Embers (Ch. 5)

ZACH

I spent most of my childhood with my eyes closed. Now that I could finally keep them open on my own, I wanted to see what else the world had to offer. That included taking in some vitamin D underneath the scorching late summer heat at Sylvan Beach. And, also scouting for potential new people to talk to. Or girls. Preferably, girls. My goal was to find a girlfriend before the fall semester was over. I figured I'd start my search at the beach, where there were cute girls in flattering bikini's and pretty smiles lounging about on the sand and in the ocean.

Aunt Marley had invited Zander, Thea and I to spend the day with her at her bed and breakfast anyway, since uncle Freddy had a few errands to run. Our lunch break came just in time to watch the girls head into the water for a swim. Fortunately for us, Giselle had decided to come with us since she had the day off and had opted to teach Thea how to swim so she kept her busy. I had no idea where uncle Mike or Camilla were, but something must be up if aunt Marley refused to talk about it. I did my best to get to know Camilla a bit. Empathized with her concerning her social isolation at such a young age to talk to her about what could be bothering her, but she didn't seem like she trusted a lot of people. I hoped she grew out of it in time. Everyone deserved someone they could confide in without being judged. I had Zander and Thea for that—my parents as well. Sometimes. I still felt pressured at times to be as brilliant as they raised me to be. Zander felt the same from what he's told me. Maybe that's why he's been acting out, partaking in normal teenage rebellion. Although I wouldn't call running into a store to stop a robbery without so much as a pocket knife in his back pocket rebellion per-say. I'd call it insane.

Mom and dad did teach us to stand up for what was right. I wasn't sure if stopping thugs from committing crimes was part of that concept. Either way, my brother was already in hot water with our parents. He needed to take a step back and figure out what was bothering him. For everyone's sake.

"Hey, check it out," my brother nudged my ribs as he came into my line of vision and showed me a mason jar full of mineral rocks. The metal lid keeping the rocks in place was rusting off, leading me to believe it had been buried in the sand for a long time.

"Where'd you find this?" I asked him and he shrugged, pointing towards the cabana he had been assigned to cleaning earlier by aunt Marley. I held it up to the sun and squinted when the different colors gleamed beneath the sun's rays. Thea was going to love this. It would be an excellent addition to her collection. She was into finding hidden treasures, and figuring out their origins...something we both enjoyed bonding over.

"I can't believe you found it!" an unfamiliar but excited voice caught our attention as we turned around to find its owner. The stranger turned out to be a girl. A girl who's hair glowed a pretty auburn color in the sun and her smile did something to keep me from using my own voice box. I couldn't come up with a thing to say. And that wasn't like me at all. Maybe this is what dad meant about our hormones taking over our bodies like the pod people in those alien movies he liked to watch.

I'd been around beautiful girls before. But nothing came close to this one. It was as if she'd been conjured up from my thoughts and fantasies and projected herself into my reality. Is this what love at first sight felt like?If it was, I had no idea it was going to cut off my air supply so quickly. Now what? How could I get it back in time for me to say something to her?

"You know what this is?" My brother took over for me, clearing his throat as he tried to hide his smirk. The girl, who's name we still didn't know and whose two piece pink bikini made me feel insecure about the lack of game I had, smiled and nodded as she eyed the jar as if it were a box full of a treasure she couldn't wait to get her hands on. I could think of at least two things I wanted to get my hands on right now, but I needed to relax and regain control. She was just a girl. She shouldn't have that much power over how my body reacted around her. However, other parts of me completely disagreed.

"There's a local legend around here. It dates back generations actually. Basically, whoever ends up finding that jar is supposed meet their soulmate within a year's time," she explained and my brother and I shared a look before he handed it over to me, scoffing as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the hem of his t-shirt. The girl who's eyes resembled the clear blue ocean a few yards away from us glanced over at my brother of course, and I rolled my eyes. Zander had always been the attention grabber. Even when we were younger, he did everything he could to find the brightest light to shine on him. I thought he'd grown out of that phase when we hit puberty, but it'd only gotten worse. Simply because he now caught attention without wanting to. I don't know why it bothered me, but it did.

"You best keep that with you until you find her. When you do, you have to bury it again, so the next person who's meant to find it will," she added in her warning and I glanced down at the jar, wondering just how much of what she was saying was pure myth and actual fact. I enjoyed finding out the history behind strange oddities and myths in history as well. Something we already had in common. Great. Now if I could only remember how to speak...

