Free Had To Be You by Juliet Chatham

turn.
    Finally the line made a surge forward and Matt was able to place his order. He joined her a moment later, handing over a frozen drink.
    “I said I didn’t want one,” she reminded him, but accepted it reluctantly.
    “Yeah, I know what you said.” He took a sip of his own. “So, there’s a party Saturday night, out past the beach at Thatcher Cove. You up for it?”
    “A party?” She frowned. “I don’t know.”
    “Come on—for once!” he urged her. “It’ll be fun.”
    She turned to throw him a sly sideways grin.
    “So, you’re not going to be there, then?”
    “Ha!” Matt tossed his head back. “If that’s the way it’s gonna be, I’ll make you a deal.” He tilted his gaze towards her. “I promise not to speak to you, or even acknowledge you, if you’ll just do the same for me.”
    “I’d be more than happy to ignore you, Matt. You don’t even have to ask.”
    “Oh, no, trust me!” he returned the sentiment graciously. “The pleasure is all mine.”
    She couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, and he chuckled as well, ducking slightly to bump a shoulder against hers before returning his attention to his frozen drink.
    They paused by the marina to cross Main Street; the afternoon traffic snarled around the square in a tangled mess. The drawbridge was in its most upright position to allow a large commercial fishing vessel to pass through the narrow channel, and vehicles were jutting out of line everywhere at odd angles, causing even more congestion—as if they had actually been attempting to drive around it, ignorant of the water on every side.
    “Ah, summer people…” Matt muttered around his straw. “It’s not so much the heat, as it is the stupidity.”
    Rory smiled, sipping her drink. As they maneuvered through to cross the street, he reached up to playfully tug on her ponytail.
    “Matt? Hey!”
    Glancing in the direction of the unfamiliar voice, all Rory saw at first was the sun bouncing off shiny blonde highlights and a wide, perfectly white smile offset by raspberry lip gloss.
    “Oh—hi, Casey.”
    Rory glanced at Matt, wondering if she’d only imagined the strange squeak in his voice, almost as if his air supply had been cut off somewhere. Or maybe it was just all the oxygen in his blood was now rushing southward.
    Casey Conroy was a year ahead of them, and co-captain of the high school cheer and dance squad. Rory had no idea they were so friendly. She arched an eyebrow, noticing her shorts barely covered the tight round curve of her butt, and her globe-like breasts expanded the material of her tiny athletic top in a manner that defied all laws of gravity.
    “How’s your summer going so far?” Casey asked him, and then gave Rory a look that registered zero recognition. “Hi.”
    Even if she was just a lowly sophomore, it was still a pretty small town. Rory even had some of her gymnastics meets in the same gym where the cheerleaders practiced. Yet obviously she didn’t rate enough to make her radar.
    “Hi,” she said.
    “Summer’s great,” Matt replied right after her.
    “Did you hear about the party this weekend?”
    “Ah, yeah, I heard something about that,” he said with a shrug, in all likelihood trying too hard to play it cool. “Maybe we’ll see you there.”
    “Okay. See ya!”
    Matt smiled after her.
    Continuing on with a weary roll of her eyes, Rory tossed the rest of her drink in the nearest trash receptacle and shook her head.
    “Ugh, just when I thought there was some hope for you…”
    “What?” he exclaimed, throwing a hand up in the air as he hurried after her. “I’m just appreciative of the natural scenery, if you will.”
    Rory smirked. “Looks more like paint-by-numbers to me.”
    “What was that?”
    She didn’t bother to reply as he caught up to her side. Though she’d never had any reason to meet her father’s new young thing—the one he left his family for—in Rory’s imagination she looked pretty much exactly like