Free The Starboard Sea: A Novel by Amber Dermont Page A

to someone or something. I climbed quietly down the stairs as she closed her window and pulled down the shade.
    The next day, I waited impatiently for classes to end so that I could follow Aidan to the breakwater. I liked the feel of her company. The wildness of her hair and the strange shadows on her wall were unlike anything I’d ever known. She worried me, intrigued me.
    I sat through last period and ran back to my room to change before finding Aidan. On my way to the beach, I passed by Tazewell, Kriffo, Race, and a dozen other guys taking an afternoon run. Tazewell trailed behind me, kicking my heels. He reminded me of a reoccurring muscle twitch I had under my eye. A spasm I couldn’t get rid of.
    “You work fast,” he said.
“How so?” I adjusted the heel of my sneaker.
“With Nadia. You must have been something else. Diana said the
    poor girl couldn’t make it out of bed.”
“Heard she was having trouble walking,” said Kriffo, sidling up
beside me.
“Nothing like that. She felt sick, and I carried her over to Astor.” “Just thank Diana when you get a chance. Di is one of a kind. She’s
a goddess.” Taze spat, spraying Kriffo on the cheek. “Not only did she
pick her out, she primed her for you.”
“Hey, Spittles,” Kriffo snapped. “You better watch your aim.” “Diana got Nadia drunk?” I asked.
“You think someone would volunteer for you?” Taze smirked. The guys began to chant military-style, and I followed along. As
we passed by the girls’ field hockey team, Race, coming up behind me
and running to the front of the pack, hollered out: “Why do field
hockey players look funny when they walk?” He skipped a beat.
“They-use- their-hockey-sticks-for-cocks!”
The girls didn’t respond. Race tried another. “I don’t know but it’s
been said, Bellingham girls give wicked good head.”
Diana waved in our direction and sashayed in her field hockey skirt,
trying to organize her teammates to call back. As the pack passed
by, the girls shouted, “Fee-fi- fo- fum, Bellingham guys can’t make us
come.” Diana and Brizzey catcalled and flipped up their skirts. The
roundness of their bottoms curving out from black panties. Their skin
still firm, still tan. Their black and gauzy panties. I wondered if I’d
ever made Brizzey come. She was phony, bitchy even, but that just
made me want her more, made me want to prove myself to her. “Don’t hold back. Show us your tits.” Tazewell cackled. We headed toward the water, down Front Street. I kept pace with
my friends, past the gift shops and restaurants. Halfway to the beach,
on the opposite side of the road, Aidan strolled alone.
“Let’s cross,” Race called out.
The pack held tight together and closed in on Aidan. Kriffo whistled, directing the guys to surround her.
“Hey, Hester, where you been hiding?” Tazewell asked. “You
shouldn’t be out unescorted.”
“Care for a serenade?” Race ran circles around her, and everyone
else followed him in messy loops.
They engulfed her. Aidan stopped and folded her arms across her
chest. She was tall enough that I could see her over their circling bodies. She stood rigid and straight as a maypole.
“We’ve got a song for Hester.” Race led the chant. “Take my big
brown stump, stick it down your throat, and suck it, suck it, suck it.” The boys repeated the chorus over and over. “Suck it, suck it, suck
it.” The words passed quickly among them, like a precision soccer drill. Aidan didn’t move. She just waited, taking their abuse. “Cut it out,” I shouted, running across the street. Before I could get
to Aidan, I heard a strange noise. A bleating sound. A long, extended
sheep music.
“Baaah. Baaah. Baaah.” Aidan defended herself with a shrill, feral
animal call.
Collectively, the pack seemed puzzled, as if unable to determine
where the noise was coming from and why. They stopped circling and
chanting and stared at Aidan. She continued to smile, bleat, and bellow. The guys