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It was cold. No matter how warm it was during the day, the chill of the ocean always came over the dunes at night and chilled the walkways back to the house. All the others had gone back hours ago in broken promises to “be right back.”
“It’s their own fault if their stuff flies away,” Jade says, brushing the sand out of the knit of her sweater. She watched from the sidelines as Cat struggled to tuck the large umbrella under her arm.
“You’ll be sorry when we don’t have any shade tomorrow!” the smaller girl huffed. Her arms were already loaded with the cooler, picnic basket, and blanket, but she was determined to not leave anything behind. Unfortunately, every time she’d either drop the blanket or the basket in her efforts.
Eventually Jade gave in and grabbed the umbrella herself. And the two girls could finally start back towards the beach house.
The night sky farther north was prettier than any L.A. horizon. That was Robbie’s biggest selling point in convincing his friends to spend the week with him at his grandparents’ house. And with nothing else to do during the summer vacation, it was an easy yes. While Nan and Pop were away in some European country, the group would spend about two hours a day gardening or cleaning and spend the rest of the time by the water.
Today was no exception, but the other five had left before sunset. The set of sisters had fled to treat their sunburns, the boys had said something about getting burgers and Robbie followed behind. They’d all promised Cat they’d come back to see all the constellations with her. But in the end only the two girls walked at nearly one in the morning.
Jade had abandoned her shoes when they got to the main street. The cold asphalt was soothing under her feet after the hot day. And there were no cars so they were free to frequent the center of the road.
“Thank you for staying out here with me,” Cat said. “I know it’s been a long day.”
The taller girl said nothing. Instead she grabbed the blanket from the redhead and threw it over the goosebumps on her shoulders.
“You don’t have to be cold if there’s a blanket,” Jade told her.
“I’m not,” the smaller one insisted. But she stood still and let the raven-haired girl bundle her up.
“Not anymore,” she said, rubbing Cat’s arms over the fabric to hopefully bring warmth back.
Her smile was wide in appreciation and Jade could see the line of blush from under the makeshift hood. Stepping back, she took the handle of the cooler away from Cat and gave a rare smile.
“Now you look like a little red riding hood,” she complimented.
And it was true. Only clasping the basket and with her red hair streaming through the blanket, the resemblance was uncanny. The line of blush grew from pink to red across the smaller girl’s face. Her gaze fixed to the black nail polish on Jade’s bare feet.
“Why are you so nice to me?” she asked a little shyly.
Nice wasn’t a characteristic of Jade’s. Their other classmates, their friends, and even her parents would have unanimously agreed on that. At school, her intense stomp can part seas of crowds in hallways and rumors of what she can do with a pair of scissors precedes her. Becoming close with her was a near impossible feat that the few she tolerated had accomplished.
But what Andre had noticed a few months ago was how it never seemed to apply to Cat. While others toed around Jade’s temper, he found that the youngest could dance on that seemingly delicate line without setting off the beast. Perhaps her sweetness was enough to even soften up that iron-clad heart was Andre’s hypothesis. The confirmation came a few weeks later. When, despite her aversion to the color, the girl had worn a pink leather jacket at the single request for the two to be matching on a random Wednesday. The others were barely able to get Jade to smile.
Once Andre told Beck, the two let Cat know. Which worried the girl secretly. She didn’t want any special treatment or for her other friends to feel bad. And most of all she didn’t want her being nice out of any kind of pity. Babying her is instinct for the group, but she didn’t want to be seen as a baby. Especially not by Jade.
“What do you mean?”
Cat sighed and started, “People say you’re extra nice to me. And I didn’t believe it at first but, I know you wouldn’t have stayed so late for Andre. Or Robbie. Or even Beck. So why me?”
The taller girl said nothing. And continued silently down the road.
The smaller girl said nothing, staring at the asphalt as she dragged herself slowly behind.
With only the occasional streetlight, Cat was able to hide the tears that were welling up in the corners of her eyes. Though she couldn’t quite understand why she even wanted to cry.
It was like this last April, too.
When the two had snuck down that secret path behind the school. Since freshman year, the girls had wondered what lay on the other side of that forest tunnel. They skipped their last period classes in the afternoon to find out. Turned out to be a grassy spot under a tree by a cliff, probably barred so the kids don’t get hurt.
Cat disappeared back down the tunnel and returned with an old purple bed sheet from her locker. More than big enough for the two, she laid out the cloth under the shade by where they’d set their backpacks.
“Why do you even have this?” Jade asked her while toeing out of her tall boots.
“In case it gets really chilly and I need it,” was the only answer the smaller girl felt was necessary. Before she slipped out her ballet flats to sit with her friend.
There wasn’t much of a view by that cliff besides a parking lot, but it wasn’t until the sun was setting that they considered going back home. Their day had gotten lost in talking about the plays Jade was yet to write and how Cat would make all of the costumes and how the two would move to New York for the best chance at Broadway.
