Chapter 81: Chapter Eighty-two

“One, two, three…”

Sera, Sophie, and I broke into a run, laughing, almost tripping, our hands flailing as we tried to beat one another to get to the water first. Sand flew close to my eyes, blocking my vision for a moment, but I was quick to shield my face.

Sophie went down with a soft oomph when an inflated beach ball hit the back of her head. I slowed down without thinking, thrusting out a hand toward her.

She stared at it for a moment. An awkward, long second passed between us before I broke out into a grin, wriggling my hand. “Come on!” I urged. “You’re going to miss out on all the fun!”

A small smile touched her face as she slapped her hand on my palm. I grabbed it and pulled her up, almost losing my footing and tumbling back into the sand. But she yanked me forward, breaking my fall.

Her smile turned into something softer.

It felt like gratitude and something else, like remorse. I wasn’t sure which.

I didn’t have time to dissect it because Sera—already knee-deep in the ocean—called out to us, waving her hand frantically.

“Hurry up, slowpokes!”

I let go of Sophie’s hand and sprinted the rest of the way, the cool water splashing up my legs like liquid freedom.

“We’re done with exams!” She yelled, cupping a handful of water and splashing it at me. “And we don’t have to listen to our boring teachers anymore! It’s time to have fun!”

When she planted her hand on her hips, her brows wriggling as she glanced from me to Sophie and back, I knew what was coming.

I started to back out, but she was already looking at Sophie.

“How good are you at swimming?” She asked her.

“I started swimming lessons when I was two,” Sophie said proudly, earning a thumbs-up from Sera.

Sera turned to me. I didn’t have to say anything. “Don’t worry.” She patted my shoulder. “I’ll look out for you. I’m not going to let anything happen to my best friend. Besides, Jace would kill me.”

“Okay!” She rubbed her hands together. “We’re going to swim a little further away from shore. The countdown is sixty seconds. Whoever can swim the fastest in under a minute wins!”

“What’s the prize?” I asked. I knew I was going to come in last, but hey, it didn’t hurt to try and exert my lungs and end up coughing up salty water.

She tapped her chin. “Mm…it’s a surprise. A very pleasant surprise.”

“That’s not fair,” Sophie argued. Sera and I shared the same look—our heads tilted and eyes narrowed. Was she talking about being fair?

She immediately backed down, a nervous smile on her face. “My bad. It’s just that I get a little competitive when it comes to sports. I was on the sports team in middle school, and my mom always pushed me to win. She made my dad buy a new house because the one in our former house wasn’t big enough.”

“And she made me practice six hours daily before I came to Beacon High, because she was convinced it was the only thing I was good at. If I didn’t do well enough, she took away my phone privileges.”

Oh.

Well…

I side-glanced Sera. She mouthed, “Told you. Everybody at our school is fucked up.” She placed a hand on Sophie’s shoulder, patting it mechanically. “Don’t worry. There’s no prize this time around. And we won’t mind if you come in last. Okay?”

Sophie nodded.

Sera gave the countdown.

Three…

Two…

We dove into the water at the call of one. I knew how to swim, but the other two looked like they were moving through the water, with the current, while I was fighting against it. My arms flapped against the surface like a creature that wasn’t built for it—and at the thirty-second mark, I spat out a mouthful of water.

I held my breath and went down again, determined, but I didn’t see the other person playing underwater. A leg smacked my head, and I heard a sharp ringing sound echo through my ear.

Ring.

Nicholas.

The memories flooded back, forcing themselves through my mind, slipping over reality. I was back to that evening, stroking desperately, trying to find him. The fear that gripped me, that tied itself as a cruel noose around my neck and blinded my vision while I screamed and yelled out his name, felt too real.

And somehow, deep down, I could tell it wasn’t real.

“Fight, Grace.” I gritted my teeth as I hyperventilated, my chest rising quickly and my breathing ragged. “Fucking fight it.”

I’m not back then.

Nicholas isn’t drowning.

I’m just having a good time with my friends.

The panic began subsiding, but something ahead caught my attention. It looked suspiciously like a—

“Shark!” I screamed, whipping around and thrashing toward shore with every ounce of strength I had. Adrenaline surged through my veins. My arms burned, my legs kicked wildly, sand and salt flying as I powered forward. I didn’t stop until my knee slammed into the shallow bottom. Scrambling to my feet, I waved my arms frantically.

“Shark! There’s a shark in the—”

The “shark” surfaced.

It was just another inflatable beach toy, bobbing innocently.

Seraphine and Sophie were still farther out, staring at me. Sophie stormed to shore first, face flushed bright red. “You called shark, and I lost my focus!” She looked ready to explode.

I stood there dripping, chest still heaving, trying to explain. “I—I really thought it was real. I swear.”

Sophie crossed her arms, but the anger slowly melted into reluctant amusement. She really had wanted to win.

Seraphine, on the other hand, wore a huge, delighted grin as she waded out. “I knew you had it in you.”

“What?”

“You know,” she said, nudging my shoulder playfully, “I never said you couldn’t cheat. You found a loophole. I’m seriously impressed, Grace Thompson. My work on you is almost done.”

I glanced at Sophie, my brows dipping when I saw her bottom lip trembling. Was she trying not to cry?

Seraphine stepped in.

“As for you, Sophie,” she pursed her lips tightly, almost resembling Mrs. James whenever she allowed herself into my room to give me one of her lectures.

