Avalon High Part 14

"Did you see that?" Marco cried, laughing. "Oh my G.o.d, that was hilarious!"

"Real funny, Marco," Will said, as we watched the kid flounder in the frothy white wake.

"Hey," Jennifer said. "He doesn't have on a life preserver."

And then, as the other guys on the motorboat cl.u.s.tered around the side of the craft, trying to pull the chubby kid back up, we saw his spiky crew-cut bob once...then twice...then finally disappear altogether beneath the waves.

"Great," Will said angrily, pulling off his deck shoes. "Thanks a lot, Marco."

And then, before any of us could say anything, Will had dived from the side of the Pride Winn, his long, lean body vanis.h.i.+ng as the dark water closed over it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

And moving thro' a mirror clear

That hangs before her all the year,

Shadows of the world appear.

There she sees the highway near

Winding down to Camelot:

This wasn't the clear, still water of my pool back home.

This was deep, opaque seawater, choppy with waves. There were probably sharks down there. And riptides. As Will's head disappeared beneath the dark surface, I sucked in my breath, wondering if he'd ever resurface.

I wasn't the only one, apparently, with this concern. Lance, scanning the waves for some sign of Will, growled at Marco, as menacingly as Cavalier had the night before.

"If anything happens to him," Lance snarled, "you're a dead man."

"If anything happens to him, your life'll get a whole lot easier," Marco said evenly. "Won't it?"

I saw Lance's face flush darkly, then noticed him exchange glances with Jennifer. On her pretty face was an expression of naked fear-but was it fear for Will? Or fear for herself, over what Marco had said?

A second later, Will's dark head popped up from the waves. Then he began swimming, with long, hard strokes, toward the spot where Crew-cut Kid had disappeared.

"Turn us around," Jennifer commanded Marco, in a sharp voice I couldn't help but admire. She, at least, wasn't taking any guff from this guy.

"Fine," Marco said, his jaw tightening, twisting the Pride Winn's wheel. Then, noticing that I was staring at him, he grinned. "I don't get what the big deal is. They're just a bunch of tourists."

Then, when I just glared at him, he said, "Joke! I'm joking. G.o.d, n.o.body around here can take a joke. Remember that, new girl."

"Maybe it's just your jokes," I said. "They aren't really very funny."

The motorboat's driver had cut his engines, and now he, as well as most of his pa.s.sengers, were clinging to the side of the craft, scanning the water for some sign of the missing boy. Will, reaching the spot where Crew-cut Kid had gone under, disappeared once more beneath the waves.

"Where are they?" Jennifer, standing beside me, reached out and took my arm and squeezed, staring tensely at the water. "Where is he?"

And I felt a surge of guilt for every mean thought I'd ever had about her. Because her anxiety was real. No one is that good of an actress. Yeah, she was in love with Lance. But I got the feeling that a part of her-a big part-still loved Will as well...and would probably always love Will, no matter what ended up happening between them....

...or what ended up happening now.

I'd been looking at Jennifer-at her pretty face transfixed with anxiety, her blue-eyed gaze scanning the water. Suddenly, I saw her expression change. She smiled and flushed with relief.

I glanced back at the water to see that Will was towing Crew-cut Kid-sputtering seawater-back toward the motorboat.

"Thank G.o.d," Jennifer said, and seemed to sag against me. Lance had gone visibly pale beneath his dark tan. Marco, for his part, yawned and went to open a new can of c.o.ke for himself.

We sat in tense silence until Will returned. At least, Jennifer and I did. Lance kept up a running commentary on what was going on over on the other boat: "Okay, they got the kid back on board. He's heaving up a lot of salt.w.a.ter, but he'll probably be fine. Looks like Will's gonna swim on back. Okay, here he comes...."

Marco just ate another crab roll and fiddled around with the radio, trying to find a station that wasn't playing oldies. When Jennifer looked at him in annoyance, he went, "What?" all innocently, like he couldn't imagine what was wrong with her.

When Will finally got back to the Pride Winn, his face was tensely drawn.

"They're not going to call the harbor police," Will said, after Lance had helped him back onto the deck.

Marco made a derisive sound. "Why should they?" he wanted to know. "Then the cops would know they were flagrantly flaunting s.h.i.+pboard safety regulations, cramming that many people onto such a small boat. Besides, it was that stupid kid's own fault. He shouldn't have been sitting so-"

"That 'stupid kid' nearly drowned," Will interrupted, his blue eyes crackling. "Come on, Marco. What were you thinking?"

"Gee, I don't know." Marco lifted a single brow. "Maybe I just couldn't take the tension anymore."

"What tension?" Will asked exasperatedly.

"The s.e.xual tension," Marco replied.

And I saw his dark-eyed gaze flick toward Jennifer, who stood near the bow. She had been getting a towel for Will, but now she froze, the towel limp in her hands, watching Marco warily.

