June 27th 1:49 PM
I can't believe I slept so late. Honestly, I can't believe I stayed out so late. I ended up staying the night at Sunny's, because I wasn't about to sneak into Dawn's house. I just called around ten and told Carol where I was staying.
I feel like I was lying. I wasn't lying, though. I did spent the night at Sunny's. Well, part of the night. I didn't know at ten o'clock that Sunny and I wouldn't be at her house until FIVE IN THE MORNING.
It was like going out on a weekend night meant one big slew of parties. Maybe middle school kept me blinded, or that just doesn't happen in Stoneybrook. Sunny insists that all night parties happen in Stoneybrook, I'm just not aware of them. But I will be.
I went over to her house around seven-thirty. I was wearing jeans and a purple baby doll tee that I borrowed from Stacey. I was hoping that Sunny wouldn't re-dress me. However, she did.
"Mary Aaaaaaane," she whined, "this is a beach party! You can't wear that!"
"Beach?"
"Summertiiiiime, and the living is easy!" Sunny sang at me. "Did you bring a bathing suit? Never mind, you can borrow one of mine." She thrust a bikini at me.
"I'm not going to wear a bikini," I said. "The one time I did, I got sunburnt. I have really sensitive skin."
"It's the evening. You'll never be in direct sunlight. I have sun block as well. You can't wear those shoes either. I've got flip flops you can wear."
Then imagine me trying say something in between every other word. I did not succeed. This is how I ended up wearing a blue bikini, ripped up jean shorts and a sheer black cover up that was like a robe except it didn't have a sash. It just sort of hung there, and was generally useless.
Sunny was wearing a much more revealing black bikini (top and bottom) with a pirate skull on the rear. She didn't wear any shorts, but had a sheer red cover up that was a skirt. She didn't wear a single thing over the top part of her body.
"Are we walking to the beach?" I asked, afraid that she was going to have another weird guy to drive us there. However, she did.
"No, Derek is driving us. He's sixteen, going to be a junior."
"Another one of your boyfriends?" I asked. I couldn't help but be a little sarcastic. After what happened with Andy, I was skeptical.
"Derek? No way!" Sunny laughed. "I thought that the two of you would hit it off. He's a friend of a friend."
Yeah right, I thought.
We were waiting outside in the sunshine, when a regular old sedan pulled up the curb. "Hey, Sunny!"
We got into the car, and Sunny made me sit in the front seat. I had to admit that Derek was pretty cute. He was pretty big in build and had reddish blonde hair and blue eyes, and these great dimples when he smiled. Freckles were scattered all over his nose and cheeks.
"You must be Mary Anne," he said. "Derek Thompson."
"Derek was on the honor roll," Sunny added.
"I try to be modest," he replied.
We drove to the beach, and there were a bunch of people playing volleyball, and some girls were still sunbathing. A bunch of people were out surfing.
"Have you ever been surfing?" Derek asked me.
"No," I replied. "I'm not really... athletic."
I thought that he would be disappointed. Like he wouldn't be interested in a girl who wasn't into sports or something. But he wasn't.
There was a grill running, and Derek and I got hot dogs. Sunny opted for a tofu dog thing.
We hung out in the sunshine (Sunny was right, sun block and the evening sun, I was fine) for a while, talking and laughing and goofing around. It was a really great time. Sunny was constantly giving me looks that said very clear messages of "Looook! I found you a guuuuuy!"
That wasn't really true. Not really. Kinda. Sort of.
Derek and I went swimming, but the sun was starting to set and it was really cold. It was fun, though. He's a big surfer guy, so he was used to the ocean. I wasn't, so I kept getting pulled out in the currents, so he had to hold onto me. I kept blushing.
After the sun set Sunny found a group of surfers that came onto the shore. She had dropped her cover up somewhere, no idea where it was, but she had it when we left the beach. She was flirting up a storm.
Someone started a huge bonfire (I brought up the "no open fires" sign to Derek, but he said that open fires happen) and huge bags of marshmallows were passed around. Whoever set this up really thought it through.
"You cold?" Derek asked as I edged closer to the fire. I was sitting on the towel Derek had gotten out of the trunk of his car. I didn't want to get my butt all covered in sand. Especially not in the tiny bikini that Dad would kill me if he saw me in. Especially without wearing the shorts.
"A little bit," I said. After the inability to swim properly in the ocean and not surfing I didn't want to seem wimpy.
He scooted closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders. "That better?"
I grinned like an idiot. "Yeah, that's better."
At ten, the party was dying down, and that's when I called Carol. I figured that we'd be at Sunny's around eleven or so. We were planning on going back to Derek's house with this guy that Sunny picked up at the beach.
So Derek drove us back to his house.
"Mom? You home?" he called as we walked inside.
"In here!"
Sitting in the living room was a friendly looking woman who couldn't have been more than thirty-five. She looked way too young to have a sixteen year old son.
Ms. Thompson was really sweet. She got us all sodas, and got me a big t-shirt to wear over my suit, and then left us alone in the basement. Sunny and her guy (I think his name was Cody, but I'm not sure) found a dark corner to make out in.
Ignoring them, Derek and I had a movie on, but we weren't really paying attention. He asked me about Connecticut, and I told him about how Dawn and I got our parents (back) together, and about the BSC.
Derek told me about surfing and how surfing is universal. He has friends that are as young as nine and as old as fifty-eight, all through surfing.
Somewhere in there he kissed me. And I kissed him back. It was weird. I hadn't kissed anyone but Logan in so long, having some guy I just met a few hours before kissing me... it was just odd. But nice.
After almost an hour, Sunny was screaming at her date, and he left, and Sunny was in a huff.
"Are you ready to go?" I asked.
"No, not really. Since things are going so well for you," she said. "And that's why we're here, right?"
"It's not going to be fun if you're not having fun too."
"Who says that three's a crowd?" Derek asked, interrupting our whisper conversation. "Sunny, pick out a movie. I'll go make some popcorn and get you something to wear." He went upstairs.
"Oh, I did good, right?" Sunny asked.
I hemmed and hawed for a minute, but I had to give in. "Yeah, he's really sweet."
Derek came back down with a shirt for Sunny and a big bowl of popcorn.
We watched Big Fish and then put in Van Helsing, but I fell asleep halfway through it. It turns out so did Sunny and Derek, because I wake up at quarter to five with Derek gently prodding me.
"Mary Anne, we fell asleep. It's really late, I need to get you home."
"You're taking me to Connecticut?" I asked drowsily.
"No, back to my house," Sunny said. She sounded keyed up.
I sat up and Derek told me what time it was and I almost fainted. Derek drove us to Sunny's, and we had to sneak in because her Dad was home. Sunny was certain that he hadn't noticed she was gone, or he'd still be awake. It was a lot easier to sneak around one person than Mr. Schafer, Carol, and all of my friends.
Sunny rolled out a sleeping bag for me. "Did you have a good time, Mary Anne?"
I did. I truly did.
June 27th 8:35PM
Why did Kristy tell me just NOW that she brought a bra? This is monumental. A real BSC moment. And did anyone tell me? Nope. I had to catch her changing.
"I don't want to make a big deal about it," Kristy said.
Hmph. Doesn't ANYONE tell me anything anymore?