Free Undertow by Callie Kingston

Kelly said, grinning.
    “Okay, okay. So do you plan to tell me why he’s amazing?”
    “You mean, besides the fact that he’s Johnny?”
    “Umm, yeah. There’s lots of Johnnies in the world.”
    “None like mine!”
    “Right. So what’s he done now that’s so amazing?” Marissa was less than thrilled about the prospect of playing audience for a dissertation regarding the greatness of Johnny. Scratch the hypothesis about their breakup, she thought. Kels must have chopped her hair for some other weird reason.
    “D.C., as in Washington, Capitol Hill, where the Pres. lives and all that.”
    “What’s Johnny got to do with D.C.? He’s going to save the city from itself or something?”
    “You got it!” She laughed. “D.C. first—the whole world next. His application won!”
    “Sorry, you lost me. What application?”
    Her question earned her an eye roll and exaggerated sigh. Apparently, Marissa had forgotten some part of an earlier conversation.
    “For the internship, remember?”
    Flicking through the files in her brain which contained bits of Kelly-related data, she came up blank.
    As though speaking to a dimwit, Kelly said, “Johnny applied for an internship at the Washington office of the Ocean Protection Society . I told you about the essay he wrote.”
    Marissa nodded. It was the safest strategy at this point; she had no clue about the essay, the internship, or the Ocean Protection Society, but she did know that Kels totally freaked out at such memory lapses. Like it revealed how much she valued their friendship or something. “Wow. They must have been impressed.”
    “You think? It was amazing ! He researched for weeks and weeks before he wrote it, then wrote forever, like the whole semester. Of course they were impressed.”
    “Sounds like a ton of work.” Hopefully, she would give some hint of Johnny’s thesis pretty soon; she was getting sick of the mystery show.
    “Yeah, especially since he’s way more interested in politics than oceans. He had to find an angle.”
     “Okay, I give. Why did he want to go work with the Ocean Protectors or whatever it’s called if he didn’t give a crap about the ocean?”
    “God, Issa, give me a break. This guy is brilliant, you know? Brilliant . He wants to be in Washington,” she said. “This is just a first step. Next—Congress! He plans to intern with some politician or something. This gets him in the door and schmoozing with the suits as a lobbyist. He’s shooting for Senator someday!”
    Johnny now dropped a rung from Marissa’s not-her-type-but-okay-for-Kels category to conniving-guy-with-no-principles. She fiddled with her iPod, shuffling to get a new mix. Then curiosity grabbed her. “What’s his angle?”
    “Dead zones,” Kelly shot her a sly smile.
    “Dead zones?”
    “Haven’t you seen the news at all this year? You been too busy with the new boy?”
    She ignored the jab.“Guess not. So what do dead zones have to do with Johnny?”
    “They’re getting his butt to D.C., that’s what.” Kelly winked, including her in the conspiracy. “So, he writes this essay about the dead zones and global warming, and how we’re killing the oceans and everything. Goes on like he’s all fired up about the issue. They bought it!”
    Proof positive the guy’s a jerk, Marissa decided. She tamped down her disdain. “So what did he say about it?”
    Clearly stoked for the opportunity to gloat about her boyfriend’s brilliance, Kelly said, “He wrote that the dead zones showing up every summer now, killing everything in the water closest to the beach, are caused by increases in the average temps.” She glanced at Marissa before sighing again. “To break it down: global warming is killing the oceans, not sewage or fertilizer runoff like everybody thinks.”
    She shivered and struggled to breathe.
    “Are you okay, Issa? You look kind of sick.”
    Kelly jerked the car back into the left lane, but the car veering into traffic was the least of