Chapter 7 - AC's First Play

I was intent upon sleeping late the next day, snuggled beneath my soft covers and sheets. I didn’t even feel the need to stick my one foot outside the comfortable smooth quilt that my mother had strewn across me the evening before. I was content upon lying in the bed with my eyes closed, day dreaming about the feeling of big strong arms wrapping themselves around me, the feeling of resting my chin against those arms and feeling safe. I was picturing a face, too. I couldn’t help myself.

When the doorbell rang, I half contemplated not opening it. At first, I sunk down a bit more underneath the blankets. I had a big night ahead of me. When I was about to go to sleep the night before, Nick had called, asking if he could whip up something for dinner for me. I was warmed by the gesture although I was unsure whether or not the meal would actually not kill me. He laughed when I told him that. He told me he was looking forward to it when I accepted.

The doorbell rang a second time, and I pulled the sheets down beneath my chin. Maybe it was Nick coming to see me early. Maybe it was a package with the yearly gifts from family up north. I imagined as I rubbed my eyes and got out of the bed, making my way to the door. Maybe it was Publisher’s Clearing House and I would never have to go back to work. I turned the doorknob.

Maybe it was...

Aaron.

*****

The kid was a natural. At everything. He stood there with one long fingered large hand shielding his eyes from the sun that was blazing behind the apartment. His hands were a bit dirty, not disgusting, just warn. And he was squinting, his light brown eyes being affected by the late morning sun that was so strong despite it being winter. We were, after all, fairly close to the equator. Aaron’s teeth were perfectly straight and white, remarkably enough. I thought to myself that he must have had braces at a really early age, and he must have some strong tooth paste or a really good dentist. He was chewing a piece of gum and his jaw moved up and down in a calm motion, not chomping, just slowly moving back and forth.

He leaned on the railing with one bare arm bent just enough to show an adolescent muscle flexing. The kid was so tan, so unpretentious, so raw as he stood there in the sunlight. Yeah, as a kid, I definitely would have been in love with him. He was everything I had liked when I was younger, awkward, begging to be accepted. Aaron would have been the boy I wanted to accept me.

“Hey Green.” He said to me, his big brown eyes smiling all the time, extremely confident and warm all at the same time. “Wanted to see if you’d wanna try that wave running? There’s a place to rent ‘em right down the street.” Aaron motioned with his head a little bit up the beach.

I could feel myself blushing. What did this kid want? For me to play toy trucks with him? OK, given he had just turned 15. But still. Wasn’t it unnatural for a 15 year old to be hanging out with a 24 year old? 9 years older than him. We were worlds away from one another. Whatever would we talk about if we got a chance?

But that was the weird thing. As I found myself charmed by him and agreeing to put my life in his hands on a wave runner, we headed down the street in the jeep and we had plenty to talk about. He told me about the dolphins in the reserve just a little up the way.

“You know they’re smarter than humans. At least, that’s what I think. They have their own language. Its my dream to study about them when I go to college.”

It didn’t really phase me that this famous rich kid wanted to go to college. Hell, we all have to have dreams. “Where you wanna go to college?” I asked him.

“Not really sure.” Aaron was playing with a piece of rope, running it back and forth through his fingers, tying it in knots and then untying it. It must have come out of his pocket because I hadn’t seen it when he had first gotten to my house, come in, sat down at my table and helped himself to an apple while I put my bathing suit and some shorts on. And that apple? The growing boy had been making love to that apple. It had been devoured in no time flat.

“I had a friend from high school who went to school for marine biology.” I told him matter of factly, looking in my rearview mirror at a pick-up truck that was riding my tail. “Come on guy, pass me if you want.” I said under my breath. “She went to the College of the Ocean in Bar Harbor, Maine. But I don’t think you’d fit in there. The people were pretty crunchy.”

Aaron stopped playing with the string and looked over at me. “Crunchy?” His voice cracked when he said the word. Then he seemed to be thinking. “Come on…I bet I could be crunchy! Can’t you see me in really baggy jeans and a gas station attendant’s shirt?” He contemplated a bit more, now looking out the window at a fruit stand on the side of the road. I heard his stomach growl and giggled to myself. Had to love the thought of a growing boy. “But I don’t know if I could live in Maine. Even for a couple of years. S’too cold for me.” Aaron motioned with his hand to the side of the road where a small wooden shack stood. “That’s it.” He told me.

