Shiver Cove, Part 1: Tamyra

  Behind the counter stood Ivan, nicknamed Val? She couldn’t quite remember. She felt like a dork for not noticing him as soon as she walked up. Obviously he had seen her and remembered her name.

  “Sorry. Um… hi.”

  “So… what brings you out here?”

  The way he looked at her she felt almost as if he stared her down or wanted to interrogate her.

  She forced a smile despite her awkwardness. “I guess ice cream does.”

  “Ice cream is good. What’ll you have?”

  Maybe she read him wrong. His expression seemed friendly enough and he had a comforting manner in the way he spoke.

  “Uh… tiger-tail?”

  He screwed up his face in mock disgust. “Seriously? You walked all the way here for that?”

  “Well… no. I came to check out the falls. Ice cream was an afterthought.”

  “The falls, huh? So what’s weighing on your mind?”

  She felt unsure how to answer him, so instead she watched as he dug out a couple of heaping scoops of orange and black ice cream and sculpted them onto a cone.

  “It’s OK if you don’t want to talk about it. Say, I was just making myself some fries then I was going to take a break. You want to hang around for a minute?”

  He nodded as he handed her the cone as if to say yes and as she took the ice cream she found herself nodding along with him.

  “Great. There’s tables over there. Gimme a sec and I’ll be right out.”

  She turned and could see a few picnic tables where he pointed. She started eating her ice cream as she walked over and sat down at the closest one. Yummy orange and black licorice flooded her mouth. With a clear view of the beach, no doubt this little stand would be busy on hot days. It appeared to be the only food stand she could see anywhere.

  Tamyra crunched on the cone by the time he joined her and as soon as he sat down it hit her she hadn’t paid.

  “Ivan, I’m so sorry, I forgot to pay you.”

  “Two things. One, only my mom and teachers call me Ivan, to everyone else I’m Val, and two, I didn’t ask you to pay. It was my treat. You looked like you could use it.”

  His generosity made her a little uncomfortable. She decided not to let it show. Instead she mumbled; “Thanks, Val.”

  “No problem. It’s my mom’s snack bar and I can have whatever I want free, so no worries.”

  She finished the last of the cone and crumpled the little napkin that had surrounded it in her hand. She didn’t want to be rude, yet she had no clue what to say. He stuffed his mouth with a plastic forkful of fries and she watched as a blob of ketchup splattered on the table.

  “I’ve heard you’re shy and don’t say much. That’s cool with me. I just wanted some company. Since school’s gone back there really haven’t been many people around during the week. There’s maybe only a couple weeks more and then we’ll close up for the winter.”

  He continued eating. Every so often he’d glance her way and then give his attention back to his meal. He was turning out different from how she pictured he would be.

  “I know I’m probably not supposed to talk about it or something, but what’s going on between you and Bianca?”

  Relieved he hadn’t said Sal, she answered; “I don’t know. She hates me.”

  “OK. Why?”

  It crossed her mind he might be friends with Bianca and her guard went up.

  “Are you two friends?”

  “Answering a question with a question, huh? No, we’re not friends. From what I’ve seen I don’t even like her. So why does she hate you?”

  “It’s stupid.” Was all she could think of to not really answer him.

  “High school fights usually are.”

  “True.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  From behind his glasses she could feel both of his blue eyes almost boring holes through her. He’d been the first person to push her in a long time and she found despite feeling intimidated, she actually enjoyed talking to him.

  “I hardly know you.”

  “Yeah, so? You won’t know me if you don’t talk to me.”

  She studied him for a moment and made the decision to trust him.

  “Bianca gave me the tour of the school my first day. She tried to pretend she was my friend to see what she could get from me. Turned out she wanted me to hook her up with Sal… only I was already… sort of… I don’t know… I guess interested in him myself. Anyway she saw us together and wants to make my life miserable now.”

  “Miserable how?”

  “Making nasty calls to my house, taking my stuff and today I think she was going to try and fight me only Ms. Kern interrupted and hauled her off the principal’s office. I think she was getting suspended and that’ll make it even worse.”

