem so reasonable at the time, all she had to do was not persuade Nicole to drop out of Stanford and go her own way in life. Abby certainly wasn’t going to tell Nicole what to do, so she’d thought it was okay to agree to it, but now she found herself fretting over saying polite and encouraging things about being a lesbian or being herself. Anything might nudge her girlfriend to decide she couldn’t go to a school where she’d have to go back to pretending to be straight and hate her real self for four years.