"Its a jar full of rocks," Zander reasoned logically and her eyebrows furrowed in a cute way as she frowned at him. She'd get used to my brother's bluntness soon enough. He'd inherited that trait from mom, unfortunately and had bumped heads with her as we got older because of it. Thea and I thoroughly enjoyed watching mom shut him down with her own sharp tongue. It was like watching a special on the discovery channel featuring two wild animals fighting over nothing and lets just say things get a little crazy in our house at times.

"I'll have you know there's one known person in Houston to have been seen carrying the jar around back in the 70s. Rumor has it he found his soulmate a few months later," she continued, capturing my brother's curiosity as he crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at her.

"Well, are you going to tell us who it was? Or do we have to pay to get more information out of you?" Zander's sharp nature was hitting its limit and I shoved an elbow at his arm, causing him to send me a glare. I needed to do something. Anything to let this girl know I was nothing like my twin brother and that although I didn't work out as much as he did, my high IQ made up for it. Not that my brother wasn't smart. He was smarter than he led on. I had no idea why he hindered it though. Being intelligent was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Don't mind him. He doesn't know how to behave around beautiful women," I blurted out loud and it caused both of them to look at me with surprised expressions. I could feel the heat burning my cheeks and I opened my mouth to apologize for being so cheesy, but aunt Marley was heading this way, and I didn't want to make this awkward situation worse.

"Oh, I see you've met Leah Garcia! She's my chef's daughter," aunt Marley finally put an end to the mystery of what this girl's name was and I smiled when the name totally complimented the owner it belonged to. Leah Garcia was going to be my girlfriend by the end of this year. If that mason jar held any truth to its legend, achieving that goal would prove it.

"Sorry for not introducing myself earlier," Leah apologized with a sheepish smile and extended her hand out for us to shake.

"Zander," my brother shook her hand first and handed her hand off to me, practically shoving it into my palm, forcing me to send him a warning glare before I turned to smile at her. Man, she was pretty. I hoped I wasn't scaring her off with my lack of social skills. My mind has always been focused on my academics because of my sleeping condition. I didn't want to fall behind since I spent half my days sleeping involuntarily so I always stayed 10 steps ahead of my schoolwork. Unfortunately for me, it didn't leave me much time to pry myself out of my sheltered nature to explore the dating world. Now that Leah was an option, I had to find a way around this. If only to have somewhat of an idea of what being a normal teenage guy was like.

"Zach," I managed to say my name correctly, and I sighed in relief when she returned my smile and continued to blush. Another person I didn't recognize followed suit behind aunt Marley and wrapped his arm around Leah's shoulders. Leah's smile disappeared as she looked up at this guy and he extended his hand out for us to shake as well. He looked like the typical surfer type, minus the blonde hair and low IQ. He was smart enough to notice how Leah kept eyeing me and decided to lay his claim on her. He was going to be a problem. I knew that much.

"Felix Henderson. Leah's boyfriend," this Felix guy looked and sounded like a total tool, but Zander and I shook his hand and played nice just like mom taught us to. Dad on the other hand had a more...confrontational approach. But neither of us would gain anything from it. Leah was someone else's and there was nothing I could do about it. For now.

"You broke up with me an hour ago," Leah corrected him, glaring up at the taller guy who's arm she pushed off her shoulders quickly.

"We're getting back together," Felix countered with a smug smile and Leah pulled him aside, clearly annoyed by his behavior as they began to argue and aunt Marley hooked her arms in ours as she led us back inside the beach house to give them some privacy.

"What's the deal with Bonnie and Clyde out there?" Zander asked, shooting me a look, letting me know he was fishing around for information, for my sake. I smirked as I shook my head. He was a pain to be around sometimes, but I could always count on him to have my back when necessary.

"That's not something ya'll need to worry about," aunt Marley shared a smile with both of us as she handed us glasses of iced tea, obviously picking up on our interest in Leah and whatever that dude was to her. She clearly wanted us to stay out of it, but it only made me more curious.

"Come on. Throw my brother a bone here," Zander gave me up after finishing his glass of iced tea and I glared at him. So much for having my back. Aunt Marley chuckled in response and handed us a bowl full of mixed fruits. I picked out a vine full of green grapes and popped each one into my mouth until I was done, while Zander took a tangerine and began to peel off the outer shell.

