The party rages at the Harper house. Half the school is there. The school isn't very big, so half of it being there isn't saying too much. Still, the music is loud and the booze is flowing.

Landon and Rae sit on the couch in his living room. Neither of them are big drinkers. Landon usually watches to make sure Wesley doesn't do anything too stupid at parties. He used to watch Hunter too. Hunter doesn't come to many parties anymore.

Rae's legs are draped across Landon's lap. He's got one hand wrapped around her back and resting on her hip, the other on her knee. They're only sixteen, but they've been together four years already. They started dating at the start of seventh grade. The middle school had this thing where each football player was assigned a cheerleader from the middle school squad to be their personal cheerleader. They brought each other gifts before each game, and the cheerleader decorated the football player's locker. Rae was his cheerleader. He'd always thought she was pretty. He'd never had the balls to talk to her. He had to talk to her. His mom took them to get pizza after one of his games. That was their first date. They've had way too many dates to count since then. They're already practically married. Nobody doubts that they'll get married someday. Nobody doubts that they'll have one of the few happy marriages that lasts forever.

"Look at Wesley," Rae whispers, laughing.

Landon locates his best friend. He's got one girl grinding on his front and another on his back. Lilly's yelling at him about something, presumably the two girls on him. Wesley's completely ignoring her. She's not used to getting dumped. Wesley dumping her didn't go over well for her. In her mind, they're together until she ends things.

"This isn't going to end well," Landon says. "Should I save him?"

Before Rae can answer or Landon can decide for himself, Lilly throws her drink on Wesley. The two girls scramble away, not trying to get in the middle of this or get wet.

"We are so over!" Lilly screeches.

Wesley moves toward her, taking her shirt in his hands and using it to wipe off his face. Her entire bra gets exposed when he does this. Landon thinks that was the point. Lilly looks disgusted when he drops the fabric. It's wet against her skin.

"I broke up with you on Tuesday," Wesley says calmly. "We've been over."

"You're a prick," she hisses.

"You stuff your bra."

With that, Wesley walks away. He walks towards the door that leads to the backyard. Lilly freaks out in the wake of his comment. He doesn't care. She does stuff her bra. She has nice titties anyway. He never understood why she stuffed.

He stops when he gets to where Rae and Landon are sitting. He gives them that little head nod. "What's up, guys?"

Landon shakes his head. "Not much."

Wesley walks away before Landon even answers. He walks out the back door and looks around. He wants somewhere quiet to go. His eyes land on the tiny remnants of the dock the Harpers used to have on the lake. He walks to it. He's surprised to see someone else sitting there, her back against one of the supporting poles.

He smiles at her as he sits down, back against a different pole. "Hey, Bean."

She looks up from the book she's reading, shocked to not be alone and even more shocked to hear Wesley's voice. "Hey, Wes."

"You really out here reading while there's a party in your own house?" he asks. She nods. "You're such a nerd."

"Wow. Thanks."

He shakes his head and repositions himself. "It's cute, Bean. It's super cute."

She thanks God that it's dark out, keeping Wesley from seeing her blush. She still feels like he can sense it, though. It makes her blush even more.

"What're you doing out here? I thought you loved parties," she says.

He shrugs. "Lilly..." He doesn't want to talk about Lilly. "I'm just not feeling it tonight. I wanted somewhere quiet and alone."

"Sorry for breaking up your loneliness."

"I'm always happy to have you around. Hope you don't mind me crashing your own little party."

She doesn't know what to say. She never knows what to say to him. He makes her freeze, her body freeze, her mind freeze.

"What're you reading?" he asks. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a joint and a lighter. Getting high is exactly what he needs. He lights up and starts smoking.

"Moby Dick."

He holds the smoke in and lets out a big exhale. The cloud of smoke contrasts against the inky night sky. "That's the one about the whale, right?"

"Sort of."

"What do you mean sort of? It either is or it isn't." Wesley lets out another cloud of smoke.

"Not in literature. I mean, yes, it is about a whale, but the whale isn't just a whale. The whale symbolizes everything you want in life but can't quite have. It represents evil and God and power and fate and the entire universe. In books, a whale is never just a whale," she explains.

Wesley thinks about that as he inhales more smoke. He looks up at the sky as he exhales. There are a lot of stars out tonight. There usually aren't too many in Ruby. "Remember when I said you being a book nerd is cute?"

"Yeah."

"I changed my mind," he says. "It's fucking sexy."

Oh how thankful she is that it's nighttime. She can feel her entire body blushing. The cool night air is now hot, and she can feel little droplets of sweat forming on the back of her neck and in her arm pits. Why is Wesley doing this to her? He's always teasingly flirted with her, mainly to piss off Landon. This doesn't feel like the other times.

"I'm a shitty reader," he says. "I'm shitty at everything, really."

"That's not true. You're good at football."

"Football ain't gonna matter in a few years. I'll get a scholarship to some small college. I'll play there and barely earn a degree. Then I'll come back here and get stuck working construction or security like my dad. Football can't help me then."

He's almost done with his joint. He can feel the effects. He's calmer now. He thinks the last thing he said will be the last bit of anxiety he reveals. He can't believe he revealed it to Sabina.

"That's not too bad a life," she says.

He shakes his head and tosses the last bit of joint into the lake. Maybe the fish can get high. "But it ain't too good of one either."

She still doesn't know what to say. He crawls from the pole he's leaning against to the one she is. He sits next to her. He feels like he has to be closer to her. He can't explain why. Maybe it's the weed.

"Read to me?" he asks.

She puts her bookmark in her page and flips back to the beginning. "Call me Ishmael."

He looks at her as she reads. He tries to pick up on her facial expressions, the shape of her lips as each word leaves them. She's beautiful.

"Sabina," he says. He feels like his words are loud, but they come out as a mere whisper.

"Yeah?"

He leans in and kisses her. It's just a small peck on her lips, but he wants more. He kisses her again, this one lasting longer. He kisses her again, this one lasting a while and involving tongue.

She's had dreams about kissing Wesley Parker. She never thought it'd actually happen, and she definitely didn't think it would come from he reading Moby Dick to him while hiding on a dock to avoid a party. It's better than she'd imagined it'd be. She thought he'd be rough and dominating, like he wanted more than just a kiss. He's not. His lips are soft. He's slow and gentle. She likes kissing him.

"Why'd you do that?" she asks after he pulls away. "Kiss me, that is."

"Because I needed to."