The Shore Read online

  The band finished and the crowd cheered loudly.

  “All right, everyone, give all the bands a hand,” the announcer yelled, returning to the stage.

  People broke into more applause.

  “And now from the judges we have the top three bands of the night/7 the announcer said. “Number three . . . Gear Shift. Number two . . . Stranger Than Fiction.”

  “All right!” Owen shouted. “Go, roomie!” He and Polly gave each other high fives and turned to April and Avery.

  “Curt’s band got second place!” Owen cheered.

  “And number one . . . Naked Mole Rats!” said the announcer.

  The crowd roared its approval. In a way, April felt a slight wave of relief. At least the winning band was the one that really deserved it . . . unless they stole their songs from someone else too.

  Owen wasn’t sure what was going on, but both April and Avery looked really pissed. Naked Mole Rats had come out for an encore, but the two of them were standing stock-still like major sour pusses. Could they really be that upset that STF came in second? The smoke and spotlights swirling through the crowd gave them an eerie backdrop. What’s gotten into them? he wondered. And I thought Sabrina was intense. I wish she was here.

  Just then Curt came through the crowd to cheers all around. “You totally rocked!” Owen slapped him on the back.

  “Thanks, dude!” Curt said, jumping with excitement. “Where’s—”

  He turned, saw April and Avery, and didn’t finish the sentence. Owen had received a lot of nasty looks from girls in his life, but he was pretty certain that no girl had ever looked at him with as much anger as April.

  “How could you steal my songs?” she asked Curt.

  Whoa! Owen thought. That’s where those awesome songs came from? They were April’s?

  Curt’s eyes shot in Avery’s direction. Now Owen understood why both girls were so mad.

  “Look, let’s face it,” Curt said, his smile gone, “you never would have used those songs, anyway. You should be thanking me. At least I put them to good use. Now other bands will probably want them too. I did you a favor.”

  Interesting way of turning things around, Owen thought. Nice try, anyway.

  “She told me what you did,” Avery said. “You used her to get her songs.”

  “It didn’t mean anything, Avery—” Curt started to say.

  And even Owen knew that was the exact wrong thing to say.

  Whap! Avery slapped Curt hard across the jaw. Then she and April left, together.

  For a second it looked like Curt was going to follow them. Owen assumed he wanted to explain, or apologize, or do something to get Avery back. But then a couple of strangers came up. “That was awesome, dude, you rocked hard,” one told him, clapping him on the back.

  “I know the judges don’t agree, but I thought you crushed the Naked Mole Rats,” said the other.

  “Really?” Curt asked, beaming.

  “For sure.” More fans began to materialize, and Owen realized that Curt wasn’t going anywhere. He was exactly where he wanted to be.

  Martin appeared out of the crowd with a funnel and a hose. “Owen, do a beer bong.”

  Owen looked at it for a moment, tempted, but fighting the urge. This is the perfect time and place. Sabrina isn’t here, and Avery and April just left. He could do it. Just do one and not more. Just to get a nice little buzz.

  Then he took a deep breath and shook his head. Are you insane? What are you thinking? That is exactly what my father used to say. “No thanks, dude.”

  “Don’t be a wuss,” Martin urged him.

  “Sorry,” Owen said, starting to smile. “I’m sober, and planning on staying that way. You should try it some time.”

  He turned and saw Polly, who still looked stunned by everything that had just happened. Oops! Good thing he hadn’t had that beer bong. You never knew who might be watching.

  “Do you believe what Curt did?” she asked him.

  “Come on, Polly,” he said, “let’s get back to the house.”

  They started toward the exit and came face-to-face with Sabrina.

  “What are you doing here?” Owen asked, surprised.

  “The brats’ parents came home early,” Sabrina said.

  “Well, we’re just leaving,” Owen said.

  “I’ll go with you,” Sabrina said.

  “But you just got here,” Owen said. “Don’t you want to stay for a while?”

  Sabrina smiled. “I’ve been here for a while.”

  Owen didn’t get it. “Then why didn’t you come over sooner?”

  “I wanted to see what would happen,” Sabrina explained.

  “You mean with Curt and Avery?”

  “No,” Sabrina said and slid her arm through his. “With you and Martin.”

  Owen suddenly understood and grinned. “I did good, right?”

  “Yes.” Sabrina stood up on her toes and kissed him. “You did good.”

  Why did I wait all summer to do this again? Sabrina wondered as she sat on Owen’s bed kissing him. It felt so good to be wrapped in his arms and held close. It’s so different from the last time, she thought, and chuckled to herself. Both of us are sober this time.

  She pulled back slightly and started to unbutton her shirt. Before she could get very far, Owen’s hands closed around hers, stopping her.

  She leaned back, her guard instantly up. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “I just . . . I don’t want it to be like last time. I want to wake up in the morning and see you here and know you’re happy about it.”

