Free The Sound by Sarah Alderson Page A

you hook up the other night?’
    ‘No!’ I say.
    ‘Why not? He’s hot,’ Sophie says.
    ‘Yeah, I guess,’ I say. I can’t exactly claim he’s not because the guy she’s dating is practically his identical twin.
    ‘I think he’s into you,’ Sophie says.
    My feet start to drag in the sand as we get within hearing distance of the others. ‘Did he say something?’ I ask.
    ‘No, but just from the way he’s been hanging out with you, taking you to the party and talking to you. Normally he doesn’t make an effort with girls. They kind of do all the
work – if you know what I mean.’
    That’s interesting. I realise that I’m staring at the very person we’re talking about as he jogs down the beach, wades into the shallows and then dives into a huge wave.
    ‘He isn’t dating anyone?’ I ask.
    ‘No. He’s hooked up with Summer one time I think and maybe a few local girls – they put out way more: total skanks. But last summer he was dating this college girl. Total
cougar. He got major props.’
    It’s getting hard to keep up with who has been with whom. It might almost be easier to focus on who
hasn’t
been with whom. My eyes graze the surface of the ocean and spot
Jeremy surfacing now, throwing his arms back and shaking the water out of his hair, and I have to admit I’m definitely starting to find him more attractive and that has nothing to do with the
fact that the water is dripping in rivulets down his rather toned pecs.
    As we sit down on our towels again I get my first proper look at Tyler who is standing about ten metres away with Eliza. It looks like he’s trying to entice her to play Frisbee and
she’s not up for it. He’s in profile and I register that he has a scar underneath his eye running up to his temple. He looks a bit like Robert Pattinson – if you genetically
spliced him with Buzz Lightyear. He has dark, quiffy hair and wide-spaced eyes, though his skin is tanned as opposed to diamond sparkly white. He has a very square jaw with a dimple in the centre
of his chin but alas no jet pack. I note that his eyebrow is cocked and the smile on his face is half sneer, half smirk as if he’s laughing at Eliza but she doesn’t seem to realise.
    I shake my head. I’m making a lot of assumptions here and the only two that I can safely claim are true are the ones about him being neither a vampire nor a space ranger.
    ‘So what was the fight about?’ I ask quietly to Sophie.
    ‘You mean between Jesse and Tyler?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I say, not taking my eyes off Tyler. He’s a tall guy and well-built. If I was going to beat someone up I would choose someone a little more weedy to pick on, to
increase my chances of actually winning. But then again, I think, remembering Jesse – he wasn’t exactly puny-looking either. Rather the opposite. His back and shoulders were solid
muscle and his abs were definitely not painted on by any make-up artist.
    ‘Jesse just turned up to this party we were having at the Reeds’,’ Sophie says. She looks at me and lowers her sunglasses down her nose. ‘You have to understand that
locals – islanders – don’t ever get an invite to parties like that. Anyway,’ she continues in a rush, ‘he burst in on us, marched over to Tyler and next thing
he’s beating the crap out of him. I mean, like right in front of me.’ She pulls a face that expresses enough horror that I realise she isn’t embellishing this particular story.
‘It took three of the guys to haul Jesse off and when they did Tyler was unconscious, and his face was completely messed up.’ She shakes her head, her nose wrinkling, then says more
quietly. ‘Jesse’s just lucky the police turned up when they did because serious to God he would have been killed otherwise. The guys started laying into him. It was completely crazy.
All the girls were screaming and crying and Tyler’s lying there unconscious and the guys are now beating the hell out of Jesse. It was actually Matt who