5

I could feel the lights from the few lampposts nearby, illuminating my face. I had tossed my sneakers somewhere in the soft, cool sand of the beach. The music was echoing in my ears; I had to admit that the speaker Bryce had bought just a week ago from a second-hand market was quite powerful.

"Come here!" Paola's brown curls were swaying back and forth as Cameron spun her around.

I had lost Nora minutes ago, but her claim that she was "mixing drinks" gave me the feeling that it was inaccurate; she couldn't tell me that and then go in the opposite direction towards the portable coolers filled with alcohol.

"You're pretty lonely, aren't you?"

I gripped my vodka glass tightly and turned, digging my bare toes into the sand. Jordan had never made me nervous, and that day it wasn't his blue eyes or his bare torso that made me tremble as if I had touched a fork to a socket; it was the fact that next to him stood the well-built body of Jax Jones, with nothing covering his torso or the two metal bars piercing his firm nipples. The tattoos on his arms almost gleamed, as if he had wet them, and his brown eyes had acquired a shine I hadn't seen in him all day. As if this alcohol-free environment was his element. Well done, Jax, it's not just you who feels at home here.

"I'm enjoying myself, Jordan," I corrected him. No, I wasn't fully enjoying myself; I had spent the whole night trying to find out more about Jax, but all I had managed to do was have a girl describe to me the wonders he can do with his dick.

To my dismay, my best friend's brother was a damn magazine model, but I always refused to have anything with him after the slip-up we both made years ago. We both thought we liked each other, but after doing it at a party, we ended up as friends who occasionally kissed.

"Yeah, whatever," he waved his beer in the air. "Have you seen my sister?"

"You should look for her at the aquarium. I think she believes that's where the mixes are," I pointed vaguely towards the end of the bridge that crossed the beach, and I saw a flashlight from a mobile phone illuminating the sea. "Your sister is the only idiot who would use a flashlight in the middle of the night while 'hiding'."

I looked back at them, but Jax was the only one in front of me now; apparently Jordan was going to confront his sister. Jax brought his glass to his lips and took a sip of his drink without taking his eyes off mine. If he wanted to intimidate me, he was slowly succeeding. His gaze was one of those that you know you shouldn't look at, but you do, just for the thrill of doing something dangerous, and some claimed that looking through his eyes was like entering hell itself. You only saw torture, fire, and a thirst for blood.

"And tell me... have you discovered anything about me yet? Or have you already dropped the silly whim of investigating a lost case?" Was he mocking me? Damn right he was.

I handed my plastic cup to Abby as she passed by me, and as if she didn't care, she kept moving to the rhythm of the music like a hippie. I still had to find out a lot more about Jax, but for that night, I just wanted to bring to light an Andra that only my friends saw. I brought my fingers to the button of my shorts and unbuttoned it, letting it fall to the ground.

"Other than how good you are in bed... not much," he said.

I think it was the first time I heard him laugh, and I focused on seeing how he didn't seem so macabre when small folds formed at the corners of his eyes and how the dimples on his cheeks made him look more harmless.

"I hate to say this, but I'm drunk..."

"That's a lie."

"But nobody knows," his white teeth kept gleaming and shining, and he reached his hand towards my blonde hair, wrapping a strand around his tattooed finger, "so shut your fucking mouth and accept that I find you amusing."

In part, for a guy... no, not just any guy, Jax Jones, Jax Jones! had told me he found me amusing, that was damn good in my mission: "discover the hottie". Deep down, everything about Jax Jones wasn't so mysterious, I didn't know him, but just with those words, I wanted to know more about him.

It was past one in the morning, and even though we were making a lot of noise, the people living on the beachfront seemed not to hear us, either that or they had better things to do than to come out and see who was partying on the beach. I saw some people in the water, and they were making me very envious; but I was already starting to deliriously imagine myself with Jax in the water. Ha Ha Ha. Three laughs my mind sent me.

"And I don't need to admit that even though you try, I don't dislike you, right?"

