Alicia's Misfortune (57 page)

Jason had asked Lola if she wanted to have lunch with him.
She’d managed to say yes, though her heart felt like it was going to leap out
of her mouth. She told herself to be cool, reminding herself that Jason was
just another guy at the school she went to. Yes, he was gorgeous, and had the
greenest eyes she’d ever seen. But what did that matter? She could surely have
lunch with him without completely losing herself. Right?

He chose a table in the far side of the cafeteria, close to
the window. Thick grey clouds covered the sky, signaling that rain was yet to
come. Lola loved thunder and lightning. When she was younger, she enjoyed
sitting at the sliding glass doors that led to her backyard, marveling as the
fat droplets sank into every surface.

Jason asked Lola questions about her major and what she
wanted to do after she was done with school. It was surprisingly easy to talk
to Jason. He always looked engaged when he spoke with her, and she found she
didn’t feel as nervous when they first started talking.

“I want to continue on to grad school, but only if I can get
scholarship,” he said.

“Of course you’ll get scholarship. Aren’t you like a genius
or something?”

As soon as she spoke she’d regretted it. Thankfully, Jason
laughed at her. She smiled and blushed slightly. She noticed that he looked at
her for a few seconds longer than normal, but thought nothing of it.

He was probably like that with all the girls on campus. She
was sure he’d slept with dozens of them, including some of the girls in her
class.

Lola became fixated with the way his bangs fell into his
eyes. His hair looked soft. She longed to reach a hand out and sweep the bangs
out from his eyes. On several occasions she felt her hand wavering, so she sat
on it. Jason didn’t seem to notice. He continued talking about his plans for
the future verses what his parents had planned for him.

He told Lola he’d just gotten out of a serious relationship
a few weeks ago and didn’t want to make any commitments anytime soon. She smiled
at this and pretended she understood.

“Dating can be tough,” she said. “It must be frustrating to
put all your trust in somebody only to have things fall apart. Doesn’t it make
you feel so vulnerable?”

She spooned soup into her mouth as she waited for him to
respond.

“To be honest I don’t feel all that vulnerable. I’ve
actually missed being alone. I forgot what it was like to get the whole bed to
myself. It was a long distance relationship anyway, and I knew it wasn’t going
to work out. When I found out she was sleeping with someone else, I honestly
wasn’t all that surprised.”

Lola nodded. She’d never been cheated on by anyone, but then
again she’d never actually
been
with anyone, save for a few awkward
encounters when she was younger.

“So what about you? Is there a lucky leading man in your
life?”

Lola laughed. God, she was such a dork.

“No, of course not. I mean, not that I haven’t- I just, I
don’t know. I don’t really have time for dating with all the studying I have to
do.”
   

Jason nodded and took a bite out of his sandwich. He chewed
thoughtfully for a few seconds before responding.
  

“I hear that. I’ve had so many exams this week I can hardly
stand anymore, let alone eat. I feel like Bio-Chem has ravaged my body.”

Lola giggled. “Same. Except for me, it’s Marine Biology. If
I have to hear one more lecture on the anatomy of a clownfish, I’m going to
kick myself.”
       
Jason smiled at her
before polishing off his sandwich. Lola liked how easy it was to make him
smile. She realized suddenly that they’d never had a conversation before today.
Sure they’d said hi occasionally on the quad, but it was a fairly small
college. Everyone said hi to everyone else, it was practically the rules.

Jason surprised her by inviting her to a party on campus.

“I promise it’s going to be fun. And I bet your roommate’s
going!”
     

“Ugh, of course she is. Practically all Jessica does is
party.”

That and screw around
with her boyfriend while I’m trying to sleep,
Lola thought to herself. She
wouldn’t mind going to a party with Jason. In all her years on the campus,
she’d mostly stuck to herself and the small group of friends she’d made. She
enjoyed going for night swims, going to bed covered in salt only to wake up
smelling like the sea. It was her favorite perfume.

Jason exchanged phone numbers with Lola before leaving.

“I’m counting on you to come later,” he said with a smile.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” she replied.

She wanted Jason to leave faster so she could freak out
internally. After he left, she downed the rest of her soup before rushing out
of the cafeteria, desperately seeking the solace of her bedroom.

Jessica wasn’t there when she got back. Lola took it as an
opportunity to jump around her room while squealing. She knew it was childish,
but the hottest boy on campus just asked her to go to a party with him. Was
there a downside in all this?

It didn’t cross her mind until later that she would be
spending several weeks with him on a boat, then on an island studying the
indigenous fish of the coast. If anything did go wrong between them, she
wouldn’t have any way of escaping.

