Pepped Up by Ali Dean Page A

when I look in the other direction, I see Emma and Serena sitting on beach recliners watching me.
     
    Pierce rejoins Zoe, though hopefully he won’t refill her margarita or try to take her inside with him. Nobody is talking to me, and I’m no longer feeling comfortable sitting by myself on the poolside. I get up and wrap a towel around my waist before heading inside to the bathroom.
     
    I hear Wes’s voice in the study across from the bathroom, and I figure he must have taken a private phone call. Maybe it’s his parents, who are out of town this weekend, and he doesn’t want them to hear the party in the background.
     
                  I spend a moment looking in the mirror after I wash my hands. My long brown hair is pulled back in a ponytail. It’s always wavier on a hot day like today, and a few wisps have escaped around my forehead.  My big brown eyes stare back at me and I glance down at my body in my coral bikini. My olive skin tans nicely but I have a pretty brutal shorts tan line from all the running I did this summer. I look young and childish compared to the Lincoln Academy girls outside. I feel drab and boring, where they are girly and glamorous. I sigh. I should embrace the athletic running body I was given instead of wishing I had a different one. The grass is always greener. I’m mumbling this to myself when I open the bathroom door and nearly collide with a hard chest leaving the study. 
     
                  I look up into green eyes. Jace’s arms go around my waist to steady me. “Wesley, why is Pepper here?” Jace asks, his eyes locked on mine.
     
                  Wesley is leaving the study behind Jace. He scratches the back of his head. “Don’t worry about it, man. My buddies saw her and her friend Zoe earlier today and invited them. There are only a few people over.”
     
    Jace’s green eyes darken when he takes in my bikini. I haven’t yet wrapped my towel back around my waist and I feel very exposed. Jace’s hands stay on my waist, even though I no longer need them there to steady me. I wonder, is this what an older brother would do? Is that look in his eyes something more? Maybe Ryan was right.
     
     
                  Jace breaks eye contact and lets me go so abruptly that I stumble backward before bracing myself on the bathroom door. He looks over his shoulder at Wesley. “You got a bathing suit I can borrow?”
     
                  When Jace joins the party, Madeline immediately ditches the three boys at the bar and saunters over to him. I watch from my spot by the edge of the pool for a moment.
     
    Jace blatantly admires her bikini-clad body, and his gaze rests for a moment on the little blue triangles that barely cover her boobs. She places a hand on his chest in greeting. I’ve seen enough. I take one more gulp of my margarita and dive into the pool. 
                 
                  I swim underwater all the way to the shallow end and pop up by Zoe’s float. Pierce grins as I push my soaking wet hair out of my face. “You guys want to play water basketball?” I ask.
     
                  “Pepper!” Zoe whines. “I’m quite comfortable lying here nice and dry. You better not get me wet!”
     
                  “Aw, come on Zoe. You can be on my team, and we’ll get Pepper a partner,” Pierce says. I grab Zoe’s drink and flick her with water. I take a sip and swim over to the edge to put it aside.
     
                  “Come on, Zoe! It’ll be fun!” I call. She huffs, but slowly slides off her float.
     
                  “Hey Wes!” Pierce yells. Wes looks up from mixing a drink at the bar.
     
                  “Yo!” he calls back.
     
                  “Come play basketball. You’re on Pepper’s team.”
     
                  Wes finishes making a drink and passes it to a girl standing nearby.