  “Likely. What’re you going to do?”

  “I really don’t know. But since Sal isn’t talking to me maybe it’ll all go away.”

  “Why isn’t he talking to you?”

  She huffed out her breath and looked off at the sky.

  “You guys are friends. It’s not cool talking about him to you.”

  “Fair enough, but I already know about how you took off the other night right after he finally kissed you.”

  “He told you about that?”

  Although a little annoyed, it didn’t shock her to find out he knew.

  “No. Sal’s not the guy to talk about that stuff to me, he talks more to the girls when something’s bugging him.”

  “Sandi.” Disappointment flooded her.

  “No actually, Yvonne. She works here too, you know.”

  “I didn’t know. So Sal talked to Yvonne and she told you? Wow.”

  “Don’t feel bad. We’ve all been friends for so long. Nothing stays secret between us for long.”

  If possible, his gaze seemed more intense than normal as if he wanted to emphasize something. She fumbled for words, anything to say to get him away from the topic of secrets.

  “Do you know if that’s it for me and Sal? Did I wreck everything?”

  “Doubtful. Knowing Sal, he’ll call you like nothing ever happened.”

  Her talk with Val had been good. She was much better than earlier. She wanted to cut the chat short before he brought up the insinuations about secrets. He seemed like the type of guy who would ask her straight out about anything.

  “Hey Val, thanks for the ice-cream and the chat. I really should get going though… you know… before it gets dark out.”

  “Yeah. Cool. Anytime. Don’t worry about Sal, he’ll come around and well, Bianca… hey, maybe we’ll all get lucky and she’ll stop coming around.”

  *-*-*

  Ten minutes later Tamyra climbed her porch stairs and her phone buzzed. She received a text. She looked at the screen and grinned. The message was from Sal, and read; ‘Call me.’

  Chapter 21

  Tamyra bounded across the porch to the nearest chair and sat down. She beamed from ear to ear. He finally returned her message! But somewhere inside she felt an inkling of doubt taking hold, his message might not be a good sign.

  Nervousness radiated out like gentle waves. In no time at all the waves churned furiously. Her fear grew quickly. Fear he had only reached out to tell her he didn’t want to be her boyfriend.

  Her mouth had a sour taste and her palms sweated. She blotted her free palm against the thigh of her jeans and then switched the phone to the other hand so she could dry it too.

  She tapped the buttons on the phone and brought up Sal’s number. She stared at the digits on the screen as if they may somehow hurt her. Push the green telephone key and the phone would ring him. She hesitated.

  She felt ridiculous gaping at the phone as she would a poisonous snake. One way or the other if Sal wanted to end things, he would. Whether she called now or he tracked her down tomorrow didn’t matter, yet, somehow it did.

  She sighed. If his text signaled the end, then she may as well get it over with. She shut her eyes an
d punched the connecting key. As she brought the phone up to her ear, she could hear it ringing through.

  “Tamyra, I’m glad you called.”

  “Uh… hi, Sal.”

  “Hi. I wasn’t sure if you’d call me. Look, about the other night, well I just wanted to say I’m sorry if I did anything that scared you.”

  Hearing him say sorry stunned her. She expected him to say anything from ‘it’s over’ to ‘what happened?’, but never ‘sorry’.

  “What? Uh… no, you have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one who should be apologizing here. The way I ran off. I’m so sorry. I… well… I had to go. I know I shouldn’t have left like that and I’m sorry.”

  “What happened? Was it me?”

  “No, Sal. Please don’t think it was you. I just… I had to go.”

  “Had to go why?”

  “I’m not ready to talk about that yet. I’m sorry.”

  “OK. So we’re both sorry. Where does that leave us?”

  “Is there an us, Sal?”

  “Do you want there to be?”

  “Do you?”

  “I asked first, Tamyra.”

  “Yes.” Hissed out of her in barely a whisper.

  “Good. Me too.”

