Matthew Wayne Selznick

Previously: Alex Kent went to his friend’s house and met a new girl. Crystal DuBois and Preston VanHart saw Carson Meunetti at the beach.
“No One’s Sleeping In This Summer”
The car pulled up to the curb in front of Alex’s house. The rising sun made diamonds from the dew on the front lawn. Run-off from the neighbor’s sprinklers spread dark moisture across the sidewalk. Blearily, Alex remembered it was trash day. He’d have to do that before he went to sleep. Sleep…

Behind the wheel, Heather engaged the parking break. Alex turned to look at her. Her thick strawberry blond hair was in disarray and her makeup was smudged. She looked as tired as he felt, but her smile was as strong as his own.

“It was nice to meet you,” he said. They both laughed.

“Nice to meet you, too.” She studied him. Her eyes were pale blue. “Sorry I have to go to work.”

“I hope you’re not late.”

Her eyebrows went up and she sighed. “I’m not worried about that… I’m worried about being there on… on…”

Alex shrugged. “Two hours of sleep?”

“If I’m lucky.”

A moment stretched between them. Alex wasn’t sure if he was supposed to kiss her. He was too tired to know anything. He saw Heather’s smile falter a moment.

“You need to go to bed.”

“Yeah.” He unlatched the car door. “Maybe we can do something. Go on a real date.”

She nodded vigorously. “That would be good! I’m not sure if we have anything left to talk about, though, after last night.”

Alex laughed again. “That was really great,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“So… we’ll see a movie or something. Okay?”

“Soon.”

“Yes.” He pulled himself out of the car. His head swam a little. Sleep… “Yes. Soon.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Drive safe, okay?”

“I will. Autopilot.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye!”

He closed the door and watched her pull away.

Wow.

That was something.

Not long after Heather and Mindy arrived at Grant’s place last night, Grant allowed Mindy to drag him into the bedroom. That left Heather and Alex alone with the awkward knowledge that their friends would soon be making like bunnies on the other side of a thin apartment wall. Alex turned up the stereo and the two of them got acquainted.

Things were a little forced at first. Gradually, with the help of the beer and maybe (in Alex’s case, at least) just a little spurred on by the knowledge that the other people in the place were having sex, their conversation became easier. After an hour or two, Alex and Heather were completely engrossed in each other. Mindy’s periodic little yelps of ecstasy from the next room became something to laugh over and eventually ignore.

They talked for most of the night. When Alex saw that Heather was getting tired, he invited her to lean against him on the couch. He held her around her waist and she put her hand over his. Alex had been alarmed that the pressure of her body gave him an erection. If Heather noticed, she didn’t comment or act on it, and Alex found he didn’t really want that, anyway.

She was cute and felt good in his arms, but simply connecting with her as a person felt even better.

The latest hours of the night gave way to the earliest hours of the morning and Alex and Heather passed them in a limbo of talking and dozing. They shared a lot; it was easy when there was no history, no previous dynamic between them. They were new, unopened books.

Neither one had ever experienced anything like it. Both agreed it was something special. Unsaid was the understanding that their new connection had to be explored further.

Wow.

Alex unlocked the front door of his house and stumbled to his bedroom. He pulled off his shoes, socks and jeans, dragged the bedspread down from his bed and fell onto the sheets. His nightstand clock read 5:52. His mind churned with fragments of Heather that quickly dissolved into thick, indistinct dreams.

He jolted awake when something slapped at the bottom of his bare feet.

“What?”

He father’s voice was cheerful and smirky. “Time to get up. Early bird catches the job. And don’t forget to take down the trash.”

A rush of helpless anger pushed through Alex’s exhausted mind. “Why do you do that?”

“It works, doesn’t it?” His father was already leaving the room. “Get up. When I get home tonight, I want to know where you applied.”

Alex looked at the clock. 6:58. Barely an hour of sleep. He could try staying in bed until his father left for work.

No. For on thing, the foot-slap alarm clock put him in the most foul mood possible. It was the worst of his father’s “clever” tricks. It divided sleep from wakefulness the way a guillotine blade separated head from neck. There was no fixing the result. He was angry, he was awake and the bed was made of wrong sides.

Anyway, getting a job meant getting money and eventually the car that would give him some freedom. Freedom to… take Heather out?

Thinking of their long night sluiced most of the anger from his mind. He remembered the feel of her body against his. He tried to imagine what she was like under those baggy clothes. He felt so close to her — like they had compressed a month or two of relationship time in the space of a night — Alex was pretty sure it wouldn’t be long before he found out.

Summer was going to be awesome.

Crystal Dubois pulled her 1974 Chevy Nova into the driveway behind Preston’s 280ZX. She was pleased to notice his mother’s car was absent. Sheila was okay, but Crystal wasn’t really in the mood to play the son’s sweet girlfriend. She’d been up since four in the morning.

It seemed like a good idea to take the opening shift at the bakery for the summer, but it was the second day and her body still wasn’t used to it. She just couldn’t get to sleep early enough. She was exhausted and irritable.

She glanced at herself in the rear view mirror. She hadn’t bothered with makeup since leaving the bakery, but at least there wasn’t any flour in her bobbed black hair. Good enough. She grabbed her purse and got out of the car.

The front door of Preston’s house was locked, but Crystal had a key — something Sheila didn’t know and wouldn’t necessarily approve of. Crystal let herself in.

Preston was on the phone.