Lola pushed these thoughts aside. It was a fairly big
island; she could probably avoid him easily if she wanted to. And she wasn’t
sure if she’d need to avoid him. Jason seemed so friendly and nice in the
cafeteria earlier- things would probably continue along that vein later in the
evening.

Part of her wanted to call Jessica and tell her all about
it, though she knew Jessica was a hapless gossip. In less than an hour the
whole campus would probably find out what happened, and Lola didn’t want that.
Things like this were best kept secret.

Just thinking of Jason made her tingle with desire.
 
Lola lay on her bed and unconsciously touched
her wetness between her legs.
 
Before she
knew it, she was rubbing herself.
 
It
felt so good she couldn't stop.
 
After
only a couple of minutes, she felt a rush of pleasure that made her back arch
and her toes curl.
  
She moaned loudly as
she climaxed alone in her bed.

The party was in Palm Grove, a dorm on the opposite side of
campus. It was party central. Jason said the party didn't start until until
12am, so she had lots of time before she had to go.

It was only 9 p.m. and after compulsively checking her watch
it dawned on her- she had time to go for a swim . The sun was still out, though
it was fading quickly. She’d take a swim in the ocean over sitting alone in her
room any day.

She threw on her bathing suit and a pair of shorts and began
her walk to the beach.Though it was humid out, there was a slight breeze that
cooled Lola off.
    
She was thankful no
one else would be on the beach. Her bathing suit was tight, showing off a bit
too much cleavage, anda lot too much of her butt. On more than one occasion she
had to adjust both her top and bottom - just another perk of having such a
curvy body, she figured.

She could hear the ocean from yards away. The waves crashed
loudly into the shore, and the echoes signaled high tide. She ran the remaining
stretch to the beach, ignoring the fact that her bathing suit was riding up her
crotch. It was so tight that it turned her on slightly. She tried not to think
of it as she dropped her clothes on the sand and ran straight into the waves.

Lola enjoyed the coolness of the water, and the freedom it
gave her.
 
Since no-one was around, she
quickly removed her bathing suit and threw it to shore.
  
There was nothing quite so liberating as
skinny dipping.
 
Before she realized it,
the sun was down and dozens of stars lit the beach.
 
The moon looked like someone had taken a bite
out of it. Lola floated around on her back for a while, enjoyed the way the
waves felt on her naked body.
 
The water
was fairly calm, and easy to swim in. Swimming on nights like this was
perfection to Lola.
  
She couldn't
imagine a nicer way to start her evening with Jason.

After what felt like hours later, Lola swam back to the
shore. She pulled her shorts over her dripping wet thighs, didn’t mind that her
feet were coated in sand. She walked the stretch back to her dorm barefoot,
purple flip-flops in hand. She checked her phone. It was fifteen past twelve,
perfect timing to go to the party.

She figured Jason would be late as well. He was probably too
cool to show up to a party on time.

Back at the dorm, Lola brushed the sand off her feet and
left it in a neat pile in the hallway. She skipped the shower preferring to
smell like the sea than anything else. She tossed on a fresh pair of shorts and
a tank top before running out the door. It would take her at least ten minutes
to get to the party. By then she would definitely be fashionably late, or
rather right on time, for the party.

On the walk over, she thought about what she would say to
Jason. Would he be talking to other people? She wasn’t sure of whether or not
he even liked her. Maybe he would be talking to another girl. Lola knew she
wouldn’t have the right to be jealous, but that wouldn’t stop her.

The party was in full swing by the time she got there. Palm
Springs had minimal security, so it was easy to invite dozens of people into
the dorm. The main floor was decorated with metallic palm trees and macaw
parrots. She thought it was tacky, since they lived on the island, and there
were barely any parrots or palm trees. But it was also kind of fun to make fun
of the life around them, reducing indigenous life to shiny pieces of paper.

She was admiring an enormous plastic sun taped to the wall
when she felt a hand on her shoulder. A flower lei was placed over her head. She
turned around to find herself facing Jessica.

“Hi!” she shouted.

Lola hadn’t realized how loud the music was until Jessica
appeared and they tried talking.

“Hi back!” her roommate said. “What are you doing here? I’ve
never seen you at a party before. I figured you’d be studying or something!”
  

“I figured I’d go out, you know, like one last hurrah before
the big boat trip. Where’s Eric?”
   

Jessica rolled her eyes. “He’s flirting with some freshman
over by the punch bowl. Talk later?”

“Sure,” Lola smiled.

