Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

"Get you some, Price!"

We look up. Kyle and Jessica are standing to the side of us.

She glares at Will. "Never knew you had a thing for SPT, Will."

I exhale and step away from him, feeling his fingertips tighten briefly before I'm out of their grasp. SPT. God, I hate that nickname. I may never forgive Mrs. Hall for having that book on her lesson plan, Sarah Plain and Tall. That was the book our class had been assigned to do those team projects on. I hate that book with every fiber of my being. The nickname came the day of our oral presentations and when our physical projects were unveiled. My and Will’s project was nothing amazing. We made a cereal box based on the book. It was the diorama of Mariah Osborne and Kelly Sotello that started the whole thing. They had taken my sixth grade class picture and made me the Sarah from the book. With my brown hair and brown eyes, I was plain.

Mrs. Hall made them remove the picture, but the damage had already been done. I was SPT from that point on for the rest of middle school. In high school, the nickname seemed to fade away for the most part. Only the truly evil bitches still broke it out from time to time. Will knows how much it bothers me. Catching up to me, he drapes his arm around my shoulders as we make our way to our towels. Grabbing mine, he wraps it around me. He looks back at Jessica, who is still watching us as he tugs on my towel, pulling me towards him and gently kissing me on my forehead. I look up at him, trying to blink away threatening tears.

"You are not plain. You are beautiful, Sarah, inside and out. She only says those things because she's a jealous cunt."

I give him a wet smile, all the while wondering what Jessica could possibly be jealous of me for. We skip the rest of the slides in favor of the wave pool. We lay our towels out to dry and go in together. This wave pool is huge and has a sandy bottom. I wiggle my toes in the sand and laugh when Will pulls me deeper. Normally, when we come to the park I hang out in the shallower end while Will grabs a boogie board and plays in the big waves. Today, he makes no move to leave me. I bump his hip with mine and nod towards the boards in a silent question. He shrugs and pulls me deeper. The waves aren’t huge where we're standing but big enough that we have to jump as they pass to avoid being knocked down. We half-heartedly body surf a couple of them.

When I look at him, I see him chewing on the corner of his mouth. "You okay?"

He looks down at me and gives me a lopsided grin. "I'm great."

He then sweeps my legs out from under me and tosses me into the next wave. He's clutching his stomach as I come up sputtering. I wrinkle my nose at him and charge him, knocking him over best I can. It all seems to be going well until he pulls me down with him. At least this time we both come up sputtering. I make a half-hearted attempt to avoid him when he comes after me. This time, he pulls me to his chest, my hands on his shoulders. I give him a strange look, my eyes widening when I see him close his eyes and hold his breath before he pulls us under. I try to kick away, but he only locks his arms around me tighter. Just when I think he'll never let me go, I realize he's turned on. His arms release me, and we both surface, panting. His face is red. Does he know I felt it?

Neither of us say anything. We just tread water, looking forward for a couple minutes. He's chewing the corner of his lip again. He then takes my hand and starts towards shallow water. When we get out of the water and to our towels, he stretches out face down. I follow suit, loving the way the sun feels on my back. Our faces are turned towards each other. He grins at me before I close my eyes. We are joined by some of our classmates. I fume, watching a couple girls exaggeratingly adjust their bikini tops in front of all the boys. I gasp when cool water drips onto my back and look up to see JJ standing over me.

"What the hell, JJ? You’re dripping on me."

Will's head pops up, and he glares at JJ. "Seriously, dude. Back off."

"Chill out, Will. Hey, Sarah. Do you want to come in with me?"

I'm about to say I'm cool when Will cuts me off. "She's good."

I'm fuming and move to stand. "I'd love to."

Will grumbles and gets up to come with us. I can feel his stare hot on my back as I walk with JJ to the water. I've barely put one toe in when I'm suddenly airborne and hanging over Will's shoulder, his hands hot on the back of my thighs. JJ looks pissed, and I mouth sorry as Will carries me further in.

"I can walk, you know," I grumble.

He lowers me slowly so I slide down his body. His eyes are dark, and he's chewing on the corner of his bottom lip.

"What the hell was that, Will?"

He shrugs, his hands still on my waist. I put my hands on his chest to push him away. He only holds on tighter.

Exhaling, he closes his eyes and leans down to rest his forehead on mine. "Why did you have to wear that today?"

"You suck, Will." His eyes pop open. "My suit is way more covered than most of the girls in our class, and I don’t see you giving them