Her voice was stern enough to distract Sophie from her near meltdown. “You need therapy. Your mom is a terrible person because you should be able to have fun without worrying about getting punished.”

There was a long period of silence.

Then Sophie laughed—a watery sound. “I guess.” She shrugged. “It was fun for a second when I wasn’t thinking about winning.”

I laughed, mostly half embarrassed and half relieved. Sera joined, and soon enough, the three of us were laughing as we collapsed onto the warm sand.

The panic from moments earlier faded under the bright sky and the sound of their laughter.

We moved to a different part of the beach.

Seraphine flipped her hair and blinked her lashes to get us an umbrella and one very large lounge chair from a group of older boys. College, I presumed.

“So,” she cleared her throat. “What do you plan on studying, Grace? I know you’re good at everything, physics, philosophy…but you’ve never told me what you really like.”

“It’s a secret,” I teased.

She grabbed the bottle of sunscreen we brought from our bag and reached over, slathering it over my face. I just so happened to be in the middle of her and Sophie, giving me nowhere to run.

I giggled and squirmed, spitting endlessly when some of it got into my mouth. “Fine, fine,” I said, waving a hand like a white flag. “I’ll tell you if you stop torturing me.”

“I want to be a doctor,” I said quietly.

“That’s lame.” She blew raspberries. “Everybody wants to be a doctor. It’s what people expect you to do when you’re smart. What do you really want to do?”

I nodded slowly, my mouth tilting in a smile that didn’t reach my eyes. “I do want to be a doctor. I’ve wanted to—ever since I was smaller and I used to rub my mom’s palms with creams, so the calluses wouldn’t turn to blisters.”

A lump quickly formed in my throat and tears gathered in my eyes, but I continued. “At first, I wanted to be a masseuse because I thought I could give her all the massages she needed. And then one day—”

I paused to clear my throat, kicking up sand with my feet, “—she fell at work. It was her waist. She couldn’t walk straight for a while. We had to go see the doctor, and something was wrong with our insurance, so we had medical debt for a while.”

I could still recall the look on my mom’s face for that split second when she found out insurance couldn’t cover the bill for drugs and the physical therapy she needed.

She was devastated.

And then she told me “it’s just pain. I’m sure it’ll fix itself.” But I caught her grimacing every time she tried to walk.

It was torture.

And that’s when I decided that I was going to do everything I could to make sure she didn’t have to go through that again.

“Hey.”

Seraphine’s hand on my shoulder is gentle. I forgot I stopped speaking at some point. She smiled fondly. “If anyone deserves to be a doctor, it’s you.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, holding back tears. She sneakily handed me a sheet of tissue paper.

“I’m sorry,” Sophie said softly. Quietly, as I wiped the tears before they fell. Her eyes held much guilt as she turned to me. “I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have let Regina talk me into ending our friendship.”

I shook my head, feeling somewhat terrible. “It’s fine…”

“It isn’t.” Her voice broke, a tear sliding down her cheek. “The thing is, Regina’s dad is my mom’s boss. And her mom is the president of a club my mom’s a member of. She was going to tell her mother—and I knew that my mom wouldn’t take it well. That’s why I stopped talking to you. I was scared that I would disappoint my mom.”

Seraphine reached over with another tissue sheet. “There’s enough to go round,” she said. “I had a feeling this was going to happen.”

Sophie laughed softly. “I tried being friends with Regina because my mom said I had to. It was important for her to stay in her boss’s good graces.”

She sighed, the sound heavy with old frustration. “I really tried. But all Regina wanted was someone who would praise her nonstop, fuel that giant ego of hers, and tell her that everything she did was right while everyone else was wrong.”

Her lips pressed into a flat line. “We even had an actual group chat. It was called Regina’s Fan Base.”

I snorted so loudly that a nearby seagull flew off in protest. “Regina’s Fan Base? She actually did that?” The sheer level of narcissism was almost impressive.

How tone-deaf could one person possibly be?

Seraphine leaned forward, grinning wickedly. “Do you think she was dropped on the head as a baby? Or maybe they fed her the wrong baby formula.”

“Sera!” I choked on a laugh and elbowed her in the ribs, though I was fighting a smile the whole time.

“Actually,” Sophie said, her eyes lighting up with the absurdity of it all, “it kind of did happen. She grew up with two nannies. Her mom was obsessed with making her super smart, so she bought some shady, unapproved formula and forced the nannies to give it to her for two whole months.”

“When Regina ended up in the hospital, they fired both nannies on the spot. Then her mom hired some ‘super nanny’ specialist after that.”

All three of us burst out laughing at the same time. I clutched my stomach, tears pricking the corners of my eyes as I pictured tiny Regina being pumped full of mystery formula like some science experiment gone wrong.

Sophie wiped at her eyes after the laughter died down, still giggling softly. “I swear, I’m not even exaggerating. The stories I could tell…”

Seraphine shook her head, still chuckling. “It explains a lot.”

My phone buzzed, and I got up from the chair, digging through my bag for it. It was a text from Jace.

“I hope you didn’t have too much fun without me. Practice ran late, but we’re headed to you guys now.”

I turned to Seraphine, but I could tell she’d gotten a similar message.

She turned to Sophie, her sly scheming smile coming back. “So, what do you think about Nicholas Croft…”