  She pulled him close and kissed him long and hard. “I couldn’t be happier.”

  Polly watched the sun come up over the watery horizon. She’d been sitting on the beach for hours, unable to sleep. It was over, summer was gone, and it was time to head home. Back to school, back to her parents’ house, back to being boring Polly again.

  Nothing went the way I’d hoped, she thought. Tears slid down her cheeks.

  There were footsteps on the sand behind her, but she didn’t turn around. Probably just some early morning jogger.

  “Mind some company?”

  She looked up and saw Fred. She shook her head and turned back to the ocean. Let him see me crying. What does it matter? I’ll never see him again. I’ll never see any of them again.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, settling down beside her.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “Hey, come on,” he said. “Talk to me.”

  She had to smile a little. One thing about Fred, he was always attentive. They never made it back to the beach the night they were supposed to watch the fireworks, because Fred had entertained her with his amazing collection of funny magic tricks. It turned out that he was an amateur magician—just the sort of thing that would have invited putdowns from her roommates but that Polly actually found incredibly entertaining.

  “Well,” she said, “I guess the truth is, it’s been a pretty lousy summer.”

  “You serious?” he asked, sounding surprised.

  She wanted to lie, to tell him that it wasn’t true. She wanted to make him feel good, and should have kept her secrets to herself.

  “You want to talk about it?” he asked.

  “I know I shouldn’t feel this way,” she said. “It’s just . . . it wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be.”

  “Why?”

  “I just wanted us to all be one big happy family. It didn’t work, did it? A happy family doesn’t steal from one another and abuse one another and sleep with one another and act like it doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Guess not.”

  “I came here looking for the time of my life,” Polly went on, letting out all the pent-up frustrations of the summer. “I wanted to feel free, and all I felt was trapped. I wanted to make friends and meet a . . .” She let the words trail off, unfinished.

  “Polly, I really think you’re too hard on yourself,” Fred said. “You’re a good person
and you care about others. You’re also a lot of fun when you relax.”

  He was being nice, but she wasn’t in the mood to be consoled. “You want to know what the worst part is?”

  “What?”

  “I’m still a virgin.”

  Next to her, Fred was silent. Polly started to bite her lip. Why did she tell him that? Hadn’t she already suffered enough humiliations this summer? Why couldn’t she just keep her mouth shut for once?

  “Well,” Fred said with a slight chuckle. “Guess that makes two of us. Think of it, Polly, we must be the only virgins on the whole Jersey Shore.”

  She felt a smile grow on her face. Once again, he’d made her feel a little better. She turned to him. “You’re funny, you know that?”

  “Sometimes,” he said. “But you know what I think?”

  “What?”

  “I think maybe people like you and me aren’t made for heavy-duty partying and one-night stands and summer flings,” Fred said. “Deep down, neither of us really wants that. We have our own way of having fun and we’re both looking for someone we can share that with.”

  For the first time all summer she looked at him, really looked at him. He wasn’t a muscle-bound jock and didn’t have model looks, but he’d always been decent and real. Why hadn’t she taken him more seriously? Just because some of the others made fun of him, did she have to also?

  “I’m sorry,” she said, regret filling her. “I wasn’t really very nice to you all summer.”

  “It’s okay,” he said with a knowing smile. “I’m kind of used to that. All my life people have sort of passed me by without taking a second look. But I’ve always kind of thought of myself as a diamond in the rough.”

  She smiled back at him and slid her fingers through his. Somehow the summer didn’t seem all that bad after all.

  “I know the summer’s ending, but you don’t live that far away,” he said. “Think maybe I could come pay a visit one of these days?”

  “I’d like that,” she said, feeling warmth spread through her. She leaned on his shoulder and smiled. The sun was a little higher now, and she was just beginning to feel its warming rays.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  “I’m thinking,” Polly replied, “that maybe being a virgin isn’t so bad.”

  Avery came down the stairs for the last time. She had come to Wildwood innocently looking for quality time with her boyfriend and now she was leaving older, wiser, and a different person. She hadn’t gotten the time with Curt she’d wanted, but now that didn’t seem to matter. The house was quiet. Everyone seemed to be feeling moody as they packed up and started saying their goodbyes.

  Standing alone in the living room, her eyes strayed to Lucas’s door. She hadn’t seen him the night before or this morning. She was anxious to talk to him. There was so much she wanted to say.

  She had left Curt’s stuff outside the room the night before. He must have come over late and gotten it because it was gone when she got up. Unlike Lucas, she had nothing to say to him.

  There was a knock on the front door. Avery opened it and found Darek, the drummer for STF.

  “Hi,” Avery said, puzzled. She couldn’t imagine why he was there.

