Nine- Marina

finally! repetition of characters!

Chapter 9

Marina

currents wind
rain whips
the storm thrashes
the cold water grips

excerpt from “River” by Sophie Lynch

I've been waking up in Wren's bed every night, even though each night I fall asleep on the pull out. The crying has stopped coming at random times of day and is now only at night, I feel bad for Wren, sleeping on a wet pillow every night. But I can't seem to approach the subject of “Well, unless I have some sort of mystical powers I'm unaware of, I'm pretty sure I didn't teleport into this bed.” I've been busy the past two days and I haven't been down to the sea again yet, but today's my first lesson. Today would've been the last day of school (yeah, I was gonna be at a new school for like three days) but because it burned down school may even start late next year. Or we'll all have to go to different schools with room.

It's about noon and Wren's getting out his daily pills.

“Why do you take those?” I inquire. He sets down the glass of water, seeming to remember something and goes to grab a few towels. With a big fluffy white one held out to me he says, “I have really bad allergies to animals, even though I don't remember ever having a reaction, my parents make me take these, to make sure I don't... die or something.”

“Oh, weird. I'll go change into my bathing suit, I'm so excited!” I jump a little bit, looking like a little girl, but I don't care. I run up the stairs and close the door to our room. I dig in the top drawer, the drawer he is forbidden to go in, and he wouldn't want to. It has my bras and panties and my two bathing suits, but it also has feminine products, and those seem to traumatize boys. I pick out my favorite, a sea green bikini with little ties at the hips hold the bottoms up. It's kind of skimpy, but it's what I see girls in on TV so I just got it. I forgot the towel to wrap up in downstairs so I throw my hair into a ponytail. It frizzes out and poofs, but it looks kind of cool. I open the door and go downstairs in my flip flops.

“Hey, you ready to go?” I ask.

“Uh... Yeah! Sorry, I'm a little... out of it today.” I grab the towel and open the door. He has a weird expression on his face. Maybe the pills have a funny taste. I run down the path eagerly and lay down my towel flat and kick off my flip flops, practically bursting with excitement. I wait for Wren to make his way down the beach, he lays out his towel next to mine, drops the basket with our lunch in it, takes off his shoes and then his shirt. I blush, remembering the time I saw him completely naked, that was awkward. At least he has shorts on now. But I must say, he does have a nice... build. He has a slight six pack that's just the perfect amount, not too muscly. He's wiry but with a few muscles as well and his sandy brown/dirty blond hair falls into his light brown eyes. He looks up and he thinks I'm staring at him, but I'm just looking, studying, not checking him out!

“Can we go now?” I bounce up on the balls of my feet, tall, short, tall, short, tall, short...

“Yeah, come on.” He chuckles. I run down to the water, racing him without him knowing it. I get there first and wade in up to my stomach before I can be deterred by the frigid water. Goose bumps pop up on my arms and stomach. I never really knew I could get goose bumps there. He stands next to me.

“Ready?”

“As I'll ever be.” Suddenly all the stories on the news of people drowning or being snatched by rip tides block my ears. “Yeah, I'm ready.” I decide, ignoring them.

“Okay, so the way I was taught how to swim was my dad held me up with his hands under my stomach and had me paddle or kick or both and when I was least expecting it, he'd let go.”

“Let go?” I echo, scared.

He nods, “Don't worry, it's easy. Okay so I'll put my hands here-” He puts them in the water, palms up, “and you just lie on top of them, and I'll hold your stomach and tell you to do something, okay?”

“Okay.” I do what he says and his hands hold me up so I don't drown, but keeping my head up

is another story.

“Now kick your legs one at a time.” Wren instructs. I do so and water splashes up behind me. “As you get better, you'll be able to kick without splashing, but this is good for now.” He adds. “Okay now stop kicking, and cup your hands so your fingers are touching each other and one at a time bring them toward you, pull the water.”

“Okay.” I put my hands in the water and doggie paddle.

“Now kick and paddle.” He says. His hands are warm on my stomach and his fingers splay across it. I start kicking and paddling and suddenly his hands are gone. I asp as sink into the water a bit and then, inch by inch, I move forward, swimming. I start getting stronger and I flip onto my back and do the back stroke, even though I don't know how. Then I dive under water and swim around gracefully and quickly, like I was meant to do this my whole life. I come up shocked and grinning at Wren's gaping face.

“I have no idea how I can do that!” I say happily.

“W-why don't we go eat lunch...” Wren suggests. We make our way out of the ocean and to the towels. I sit down with my feet on the sand and soak in the sun, trying to get feeling back in my hands and feet. Wren opens the basket and takes out some sandwiches. He hands me one and I unwrap it and take a bite.

“Hey man! What's up? Who's this?” A boy walks up to us.

“Hey Chris! This is Marina, she-”

“Whoa, are you the chick from the news? I didn't know a truck could just cut a car in half like that!”

“Chris, shut up, man.”

I kind of just sit there, blinking at this idiot standing over me.

“Huh?” He grunts.

“My parents died and you're acting like it's the coolest thing in the world...” I explain like he's four.

