Page 48 of Under the Waves
It never got better. It never would.
Looking out towards the shore, I smiled for the last time.
I didn’t try to fight it, instead, I thought of him in the stars and smiled.
I’m coming home, Oliver.
My limbs grew tired as I fell beneath the waves.
And finally, I was at peace.
17
Poppy Wells
Under the waves,
where no one could see,
Poppy Wells bleeds,
alone
but
finally
free.
18
Jasper Ridge
Something was wrong. I could feel it in my bones.
Bitter breezes and thin winds kissed my bare arms until goosebumps rose to meet them. I turned onto my side, the large couch in Jakson’s house groaning as I moved. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the devil himself sprawled on the floor at the edge of the couch I could’ve sworn he was sleeping on a few hours before. Brown hair caught my attention as my eyes snapped open to see Lia curled against Jakson’s chest, his arm draped over her body protectively. A groan left my lips as my head fell backwards against the couch. Pounding, I massaged my temple, urging the ache to go away.
Memories of last night came back to me in pieces. Lia opening the door, kidnapping her siblings, theconversation with Belle, playing dress up with the twins, watching their beauty and the beast performance, the look in Lucas’s eyes when I snapped…I shuddered. He was fuckingfour. I couldn’t get those sad and terrified eyes out of my head. They burned through my chest straight to my heart.
Then Lia…sheapologized—she apologized for being a burden to us both. The thought made me want to punch the shit out of her stuck-up parents. How they could make her feel so worthless and devalued was beyond fucking me. They wouldn’t evenknowbecause they never spent any time with her that wasn’t punishing her for fucking breathing. She, like all her siblings, had those big, sad, doe-like blue eyes—the ones that looked like stars in the midnight blue sky above the ocean.
My little ocean, where did you go?
Lia defended her mother. Anytime either of us brought up that she was just as guilty for making her feel this…shedefendedher. At first, I thought it was because she felt sorry for her, but now? I wasn’t so sure. If you evenattemptedto speak to her about it, she’d just clam up tightly and fold into herself. It was saddening to watch because she was a fucking star that you just couldn’t help but notice. Lia may think she was just a wallflower, a background character, but she was so much more…she just needed to be shown that she could be more.
Fragments of the rest of the night came piling back to me—of the movies we watched, Jakson throwing popcorn at us both for voting against him, Lia laughing and smiling—the mere possibility of that happening today was already so slim. I had to go down to the surf school today for Pepe’s lesson, andno, I didn’t give him extra lessons because he was Daniel and Isa’s kid, but simply because he was actually really fucking good. He had his father’s talent, and I had no doubt he’d make his last name his own. But maybe after the lesson, maybe I could go to the shops and get as many fucking ingredients that I could so Lia could bake herself into oblivion, and maybe, justmaybe, Jakson and I would get to see her smile again.
Lia was so happy when she baked, it was like she was in her own little world where no one else existed apart from the oven. Each time she baked, Jakson and I sat on the kitchen island watching her hungrily in awe. Sometimes, she’d talk to herself like she was on one of those baking shows.
Actually, a few times me and Jakson did pretend to be on one of those shows with her. It was like our own version of that British Bake Off show—we did fake accents and everything, giving Lia three different desserts to make. The caramel sponge cake was Jakson’s idea, even though we both knew he hated that flavor. Only until Lia took a bite and for his eyes to light up, did I realize he only suggested it because he wanted her to eat something that day. How he knew she hadn’t was unnerving.
Ihad missed it, but he hadn’t.
Sometimes, it was little things like that which had me thinking if I even knew my best friend at all. All through high school, he supposedly fucked every girl with a pulse. Rumors spread like wildfire. In junior year, the girls in our grade made it into a game who could get him into bed faster. When Jakson found out they only wanted him for the sake of bragging rights, he led them all on for months until one day, he was so drunk in a bar after we both lost in one of our comps that he completely forgot about the bet and fucked not only one of them, butthree. At least, that was what was whispered through the halls the next day. Jakson wouldn’t say a word about that nigh to anyone, not even me.
After that, he juststopped. Living, smiling, jesting—stoppedeverything. That month, it was like he was a ghost of the golden boy he once was. The worst thing was that I didn’t even know why, he wouldn’t talk about it. But he’d always been a little dismissive like that—so easily switching the conversation away from himself, making you forget you even asked him anything about himself in the first place. He used to joke that it was his superpower, and girls seem to love that he listened and focused on them instead of himself. His charm was self-destructive, and heknewit.
I wondered if that was all she was to him—aconquest. Something to be won. Sighing, I shook my head free of that thought as I looked over to where they both still slept, tangled in each other’s embrace, their bodies fitting together like a final piece in a puzzle. They completed each other. I just wondered if they knew that too. Maybe they’d deny it.Hell, maybe both my best friends were secretly dating, and I was a clueless idiot.