At the end of packing their journals, bundling the cloth, and starting the car, the redhead wanted nothing more than to cry. As she rode in the passenger's seat, she couldn’t explain the droplets that had fallen onto the page of the decidedly favorite design. But Jade took the page anyways and told her it was still gorgeous, better even.
“Now that you’ve put your actual tears into it,” she jested as she wiped at the stream on Cat’s face. And the smaller girl smiled a little even though the hand was a bit cold on her cheek
Like the road under Jade’s bare feet.
The rolling of the cooler just next to her helped to drown out the loud, repetitive thud in her chest. For she hadn’t expected Cat to ask her something like that. And she didn’t have an answer. Nothing she could come up with in that gap of silence seemed to fit as a proper explanation.
Because she had a question of her own.
About their last trip they had taken to a beach. Almost a year ago now but now fresh in her memory.
Of a bracelet somehow drifting off of her wrist and into the sand. And the others walked her back to the house to sleep off the anger of that situation.
She woke up to find herself swaddled up like a child. And Cat stood in the bathroom trying to shake the sand out her hair.
“What’s going on?” Jade asked groggily and startled the other girl.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Did you put this over me?” She held up the corner of the blanket.
“Well, you had cold spots on your arms. I don’t want you to get sick.”
Finally sitting up and disregarding her term for goosebumps, it was then that Jade could put the whole scene in front of her together. Of how Cat’s clothes were for some reason drenched, her feet sticky with sand that was flaking into a mess on the floor, and a familiar piece of jewelry rested on the counter next to her hairbrush.
“Is that my bracelet?” Jade asked carefully as to not give away any hope she had.
Her hopes were reassured with that big, bright grin the younger gave her.
“It wasn’t lost in the ocean,” Cat said, proudly presenting her with the trinket. “I had to go looking for a bit, but I think a crab took it because I found it in the sand.”
They all had stopped looking because of the high tide. That much was certain of her memory before she napped. But the way the smaller girl stood trembling in wet clothes, she knew Cat had gotten swept up in the current at some point during her search.
“Did you go by yourself?” she asked as she stood and grabbed a towel.
“The others were asleep and I didn’t want to wake them.”
Jade stood in the bathroom and enveloped Cat in the fabric to dry her off a bit. At the same time, Cat pried off one of her hands and started to push the bracelet onto her wrist. She stared at it for a bit, against the chipped pink nail polish on the other girl’s warm fingers.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she tried to say in a flat tone. As though the gesture didn’t warm her stomach.
“But then you would have been sad.”
“Why would it have mattered if I was sad?” Jade asked as she stopped in her tracks on the asphalt. Turning to look at Cat trailing slightly behind her and not catching a glimpse of her tears under the hood.
“What?” Cat questioned as she pulled herself from her own thoughts.
“About the bracelet? Why would it have mattered if I lost it and was sad?”
The question was surprising for her. Thinking back to that memory, she would think it was obvious.
“I care if you’re sad,” she said simply.
“But it was just a bracelet.”
That’s what the boys had told her. What the set of sisters had told her. What her parents had told her. About this and many other things, it seemed, in her life.
It’s JUST a pair of scissors from your favorite movie, I’ll buy you a replica.
It’s JUST your boyfriend cheating on you, move on.
It’s JUST your first play I missed, you’ll be in another one.
“It’s your bracelet. So it’s important.”
The loud thudding was back and Jade clutched at her chest in an attempt to muffle it.
The sudden action worried Cat to step closer to her. And she saw the glassiness of Cat’s eyes.
“You’re crying,” she said sadly.
“Because I don’t know what’s going on,” the red haired girl whines as the cloth slips from her head. The taller girl holds her cheek in a cold palm and wipes at her tears.
“You’re so pretty when you cry,” Jade begins. “And when you’re worried about me. And when you’re happy. And when you’re looking at stars.”
Suddenly Cat felt the thudding too. That emotion from April spread from her stomach to her chest.
“And you went out of your way to get it…for me.”
“Is that why you’re so nice to me?”
It was difficult to answer that. Because it was part of the answer, but the whole was bigger than Jade could really explain. So she took the other girl’s hand, soft and clammy against her own.
“You’re always so warm. I wish I could be warm like you.”
Lifting Cat’s hand, she presses a light kiss to the inside of her wrist.
The smaller girl holds her palm to Jade’s cheek, which lightly turns pink under her touch.
“I like how chilly you are,” she said softly. “Only be warm for me, okay?”
It was a selfish wish. One that Jade would fulfill happily. And she lets Cat drape the blanket over both their figures. Their hands met on the handle of the cooler that rolled between them as they started back towards the house. Both thinking of how long they can keep the secret from their friends.