Beautiful Oblivion Read Free

him.
    “Just dive in. It’s worse if you take it slow. Once it hits your middle, you’re just torturing yourself.”
    “Says the boy who swore it’s warm as a bath.” I give a little scream as a wave skirts my ribcage.
    “It’s warm where I’m standing.”
    “That’s because you probably relieved yourself once you got there.”
    “No one knows me like you.” Ace glides backward, still facing the other direction. I give a private smile admiring his smooth skin, his shoulders as wide as a door. He starts to turn, and I splash a wall of water at him.
    “Don’t even think about it.” A wave slaps me just beneath my shoulders, and I take in a sharp breath.
    “Here I come, five, four, three”—he swoops in closer—“two, one.”
    I force myself to dip under until the water floats up to my neck, and my body gives a mean shiver, but then a burst of heat rinses over me, and I can breathe again.
    “Hey”—I take a few steps out until my feet no longer touch the bottom—“it is kind of warm.”
    “That’s because I had to take a mean piss.” His dark brows rise as he swoops in closer. “Don’t worry, sweetie”—he blinks a smile—“I only had your best interests at heart.”
    “You bastard.” I flick my fingers, squirting him in the face. Ace shakes his head like a wet dog, peppering me with the residue.
    “ Lying bastard would be more accurate. I promise, Reese, I can find far more creative ways to keep you warm, and very few of them involve bodily fluids.” Ace hoods his lids again. His dimples depress as he comes in ever so close. “I think this is the part where we hug it out—or maybe we should make out for the hell of it and call it a night.” A smile tugs on his lips, and it only makes him look that much more achingly beautiful. Ace is a god among men, and he doesn’t even know it.
    I pinch my nose and dip under the waterline, relieving my hair of the gravity-defying pose I molded it into earlier.
    “Big hair is officially out,” I say, blinking into him.
    “I think you just changed the topic.”
    “I didn’t think you’d notice.” I move in closer until his chest is within reach, and I wonder if he can see my body from this vantage point—if he wants to.
    “I noticed a lot about you tonight.” He swallows hard, taking in my features as if it’s the first time he’s seeing me.
    “Like?” I push in an inch, anxious to steal a glance below the water and see his measuring rod for myself.
    Ace winces.
    We both know we’re dancing a little too close to the flames, and I like it, I’m hoping he likes it too. Ace and I have been friends from the womb, never mind the fact I’ve been secretly crushing on him just as long, but we’ve never stepped outside the bounds of friendship. I hung out with a different crowd in high school, then went straight to Yeats while Ace has spent the last three years at the local junior college.
    “Like the fact you’re the only girl I know who can pull off big hair.” His dimples reappear, mocking me with their superpowers. “Your neon leggings were pretty hot, too. I think you should bow to the eighties style gods and revamp your wardrobe.”
    “Please”—I hedge in ever so close—“I looked like an escapee from a John Hughes movie.”
    “A damn cute one.”
    My heart thumps just once when he says it.
    “You think I’m cute?” I ask, moving in another few inches. It’s a well-known fact Ace thinks of me more as a little sister than a contender for his endless supply of prophylactics. I should know about the never-ending supply, I’ve seen the testaments to anti-procreation he stashes openly in his bedroom. His sister Neva and I used to be friends until she ditched me for a group of stoner girls. Then, one day, out of the blue, she announced she’s always hated me, and we haven’t said two words since. Now she just gives me the finger in lieu of hello.
    “Yeah, I think you’re cute.” He reaches over and messes up my hair, so I