“Lemme guess... um, girls who read those lists. No, no. Wait, don't tell me! Ummm, how about we don't care what they hate because we can do whatever we want?” I said. Bri snickered like a little cartoon chipmunk.
We played the game we always played where one of us would open the magazine to a random page and we'd both pick our most and least favorite outfits.
“This dress is so pretty I hate it,” I said, pointing to a thistle-colored dress with tiny embroidered hummingbirds swooping over one shoulder.
“Murder me if I ever wear something this ugly,” Bri said, tapping the glossy picture of some H-list actress in a dark yellow jumper and matching espadrilles.
“If this pool was fucking empty I'd skate in it,” someone said and we turned to see some SoCal-looking guys walking through the fence gate—big t-shirts, long, baggy dark-colored shorts, bony hairy guy legs stuck into well-worn Vans skateboarder shoes. All three of them were carrying skateboards. Two of the guys were wearing shadowy t-shirts with monsters on them and the other one was wearing a plain white one, bright as eggs.
“What's up?” one of the guys said to us—he had on the forest-green shirt with a grey outline of Bigfoot walking across it. He had beer-blond hair and looked like he'd just woken up.
I was wearing a tiny tie-dye bikini and sat up a little straighter, readjusted my straps.
“Who are you guys?” another one of the dudes said—his shirt had some kind of winged dinosaur bird on it with lots of teeth.
“Well for one, we're girls. Not guys,” Bri said, closing the magazine and slapping it across her stomach. She pointed at her boobs with her thumb.
“Obviously,” he said.
“Obviously,” she laughed back.
“I'm Whitney. She's Bri,” I said to the one in the white shirt who hadn't said anything yet. I liked him the most. He looked like the kinda guy who would help you load groceries into your car without being a creep about it. He pointed to himself and said Jay and he pointed to the monster shirt guys and said Jesse and Jimmy.
“You're kidding me. Ugh, all of your names start with J?” Bri said. She pushed her sunglasses on top of her head.
“Getting kinda dark for shades, you think?” Jimmy said. He dropped his skateboard on the concrete and sat on it. He started rolling back and forth and I liked the sound—chunky, growly. It sounded like such a dude sound to make.
“That's why I took them off, asshole,” Bri said. I knew she was flirting, but it was probably lost on the guys. Bri's heart was as hard as a diamond, but it was just as sparkly, too. I loved her so much I barely noticed she was around. We'd been best friends since we were in utero, like Jesus and John the Baptist.
“Where are you from?” Jay asked me.