“Oh, dude, I'm sorry... Um... I'll go. Wren, see you at six, your house? And remember, the gig is tomorrow at eight.” Chris lopes away.

“Gig?” I question, pretending the rest of the conversation didn't happen.

“Yeah, me and three of my friends are in a band, the drummer was the 'founder' she named it The White Rose. She had naming rights.” He shakes his head sadly.

“Oh! White roses are my favorites! What ...position do you play?” I ask.

“Oh, sometimes I play guitar, but I'm the lead singer. I'm learning how to play piano for our slower songs, Derek can only play fast stuff on the keyboard. But I don't know to teach myself.”

I've been in the family room a few times, they have a beautiful black baby grand piano, I've wanted to play it but I didn't know if I could.

“I- I could teach you, you know, if you want.”

“That'd be great! You ready to go back into the water?”

“Actually, you know what I've never done? Build a sand castle.”

“Seriously? Well, let's go back to childhood.” Wren laughs. We get up and go to the damp sand and kneel down.

“Okay, so how do we start?”

Wren and I spend the next few hours building the best sand castle I have ever seen. I take a picture with my phone and send it to my friends back home. I called them yesterday and told them about my situation as soon as I could do it calmly. They all cried and wished they could be here or I could be there. They asked about my new life, if I was still drawing. I told them I lost my art stuff, but I didn't specify how, they didn't need to know I contemplated running head first into a tree and then had to be sedated by the police. It's around five thirty when we get back to his (our?) house I go upstairs to shower and when I get out Chris is there, they're sitting in our room. I open the door, clutching the towel tightly in my fist.

“Guys? I need to get dressed.” I say quietly, opening the door.

“Dude! Are you sleeping with her?!” I hear Chris “whisper.”

“Chris! No! She's living here, remember, her parents died?”

“Oh! Right, you sure, don't you even want to bang her? She's hot! I'm gonna give her my number.”

I roll my eyes. “I'm right here.” I say, stepping in. Chris' eyes travel down the towel.

“Out.” I say coldly to him.

“Hey man, let's go to the basement, set up.” Wren and Chris get up and leave, “Hey, can I watch?” I ask before they go.

“Sure.” Wren nods and walks out, closing the door behind him. I get out a white cotton strapless sundress and flip flops. I'm not sure why I'm dressing up so much, but I do like this dress a lot. I grab a hairbrush and run it through my already drying hair. I put on some make up, just eyeliner and mascara, and head downstairs. The other band members have arrived and I sit on the couch downstairs. They plug things in and tune instruments and get settled.

“What's first?” The girl asks.

“Um, You and Me, it needs more practice.” Wren decides. Chris holds an acoustic guitar and starts strumming it. After a few beats, Wren steps up to the mic (which is off) and takes a breath and starts singing.

My friends always told me I had a nice voice, but I could never believe them or never back it up. Wren's voice is amazing, he could take on the birds for best natural singer. The song seems to just flow out of him, hitting all the notes, becoming breathy when necessary, and louder too. The song ends and I'm overcome with the urge to clap, so I do.

“From the beginning of the set list?” Chris asks.

“Yeah.”

Chris moves over to the keyboard and presses a few buttons. Wren goes over to a guitar stand and picks an electric one, the other guy gets an electric bass and the starts playing. He sings Hot Mess, by Cobra Starship. He can sing anything! By the end of the set list, it's two hours later.

“Hey, before we wrap up, Marina, you wanna play something?” He gestures to yet another black baby grand piano.

“Sure.” I get up. “I never took proper lessons, I mostly taught myself, and I only play songs that have lyrics with them... They sound kind of crappy without singing, so I guess I'll sing...” I say shakily. I've never sung in front of anyone but my friends and shower head. I start playing.

So the story goes on down,

the less traveled road,

it's a variation of the one I was told

and although it's not the same it's awful close, yeah

in an ordinary fairytale land there's a promise of a perfect happy end

and I imagine having just sorta that

is better than nothing

so you'll be mine

forever and almost always

and I'll be fine.

Just love me when you can, yeah

and I'll wait patiently and I'll wake up everyday

just hoping that you still care.

I sing Forever and Almost Always by Kate Voegele. When I finish the last few notes, Wren stats clapping. The others look at him in a weird way.

“Nice voice, I'm Kate, by the way.” The drummer says. She has short, cropped fiery red hair and heavy eyeliner and bright red lipstick. She holds out her hand and I shake it.

“Well, we gotta go.” Chris, the other boy, and Kate leave.

“That bad?” I ask.

“No, you actually were amazing, but you need to make your voice stronger, I'll give you voice lessons, you give me piano?” Wren says.

“Deal.” I smile and shake his hand. He squeezes and lingers a little too long.

Author's Note

thoughts? I know it's long, but please read!

Reviews

[Abbie]

great write! keep writing this story!!!!!!

[Sylvana]

The dialog and actions do seem quite believable for teenagers. (: Chris is annoying... but then i suppose he's one of those high school guys. xD Fantastic chapter.

[MandaBear]

Very good write :P