Cohen

Dude. You went to the party.

   A text from Rex comes in the next afternoon and I can't help but laugh as soon as I read it. Rex knows me. He knew I was going to go to that party. But now I'm wondering how he knows. Unless he's just assuming that I went, which is also reasonable.

   Yeah. It was pretty much a nightmare, I send back.

   Rex: I saw.

   What does he mean he saw?

   Me: What?

   Rex: It's all over Instagram, Co.

   I close the texting app and open Instagram faster than I've ever moved before. My fingers are flying across the phone as I open my account and start scrolling. At first, I don't see anything incriminating. But about ten photos down - there it is. A photo of Lola, her arms snaked around Raff Donald's neck. He's a local that I knew in high school. We were actually friends. There was no sight of Josh Raman at the party but I didn't feel any better seeing Lola with Raff, last night. I scroll away and only a few photos down is a shot of a few guys standing around the fire. I'm one of the guys and I look depressed as shit. I don't even recognize the insta handle. It must have been taken after I saw Lola. After she saw me and told me off.

"Seriously, Cohen? You come back and don't tell anyone and then show up tonight?" she yelled at me.

   "I just came to check out the party," I said, but I know I wasn't fooling anyone.

   "You really should just go. No one wants you around."

   Those words hurt. A lot. A few minutes later, Isaac Wright, who's party it was, dragged me off away from Lola and handed me a beer. I stood near him and some friends of his, looking at the fire, for half an hour, tops, and then left the party.

   Before I close the app I scroll for another minute and see the same fire. The same party, actually, but I see Luke Turner and a girl that looks oddly familiar. She looks angry. She looks like she's wet?  Wait. That's the girl from last night. The girl who lives at Lola's dad's house? She was at the party? That must have been before I showed up.

   So you saw Lola. She was with Raff?  A text from Rex breaks me from my thoughts of this mystery girl.

   Meet me at the Creamery. 3o min, I send back, because I am so done talking about Lola.

   I don't even check to see if he replies before I hop in the shower. My mom has agreed to pay  the bills, like hydro and water, while I'm here but she also suggested I get a job. I feel like she's going to start making me help out, plus I'm sure I'll be on my own for my cell phone bill soon. Maybe I do need a job. But at least for now I have hot water.

   I'm only in a towel and heading to my bedroom to get dressed when I hear a knock on the door. Whoever it is will have to wait, but I do rush through getting dressed and don't even bother getting underwear from my drawer.

   Swinging the front door open a few minutes later, there is Kelly Turner. She's young - for a mom with teenagers - blonde and I'm oddly attracted to her. She's also married to a cop and her son, Luke, is way bigger than me. He's a football player, like Rex. I swear he could bench press me. I'm tall, but I'm pretty thin.

   "There he is," she says, a big smile on her face showing her perfect white teeth. "I've been out here for a bit."

   "Oh, yeah, sorry. I was in the shower and then getting dressed," I say quickly.

   She nods like she doesn't really care. She's wearing a tight tank top and jean shorts. She honestly looks twenty-five but I know she's at least forty. My mom's forty-six and seems older.

   Meeting her eyes again, I give her a smile. "What can I do for you, Mrs. Turner? Need to borrow a cup of sugar?"

   She laughs - like a real, unexpected laugh, and shakes her head side to side. "No, no. I just thought I'd check in so I can give your mom a lil' update."

   "Right. Well, as you can see, I'm alive. Clean, too," I tell her.

   "Good. That's good. Oh, your mom mentioned something about you looking for a job?" she goes on, trying to look past me into the house.

   "Oh, well, I'll get one eventually," I answer and then shrug. "Thanks for-"

   "Luke has been working down at the rental hut. My friend Reese took it over last summer, do you remember that? I can see if she needs another strong boy to work, if you'd like," Mrs. Turner interrupts.

   I just want her to leave, so I can finish getting ready and go meet Rex, so I nod. "Sure. Thanks."

   "Of course, Cohen. It's nice seeing you again," she finishes, as if she's not going to drop in and check on me again in a few days.

