Changes

the discussion around her about whether Sesame Street was better

than Muppets. Leading this intellectual discourse worthy of

television coverage was Adrian, who was adamantly insisting that

all one had to do was recall Kermit and Ms. Piggy and the verdict

was sealed. He had them in stitches as he did a mean impression

of Ms Piggy, even Shannon, who’d been watching the group in

the water with interest for the past half an hour. Th ey seemed to

be having loads of fun, judging from all the splashing and laughing.

Tye appeared to be leisurely fl oating on his back while the

others cavorted around him and at that moment she wished she

had thought about bringing her bathing suit. Maybe she could

have gone for a quick dip.

“I hope you’re not going to take up stalking, now.”

Shannon started; unaware that Kim had picked up on her

wayward thoughts and eyes. Feeling slightly embarrassed, she

gave a little laugh and shook her head.

“I know how you feel. I remember wanting to look cool even

though I was falling hard for Adrian. Kinda hard, though.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Knowing that he can have any girl he wants can make you

feel small.”

“Yeah.”

As nice as Kim was, she wasn’t sure there was anything to talk

about at this point. She was still trying to get over how she’d been

sucked in so fast.

“Maybe you can get one of his friends to put in a word for

pretty close to Jason, so-”

56

“Come again?”

“I thought he was the one you liked.” Kim stopped and

thought for a second, frowning. She fi ddled with her long, brown

hair that kept fl uttering into her eyes.

“More like Tye.”

“Oh,” Kim breathed. “Well, he seems nice and is a total cutie

too, so why not?”

Th ey both stared out toward the sea, noticing at the same time

that Tye was no longer alone. He was with some girl with whom

he speaking with animatedly. Apparently, the conversation was

too riveting and personal to be shared, because they were trailing

a good distance behind the rest of his friends and their entourage.

“Th ey could just be friends, you know. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

realistic side.

Hearing Celine voice her opinion on every boy band and rock

group since the early nineties was really interesting at fi rst. He’d

been spellbound the fi rst ten minutes, quite interested the next

fi ve and bored out of his mind by the thirtieth. She didn’t even

sound out of breath after she recited the nominees for the MTV

Awards of 1999, all of whom she thought should have won due

57

Th e girl was like a rap song with an infi nite number of verses

but no chorus. At this rate, she wasn’t going to have anything left

to say by the end of the evening. Assuming he stuck around, that

was.

“Doesn’t that remind you of their campaign for the last election?”

Her sudden question caught him by surprise. He hadn’t been

paying close attention for the last ten minutes but from the sound

of it, she’d turned to politics.

“I’m not-”

“I’m telling you Tye, trust me on this one. Th is is not the fi rst

time they tried…” Once again, her voice faded into the distance

as he fantasized about her stepping into quicksand. Not once had

she asked him anything about himself or shown a real interest in

who he was. Nothing. Zip. Not even the old line about what his

“Can I get you a hotdog or something?”

“Yeah, that would be-”

Glad to have some chance of peace, he weaved his way through

milling bodies toward the barbeque. Celine followed him with

her arm hooked through his, still babbling about the conspiracy

of the government while he fought the urge to throw her to Jaws.

Well, at least some progress was made, because now he knew one

girl he didn’t want for sure.