Jax wasn't drunk, I doubted that a guy like him could get drunk with just a few drinks. He was more than aware, which I couldn't say about myself.

I tilted my head when I didn't hear anything from him anymore. I wasn't going to play the fool with him there while my friends were playing in the water.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Andra," he growled.

I scoffed aloud and took a step out of my pants, leaving them lying in the sand. I wasn't going to argue. Instead, I walked past him, determined not to rack my brain all night.

"I like my name on your lips," I affirmed, and I ran my nails over the tattoo on his neck. It had never been a problem for me to be direct; I liked what it caused in people, and seeing how his skin bristled was priceless. "And you should learn to see something more than a threat in people, Jax, not everyone wants to screw you..." I rested my hand on his bare shoulder. Damn it! What skin he had, it was tan, and smooth, with some scars... but beautiful. "Some of us prefer you to screw us before screwing you."

Maybe whispering in his ear hadn't been the best choice; surely my friends would think I was crazy, mainly none of them had ever thought I could be so close to Jax Jones. He was the guy who was rumored and talked about, but never showed up, and the fact that I had appeared on his motorcycle at the drive-in theater had already caused looks and new rumors.

---

When I woke up on the couch in my house the next morning, I remembered perfectly everything that had happened the night before. I looked to the side of the TV, checking and confirming that it was indeed eight in the evening. I had been loafing around all day, asleep, or well, since I had arrived at ten in the morning. My parents weren't home, and I didn't care if they saw me in that condition. They wanted seriousness and elegance in their daughters, but ever since I started to take notice of that, I tried to be the opposite of Samay, I wanted to be a teenager and enjoy myself, experience new things and learn from my mistakes; I never wanted to be the prototype daughter for my parents. If I could have chosen, I would have preferred to be born the daughter of a farmer from Iowa or Minnesota. At least they're not controlled all day long!

I stretched my arm to the bedside table and turned on my phone, seeing the few messages from Nora sending me some photos; I had messages from my parents and missed calls, but I ignored them.

"Damn, you wake up at this hour."

I raised my head, looking over the back of the couch at Jax. What was he doing in my house? He was dressed differently from the night before, and he seemed more... lively.

"What are you doing here? Because even if I want to hear that you're taking care of me, I know that's not the case," I assured him. The Brazilian concert that was going on in my head was unbearable, and I doubted he could hear me over the whisper of my voice.

He moved across the parquet floor until he was right behind the couch, looking down at me. He inspected me from head to toe, and I looked at myself too, seeing my lack of pants and how the couch beneath me was somewhat wet from my bathing suit. Damn it.

"We have to finish the assignment for university," he removed his dark gaze from my legs and rested his hands on the back of the couch. "You're too direct, have they told you? Not just because of how you talk, your actions aren't the best with people like me."

You could say I whimpered with my face pressed against a cushion. I wasn't up for his phrases about not hanging out with me.

"Jax... please, I'm direct because I like it when people are with me, I hate being circled without knowing clearly what they want from me, that's why I'm like this. And if you want to repeat your shitty words that I'm a snob and blah blah blah, do it when I don't have a hangover."

I didn't even feel like joking; I just wanted to sleep, and I didn't even care if it was on the couch. The next day I had to go to school, and for the little time left of classes, I wanted to enjoy it before we went out and some got lost with their parents in other states. We had invited Bryce to come with us, but his parents forced him to go to Seattle to see his uncles. Abby and Paola weren't so lucky; Abby had to put up with her drunken father in Las Vegas, and Paola had to take a plane with her stepbrother to fly to Canada. Not even Oliver or Cameron wanted to come to Sicily! I could understand Cameron's situation, his girlfriend was flying to Canada and he wasn't going to be alone with Nora and me partying from party to party, but Oliver was a fourth-rate womanizer who signed up for everything.

"We'll talk when you don't have a hangover," he muttered under his breath, and I felt his hand in my blonde hair almost like a caress. "Dyed."

"Asshole."