The Summer Society by Elizabeth Bromke

Author:Elizabeth Bromke [Bromke, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elizabeth Bromke

Chapter 19

Bea, 1985

“I think I’m in love with Doug.”

They were sitting together on the sand. Just Bea and Soph. Diane and Sue had dragged the cooler back to Aunt Lil’s to refill it with soda. The boys hadn’t come around yet.

Bea frowned at her little sister. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Sophia answered, her tone defensive. “So what?”

“He’s—well, he’s cute, sure. But he’s a local. It would be, like, a long-distance thing. And besides, Soph, you’re smarter than him.” Bea passed the suntan lotion, matter of fact about the whole thing, but still surprised that Sophia’s feelings ran as deep as they did. To Bea, Doug Hurley was a summer fling. Nothing more, nothing less. He was gorgeous, no doubt—not cute, but verifiably gorgeous. Even so, Sophia was out of his league.

“You mean to tell me that if Doug wanted to be your boyfriend, you’d pass?” Sophia squirted lotion on her arm and started rubbing.

When she put it like that, it was different. If Soph was a ten, Bea was a six—on a good day. Their own mother had even said as much. Quite literally. “Sophia is Bo Derek. Bea, you’re… that one gal from the barbershop your father used to go to. The one with beautiful dark hair and a strong body and—”

It was all she needed to say. Sophia was a sex symbol from the movies and Bea was her dead father’s no-name hairdresser from downtown Philly.

“You really love him? You’ve been seeing him for like a month, Soph.”

“Yeah, Bea, gee whiz. What’s your hang-up? Aren’t you happy for me?” She worked the lotion up her shoulders and across her collarbones. Bea frowned.

“Of course I’m happy for you, but none of us know what you see in Doug. He’s a playboy, Soph.”

“You’re just jealous, Bea. And if Diane and Sue agree, then they’re jealous, too.”

“What are we jealous about?” Diane’s voice came from behind them, and Bea whipped her head around. She did not want the conversation to explode.

“Nothing, never mind,” she said, giving Soph the eye.

Her sister was good enough to settle it then and there. “Here.” Sophia tossed the bottle up to Diane. “You’re jealous of my tan. Get rubbing.”

And like that, the tension dissolved into nothing.

Bea looked at Sophia with renewed fondness, and when Doug and Craig and Jeffy appeared on the boardwalk and called down to the girls, she made a personal vow to trust her sister.

But she broke that vow.

Just hours later.

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