August 11th, 2021

    The basement was dark, especially after the bright sunshine. Hannah shivered in her wet bathing suit. Her towel didn’t provide much warmth, considering it was damp. Water from the ends of her hair dripped onto the tile floor, and the smell of chlorine and sunscreen still enveloped her. 

    Suddenly, a towel, warm with sunshine, was draped across her shoulders. She startled at the shadow behind her, but when she realized who it was, she relaxed. 

    “Thanks, Beau,” she whispered, pulling the fresh towel more tightly around her. 

    “Here’s your stuff,” he told her, thrusting Hannah’s sundress and flip flops into her arms. She took them awkwardly, still clutching the towel to her chest. 

    She muttered thanks again, and the two of them fell silent. Beau shuffled his feet back and forth. She didn’t expect him to say anything about what had just happened in the pool. Beau never talked much, especially about awkward topics. And Hannah being rejected so obviously by Isaac just now was definitely an awkward topic. 

    She wished she filled out her bathing suit top like the other girls did. She wished she didn’t have this huge crush on Isaac when he didn’t seem to return her feelings at all. She wished she didn’t care so much what everyone at Lightport High thought of her. She wished she was a cheerleader like her sister. 

    She wished a lot of things, actually. She lay awake in bed at night sometimes crying, begging God to just make her more, better. Make her prettier, more confident, more popular. She wanted to be like her friend Rachel, who flirted naturally and knew just what to say and how to act to get the attention of all the boys. She wished to be less sometimes, too. Less awkward, less clumsy, less prone to talk and talk and talk. “You talk too much.” That’s what the boys at school said about her, and it wasn’t a compliment. 

    Hannah wasn’t chatty at the moment, however. Of all the times to lose her gift of gab, this was the most awkward. Standing here shivering in Isaac’s basement, dripping all over the floor, while Beau just stood there staring at her. He’d seen Isaac literally toss her aside for a prettier, curvier girl. Her face burned thinking of the moment when the best game of chicken she had ever played took a sudden turn. One minute, she was atop the shoulders of her crush, her heart pounding at the feel of his skin against hers, finally given an excuse to touch that thick mop of blonde hair. Then the next minute, water was up her nose as Isaac got distracted by a well-endowed junior in a bikini. 

    Beau wandered around the room, touching the couch, the coffee table, then pausing in front of the tv. 

    “Look, he’s got a Playstation.” Beau started running a finger across the games lined up in the entertainment center. “We could play something. Oh look, he’s got the newest Mortal Kombat.” 

    Hannah dropped her flip flops, slipped them on, then shuffled over to stand next to Beau. “I don’t like those fighting games.”

    He looked over at her, and gave her a hesitant smile which she returned. “He’s also got this car racing game.”

    “Those are fun,” Hannah said with a shrug. She knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to get her mind off her embarrassment and she was more than willing to let him. 

    Beau turned on the tv and the Playstation, then inserted the game. Hannah settled on the couch next to them, a controller in each of their hands. She discarded both her towels and slipped her sundress over her head, now that her suit was mostly dry. Beau found a blanket draped over the back of the sofa, and spread it across both their laps. 

    They got the game going; each of them picking a race car. Beau teased her when she chose hers based solely on color. 

    “I don’t know what kind of cars do what!” She giggled. “The yellow one is cute!”

    When the game started, it took Hannah a bit to figure out how to turn, accelerate, and stop. She and her sister weren’t into video games at all. All they had at home was their old Nintendo with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. 

    The racecar on the tv screen started spinning around and around, and Hannah let out a half scream, half squeal of laughter. 

    “How do I stop!!!”

    “Hit the square, hit the square!”

    “But x should mean stop!”

    “But it doesn’t!”

    She was laughing so hard now, she couldn’t even see what she was doing. Beau reached around and put his hand over hers.

    “You can’t just move the right stick. That’s why you’re going in circles.”

    “But I’m trying to go right,” Hannah argued. 

    “You have to use the left one at the same time, to straighten you out. Just like when you drive a real car.”

    “Ohhh.”

    Beau stiffened suddenly, and Hannah looked up into his face to see why. He was staring down at her with wide eyes, and she suddenly realized that she was practically wrapped in his arms. It was, surprisingly, a pleasant place to be. A warmth spread through her, and her lips parted with a soft sigh. She was about to lean back against him when the sound of screeching tires sent them leaping apart. 

    “Our cars are on fire,” Hannah observed flatly.

    She glanced sideways at Beau, and they both burst out laughing at the exact same time. Every time they thought they had calmed down and could restart the game, the laughter seized them all over again. Hannah finally tossed her controller on the coffee table and wrapped her arms loosely around Beau’s upper arm. She rested her head on his shoulder. 

    “Thank you,” she told him. 

    “You’re welcome,” he replied simply. 

    Feeling a bit self conscious, Hannah pulled away and grabbed her controller again. 

    “Okay, I’m ready to leave you in the dust, Beau Rockport.”

    “Anytime,” he replied, voice strangely low. 
​
    She had a feeling he wasn’t talking about video games.