Lucky by Marissa Stapley

Author:Marissa Stapley [Stapley, Marissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2021-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Lucky wasn’t sure what time she was meant to go to the bonfire. She didn’t want to be too early, so she read until after nine and then scrawled a note for her father, who was working at the restaurant that night, saying she’d made some friends and was meeting them on the beach.

She headed back the way she had come earlier that day. In the darkness, she could hear the sound of someone strumming a guitar, and a soft voice singing a song about how everything was made to be broken. The fire came into focus, and the cliffs behind it loomed large in the light. Lucky stepped into the area of sand and surf lit up by the bonfire’s flames, and Alex jumped up from where he had been sitting on a low rock wall. He had been the one strumming the guitar and singing.

He leaned his guitar against the wall and came forward to greet her. He had a red cup in his hand. “Hey. You came.” His smile lit up the night more than any bonfire could. “Here, try some of this. Catch up to the rest of us.” The group from earlier that day was there; they smiled and nodded but kept their distance.

“What is it?”

He shrugged. “No clue.” He looked older in the darkness. She wondered how old he was, and if he was going to think seventeen was too young. She took the cup from him and had a sip, trying not to sputter and cough. It tasted like paint thinner smelled. There was grape juice mixed in, but it didn’t help. They sat in silence, staring at the bonfire for a while. When they had passed the cup back and forth between them so many times it was empty, Alex asked her if she wanted to go for a walk on the beach.

“Sure,” she said, but when she stood she felt light-headed, while he didn’t seem affected by the alcohol in the cup. She’d never been drunk, or even close to buzzed. Most teens her age had had many experiences like this one, but this was her first party. She often felt out of place, but tonight the sensation was even more acute. Everyone else was dancing to the same beat, and she was out of step.

Alex didn’t seem to notice, though. “Are you here on vacation?” he asked her. “I always see you on the beach, but never with anyone. And you seem to have been here for a while.”

Had he been watching her? She felt flattered, and nervous. “Oh. Um. Yeah. I’m here with my dad. We live on a sailboat in the bay.”

He glanced at her sidelong. “Oh, yeah? Cool. Do you like it?”

“It’s different.”

“Different from…”

“Anywhere else I’ve lived.”

“Where else have you lived?”

“A bunch of places,” she said. “My dad… worked in sales. We’re staying here awhile. I’ll be going to SFU in the fall.”

“Cool! That’s a great school.”

“Do you go to college?”

“Taking some time off right now.

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