A/N: All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners. I own nothing except this beat-up laptop. And maybe an appreciation of southern boys.
This is a WitFit writing exercise and any chapters will likely be un-beta'd. Hopefully any remaining errors won't be too distracting.
WitFit Prompt: Dismiss
Plot Generator: Branching out
Jasper follows my gaze and a slow, lazy grin overtakes his features. "That, my friend, is my girlfriend's 'feel better' gift to you."
"What in the hell?" I feel my eyebrows pull together as I watch Red, adjusting my cap and tugging the bill down low over my eyes. "Explain yourself."
"Angela mentioned to Allie that her childhood friend was coming to spend the summer with her mom here in town, so Allie told Ange to bring her along today. We thought another girl around here – and a mighty fine one at that – might cheer your sorry ass up a li'l bit."
I want to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off of my cousin's face.
Jasper's smile falters and he blinks a few times before sighing. "What'd I do now?" he asked.
"You and Allie need to stop meddling in my life, that's what," I huff, grabbing my backpack and sliding out of the truck bed.
"Hey!" Jasper calls from behind me as I stomp down toward the shade trees. "What about this dang cooler?"
I answer in the universal language – by raising my middle finger to high heaven as I keep on walking.
Beneath the shade of a few trees in the clearing, I dump my backpack in the grass and sit down. I don't know why it pisses me off so much that Jasper and Allie are trying to hook me up. I guess I'm just frazzled by Angela being here. Whatever.
I fish my earbuds out from the side zipper of my bag and plug them into my phone, scrolling through my music. I don't find anything I really feel like listening to, but I decide to leave the earphones in place because I do feel like being an antisocial dick.
At least, this way, I can sort of hear what's going on with the rest of the group.
I follow Red as she makes her way down to the riverbank; watch her untwist her hair from the top of her head until it falls, brushing the edge of her bikini bottoms. Her hair is super dark and really fucking long. She bends over to kick off her Chucks and I can't focus on her hair color or anything about her other than the fact that her boobs are about to spill out every which way from that dinky bikini top.
Damn.
I feel kinda guilty for staring, but not guilty enough to stop looking. I do manage to look away a split second before she kicks off her sneakers and pops back up, glancing in my direction.
I'm about to settle my head onto my backpack like a pillow and rest in the shade when I hear a girl's unfamiliar voice.
"Finally!"
I look over and it's Red, smiling as she stares in the direction of Tyler's van. I follow her gaze to see some dude I don't recognize slide the van door shut and make his way toward the rest of the group.
Even from here, his half-mast lids and lazy smile tell me the kid's half-baked.
Guess I know what he's been doin' in that van.
He approaches Red and slides his arms around her. She giggles as he plants a sloppy kiss on her lips.
Allie must have gone to help Jasper with the cooler and they drop it down a few feet away from me, watching the same scene unfold. They look at each other before glancing over their shoulders to look at me. Allie's mouth is open in disbelief and Jasper's got an expression I can only describe as oh shit.
"Nice work, asshats," I mumble.
Jasper's shoulders drop a bit as he turns and stands in front of me, holding his hand out to help me up. "Get those damn things outta your ears and let's go say hi," he says.
I can see in his eyes he feels bad, but I don't really feel like letting him off the hook for the second time in the last ten minutes.
However, I decide that since I clearly won't be a pawn in Allie's matchmaker fantasy today, I can at least say hi.
The three of us approach the group near the water's edge. Emmett and Rosie are already splashing and messing around in the deeper water at the center of the river, but everyone else is getting ready to get in. Lauren and Tyler put a few more beers in the floating cooler and tie a long length of rope around a beer can to use as a makeshift anchor before wading into the water with the cooler.
It's been so hot, I can't imagine the river water will do much to keep the ice in the cooler from melting, but whatever.
"Hey y'all," Allie says, waving as we stand across from the rest of the group on the riverbank.
"Hey Allie," Angela replies, walking over to give her a little hug. She says hi to Jasper before turning wary eyes on me. "Hey, Ed," she says, meeting my gaze briefly before darting her eyes away.
"Ange," I greet her with a nod before manning up and extending my fist out to Ben, who stands next to her.
This situation fucking sucks, but Ben's been a friend and a soccer teammate since elementary school. It's been several weeks since Angela dumped me, and at least Ben came over to talk to me like a man after, so… yeah.
"'Sup, Ben?" I ask as he meets me halfway, bumping his knuckles against mine.
"Good to see you, Eddie," he says.
Relief seems to wash over Angela's face as she watches our interaction. She smiles before introducing us to Red.
"Y'all, this is my friend, Bella," she says. "She's visiting here for the summer." She turns and grins at Red – Bella – and waves her hand around the circle. "Bella, this is everybody!"
Allie laughs. "Well we've heard a lot about you, Bella. I'm Allie, and this is Jasper, and his cousin, Eddie," she says, pointing at each of us in turn. "The big one in the water is Eddie's twin brother, Emmett and Em's girlfriend, Rosie."
Bella raises her brows at the word "twin" and does a double take. I'm used to it so it usually doesn't faze me anymore, but for some reason I'm irked that she's eyeing me and comparing me to my brother.
"Yeah, I know," I say, trying to dismiss her comment before she can make one.
She grins at me and flutters her lashes.
"I wasn't gonna say anything," she says with a smirk.
I squint at her and smirk right back.
Girl, you lie.
Up close, I see she's got her nose pierced. I try not to take my eyes away from her face because I know if I do they'll go right to her overflowin' boobs but I can't help it and my gaze slides down her body. Surprisingly my eyes go straight down her tanned belly and land on her bright, fluorescent green painted toenails.
"Oh, this is Garrett," Bella says, catching my attention. She's cocking her head in the direction of the toker next to her.
I'd like to say I'm not paying attention because it doesn't matter, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice that she doesn't call him her boyfriend.
"Hey," Garrett says, still smiling like a damn fool.
I wave at him half-heartedly as Emmett calls out from the water. "Hey! Let's get some rope swing action up in here!"
"Nice call," Jasper calls back before clapping me on the shoulder and leading the way over to one of old tree limbs that hovers the river. I take off my baseball cap and slip it onto Jasper's head as I take the lead.
After I kick off my flip-flops, I easily climb the tree. My lean body slides out onto the limb as I unfurl the rope swing and for once I'm thankful that my body is lighter than the bulk Em and Jasper have to carry. It makes this job a lot easier. And a hell of a lot more fun.
I shimmy down the rope, careful to go slow to avoid giving my family jewels rope burn, until my feet touch the little plank of wood affixed above a massive knot in the old, thick rope. Holding the rope with one hand, I lean back and grab my t-shirt with the other, pulling it over my head, switching my hands and tossing it down to the grass in a well-practiced move. I get some momentum going before pushing the wood away with the balls of my feet. I tuck into a ball, falling faster and faster until I connect with the water in a huge splash.
The girls on the riverbank are still squealing when I resurface, shaking water out of my shaggy hair. I squint one eye open to see Lauren and Jess are both glittering in the sun due to the water I managed to displace.
"Good one, bro!" Emmett calls as he swims toward me, giving me a high five.
I'm about to get out of the water when I hear an excited, "My turn!"
I spin around just in time to watch Bella and her tiny red bikini fly through the air and land in the water just a couple feet away from me with a splash nearly as big as mine.
It's deep here, and a few seconds pass before she resurfaces. When she does, she gasps and then starts laughing hysterically. "Oh my God!" she screeches in between her giggles. She pushes her long hair away from her face with one hand, awkwardly treading water with the other. "I lost my top!"
Sweet Jesus.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading.