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“It’s great. And you know what else is great? We’re going to Mexi-cooo,” she sang.
“Woo!”
We parked on campus and ran to Trevor’s building. We were laughing and holding hands like we used to when we were little girls. A classmate of Trevor’s named Beth—tall, with long, wavy, brown hair and a pin-up girl figure—was at the front door and just about to go into the building. I had met her at least six times before because she often sat with Trevor’s friends for lunch and she went to two football games with a whole group of us, but she always acted like she had no idea I was Trevor’s girlfriend. She turned to hold the door open for us, then smiled. “Derian, right?”
I nodded, surprised that she actually remembered my name.
“I was just going up to see Trevor. I found his phone on the floor in my room. He must have left it there the other night.”
Sophie whimpered a little as I dug my fingers into her hand.
“Here.” Beth held the phone out. “Would you be a sweetie and give it to him for me?”
I didn’t move to get the phone. Sophie finally extended her free arm and took the phone from Beth.
“Thanks. Tell Trev that I’ll see him tonight at study group. It was nice seeing you again.” Her smile was so phoney I wanted to puke.
“Okay, ow! You can release the vice on my hand now,” Sophie complained after Beth strutted away.
I stormed into Trevor’s building. Sophie chased after me. I pounded on his door with unnecessary force. When he opened the door, he was grinning, but when he saw my expression, his smile faded. “What’s wrong?”
I held my palm up to signal Sophie to produce the phone. “We ran into Beth downstairs. She was kind enough to return your phone.”
“Where did she find it?”
“On the floor in her bedroom, apparently. She said you must have left it there the other night.”
“What?” He frowned as the information sunk in. “I’ve never been in her room. I don’t even know which apartment she lives in. Did she really say I was in her room?”
“She certainly did.” I passed the phone to him. “I came by to tell you that Sophie and I are going to Mexico for a week instead of Tofino. Have fun at study group tonight.” I spun around and took long, fast strides down the hall. When I realized Sophie hadn’t followed me I turned back to give her a “come on” gesture. She and Trevor were both standing in front of his door staring at me.
“Derian, you can’t leave things like that,” Sophie called. “That whore was lying. Trust me, I know a lying whore when I see one.” She walked towards me, stood close, and whispered, “Don’t let a girl like that weasel her way in and ruin what you guys have. I’ll wait in the car. Take your time.”
After Sophie left, I stood in the hall staring at the tiles. I didn’t actually look, but I could feel Trevor waiting patiently. I was going to be gone for a week and I didn’t want things to be bad between us. I wouldn’t be able to relax if I knew that the last thing I said to him was hostile. I thought about what Sophie said. She had to handle groupies hitting on Doug all the time and she was right that I shouldn’t believe Beth over Trevor. When I eventually looked up at him, he smiled, probably because he knew I wouldn’t leave still mad at him.
He walked over to hug me. “She’s lying.”
I rested my cheek on his chest and listened to the comforting rhythm of his heart beat. “I know. But why would she lie?”
“I don’t know. She’s obviously trying to break us up.”
Lying or not lying, that part was definitely true. There were so many things testing our bond. I didn’t want it to break.
“The last time I remember having my phone was when I was at the library. She must have taken it.” He leaned back and held my face between his palms. “I won’t study with her anymore.”
The sincerity in his eyes reassured me completely. We were unbreakable. The universe could throw as many tests as it wanted at us. “I don’t want you to mess up your grades. If you have to work in a group with her I trust you.” I leaned forward and kissed him.
He pressed me against the wall and his hands slid down the side of my body to rest on my hips. “Are you really going to Mexico instead of Tofino?”
“Yeah, Sophie’s dad gave us stand-by tickets with his airline and he’s paying for an all-inclusive resort. Here’s where we’re staying.” I handed him the piece of paper that I had written the hotel information on. “I’ll email you every day.”
He leaned in and whispered, “I don’t want you to go away,” before he kissed his way down my neck.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, enjoying the soft touch of his lips against my skin. “I don’t want to go away anymore,” I whispered back and clutched his hair to draw his lips to mine.
“Hi, Derian,” Nick said loudly to interrupt our make-out session as he walked up. “Nice to see you again.” He paused and leaned in close to us, grinning. “How’s it going?” Trevor laughed and shoved him in the shoulder. “Oh, are you guys busy? My bad.” He mussed Trevor’s hair before carrying on towards their room “Don’t let me interrupt. We can talk later.” Before he disappeared through the doorway he pointed at us and made his eyebrows dance in an animated way.
Once we were alone again I kissed Trevor softly and whispered, “I love you so much.” I touched his chest. “Always in my heart.”
“I love you, too. Have fun in Mexico, but be safe.”
“Always am.” I smiled and kissed him one more time. “See ya, Maverty.”
“See ya, Lafleur.”
Nick poked his head back out into the hall. “Bye, Derian.”
“Bye, Nick.” I kissed my fingertips and blew it towards Trevor. Nick pretended to catch it, which earned him a body-slam into the wall.
“Okay, I give up,” Nick choked out.
Trevor let him go and they both stood grinning at me. I shook my head and waved before I took the stairs two at a time. I jogged to the car and flung the door open, which startled Sophie. “Sorry I took so long,” I said breathlessly.
“Was it worth it?”
“Definitely.”
“All right, Mexico, here we come.”
“Wooo!”
CHAPTER 5
I was too excited to read my textbook as Sophie and I waited at the airport gate to see if we could get on the next flight. I people-watched and made up stories in my head about why they were travelling. A young guy kept looking at a picture in his hand and smiling longingly, so I decided he was flying to meet a woman he met online. A woman whose eyes were red as if she had been crying typed on her phone the entire time she waited. I decided she was the oldest sibling and her father had died, so she was trying to arrange everything for the funeral. I also saw a family with two little boys. They looked like twins, but one had no hair and his skin was pale. He seemed weak and leaned his head on his mom’s shoulder. The healthy-looking one stood at the windows with his dad and pointed at an airplane that was taking off. I decided they were going to their grandparents’ cabin because it was the sick one’s dying wish. It reminded me of Mason and his twin brother. Cody had died of cancer the same year my dad died. Mason’s mom once told me that Cody’s dying wish had been to go fishing at their grandparents’ cabin, and seeing the boys in the airport made my eyes tear up.
“What the hell?” Sophie asked when she noticed I was getting choked up.
“I was just thinking about something sad.”
She was about to ask me what it was when her dad walked up to us. He looked handsome in his pilot’s uniform. “Hi, Dad.” She stood and hugged him.
“Are you girls all ready for some fun in the sun?”
“Yes. Thank you so much for the tickets, Mr. Sakamoto.”
“You’re welcome. Make sure you stay close to the resort. There have been some travel alerts for some of the surrounding areas.” The loud speaker announced our names and asked us to go up to the front counter. “Sounds like there’s room on this flight. I better get to my gate too. I’m off to snowy Montreal.” He hugged us both and warned, “Be safe.”
“We will. Love you, Dad.”
Sophie and I skipped up to the counter and got our boarding passes for the last two seats on the flight. Once we were boarded and settled, Sophie stuck her ear buds in and flipped through a magazine. I took a textbook out of my carry-on and placed it on my lap. As I watched the ground crew load up the last of the luggage, I had a vision. I was on my knees praying for Trevor. Then it ended. That was it. Weird.
Sophie pulled out one of her ear buds. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I turned to stare out the window again.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing that makes any sense, since I’m not even religious.”
“If you saw the plane crashing, you should tell me now.”
“I don’t think that’s what it was.”
“You don’t think? Great.” She moaned and put her ear bud back in.
It was insanely hot in Acapulco. My jeans stuck to my legs the minute we stepped off the plane. If I had spotted a pair of scissors I would have cut them into shorts right there in the airport. I didn’t see any scissors lying around, but fortunately the shuttle to the resort was air-conditioned.
The five-star resort was massive and gorgeous. It had four restaurants, six pools, a nightclub, a bar every twenty feet, and it was right on the beach. I could hear the waves crashing from the open-air lobby. Sophie threw around tips to the shuttle driver, the older man who handed us a cocktail as we arrived, and the cute guy who carried our bags to our room. “Gracias Miss Sagamomo,” he attempted her name.
“Call me Sophie.”
“Gracias Miss Sophie.” He smiled a big, white, toothy smile.
“What’s your name?”
He pointed to the nametag on his chest. “Luis. If you need anything, Miss Sophie, just ask for Luis.”
“Gracias, Luis.”
The suite was sprawling and the bedroom was separated from the living room by double doors. I opened the sliding patio door and stepped out onto the balcony. It over-looked the pools below and the ocean beyond that. I closed my eyes and let the sun and the warm ocean breeze soak into my skin. It was amazing—like what paradise was supposed to feel like. The only thing better would have been being there with Trevor too.
My thoughts were interrupted when a male voice said, “Hi.” A tanned guy with longish blond hair and green eyes was standing on the balcony next to ours. He leaned on the railing with one hand and drank from a red plastic cup with his other hand. He smelled like a mix of coconut suntan lotion and alcohol.
“Hi,” I replied.
“Did you just get here?”
“What gave it away—the pasty skin or the jeans?”
“Neither, I just would have noticed you before now if you’d been here the whole time. I’m Liam.”
“Derian.” I reached across the gap between our balconies and shook his hand. “Have you been here long?”
“Three days. I should probably apologize in advance because my friends are a little loud and can be obnoxious. Well, not can be; they are obnoxious.”
“But you’re not?”
“Oh, I am too. I apologize for that in advance as well.”
I laughed. “Where are you from?”
“Toronto. It’s in Canada.”
“Really? Is it true that you live in igloos in Canada?” I teased.
He looked at me to see if I was dumb or joking. He smiled. “You’re Canadian too, aren’t you?”
“Vancouver.”
“I should have known that.” He turned his head a little when a guy’s voice called him from inside the room. He looked back at me. “We’re just heading out to get some dinner. Do you and your friends want to come with us?”
“It’s just my friend Sophie and me, and we kind of want to freshen up first. Maybe we’ll see you down there later.”
“I’ll buy you a drink,” he joked.
“Ha ha, big spender.”
Sophie stepped out onto the balcony behind me and rested her elbow on my shoulder. “What do we have here?”
“Sophie, Liam. Liam, Sophie.”
He reached over to shake her hand. He grinned in a very mischievous way and said, “You two are going to get into all sorts of trouble here. Hopefully we’ll run into you down at the club.” He waved and went back into his room.
“Cuuuute,” Sophie purred.
“Not as cute as Doug,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get ready.”
I showered, then Sophie straightened my hair. She always made it look so smooth and shiny. I loved it. I dressed in a fitted, white sundress and did my makeup. Sophie put on classy black shorts that had a cuff at the hem, and a silky green backless top that scooped low and kind of billowed at the front. She straightened her bangs into a perfectly level line across her forehead and layered on a couple of chains that shimmered on her skin. She made fashion look so effortless. I clasped on the necklace that Mason gave me and slipped into a pair of strappy heels.
We decided to try the Italian restaurant. As we walked through the lobby, I noticed there were computer stations, so I stopped and emailed Trevor.
We made it safe and sound. The resort is beautiful, but I wish you and Doug were here with us. Going for dinner now. Love u. D.
The dinner was awesome and we ate way too much because the idea of it being pre-paid made us gluttonous. We each had a margarita with dinner. It went straight to my head because the only alcohol I’d ever had was a glass of champagne at my cousin’s wedding and the cocktail that the hotel gave us when we arrived. Apparently, alcohol made me giggly, because I couldn’t stop laughing.
We eventually made our way over to the nightclub. It was packed with college students, who were all obviously desperately in need of reading break. There were no available tables, so we stood next to the bar and had another margarita. My legs started to get tingly.
“Hey, you made it.” Liam draped his arm across my shoulders.
I giggled.
“Sophie, this is my wing-man, Ben,” Liam said.
Sophie smiled at the tall guy, who looked half-Asian and half-Caucasian. “Hi, Ben.”
“Do you want to dance?” Liam asked me.
“I’ll try. I can’t exactly feel my legs.”
“You’re a lightweight, eh?”
“You could say that.”
He led me by the hand towards the dance floor, then wrapped his arms around my waist. I propped my hands on his shoulders, mostly to hold myself up. “You look beautiful,” he said.
“Thanks. I have a boyfriend. You should probably know that.”
“I know.” He held my hand above my head to twirl me around.
“How do you know?”
“Because girls like you always have boyfriends. Don’t worry about it. We’re just dancing.”
“Yeah, just dancing.”
Liam and I alternated between dancing and hanging out with Sophie and Ben. It was fun. I thought the boys said they were students at the University of Toronto, but that might not have been what they said because when I said, “I considered going to U of T,” they all laughed at me as if it didn’t make sense.
“Is the music getting louder?” I shouted.
Liam chuckled. “No, you’re just getting drunker.”
“I love this song. Let’s dance.” I dragged him back out onto the dance floor. He wasn’t a very good dancer. He mostly just positioned his hands on my waist or hips and watched as I danced. After another margarita, my eyesight started to get a little blurry. I could sort of see Sophie. She was smiling and she looked completely sober as she talked to Ben.
Some other guy handed me a drink and I was just about to drink it when Sophie grabbed it and took it away from me. “Nice try,” she yelled at the guy. “Derian, don’t take drinks unless they’re from the bar. In fact, don’t take any more drinks at all.”
I saluted her and stumbled back out onto the dance floor. Not much of anything was clear after that. Ben and Liam walked us back to the room. Well, they walked and Liam carried me over his shoulder.
The next thing I remembered clearly was waking up in the morning with a crushing pressure clamping down on my head. The sun streamed through the window and felt like someone turned the brightness up too high. I ran to the bathroom and wasn’t able to lift the toilet in time, so unceremoniously hurled in the bathtub. It was a revolting strawberry-pink mess mixed with what I could only imagine were spaghetti noodles. I used the showerhead and washed it down the drain. It was making me feel sick again as I watched it dilute with water. Sophie propped herself against the bathroom doorframe with her arms crossed and watched me.
“Sorry. You’re going to have to tip the maid really big,” I croaked hoarsely.
“I see that.”
“Why do you look perfectly fine?”
“Because I’m not a rookie.”
I sat on the edge of the tub and held my head between my palms to keep it from spinning. “Why did you let me do that to myself?”
“You were my entertainment for the night. Talking to that Ben guy was painful. He’s like a child in a sexy man’s body. I’m going down to the lobby to check my email. Get cleaned up. I want to sit by the pool.”
“Okay,” I mumbled, then crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over my head.
CHAPTER 6
I finally dragged myself out of bed just before noon and we went down to sit by the pool. Sophie made trips to the buffet every twenty minutes and returned with trays of fruits or chocolates and pastries. When I saw her eating Jell-O, taquitos, and baby shrimps all off the same plate, my stomach churned painfully. “That’s disgusting,” I moaned.
“You’re missing out. It’s such a waste to be at an all-you-can-eat-and-drink resort and not feel like eating or drinking.”
“Even if I didn’t drink too much last night I wouldn’t be eating that combination.”
She shrugged and popped a shrimp into her mouth. “Are you up for a salsa lesson?”
“No.”
“Water aerobics?”
“No. You go ahead. I’ll just stay here and try to get some reading done.”
She stood and pulled her linen cover-up off over her head. I watched as she strutted over to the other side of the pool deck for the salsa lesson. Three guys who had been sitting near the dance instructor jumped up and joined the class when they saw Sophie. They did more ass-watching than salsa dancing.
I struggled through a section of psychology without actually retaining much information on monkeys and attachment disorders. My head hurt and I couldn’t even take my sunglasses off to apply sunscreen because the sunlight felt like sabres through my eyeballs.
“Can I get you a drink?” a male voice asked from over my shoulder.
I turned to see if he was talking to me. He was a short guy with massive muscles and a nearly life-sized gold crucifix hanging around his neck. He slid his sunglasses down and peered over them at me. “Oh. No thanks. I’m nursing a hangover.” I turned my head back to start reading again.
“What’s your name?”
I glanced at him as he moved to sit on Sophie’s lounge chair. “Derian.”
