Vampire Beach: Legacy Part 2

'Hey, are you OK?' Jason asked.

'Yeah. Sorry,' Belle said, wiping away her tears. 'It's just that Dominic gave me this.' She pointed to her belly ring.

'I didn't . . . Sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of . . .' Adam's voice trailed off. He looked miserable.

'It's OK,' Belle told him. 'Really. It's not your fault. I think about him all the time anyway.'

She's so torn up, Jason thought. He tried to imagine how he'd feel if anything ever happened to Sienna. But his brain refused to go there.

'Lemons!' Sienna called as she ran back up the stairs. 'I scored a whole bag!' She hesitated on the top step. 'What's up?' she asked, clearly sensing the change in mood.

'What's up is that we want our lemons,' Jason answered, his voice coming out a little too loud and jolly, like somebody on a low-budget TV commercial.

'Jason decided he needs some highlights,' Adam added. 'He's going to juice his hair too.'

Sienna laughed and tossed one of the lemon halves at Jason. 'You should. I think you could use some streaks, don't you, Belle?' She dropped onto the couch next to her friend and put a CD in the player.

'Absolutely,' Belle answered, managing a smile. She took one of the lemon halves and squeezed some juice onto her short blond hair, then used her fingers to comb it through.

'How about a game of "I never" before lunch?' Sienna asked. 'Belle rules at that game.'

Jason and Adam exchanged a huh? look. 'Never heard of it,' Jason told her.

'I guess it's more of a slumber party thing,' Sienna said. 'We haven't played it in forever.'

'Ooooh, I'm in,' Adam said immediately. 'I've always wanted to know what goes on at a slumber party.'

'OK, here's how it works. We all start out with, like, ten Tic Tacs each.' Sienna pulled a plastic container of the mints from her bag and shook ten out into her palm, then handed the container to Belle. 'Then we go around in the circle, and-You know what, it's easier just to start. I'll go first. I never ate an artichoke. Now, if you have eaten an artichoke, you have to give me one of your Tic Tacs,' Sienna announced.

'Wait,' Adam said. 'Are you telling me you've never eaten an artichoke?'

'They smell like feet,' Sienna told him, wrinkling her nose. 'But if you've eaten them anyway, you owe me a mint. That's how it works.'

'Bor-ing,' Belle teased. Everyone gave Sienna a mint. 'My turn,' Belle said. She glanced from Sienna to Adam to Jason, an actual smile on her face now. 'I never made out on a first date.'

'You're not supposed to lie in this game, by the way,' Sienna pointed out.

'I'm not lying!' Belle protested. 'Although maybe it depends on how you define "date". Or "making out". By my definition, I haven't. Now give me a Tic Tac, wench.'

Sienna flicked one of the little mints at Belle. Jason handed one over too. We definitely made out on our first date, he thought. h.e.l.l, we made out when Sienna was still with Brad. But was she thinking of me when she gave Belle that Tic Tac, or somebody else?

Adam sighed loudly and hung onto all of his mints. Belle winked at him. 'Now we know who the hos are,' she joked. Then she turned to Jason. 'You're up.'

'I never went on Jerry Springer with my two girlfriends and my chimp,' Jason said.

Jason didn't get any Tic Tacs, but everybody laughed, which was all he was going for. Sienna still needed to up her daily laugh quota. And Belle needed a quota, period.

By the time lunch cajun chicken and a mesclun field greens salad with champagne dressing was served up, Adam was ahead by seven or eight mints.

'Time for you to go down,' Jason warned his friend, forking a bite of salad into his mouth. 'I never saw Citizen Kane.'

Adam threw a Tic Tac into Jason's salad. Belle and Sienna didn't have to pay up. They hadn't seen it, either.

'What's that movie even about?' Belle asked.

'It's about this man who is tortured by-' Adam began.

'No, don't even tell me,' Belle begged. 'I had to turn the DVD off in the middle of Saw 3. The torture scenes were too gross.'

'Not that kind of torture,' Adam told her. 'He was tortured by memories of his past you know, the choices he'd made.'

'Sounds kinda boring,' Belle commented.

Jason glanced at Adam's head, looking for signs of imminent explosion.

'I never saw Apocalypse Now,' Sienna challenged, before Adam could formulate a response to Belle.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut in pain, then handed over a Tic Tac. Jason and Belle didn't.

'I hate those movies about the end of the world. Everything looks so ugly. Especially the clothes. Who wants to watch that?' Belle asked. 'Like the one with the people who were hiding out from zombies in a mall Dawn of the Dead. I mean, they were in a mall, and they never bothered to change out of their grungy clothes! And did I say they were in a mall, as in lots of stores?'

'That actually isn't the kind of apocalypse in-' Adam stopped himself. 'You know what? Never mind. It's your turn,' he told Belle.

'I never saw . . .' Belle hesitated.

'Heathers,' Jason stage-whispered.

'I never saw Heathers!' Belle exclaimed. 'I really never did.'

'Unfair. I'm being ganged up on,' Adam complained, giving up another mint. 'And I can't believe none of you have seen Heathers.'

'What's it about?' Belle asked.

'This group of girls who torment the less popular-'

'So it's like Mean Girls,' Belle interrupted. 'Grool! You know "I meant to say cool and then I started to say great"? I just love that!'

Adam groaned. 'No comparison. Heathers isn't a piece of teen fluff. It's a revolutionary mix of teen comedy, black comedy, absurd comedy, and social commentary on popularity. Plus, there's lots of violence. And croquet.'

'As usual, you've lost me,' Jason told him.

'You know, I think my sister left a copy of that movie in the cabinet in the stateroom. Not that it ever gets watched my father practically refuses to remove The G.o.dfather from the DVD player,' Sienna said.