“I’d never go back to Maine.” I said as I pulled into a narrow parking spot, at least narrow for the jeep.

“Too cold for you too?” Aaron asked. He was getting out of the jeep.

I slammed my door. “Yeah, that. And also, well, I just have bad memories of it. A mis-spent youth there, I guess. I had a rough adolescence.”

“That sucks.” Said Aaron. He was waiting for me to come around the jeep. I had to admit it. He was a nice kid.

I walked next to him, assessing the place we were walking to. It was something my best friend would have called a “scary house”. It was a dilapidated old shack, weather beaten. The contrast between the shack and the shiny new looking wave-runners was strange. Aaron’s arm brushed against mine, the hairs on both of our limbs rubbing gently against one another. It sent a bizarre wave of chills up my back.

I looked over at him and tried to ignore what I was seeing in his eyes. “You’re lucky, kid.” I said. “You seem to have had a pretty good youth.”

Aaron huffed a bit in a laugh. “Pretty boring, huh?” He was shaking his head. “If you want brooding, you gotta go to Nick. He can tell you plenty of stories about how hard his life has been. Not me, though. I’m fairly happy.”

I put my hand on his back, motioning for him to confront the wave-runner salesman first. “Not boring.” I told him as motioned for the man, smiling charmingly again. “Refreshing, I’d say.”

And then Aaron flashed that charming smile at me. Again.

And I just couldn’t help it. My stomach flip-flopped. Yeah, I definitely would have been in love with him when I was younger.

*****

It seemed like split seconds. One minute I was riding on the back of Aaron’s wave runner. The next I was riding on my own. The two of us whooping and playing in the surf. Another minute later, we were eating at the little shack that served Conch fritters and chowder, and when we were sure we wouldn’t get cramps, we were back out on the ocean. And before I knew it, it was almost 5 pm and I would be late for Nick if I didn’t get home.

Aaron looked a bit dejected when I told him; like a dog with his tail between his legs. I felt a bit uncomfortable at the way his face had suddenly moved downward.

I punched his arm. “Come one, kid. I’ll drive ya home. You can hang at my place while I make myself beautiful.”

“That won’t be difficult.” Aaron said, more to himself, than to me. I tried to ignore it, but it made me feel good just the same. I couldn’t recall having ever met anyone who said such nice things to me.

*****

“Girls are so weird.” Aaron told me. He was standing behind me in the bathroom doorway, leaning the way he did so naturally, eating a freeze pop.

“Well, you must be referring to someone else then, because I’m a woman.” I was putting on my mascara. I supposed that’s what he found weird.

“Nick doesn’t even like that much make up on his, eh hem, women. And you look great. With or without it.”

I continued, un-phased. “Look at it this way.” I moved to my upper lashes, as it got trickier for me. “It makes me feel prettier to put a little bit of make up on. Not too much, just enough that I notice a difference. Its like anything else…putting on a pretty dress, nice shoes, doing your hair, even taking a shower or getting a manicure. If it makes ya feel better about yourself, why not do it?”

“So, you’re saying, if it feels good, do it?” Aaron sucked the juice out of the plastic ice pop casing.

“I think you missed my point, AC.” I wound the applicator back into its tube and threw it into my red satin coach make up bag. He smiled at me through the mirror, raising his eyebrows. I turned to him.

Clearing my throat, I said, “OK…how do I look?” It was silly for me to ask him that, inviting him to check me out. Aaron prepared himself, though, as if he was about to judge a gymnastics match. He threw his ice pop wrapper into the waste basket and backed up a bit. He put his hand to his chin and pursed his lips. Then, he started from my feet and assessed me the entire way up my body, over my bare smooth legs, the small slit in my frilly sundress, to my slightly exposed cleaveage, my neck, my mouth, my nose, my eyes, and then outward to my hair. I watched him as he looked at me and for the first time, I noticed a small scar on his top lip. I didn’t wait for his answer, I just came out with the question.

I extended my arm outward and suddenly my index finger was on the scar, very lightly. “How’d you do that?” My voice was surprisingly quiet.

Aaron shifted his eyes down, long blonde eyelashes touching his smooth tan cheeks. “Dirt bike accident.”

Had his voice been that low all day?

“Oh.” I snapped myself out of it. I turned back toward the mirror. “So?” I asked the two of us.

“I think you’ll knock him dead. You look hot.” Aaron turned and walked toward the door, picking up his towel. “You ready?”

And we left.