*

I'm somehow down at the Creamery - a tiny little shack that has a walk-I window for soft serve ice cream - before Rex, so I walk right up and smile at Sally Jay, the girl who's working. Her family owns it and she and her sister, Molly, work there most of the time. Molly's a year older than me and home for the summer, from college, and Sally is sixteen. She's tiny and has this cute bob hair cut, framing her face.

   "Hey, Sally," I start, leaning onto the counter between us.

   "Oh, woah. You're back?" she asks, without even saying hi.

   I used to hang out with Molly when she was a senior and I was a junior. She and her friends were sort of the outcasts and I ended up smoking outside school with them, or at parties. I ended up at the Creamery in the middle of the night with Molly and a group of other kids, more than once.

   "I'm back. For the summer," I tell her. "How's it going here?"

   She looks around. "Here, like the Creamery? Or here like Avila?"

   "Both, I guess," I laugh. "Give me two chocolate dip cones, please."

   "You got a date? Wait, are you back with Lola?" Sally practically yells. "She's been with numerous guys since you left."

   "I'm not back with Lola," I tell her. "Rex is meeting me here."

   "Ah, Rex. God, he's hot," Sally goes on. "I can't believe you and him are friends."

   "Why's that?" I want to know. I wish she'd just make our ice cream now.

   "He's just, you know, on the straight and arrow? He's... not a troublemaker, like you." She grins and turns around to start making them, so she doesn't see the glare I give.

   I know she's kidding, mostly. But it really annoys me that everyone thinks I'm some troubled kid. I'm not. My dad died and I had to leave and now I'm back. Plain and simple. Sure, I may not be the most popular or the most handsome - or, you know, going to college - but I'm not troubled.

   As she turns back around holds the cones out to me, she's shaking her head. "I'm just kidding, Cohen. Don't look so serious. Molly's back, too. She's working tomorrow, if you want to come say hi."

   "Sure, yeah, I will," I answer, then dig out my wallet before taking the cones.

   I leave a ten dollar bill on the counter and take the cones, thanking her, just as I see Rex jogging down the sand towards me. As I'm turning to claim one of the empty picnic tables, I see a girl coming from the other direction, down the beach. With her are two little kids, a boy and girl, holding each of her hands. It's not until Rex is at my side, panting because he obviously ran all the way here, that I realize who the girl is.   

   "Yo," Rex says, basically smashing into my side. "Aw, you bought me ice cream? What a gentleman."

   I hold one out to him and shake my head. "Just take it."

   "What did I do to deserve this?" he asks, taking it from my hand. I watch as he take a big bite off the top and there's ice cream on his top lip as I answer.

   "You put up with me." I toss a leg over the side of the picnic table seat.

   "Dude, you're being a bit dramatic right now," he tells me and takes another bite. "You okay?"

   "I'm fine. I'm just glad I've got you," I say and realize how dramatic I actually am being. "Also, I should not have gone to that party."

   Rex lets out a huge laugh and smacks my back. "I told you, man."

   His eyes look over past me and out towards the water, where I see he's focusing on something. Or someone. I haven't touched my ice cream that is now starting to melt, so I take a bite and turn my head to see what he's looking at.

   "Who's that?" Rex asks, before I can say anything. He's looking at the mystery girl, that I talked to last night.

   I honestly don't know who she is. I do know that she was with Luke Turner at the party last night and that she lives at Lola's dad's house. Lola lives in Santa Maria, thirty minutes away. But if this girl's mom is married to Lola's dad - oh, shit. How did I not figure this out sooner?

    "Earth to Cohen. You seen her before?" Rex goes on, still looking at her.

    She's now approaching the Creamery, with the two little kids in tow.

   "No," I say, lying through my teeth, then shove my ice cream into my mouth. "I have no idea who she is." 

    "She's gorgeous," Rex goes on, and I turn my attention back to him again. "Must be a tourist."

   She is gorgeous. She's small but not crazy thin, with dark, wavy hair and her style is just... different. Right now she's wearing an oversized t-shirt and tiny jean shorts and her hair is tied back near her neck. Last night, she was wearing a crop top and shorts and her hair was down. Why can I remember what she was wearing last night, in the dark? Man, what is going on right now?

   "Yeah," I finally say to Rex, who's still staring. "She must be."