'"Leave the gun . . ."' Adam began.

'"Take the cannoli,"' Jason finished for him.

Sienna and Belle looked at each other.

'Do you know what they're talking about?' Belle asked.

'No, and I don't care,' Sienna answered, shooting a wink at Jason.

Adam shook his head. 'I'm giving you that one, because it's not a girl thing. But Heathers? Everybody should see Heathers.'

The chef appeared with plates of Snickers pie.

'I'll watch it with you,' Belle volunteered. 'We can take our dessert to the stateroom.'

'Sounds fun,' Sienna said.

'Not you,' Belle told her. 'You and Romeo stay up here and try to come up with something that's on my "I never" list.' She winked, then grabbed her pie and headed below deck. Adam grinned and followed.

'Those are some good friends,' Jason commented.

'Very good friends,' Sienna agreed. 'I'm glad you got Adam to come. He makes Belle laugh. Not many people can do that lately.'

'I'm glad he came, and I'm glad he's gone away for a little while,' Jason answered.

'Me too.' Sienna leaned across the table and kissed him. She tasted like the dessert. But better. Much, much better.

'Let's go out on deck.' Sienna took him by the hand and led him out into the salty ocean air. The sound of Louis Armstrong singing Wonderful World blended with the waves.

'I love this song,' Sienna said. 'In fact, I'm decreeing this our official song.'

'That's how it works? By decree of Sienna?' Jason asked.

'How else?' she replied. 'It's now our song, and that means we must dance to it every time we hear it.'

Jason wasn't complaining. He'd be happy to dance with Sienna any time, any place, to any music. He pulled her into his arms and began to sway to the rhythm, her body pressed against his.

Now this is dancing, Jason thought. The moment was absolutely perfect. Except for the part where his good friend Adam was loudly clearing his throat from ten feet away. Reluctantly, Jason pulled away from Sienna.

'Um, sorry to interrupt, but some guys on a speedboat are taking pictures of us,' Adam explained.

'They're serious about it too,' Belle said from behind him, her voice tinged with panic. 'They've got paparazzi-worthy zoom lenses.'

'Where?' Jason asked.

'Right side,' Adam answered.

Jason immediately started for the railing, Sienna on his heels.

'Why would they want pictures of us?' Belle asked as she and Adam followed. She sounded freaked. Way too freaked for what was actually happening. Jason figured that after Dominic's murder, Belle scared a lot more easily.

He put a rea.s.suring hand on her arm. 'I'm sure it's no big deal,' he said, trying to sound casual. 'They probably just saw you and Sienna and mistook you for Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie.'

That got a little smile from Belle.

'I'm confused,' Sienna said. 'Is that them?'

Jason looked where she was pointing. All he saw was a couple of college-age guys in a speedboat, sucking down some beers. He shot a questioning look at Adam.

'That's them. But they got their camera stuff stowed pretty quickly,' Adam commented. 'Maybe they realized we caught them in the act.'

'Ahoy, me beauties!' one of the guys, a redhead with a scruffy goatee, shouted to Belle and Sienna as his buddy powered the boat closer. 'Care to board us?' Goatee and his bud laughed like that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard.

'You're drunk!' Sienna yelled back.

'Not too drunk to show you girls a good time,' Goatee answered, getting more laughs from his friend.

'My a.n.a.lysis? Obnoxious, but not dangerous,' Sienna said, turning her back on the speedboat. 'But let's lose them anyway.' She led the way to the c.o.c.kpit. 'Captain Oz, how about we make the Wally run? We want to ditch that speedboat.'

Oz grinned. '"I feel the need . . . the need for speed,"' he said.

'Finally, somebody else who talks in movie quotes,' Adam cheered. 'Top Gun, baby!'

Oz gave him a thumbs-up and hit the throttle. The yacht shot forward, sprays of white foam in its wake. The wooden floor lurched beneath their feet. Jason instinctively grabbed Sienna by the waist and Belle by the arm, steadying them.

'No, no, don't worry about me,' Adam muttered from the floor. He'd face-planted when the Wally jumped forward. 'I can take care of myself.' Adam used both hands to shove himself back on his feet.

'Sorry, guy I only have two hands and I had to make a choice,' Jason said. 'Not that it was a difficult one,' he added, grinning at Sienna and Belle.

'You were like a rock,' Belle said. 'You didn't even stumble.'

'All that time on the surf board must have paid off,' Jason answered.

'Your boyfriend's useful,' Belle told her friend. 'I think you should keep him.'

Sienna grinned and snuggled closer to Jason, but he was distracted by the speedboat. It had managed to catch up with them and was keeping pace. Goatee and his friend waved and smiled.

'They must have done some serious tinkering with that engine,' Oz commented, frowning. 'But the Wally has a CODOG propulsion system, and we're nowhere near full power.' He let the clutch out. 'I'm switching to the jet engines.'

The speedboat stayed with them. Goatee raised his beer can in a toast.

Oz's lips tightened. 'OK. Forget tinkering, they must have replaced the engine altogether! But they don't know what they're up against.' He flicked a few switches.

The speedboat kept pace for a moment, then began to fall behind.

Jason and Sienna cheered. 'Bye, losers!' Belle yelled, even though there was no way the guys could hear her.

Oz grinned, satisfied.

'I'm going to grab a soda,' Adam said, unsmiling. 'You want one, Jason?' He shot Jason a look that Jason easily interpreted as Adam needing to talk to him alone.

'Uh, sure,' Jason said. 'We'll serve you,' he told Sienna and Belle.

He and Adam headed down to the lounge, where there was a refrigerator stocked with cold drinks. 'What's up?' Jason asked.