The brown-haired guy’s mouth was pasted into a perfect half smile. She felt like she was in the middle of every single musical where the dancing stops and the star is suddenly backlit by one huge glowing spotlight.
“Yeah, fine. Who knows? Maybe this is the start of a promising career in roller derby?” He had one of those wry, almost winking, smiles. He was tall, skinny without being gawky, but definitely a little bit awkward in a really endearing way. Julianne wanted to tousle his hair or make sure he drank enough milk. His eyes were huge—
dark and fluid.
“Hey, Crash,” she joked. “Do you have a name?”
He blushed. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. First I plow over your friend, then I’m flat-out rude. I’m Remi.”
“Remi, huh? Cool name.” Julianne held her hand out to him. “Julianne. And you just met my sister, Chloe. She looks different upright, though.” She gestured to Chloe, who was fixing her hair and talking to unfortunate-keg-stand guy and Michael, who had rushed over to make sure she was okay. Remi saluted in Chloe’s direction.
“Way to make an entrance!” Chloe called back in their direction.
Remi looked sheepishly at Julianne and smiled. She felt time start slipping into cinematic slow motion again and grasped for some sort of normal human social question to ask next. “Do you, um, live around here?” she stammered.
“Seattle, actually.” Over his shoulder, the waves were crashing against the beach.
“Oh.” Julianne felt her throat closing. She’d known this guy for maybe thirty seconds, but the thought of him not being in LA this summer made her queasy.
“Yeah, I’m in school up there. But I’m around for the summer. My parents just moved here.” Julianne felt herself relax instantly. “Are you from the area?” he asked.
Julianne thought she detected hopefulness in his voice.
“Unfortunately.” Julianne laughed and rolled her eyes in the direction of a group of girls, each doing a variation on the same Malibu Barbie impression, struggling to form a human pyramid a few feet away. “No, actually I love it here. Just don’t judge all of us by the Pussycat Dolls over there.”
“Maybe you could show me around sometime? Save me the effort of having to get to know the place better all by myself before I get the wrong idea?” Remi paused.
“I mean, if you don’t have too much going on this summer.”
“Sure. I can do the tour with my eyes closed. No human pyramid, though.” They laughed, and Julianne felt her entire body filling with warmth. She knew she was beaming like an idiot. At least she wasn’t the only one. She’d never felt this comfortable talking to someone before, and yet so awkward at the same time.
Somehow, talking to Remi was like breathing. She wasn’t sure she would know how to stop. She was pretty sure that she didn’t want to. Remi and Julianne made eye contact again, grinning at each other like fools. Faces illuminated by the moonlight and the distant bonfire, they stared at each other until it felt like time had completely stopped.
Suddenly, Julianne felt a hand on her back and whipped around. “Sorry to break up the party,” Chloe said, rubbing her temples, “but I have a headache and need to go home. Jules, can you drive?”
“Oh God, was it—” Remi started, but Chloe cut him off.
“No worries,” she assured him. “I’ve taken worse falls than that. Besides, Michael’s buying me dinner tomorrow to make up for it. These frat guys have loyalty down to a science, huh?” Chloe grinned. “Anyway, it was good running into you. Get it? Running into you? Oh God, I actually said that out loud. I need to go home.” Chloe started off down the beach toward the car.
“Okay, well, see you around.” Julianne looked down at the ground. She could barely breathe.
“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll see you.” Remi’s voice was barely audible, his shoulders sloping downward.
Jules felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest, but she tossed her shoulders back, laced her fingers through her belt loops, and straightened her back as she started to walk away. Fifty yards down the beach she heard Remi’s voice.
“Hey, Julianne!” Remi was suddenly right beside her again, breathing heavily after his sprint. “You forgot this.” He tucked a scrap of paper into her hand. “My phone number.” Not smooth—definitely not smooth—
but very cute. “You know, in case your sister needs it for health insurance or whatever. And so you can give me that tour. It’s hard work getting jaded on your own, you know.” He grinned.
“Definitely.” She smiled back. “I wouldn’t want to leave you hanging.”
Remi’s face softened as he stared right into Julianne’s eyes. She felt like he could actually see inside her head—
that somehow, effortlessly, they already understood each other. Softly, he put his hand on the side of her face and Julianne felt like the spot was on fire. Her heart started to race with a mix of giddiness and panic. She had just met this guy, and she was already feeling totally swept away. Was she completely crazy? Swimming inside the feeling, Julianne shut her eyes. She felt their bodies move closer to each other, and then his lips touched hers. Julianne felt like she was floating above the beach—watching the moonlight reflecting off the water, the huge expanse of perfectly flat sand, the couple on the ground kissing. It was as if fireworks were exploding everywhere. She felt like the entire beach had been electrified by their kiss.
“I’m sorry—I’m really, really sorry,” Julianne murmured, breaking out of Remi’s arms. “I have to go. I don’t know where Chloe went, and I don’t know if she’s okay. I need to find her.” Julianne’s throat was dry. It was like the very worst part of every fairy tale. Suddenly she was Cinderella at midnight. “I’ll call you, I promise.” She flashed the scrap of paper with a triumphant smile before taking off down the beach in