"Oh, don't tell me you haven't felt it," Marco said, glancing from Will to me to Lance and then to Jennifer, and then back again. "My G.o.d, it was making me nuts!"

"I think," I said loudly, certain I knew what was coming next, and wanting to avoid it at all costs, "that we should go back now. Don't you, Jennifer?"

Jennifer hadn't taken her eyes off Marco. It was like she was watching...well, a snake, wondering if it was the nice kind, like the one I'd fished from the pool, or the deadly kind that was going to send her into a coma.

"Yeah," she said, at last. "I agree with Ellie. I think we should go."

Lance started to say something, but happened to glance at Jennifer. She must have sent him a warning look-although I didn't see it-because he fell silent. Will, who'd crossed to take the towel from Jennifer and now stood with it around his neck, said, sublimely ignorant of what was really going on, "The girls want to go, we'll go. Lance, let's take down the sail. I think we should power back-"

"Oh, right," Marco burst out, as Lance began untying the knots that held the sail in place. "Better take down the sail, Lance. Better not think for yourself, Lance."

Lance suggested that Marco do something I'm not entirely sure was anatomically possible.

Will glared at Marco with dangerously narrowed eyes.

"What is your problem?" he asked his stepbrother, in the same voice I'd heard him use with the jock, that day outside Mr. Morton's cla.s.sroom. It was so cold, it seemed to come from the very depths Will had just s.n.a.t.c.hed that kid out of. It scared me a little.

"What's my problem?" Marco let out a bitter laugh. "Why don't you ask Lance what his problem is?"

"Because I don't have a problem, Campbell," Lance said. "Except for the one I've got with you."

But Marco just laughed some more at that.

"Oh, right," he said. "I forgot. You like being Will's lapdog, doing everything he tells you to."

Lance was beginning to flush. "I don't-"

"Oh yes, you do, man," Marco said. His voice dropped into a somewhat uncanny imitation of Will's: "Take the sail down, Lance. Tackle that lineman, Lance. Gotta protect the QB, Lance." Then, in his own voice, he said, "G.o.d, it's no wonder you couldn't take it anymore. I don't blame you, man. I really don't."

My heart starting to pound, I looked at Lance, silently begging him not to respond- But it was too late.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lance began, the muscles in his neck bunching menacingly. "But-"

"Just ignore him, Lance," Jennifer said quickly. "He's just trying to cause trouble."

"I'm causing trouble?" Marco flung a disbelieving look in Jennifer's direction. "You think I'm the one causing trouble? What about you?" he demanded. "Why don't you ask your precious friend Lance here where he was during most of your party last night, Will? Huh? Go ahead. Ask him."

Jennifer blanched, while Lance's flush, on the other hand, increased. But he managed to choke out, "You don't know what you're talking about, Campbell."

"Really, Marco," Jennifer said, her voice sounding uncomfortably shrill. "Just because you don't have any friends of your own-"

"Yeah, well, then I'm a lot better off than old Will here, aren't I?" Marco's smile was snide. "I mean, with friends like you guys, who needs-"

"Marco," I said, taking a step toward him, my heart in my throat. "Don't."

"You really do have it bad, don't you, Lily Maid?" Marco's gaze on me was almost pitying. "But you still don't seem to realize you've fallen for the wrong one...." Then he raised his eyebrows. "Or is Lance the one you're trying to protect, and not Will?"

Lance went for him then. I doubt he even knew what Marco was talking about. But to Lance, it clearly didn't matter. The QB was under attack, and it was Lance's job to protect him-even if, as in this case, the fault was all his own. Lance lunged-all two hundred pounds of hard muscled guard, aimed at Marco's gut.

Who knows what would have happened if the two of them had connected? Surely at the velocity Lance was moving, they'd have both plunged over the side of the deck and into the cold water of the bay.

But they didn't connect. Because at the last possible moment, Will reached out to seize Lance, pinning both his arms behind his back.

Meanwhile, a slim, tanned shadow slipped in front of Marco, crying, "Stop it! All of you! Just stop it!" Jennifer's voice broke off with a sob.

"Campbell started it." Lance hurled the words at the world in general, breathing hard as Will struggled to hold him back.

"Oh, I think we all know who started it," Marco said insinuatingly.

"Have you both gone insane?" Will wanted to know.

"Don't listen to him, Will," Jennifer cried urgently. "Everything he says is a lie, and always has been."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you, Jen," Marco sneered. "Why don't you just tell him where you were last night when he looked all over the house but couldn't find you? Why don't you tell him?"

Will had let go of Lance now. Not because Lance had stopped struggling to be set free. But because it was like suddenly Will forgot to hold on.

"What's he talking about?" Will asked, looking from Jennifer to Lance with a stunned expression on his face. Then, when neither of them replied right away, he said, "Wait. Why do you guys look so-"

"Because they're in love," Marco said, with obvious relish. "They've been seeing each other behind your back for months now, while you just-"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Or when the moon was overhead,

Came two young lovers lately wed;