  She huffed a breath of relief. Hearing him say the words felt better than anything she could have imagined.

  The pause between them made her uncomfortable. She broke it with a question; “So now what do we do?”

  “I think I’ve got an idea. The same idea I had before, but I think with friends it would be more fun.”

  “You gonna let me in on this big idea?”

  “Not yet. I think it’ll be fun to be mysterious for a while.”

  “Mysterious?”

  “Yeah. You’re not the only one who gets to be mysterious, Tamyra.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Walk with me to school in the morning?”

  “For sure.”

  “OK. I’ll see you then. I can’t talk more or I might wreck the surprise.”

  “Oh… alright. Um… bye.”

  “Good night, mystery girl.”

  Chapter 22

  Sal’s idea scared her silly, but in a good way. Tamyra stood huddled in the dark with Sandi, Cam and Yvonne. She wasn’t sure where Sal and Val had gotten off to, although she thought she could hear them upstairs still.

  Sal’s great idea had been to get the gang together to explore the creepy old house next door to hers. It took a while for the girls to agree to go inside, especially since night already reigned.

  Faint moonlight filtered in through the filthy windows at the back of the house. Once they left the night behind, the darkness grew thicker. The only light they had was the tiny LEDs on their phones and it barely lit as far as their next footsteps.

  By now Tamyra had clued in to the fact Sal and Val must have come to the house earlier. For as soon as everyone moved inside they pulled a disappearing act. For the last ten minutes or so the two boys had thumped about, throwing things and making ghostly noises trying to frighten everyone else.

  At first the noises terrified Tamyra, now her heartbeat had almost returned to normal. Yvonne had stopped swearing and she and Sandi whispered about getting even.

  Cam remained quiet since they entered the abandoned house and Tamyra got the impression he may have joined the boys if Sandi hadn’t latched onto his arm. She couldn’t have explained it, even to herself, yet somehow Cam appeared to blend more with the darkness than the girls. He seemed more comfortable in it.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Yvonne yelled in a singsong voice.

  “Yeah guys, we’ve had enough!” Sandi called.

  Something made a loud bang upstairs followed by the sound of someone running towards them. In unison the group turned their phones to the stairs. Tamyra caught the glint off Val’s glasses as he charged down them.

  From behind them, Sal screamed; “Boo!”

  All four jumped and someone pushed Tamyra against a wall in the confusion. Sharp pain. Something hard sank into the skin on her bicep. Her other hand flew to cover the wound and she sucked air in over her teeth. Even through everyone’s laughter Sandi must have heard her because she immediately brought the light of her phone up.

  Sandi lifted Tamyra’s covering hand in an instinctual gesture to better see the injury. By the stunned look on her face, Tamyra easily discerned Sandi witnessed the cut healing at her supernatural speed. Tamyra tried to cover it again, but Sandi held onto her hand.

  For a brief second Sandi locked eyes with Tamyra looking as if she wanted to say something. But, then instead, she let go, shuffled closer to Cam and started laughing with everyone else. No one else had taken notice. Could Sandi really brush it off like that?

  “So who’s up for a game of truth or dare?” Sal asked as he slipped his hand around hers.

  “Good ‘ol truth or dare, huh?” Yvonne laughed.

  “Alright Sal, but you go first. Oh yeah and in this game there is no stupid promise-to-repeat.” Val stated as he crossed his arms.

  A shudder passed through Tamyra. She couldn’t pick truth and going off alone in this house as a dare would be out of the question. Her new friends seemed to be warming up to the idea though and she knew she’d have to go along.

  “Can we at least go back outside to play? It smells worse than my grandma’s musty old basement in here.” Sandi folded her hands together pleading.

  She’s acting like nothing happened. Weird?

  “Kinda like something puked and then died.” Cam said.

  “Yeah, let’s get outta here. We’ll have more light outside.” Val swung the back door open before he finished speaking.

  Sal lingered for a second and let Tamyra go out ahead of him. A subtle gesture, yet the chivalry wasn’t lost on her.

