“Joe, are you—”
“Nope, nothing wrong with him that can’t be fixed by a jellyfish.”
“Can I poke it?” I blurted out.
Mayra glared down at me, and I started laughing again. She really did look kind of mad, though, so I figured I’d get up and try to figure out why. The thing was, I couldn’t seem to stand.
It was probably my damn eyebrows holding me down.
I couldn’t manage to get up, so I just stayed there in the sand, laughing.
“Matthew, have you been drinking?” Mayra’s eyes bugged out, and her neck seemed to stretch forward and toward me. I was still on my back in the sand, which was a little itchy but nice and cool at the same time.
I thought the question was kind of strange. Yes, I had been drinking. I was thirsty, especially after eating all those chips.
“The chips are salty,” I told her.
Joe and Samantha both laughed, and Mayra turned toward them with her hands on her hips.
“Did you two give him that punch?”
“Don’t look at me!” Samantha said with her hands moving up toward her chest, palms out. “He was all giggly before I even came over here! I just gave him a refill.”
“More like three.” Joe chuckled and gestured toward me with his arm, which had a nice collection of other arms trailing after it. “He’s fine!”
“So, you’re responsible!” Mayra growled.
“Nope,” Joe told her. “He had his own cup before I sat down, I think. I mean, I didn’t give it to him.”
He started laughing again, so I joined him. I mean, if he was my other brother something-or-another, I should laugh with him, right?
“Joe’s my nudder brudder,” I told Mayra.
“Your what?”
“It’s like a brother,” Joe explained, “except without the geriatrics…er…genetics.”
“For the love of all that’s holy,” Mayra muttered. “Help me get him up.”
Joe grabbed one of my arms, and Mayra got the other one. They both yanked at the same time, but Joe’s pull was quite a bit more forceful than Mayra’s, and I ended up falling into him.
“We’re not that kind of brothers!” he cried out with another laugh. He pushed me, and I stumbled against Mayra instead.
Falling into her was a lot nicer anyway—softer, too. I leaned on her a bit just to steady myself. I seemed to have a bit of a head rush from getting up so quickly. I felt her hands come up over my back to steady me, and I grabbed her hips. My head was a little floppy, and when it landed on her shoulder, I inhaled with my nose against her skin. She smelled so good, and it made me want to taste her.
Pushing my body against hers, I captured her mouth and kissed her deeply. She moaned into my mouth—or maybe she was trying to say something—as my tongue touched hers. She grasped my bare shoulders, and her fingers felt warm against my skin. I heard a low whistle and a few snickers as Mayra pushed against me.
I broke the kiss but still held her hips. I was fairly certain my head rush was keeping me off balance because everything was still spinning. I moved my nose over her shoulder—right next to the strap of her tank top. That made me think of the little fish shape just beside the strap, and my hand started moving up from her hip. My fingers touched the smooth, rounded underside of her breast, and Mayra grabbed my hand.
“Matthew!” she yelled. “Don’t!”
“I wanna poke the fish,” I whined.
“Oh my God!” Samantha cried out. She turned away with her head in her hands as Joe spewed punch all over the sand.
I ignored them and tried to move my fingers up and over her breast again—wanting to move up high enough to shift the strap a little to the side and find her birthmark, but her breast was in the way, and my hand couldn’t seem to figure out how to get around it. Mayra tightened her grip on my hand and pushed it back down.
“Matthew! Stop it!”