She watched as Jessica walked down the hall, her hips
swishing from side to side, and her long hair flowing down. Lola was reminded
of her lunch with Jason, and how badly she’d wanted to sweep his hair out of
his eyes. She hadn’t seen him yet, but the dorm was enormous. He could be
anywhere.

Lola decided to look around some more. Jessica had gone down
the hallway towards the dorm rooms, so Lola decided to go down the opposite
hall. It fed out into a large gaming room, with a television and pool table.
Several kids from her anatomy class were playing pool. They all smoked
cigarettes, clouds of grey covering their faces.

Lola walked over to a table covered with food and drinks.
She poured herself a rum and coke and quietly sipped it from the sidelines. She
knew most of the kids here, but had only really come to be with Jason. Where
was he?

She downed her drink quickly and poured another. This
probably wasn’t the best idea, but she didn’t feel like eating any of the
sandwiches. They all looked sweaty beneath the fluorescent lights, and she had
no idea how old the food was. She settled for eating handfuls of carrots in
between her drinks.

After her third glass, Lola began to feel slightly woozy.
She went outside to get some fresh air, feeling instantly better when she
smelled the salt air.
“You made it!” A
voice called from behind her.

It belonged to Jason, who was standing in between two girls
in bikinis. They were each wearing rainbow leis and sipping from solo cups.
Lola hadn’t seen them before
 
- two skinny
britches; they were probably freshmen. They regarded her coolly. Lola ignored
them. She as used to people acting rude towards her for one reason or another,
usually out of jealousy because of her figure.

Lola hid her jealousy as best she could, left the three of
them and went outside. She thought some fresh air might help her to feel
better. After a few minutes, to her surprise, Jason came up to her, sipping a
cup of beer.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey back,” Jason said. “I didn’t think you were gonna make
it.”

He sounded down, but Lola didn’t want to ask why. She
figured he wouldn’t tell her, and she was feeling pretty woozy. Instead, she
asked him something that for her was out of character.

“Do you want to go for a walk on the beach?” she asked.

“That sounds good.”

They began walking around the dorm building, avoiding the
pineapple-scented drunks inside.

“So, what were you doing outside? Trying to get away from it
all?” She waved her hands in the air for emphasis. “I guess I’m a little
buzzed,” she said.

“No worries.” Jason ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I
guess I was just trying to avoid the chaos inside. My ex girlfriend keeps
trying to contact me and it gets harder and harder to avoid her messages. I
can’t help but think about whom she’s seeing, and how things are going. That
sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

“A little bit, but I understand where you’re coming from.
It’s hard to deal with a breakup.”

Jason hip-checked Lola, making her smile.

“And you’re above that all, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Me? Don’t be ridiculous.”

She sighed, letting the carrots tumble out of her hand and
onto the sidewalk. Jason laughed at her but didn’t question where the carrots
came from. They walked along in silence for a few minutes. The summer air
helped Lola’s head clear.

“So Lola, I feel like I don’t know anything about you. Are
you seeing anyone?
 
Anybody interesting
in your love life?”

They veered off the sidewalk and onto the sand. Lola took
her flip-flops off and Jason followed suit. Now that the alcohol had worn off,
she definitely didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell Jason how she felt. She
settled instead for making something up.

“Um, well, I had a boyfriend for a while, but things got
kind of rocky when I went off to college.”

“I hear that,” Jason said.

They walked towards the water’s edge.

“I love the water” he said.

“Me too - I just went for a swim a few hours ago, just down
the beach from here.”

Jason leaned in close, exciting Lola and making nervous at
the same time.

“What-what are you doing?” She stuttered.

“I wondered why you smelled like the ocean,” he murmured.

Lola was looking out into the ocean, and found herself
paralyzed on that spot on the beach, with Jason standing close beside her. When
she turned around she found he was much closer than he thought.

“Ummmm,” she said quietly.

Jason closed the space between them, and lightly kissed her
on the lips, cupping her face in his hands. While his lips were soft and sweet,
she was apparently still drunk and she pushed Jason away slightly.

“You alright?” He asked.

“I’m fine I just- have to go right now. I’ll see you around,
okay?”

Jason didn’t respond. Lola ran off the beach and ran all the
way to her dorm. She didn’t understand what had happened— everything felt fine
when he was kissing her. But then… Lola felt nervous, like she couldn’t trust
herself around him. She needed to leave before things got too serious. She
could apologize in the morning, when she had a clear head. That is, if Jason
would listen to her. First, she had to deal with the headache that was forming.