“Yes. Right.” He looked up at her and smiled. His eyes were wide. He held up the index finger of his free hand. He spoke into the phone. “I know. “I — look, I’ve got company; I should go.”

Crystal hung her purse on the back of one of the dining room table chairs. She watched Preston, who spun to unwrap himself from telephone cord.

“Yes. That’s why I should go. Okay? Okay. I know. Bye.”

He hung up and blew air through pursed lips. “Sorry,” he said to Crystal. “Hi.”

Preston was naturally high-strung. He was a leg-bouncer; a nail-biter. He seemed even more jumpy than usual. Crystal squinted at him.

“Who was that?”

Preston’s thumb went to his mouth. He talked around the gnawing. “My cousin.” He pulled his hand free and shoved it in his pocket. “It’s good news, though. My mother’s staying with them this weekend. We can move the party to the main house.”

“Your cousin? Which one?”

“Bill. I don’t think you guys ever met. Unless it was last year, at the family Fourth of July thing..?”

Crystal remembered Cousin Ted, Cousin Carl, and Cousin Ursula. That day at the beach had been a long one.

“You don’t have a cousin Bill, Preston.” Crystal was too tired to put much energy into the accusation.

She was, however, alert enough to notice he didn’t deny it. “Well, then, who was it?”

Crystal could think of a couple of little teenyboppers, hangers-on who had wasted a lot of time waiting for Preston to break up with her. That tall skinny bitch Gail, or the one with the birthmark on her arm…

“You tell me.”

He gaped at her. “I did tell you. I can’t force you to believe it. That’s your choice.”

She shook her head. “I got three hours of sleep last night. I’m too tired to give a shit. Just… just… don’t.”

“Don’t what?” His voice rose with indignation. “I was talking on the phone, Crystal. Jesus fucking Christ…”

“You know what,” she said. She strode to the living room, turned on the television and threw herself on the couch. “Battle of the Planets” was on. Crystal watch dully while Preston hovered behind her.

“Well…” he said.

She kept her eyes on the television. Giant cartoon robot animals attacked a blocky city. G-Force zoomed in, rockets blasting.

“Well…” Preston said again. “You’re worrying about nothing. I’m the one who should wonder.”

Crystal whirled on the couch, her lips curling in irritation. “Um, what?”

“You’ve had your… dalliances, too, after all.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Um, what?” Preston’s mimicry was almost perfect. “Yvonne?”

Crystal laughed. “That was nothing, much to your disappointment.” She pointed at him and her smile became more loose. “You loved that.” She got off the couch and stood in front of him. Her perfect scornful expression was the result of a lot of practice. “No… you encouraged it. You wanted me to fuck her.”

Preston smiled down at her. “Yeah, okay.” He took hold of her hands. “It wasn’t cousin Bill,” he confessed. She tried to pull away, but he held on. “It was Tammy.”

Crystal relaxed. “Why didn’t you say so?” She knew Preston wouldn’t try anything with Ian’s girlfriend. Not only would it be bad form (you waited until your friends broke up before you made any moves), Ian would kick Preston’s ass.

Preston looked embarrassed. “You walked in; I’m on the phone with a girl. I automatically felt guilty.”

“Figures.” Crystal decided she believed him. This time. “What did she want?”

“She wanted to know if she should bring anything on Friday; if it was a dinner thing or a party thing. I told her it was a party thing.”

Crystal made a disgusted noise. “That means she won’t bring anything and Ian will keep all of his shit to himself unless somebody asks him.”

“Pretty much.”

Crystal scowled. “You think Ian will bring Mr. Wizard with him?”

“Eric? Probably.”

“That should be good for a laugh.”

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t approve.”

“Tch. He’s comedy. Total poseur. All that black magic bullshit.”

Preston shrugged. “He’s harmless.”

“Oh, you would think so.” Crystal shook his head. “He’s an asshole.”

“Well…” Preston tapped the side of his face with a finger. “It’s even better that we’ll have the whole house on Friday. You can ignore him.”

“Hm. So that part was true? Your mom won’t be here?”

“All weekend.”

“Good. If I have to spend two minutes alone with that asshole, I’ll kick him in the nuts.”

Preston laughed. “Okay…”

“I’m not kidding.”

He frowned. “What’s the deal? He never…”

She shook her head and waved her hand. “Not a chance. He’s just a creep, and he doesn’t think anybody knows it. Everything he says to me is, like, ‘oh, and we should go to bed together.’”

Preston’s eyes were wide and his mouth turned up. “He said that?”

“Not literally. But it’s there.”

“Wow.” He seemed more amused than troubled.

“Lay that territory down,” Crystal muttered. A little possessiveness, a little jealousy from Preston, now and then. Would it kill him?

Preston laughed. “I don’t need to. It’s obvious he’s not a threat.”

“Damn straight.” She moved past him and went to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator. “I need to eat or sleep. Or eat and then sleep. Something. I’m in a rotten mood.” She found a package of hot dogs and a bag of buns. “Why is it the number of hot dogs never matches the number of hot dog buns?”

“Evil plot,” Preston said. He sat at the table while she microwaved a wiener.

“My favorite,” Crystal said.

“No one ever heard of a good mastermind,” Preston mused. “They’re always evil.”

Crystal put together her hot dog and sat across the table from him. “So what’s the evil plan for Friday?”

“Apart from keeping you away from Eric?”

Crystal grinned savagely as she bit off the tip of the wiener. Ketchup stained her lips.

“Bring it on.”
…to be continued!

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