Beach Beauties

The two girls lay on their backs, facing up at a sun that burned uncontrollably and without reason.

"Call him," she said. Her eyes were closed, but not restful, thinking of everything and nothing at once.

"I'm waiting for him to call me," the other girl sighed as she spoke.

Three girls they didn't know were laying nearby, playing techno dance music from a small boom box. Besides that a dull roar of quiet speech broke the sound of monotonous waves.

The girls lay on matching pink towels in motionless bodies shiny with lotion. They moved only to speak, and even then they only moved their lips. The girls were both brunette, and shallowly beautiful by many people's standards, including their own. If they couldn't get the next guy they met, they could get the guy after him. If they didn't want that guy they'd use him for what he was there for, and leave him with a crush so severe that he would never forget them. The only crushes they had were on the guys they wanted... really wanted. Guys that couldn't be used and thrown away because they were the same as these girls. They didn't get used.

"Call him."

"I'm waiting for him to call me."

She brushed sand from her tanned face; a face she had just recently decided was pretty. Those lips... Those eyes... That smile... Hers was decidedly a face without words, decided by those who have touched it, caressed it, kissed it, in a place where drunkenness is mistaken for love and the heartbeat replaced by the bass of the music. He touched her there, when they first met, in a dark corner that seemed to be the only place that ever existed. It was then that a crush developed that could easily slip into obsession if she wasn't careful.

The vibration ran up the towel that she laid on.

"Is that mine or yours?"

"Mine," the girl glanced at her phone with aggravated effort, unhappy at shifting her fixed stance. "It's that guy Tommy. I don't feel like talking to him." She threw the phone back on the towel and went back into position, her large sunglasses hiding any vague expression from her face. "What are we doing tonight?"

They did the same thing every Friday night, just in different locations. Parties, clubs, parking lots in cars that were converted to mini-bars, and if they were lucky, a joint or a roach of last night's joint. If they were even luckier... if she was even luckier...

"Call him"

"No."

"Ask him if there's any parties tonight, and tell him to bring hot friends."

Was it only three nights ago that she talked to him? Was it only a week since she last saw him, laying in his car, in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. Has it only been a week since he had kissed her... so hard, yet so gently... sweetly, as if he had done it hundreds of times... but so lustfully, as if he would die if he stopped.

"If we're going clubbing we need to go shopping. I need a new top."

"The top you wore last Saturday was so cute."

"You can borrow it if you want."

"Okay, but I need some new clubbing pants anyway, so let's go to the mall after this."

Both girls talked with their eyes closed, staring at the backs of lids, behind backs of sunglasses, an orange-red blankness glowing by the light of the sun.

"If he calls, I probably won't go clubbing."

"Call him."

"He's going to call."

"I'll call you," he said, after dropping her off. She had been halfway up the driveway at seven o'clock in the morning, praying that her mother and stepfather were still asleep. He said it through the open window of his car, not shouting it, but talking as if she were still laying next to him. And he did call, Tuesday night, after she got home from work. He would call today. If she knew anything about guys it was how to predict their phone pattern. He would call today. If she dialed his number... the whole thing would be over. She would be that girl...

"Oh my God, that guy Jay is calling you! He was so gross! I can't believe you made out with him."

"He's not that bad, but, God, is he needy. This is the second time he called."

"What a loser."

Call me, call me, call me.

She used the beach as an excuse to get a bikini wax, but he was the only thing on her mind. His touch... his fingers and lips had gone places she had only dreamed about. His scent was a faint mix of cologne and beer, and it fueled everything inside her with an uncontrollable desire. He had taken her to the beach that night, with a blanket and a six pack. He stripped her clothes off her, and kissed her everywhere, seductively, dangerously, she felt something so new and her body had an awakening just from the thoughts of what could potentially be between them. He was everything she ever wanted, he was the one and she knew it... but she stopped him. She stopped him, and they both lay on the blanket, tired, drunk, naked, completely free and yet restrained by fear. The waves crashed, and the wind chilled their bodies. He grabbed her and pulled her close to him. Can I tell you something?, she said softly, practically in a whisper. Sure, he said, his eyes lit, his head cocked. She had his full attention. I'm a virgin. "You are?", he said. He seemed surprised, but not scared. Not scared away. Or had he been? She couldn't read his reaction. She shouldn't be reading his reaction since it prevented her from thinking about anything else all week. "Let's go to my car, it's cold." Is that a reaction? There had been a pause in between. He had called after. He had called the Tuesday after.

"Those guys are checking us out."

"Let's get out of here, I'm bored."

"Wait, I know one of them. Let's get them to buy us alcohol for tonight."

"He's going to call soon, though."

"Call him."

"Fine, let's just go get some alcohol. Either way I'm going to drink tonight."

He's probably with another girl. He's probably getting ready to go out and meet another girl. One who's not a virgin.

She put her shorts and shirt back on, and picked up her towel. As she placed her hand on her cell phone, it started vibrating.

"Who is it?"

"It's him."

"Well, answer it!"

The girl looked at it for a moment, and then at her friend and shrugged. She shrugged off any sign of weakness she may have shown earlier... any sign of desperation. She was much cooler than having a guy get to her. He still likes her... if he didn't he wouldn't have called. He wanted her. He wanted her, and she was still willing to compete for the upper hand. She threw the phone in her purse.

"He'll call back later."

"Okay, let's go."