Jonas continued his bantering. “Do you think you guys might be able to score at least one point? Or are you too distracted by the girls?” His gibe was followed by a tittering of high-pitched giggles from their female audience.
“Stop being so obnoxious,” Gabe ordered.
Kaleb threw the ball into the air, but he didn’t direct it over the net. Instead, he aimed it at Jonas’s head. It ricocheted off Jonas and spiraled right to the hands of Gabe, who bumped the ball to Chase. Alex watched him spike it as easily as dribbling a basketball.
Kaleb pumped his fist, and the girls next to Alex began to whoop and holler like a bunch of drunken cowgirls. She scooted away from them, embarrassed. A redhead leaned in close to her. She reeked of seaweed.
“Your boyfriend is adorable,” she said with a slight slur, holding her cup out towards Chase.
“Oh. No. He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Really? But I always see you with him.”
Another girl leaned forward. “They’ve been inseparable since kindergarten,” she said to her friend. Alex recognized Posey Freebelanger. She had always been rather annoying, but boys liked her because she was curvy and she had a pretty face. Looks were about all she had to offer, because her name was enough to make her a social outcast, and her IQ wasn’t much higher than the SPF on her sunscreen. She’d once invited Alex to a sleepover and convinced her parents to take them to a bounce zone. A bounce zone! Alex had sat on a bench for two hours watching the other kids jump and scream and laugh, and Posey’s mom had complained she’d wasted money paying for Alex.
The redhead stood up to get a better view of the game, sloshing her drink and staining the sand. She peered down her long nose at Alex and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You are such a tiny little thing. You must be freezing.” Her comment could have been an attempt to be friendly, but it didn’t properly mask the scorn.
Alex recoiled from the girl’s grubby fingers. “I’m okay.”
“Seriously, do you ever eat?”
One of the girls sitting with Posey could barely keep her eyes open. Sticks and leaves stuck out from her bleached blonde hair. She lifted a shaky finger at Alex. “Wait, you’re that girl. Aren’t you the one who is like … dying?” Posey tried to shush her friend, but Alex had heard the question loud and clear. She eyed the girl’s disheveled hair and wished she was callous enough to say, But somehow I’m not the one who looks like she just crawled out of a grave.
Redhead pointed to Jonas. “I used to sit next to him in health class,” she said in a scornful voice. “He’s cute, but he’s an ass.”
Usually Alex reprimanded Jonas for his behavior, but this girl seemed like she deserved it.
“Chase is better looking anyway. How do you stand having such a gorgeous best friend?”
Alex wasn’t quite sure if the question was rhetorical.
Bleach Blonde was swaying in rhythm with the cattails by the water’s edge. “So what will he do when you die?”
Posey jumped in. “Sorry, Alex. She’s drunk.”
Alex hated girls like this, ones who used excuses like drinking to defend their candidness when really they were just mean.
“I’m just saying maybe you shouldn’t keep him all to yourself,” Bleach Blonde retorted.
Chase appeared beside them. “What are you talking about?”
Posey began to speak, but Alex cut her off, finding courage in Chase’s presence. “Oh, these girls were wondering what you’ll do with yourself after I drop dead.”
Anger plagued his gorgeous face. “How did that topic come up?”
Redhead shrugged a shoulder. “My friend has had a little too much to drink.” She helped Bleach Blonde to her feet, but their legs tangled, and they both tumbled back into the sand.
Chase looked disgusted. “Maybe you should get them home.”
Redhead and Posey were already pulling Bleach Blonde away into the shadows. “I’m starving,” Alex heard Bleach Blonde wail, but they didn’t even make it off the beach before she fell to all fours and began to vomit.
“That’s really gross,” Chase said.
Alex was quiet.
“Hey.” He lowered himself to his knees in front of her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He followed her gaze to the trio of girls who were still on the outskirts of the beach. “Forget them.”
Alex nodded halfheartedly. Chase snatched her cup from her hands and tossed it into the sand, then squeezed her fingers. “Look at me.” She surrendered, and the corner of his beautiful mouth lifted slightly. “You are perfect.”
There was silence for several moments before Chase whispered, “Are you okay?”
His brothers came bounding over.
“What’s wrong?” Kaleb demanded, seeing Chase kneeling in front of Alex. Jonas started towards the girls in the distance, but Gabe grabbed his shirt. They huddled around Alex, and she realized that yes, she was okay. Despite her limitations, she wouldn’t trade her small slice of life for anyone else’s. She couldn’t be resentful of who she was, because unlike any other girl in the world, she had Chase, and she had the Lasalles. And they were worth it.
“Well, Jonas, where have you been?” Kaleb demanded, tossing a ball from hand to hand.
“Jonas shrugged in response. “I had to play tour guide. You know.”
Kaleb caught the ball and stepped forward. “No, we don’t know. Since when are you helpful?”
Alex stood in silence, her eagerness creeping higher than the redwoods. They weren’t Chase, no, but they were pretty close. Her mask hindered her peripheral vision, but Jonas must have gestured to her because Kaleb suddenly dropped the ball, and Gabe’s mouth fell to the pavement with it. “Is that who I think it is?”
“Have you ever met anyone else that small?” Jonas said scornfully.
Kaleb let out a low whoop, ripping the mask from his face. He lifted her off her feet and swung her around like a child. “You aren’t fragile anymore!”
Gabe shook his head in disbelief. “Thank goodness,” he said, looking at his brothers meaningfully before wrapping his arms around Alex. He gently lifted the mask from her face with hope in his eyes. He seemed afraid that it wouldn’t really be her underneath.
“See, I always told you there was a perk to being the sick girl,” Kaleb laughed.
“Do you think that’s why … ?” Gabe’s uneasiness transferred to Kaleb, who gave one sharp nod of his head.
“Why what?” Alex pressed him.
“Nothing,” Kaleb said hastily, flashing his charming smile. “What a day to arrive!” He took Alex’s mask from Gabe and refastened it to her head.
And suddenly they were hugging her again, passing her back and forth like a lucky charm. And she didn’t mind whatsoever. Seeing the Lasalles was like finding the missing pieces of her heart. But it would be Chase, she knew, who would be the adhesive to hold it together. Before she could ask about him, Kaleb spun around with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“Wow, Jonas, that was really nice of you to escort Alex through the festival.”
Jonas studied the crowd indifferently. “I figured Alex always followed us around like a stray dog anyway. I gave her a break since it’s her first day after dying.” His posture, his tone, his expression—it was all back to the Jonas of old. Bored. Uncaring. Acerbic.
“We were actually coming up to find you because we needed you in order to win a little wager.”
“With who?”
Gabe groaned. “Do you have to ask?”
“Legacy kids?” Jonas flattened his mouth like a toad, disdainfully.
“The Darwins, of course. Who else?”
Alex raised her brows, but Jonas shook his head as if to say, You don’t want to know.