  “So, you think this place’ll still freak you out after tonight?” Sal murmured quietly so the others couldn’t hear.

  “You guys weren’t exactly trying to make us comfortable.”

  “But that was the plan. Showing you we’re the only things going bump in the night.”

  She thought about needling him further and decided against it. Even if he missed the mark, his intentions had been good and she didn’t want to poke at him too much.

  The rest of the group stood a few feet away when she stopped and faced him. She felt more frightened to kiss him than she had been all night. He seemed to sense what she wanted to do and leaned in towards her.

  As their lips touched, excitement replaced her fear. Her heart thudded hard in her chest and her stomach tightened.

  “Um, hello? We can see you, you know.” Yvonne said.

  No one could see her blushing in the darkness and she felt grateful. When she stepped back from Sal he sported a silly grin. As they turned back to face their friends, he gave her hand a playful squeeze.

  She tried to discreetly steal a look at Sandi to see if she could get a read on her, but in the dark her face looked like nothing more than a pale smudge.

  “OK. If I’m going first who’s doing the daring?” Sal asked.

  “Hey, who say’s it’s a dare?” Val jostled.

  “Well I guess I just did. So who’s gonna come up with a dare?”

  “How about skinny-dipping?” Yvonne asked.

  “Haha, Yvonne. I’m not going in by myself. If everyone wants to take it as their dare I’ll go.”

  Tamyra bit her lip. She prayed someone else would say no. She couldn’t imagine stripping down in front of all these people. Everyone simply glanced about at each other. She got the feeling that most were probably waiting for someone to say ‘no’, only no one said anything.

  “Skinny-dipping it is then!” Sal said.

  She couldn’t believe her ears and eyes as they all started in the direction of the water. Someone had to stop this!

  A beam of light cut the darkness and lit the ground. In an instant she pinpointed the light from Sal’s flashlight.

  “So t
hat’s how you two were getting around so well upstairs.” Tamyra elbowed Sal.

  He snickered at her.

  “Well what’d you think? We can see in the dark?”

  “I don’t know what I thought. But I’m definitely not going skinny-dipping with a light.” She whispered.

  “I know you well enough to know you weren’t going before the light came up. It’s OK, Yvonne and Sandi won’t go either.” He said so only she could hear.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see. Just let Yvonne chicken out first.”

  Her ears picked up bits of hushed conversation ahead but she couldn’t make out any words. Her stomach knotted thinking Sandi could be telling everyone about her cut. She didn’t like the thought of calling Sandi a liar but she couldn’t see having much choice. Besides, who would actually believe her wound from a half hour ago healed like magic?

  She could make out Sandi’s silhouette. Her head tipped onto Cam’s shoulder and he had his arm around her. It didn’t look like either of them spoke at all.

  The hushed voices grew louder and now she could tell Yvonne and Val argued. Yvonne’s anger flared over the flashlight. It seemed Sal had been right; she backed out of skinny-dipping.

  Val calmly threw little barbs at her about how he knew she wouldn’t do it.

  His neutral tone seemed to be getting under her skin and soon the fight branched off into an apparent old argument and the whole skinny-dipping thing seemed to be dropped.

  Sal stepped in between them and Tamyra sat down on a large rock. She still tried to figure out what they fought about, when Sandi sat down next to her.

  “They’ve been best friends since first grade and even I’m not sure what this is about.” Sandi said.

  Cam had joined Sal and tried to get them to bring the argument down a notch. Tamyra seized the moment.

  “What you saw back there. Well… I… um…”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to say anything. When you’re ready, tell me.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “You will.”

  Chapter 23

  “I can hardly believe tomorrow makes a month since our first kiss! I mean it feels like forever and yesterday all at the same time.” Tamyra said.

  Tamyra, Sandi and Yvonne chatted on their way to class. In a short time the three girls had become inseparable. An outsider wouldn’t have believed it was only rolling into the second month of the school year and Tamyra only knew the other two for as long.