“Gino.” He held his hand out to shake mine. Then he pushed his sunglasses back into place and took a sip of his mojito. It felt as if he was staring at my body. “You’re beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I glanced over to see if I could make eye contact with Sophie. The dance lesson was over and I couldn’t see where she went. I scanned the pool deck, but didn’t see her anywhere.
“What are you reading?”
“Psychology.”
“You should take a break.” He pointed over his shoulder at the pool. “Let’s go for a swim.”
“No thanks. I should finish this.”
He took my textbook from me and closed it. “That’s boring. You’re in Mexico and you only live once. Would you like to go for a walk? There are some cool caves just down the beach. I would love to show them to you.”
“No thanks.” I grabbed my book back.
“You’re getting a little burnt. Pass me the sunscreen. I’ll do your back.”
I looked over at the bar to see if Sophie was getting a drink. I couldn’t see her. “I already have sunscreen on. Thanks.”
“My friends and I are staying in the presidential penthouse suite. Do you want to come up and party?”
I pointed to my textbook. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I should really get back to reading. Nice meeting you.”
He flexed his bloated pecs as if he thought that would mesmerize me into being interested in him. It didn’t impress me. I turned my head to see if Sophie was maybe on her way back from the buffet. She was standing right beside me. She smiled and leaned over to kiss me on the lips. “Hey, babe. Did you miss me?” she asked.
I glanced at Gino. His mouth was frozen in a crooked smile, but his eyebrows were angled in a frown.
“You’re on my seat,” Sophie said to him. He stood and stared at Sophie as she did a sexy crawl onto the lounge chair. She rolled over and extended her arm over to rest her hand on mine.
Gino tilted his head in a cocky way. “I could be into that.”
“No. You couldn’t,” Sophie snarled. “Go away. You’re in my sun.”
He shook his head as if he thought she was a bitch, then walked away.
I lifted an eyebrow at her. “Was that necessary?”
“Apparently. I watched you trying your sweet method for like fifteen minutes and he wasn’t even close to getting the hint.”
“Do you think, when we’re forty, you’ll still be a menace?”
“Definitely.” She stood. “I’m going for a swim. If the vultures start circling, try to be less nice.”
She dove in and swam underwater to the other end of the pool. She kicked off the wall and then backstroked towards me. Liam and his friends came running from somewhere behind me and did cannon balls into the pool. They almost landed on Sophie. Ben picked her up and acted as if he was going to launch her, which was an error. She did something to him under the water that made him groan and disappear below the surface. They all laughed.
Liam turned and swam to the edge near where I was. He flattened his hands on the deck and did a push-up to heave himself out of the pool, streaming water over his tanned and fit body. He really was cute. He stood over me to purposely let water drip off his lean muscles onto me. “How are you feeling after last night?”
I pushed his thigh to make him back away and stop dripping on me. “A little better. I won’t be doing that again.”
“Too bad. It was fun.”
“Was it? I don’t really recall.”
“I didn’t leave a lasting impression? Ouch, that hurts.” He sat down on Sophie’s lounge chair. “Maybe tonight we can hang out again. You can try to show some restraint around the booze and I’ll do some charming things that you’ll actually remember.”
“I have a boyfriend, remember?”
“It’s just dancing.”
“Right. Just dancing.”
“That kiss Sophie gave you to get rid of that guide was kind of hot. It left me with an interesting mental image.”
“Keep dreaming.”
He stood up abruptly to slide one arm under my knees and one around my back. I squirmed and screamed as he picked me up, took a couple long strides, and leapt into the pool with me in his arms. We hit the water and I heard the splash through the muted watery sound in my ears. I made vicious eye contact with him for a second while we were submerged; he was smiling. I broke the surface before he did and waited for him. As soon as he appeared, I splashed his face, then pushed all my weight down on his head to dunk him. After I held him down long enough to make a point, I swam back to the edge of the pool and got out. The water actually felt great, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. I twisted my hair to wring it out, then rubbed a towel across my skin. When I turned back toward the pool, Liam held up my sunglasses, which he had obviously retrieved from the bottom.
“Do you want these?”
“Yes. My retinas are burning.”
“Come and get them,” he teased.
I walked to the edge and crouched so my chest was in line with his face. “You come here,” I said seductively and fluttered my eyelashes.