Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott Page A

was overwhelmed by how much she still cared about him.
    “Jamie.” Ethan had pulled himself back slightly from the group and was waving her over. Jamie swallowed, and then willed her feet forward.
    Once she got to the circle, he wrapped her up in a hug. He smelled like he’d just taken a swim in the ocean. “I’m glad you made it. Are you here with your cousins?”
    Jamie nodded. “Yeah, they’re all upstairs.” It would be better not to mention that she’d left them all in the dust as soon as she’d walked in the door.
    Ethan took a couple of minutes to study her. “Damn. You’re looking good tonight,” he said with that toothy grin that always gave her goose bumps. “I want you to meet some people.”
    Taking her hand in his, Ethan introduced her around the circle, to a skinny brunette with ultra-short bangs, to a guy with bright blue eyes and high cheekbones, and to a girl in a striped tube top. Jamie smoothed back her curly hair and smiled at everyone. Ethan immediately launched back into the gripping speech he’d been giving to the whole group. He was talking about going scuba diving next year in Australia, where he’d spent some time before.
    The girl with the bangs jumped in to talk about a scuba course she’d taken at a quarry outside of Boston. The girl in the striped top mentioned she’d been to Sydney.
    “I’ve always wanted to go to Australia,”Jamie put in. “They’ve got cassowaries, you know?” Cassowaries are giant birds that have this crazy sharp bone that grows out of their foreheads. Jamie couldn’t imagine anything cooler or more ridiculous. Suddenly, everyone stopped talking and just stared blankly at Jamie. She blushed deeply.
    “You can go topless on the beaches. Nobody cares,” Ethan went on. Jamie gulped the last of her drink. She pictured hot girls with Australian accents and bare breasts bouncing around on the sand, maybe playing volleyball or…didn’t they play cricket in Australia? Topless girls playing cricket with Ethan.
    The conversation rolled along. Ethan mentioned how big theAustralian sharks are and how deadly the snakes are—all the stuff they would have talked about together, if they were still “together.” Jamie tried to look enthused, but it was impossible. Ethan was supposed to be noticing how happy she was without him. But he wasn’t noticing her much at all. And he seemed pretty happy himself.
    Jamie picked at the rim of her empty cup, her stomach sinking. As the minutes ticked on, she felt more and more out of place. She needed another drink. In fact, she felt like she might need five drinks. She squeezed Ethan’s arm and gave him an “I’ll be back” look. She turned on her heel as if she had somewhere interesting to be and headed up the stairs.
    “Beth,” she gasped, relieved to see her cousin’s friendly face behind the bar. “What are you doing up here?”
    Beth grinned. “I’m the bartender, baby. What’ll you have?”
    “Two screwdrivers.”
    Beth nodded, even though she was clearly distracted. Still, she seemed to be in her element as she clutched a bottle in each hand and chatted with people to her left and right, all without missing a beat. “On the house,” she said as she slipped Jamie two full cups, accepted the sloppy kiss Jamie laid on her cheek, and then turned to serve somebody else.
    Wanting to loosen up before she went back downstairs, Jamie moved to the edge of the room and downed one of the screwdrivers, then started on the other. She watched the people who were dancing in the middle of the room. Slowly, her head started to feel lighter on her shoulders. The music was some kind of Caribbean dance stuff with steel drums, and it sounded nice. She was feeling better already.
    “I brought this CD.”
    Jamie swiveled her head on her neck loosely to find Ethan’s friend Scott standing to her left. He leaned against the wall beside her. “I love this stuff,” he said.
    Jamie felt much more relaxed now that she was away