"All all ya'll need to know is that Leah is off limits. I like keeping things professional around here. And you two better behave if you see her again," she made her demands and it didn't sound like there was any room for negotiations.

"Sorry, bro. I tried," Zander claimed as he continued to eat his tangerine slices while he headed back out to finish cleaning his cabana.

"Hey, aunt Marley? What do you know about this jar?" I asked as I placed it on top of the island in the kitchen of the bed and breakfast. She cocked her head to the side to observe its contents before answering.

"It's a jar full of rocks. Not much else to it, is there?" she replied, but her pursed lips let me know there might be more to this legend than she was letting on.

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Zander and I had finished up all of our duties early and decided to go home and change before we came back to the beach to enjoy the bonfire Leah had invited us to. Thea refused to come, claiming she had more books to catch up on before school started on Monday. Giselle had taken her place instead, and she was more than happy to fill us in on who everyone at this bonfire was, who to avoid, and who we could find potential friendships in.

A 90s music station was playing on the radio somewhere nearby and the crowd of rowdy teenagers began to cheer, throwing their plastic cups in the air as they began to sing cheesy pop songs, Giselle joining in on their fun as she deserted us. I smiled as I remembered how mom used to fill our old house with this kind of music on Sunday mornings, when our cleaning rituals commenced for the day. I taped every minute of mom forcing dad to sing along, and him singing out of tune with a glare on his face the entire time. Holding back a laugh, I realized we were at a bonfire, where missing your parents wouldn't be considered cool and turned to my brother who had gotten me something that smelled like cherry flavored Kool-Aid, instead of whatever it was these people were drinking. We weren't supposed to drink since it didn't mix well with the medications we had to take every six hours, and I cursed when I remembered I forgot to take mine before we left our place.

"Yo, I completely forgot to take my pills before we left. So if I knock out, please don't let me fall on my ass in front of everyone like last time," I informed my brother, and he nodded, trying to hide his smirk. It was because of him the rumors about my condition started back at our old school and I tried not to resent him for that, because he was my brother and he meant no harm. It still pissed me off though and it sucked I couldn't do anything but let it roll off my shoulders. Saying anything to him now would only strain our brotherhood and that wasn't something I needed to do right before we started at a new school.

"You got it," Zander assured me. We fist bumped before we went our separate ways and I turned to talk to a pretty girl with a darker olive complexion. She'd given me the name Rhiannon Apani, which definitely sounded old-school Native American. It was an odd choice for such a vibrant and easy going girl. I learned she was currently entering her junior year of high school at the same place we had registered into yesterday afternoon, Pasadena High. She offered to be my tour guide around school on Monday, and I had no choice but to give in since her sultry smile had suddenly become my favorite thing to witness.

"You still have some innocence in those pretty eyes of yours. Would it be rude to assume you've never been kissed by a girl like me before?" Rhiannon teased as we stepped away from the crowd and sat by the boulders near the crashing waves. It was quieter here, and I could get to know this alluring and interesting girl beside me. Although Leah was still in the back of my mind, I had to come to terms with the fact that she might not be as into me as I was into her, considering she was still involved with Felix. Rhiannon on the other hand, was definitely unattached and into me. Or at least that's how she made it seem.

"Would you still like me if I said I've never been kissed before?" I asked with a smile, and she laughed as she balanced herself onto the boulders, her pigtails blowing against the ocean breeze, knocking them over her shoulders.

"It's possible, Zach Carter. It's very possible I also might like you more if you tried to kiss me right now," she baited as she finally found her seat next to me, but her energy was consumed by restlessness as she wrapped her arms around me and leaned in with a smile, waiting for me to make my move. I wanted to lean in and kiss her. I wanted to learn why couples spent so much time locking lips while out on dates instead of getting to know each other. But as soon as I felt my eyelids grow heavy, I could feel the beginning stage of my sleep paralysis as the drowsiness washed over me slowly.

"Hey, can I borrow my brother for a second?" Zander's voice caused me to wake up briefly, and Rhiannon pulled back, frowning slightly as she looked back and forth between us, while he and Giselle helped me get up.

"He doesn't look too good. Is he okay?" I could hear Rhiannon's voice slipping away as my brother and my cousin dragged me off the boulders and my brain began to fill up with a subtle fog, forcing me to close my eyes, my vision going dark as I succumbed to my unrelenting slumber.