Free Rock My World by Sharisse Coulter Page B

won’t know. I’m still staying with the grandparents.”
    “Nice. Will
Shawn be home?”
    She turned and gave him her most exasperated look.
The last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about her family or listen
to another conversation about the merits of this condenser microphone or that
preamp. But it sounded better than talking about her parents.
    Thankfully
Trey left the other day before her mother burst in so he missed her meltdown.
Felicity gave him a brief rundown, leaving out the gorier details. She worried
because her mom hadn’t checked in last night or the day before, and her dad was
texting instead of calling, which was unusual on both sides. She still didn’t
know what happened between them but whatever it was had been enough to make her
grandparents speak in generic clichés like, “give it time” and “they’ll work it
out” or the most annoying “these things have a way of working themselves out.”
It was disturbing, to say the least.
    She slung her leg over the seat of Trey’s dirt
bike and unhooked the extra helmet.   “Let’s go to the beach.”
    His eyebrows
shot up, but he nodded approval. “You said it.”
    She grabbed hold
of his waist as they sped off, her sun-streaked hair whipping wildly behind
them.
    Good girl.
Over-achiever. Athlete. These were the words frequently used to describe her.
Today, she felt like being someone else. Someone who, for
once, didn’t do as she was told. Someone who went to
parties and rode on the back of a motorcycle. Why shouldn’t she let
loose a little? She wasn’t stupid enough to repeat her parents’ mistakes. She’d
done well enough in biology to know the odds of getting knocked up when you were
a virgin without a boyfriend.
    Sex held no
interest for her. Not really. She had better things to do than worry about
whether or not some guy was going to call her when he said he would. Sure, no
one had shown interest, but that was beside the point. Her best friend was a
guy and she loved him, but she couldn’t imagine ever doing that with him. If she didn’t want to do it with her best friend,
why would she want to do it at all? It was illogical.
    They pulled
off the road, parking near an unmarked dirt trail that led down a bluff to a
semi-secluded beach. Wafts of smoke and the unmistakable smell of fire reminded
Felicity of barbecues on the beach with her grandparents and, for a second, she
wanted to turn around and go home. Then she saw Trey, his messy blonde hair
bobbing along the trail behind her, laid back as ever.
    “What, you
want to leave already?” He joked.
    “Ha ha ,” she said, mad that he knew her so well. “Just checking
to see if you can keep up.”
    “Oh- hoh ! Game on,” he said, sprinting down the path in front of
her, flip flops clacking loudly beneath his feet. She ran after him, slipping
along the path. She caught up with him just as they reached the mouth of the
trail and jumped up on his back. Galloping in on piggyback wasn’t exactly the
entrance she’d imagined, but they certainly turned heads. There was some
not-so-discreet whispering and then the obligatory teen head turn, as though
nothing could be less cool than her existence.
    “Wow, this
sure looks fun,” she said.
    “It’ll be
fine. Look, isn’t that Rachel?” He pointed to a brunette on the volleyball
court. Felicity waved.
    “She’s
coming over here. Be nice … ” Trey warned, playfully elbowing her. “I’m gonna get a beverage. You want
one?”
    She glared
back at him.
      “Hey Rachel.”
    “What’s up,
Felicity? I’m surprised to see you here.”
    “Yeah? Why’s
that?”
    “Uh, because
I never see you at parties. But hey, we could use a fourth for volleyball.”
    “I’m in.”
    Felicity
suddenly felt happy she’d come. It was nothing to stress about. She thought
parties were all about drinking and smoking pot and people hooking up. None of
that appealed to her, but volleyball—that she could do.
    Spiking,
bumping, diving across