  “Hey, Ave, is April around?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure. I’ll go check.” Avery went up the stairs, knocked on April’s door, and told her. At first, April didn’t want to see him, but Avery urged her to at least hear what he had to say. Together, the girls came downstairs. When April saw Darek, she crossed her arms and pursed her lips with disapproval.

  “Listen,” Darek said, “I just wanted you to know that what Curt did wasn’t right, and the rest of us in the band would never have gone along with it had we known he stole those songs.”

  “Where’d you think they came from?” April asked.

  “Curt told us he wrote them,” Darek said, then added sheepishly, “I guess we should have known better.”

  “That’s for sure,” said Avery.

  “Well, in a way it almost doesn’t matter now,” he said, his eyes darting to Avery. “As of last night the band’s officially broken up. It’s been coming for a while, but last night was like the straw that broke the camel’s back. I guess Bobby and Austin have had it with this rock thing. Bobby says he’s going to college, and Austin wants to get a steady job.”

  “What about you?” April asked.

  “I’m gonna stick with it,” Darek said. “Maybe hook up with a group that needs a drummer, or put one together myself. Actually. . .” He trailed off.

  “Yes?” April asked.

  “I was kind of wondering if maybe you wanted to do something. Like a kind of reverse White Stripes, where the girl’s the singer-guitarist-songwriter and the guy’s the drummer.”

  April stared at him for a minute. “You serious?”

  “Well yeah, totally.”

  A smile grew on April’s face. “That’s a deal. You want to come upstairs for a second? I’ve got some songs I never showed Curt. I think they’re way better.”

  “Great.” Darek followed her up the stairs.

  Avery watched them go. It seemed like things had worked out for everyone. Owen and Sabrina had spent the night together, and she’d seen Fred and Polly holding hands on the beach earlier that morning. She was hoping it would work out for her, too. If only Lucas would come out of his room.

  Summoning her courage, she knocked on Lucas’s door. There was no answer and after a moment she pushed the door open. The room was empty. She was shocked. He was gone. Avery backed out of the room, not knowing what to think.

  “Looking for Lucas?”

  She turned. Owen had just come in the front door. She nodded.

  “I took him to the bus station a couple of hours ago,” Owen said.

  She stared at him almost uncomprehendingly. “Hours ago?” she repeated numbly.

  Owen nodded. “He’s gone.”

  Eleven

  Avery had caught glimpses of the Princeton University campus in the movie A Beautiful Mind. But the movie gave little hint how beautiful the actual campus was, with its magnificent ivy-covered stone buildings, vast green lawns, archways, and towers. She was awestruck by the place, and slightly amazed that anyone could simply stroll on the grounds. Signs around campus were announcing freshman orientation, and as she walked across the grass she saw groups of new students being led this way and that by older students in bright red T-shirts. Maybe it was her imagination, but everyone she saw seemed to look really smart, or maybe they just appeared smart because their clothes were a little dorky.

  The Bendheim Center for Finance was located in the Dial Lodge, a three-story, slate-roofed stone building that looked from the outside like an old mansion. Inside, it was air-conditioned and filled with modern office spaces and computer rooms. M. Lucas Haubenstock, Jr.’s office was on the second floor, and as Avery nervously climbed the stairs she expected that at any second, campus security would swarm in and escort her away.

  Instead, she found herself outside a heavy wooden door that was open just enough that she could see a sandy-haired man with bushy eyebrows inside reading with his feet up on his desk. He was wearing a white-and-red-striped shirt, a blue bowtie, and khaki slacks. A pair of reading glasses was perched low on his nose. Avery paused outside the door, swallowed anxiously, then knocked.

  “Yes?” the man looked up. “Come in?”

  Avery pushed the door open and stepped in. The office was piled high with textbooks and journals, and odds and ends—an African mask, a model of a Buddhist temple—that appeared to have come from all over the world.

  “Can I help you?” the man asked.

  “Are . . . you . . .” Avery suddenly hesitated, not sure whether to call him Mr. or Professor or something else entirely.

  The man scowled, “Am I . . . ?”

  “Uh, Lucas Haubenstock’s father?”

  The man frowned, then smiled. “Oh, you mean Trey.”

  “Sorry?” Avery said.<
br />
  “Trey. That’s what we call him. He’s the third, so we call him Trey. It’s been so long since I’ve heard anyone call him Lucas that for a second there, I forgot. Yes, I’m his father. How can I help you?”

  “I’m a friend of his. From the beach house this summer. And, well, I lost his address and phone number.” This wasn’t true. Lucas, or Trey, had never given them to her.

  “But you knew that his parents taught here, so you came,” M. Lucas Haubenstock, Jr., inferred. “Very smart. And you’d like to find him. Well, you’re in luck. I believe he’s over at the Firestone Library, probably asleep on a couch.” At Avery’s frown, he added, “Or wasting his time reading Russian literature.”

  Then he smiled and winked.

  Avery thanked him and found her way across the campus to the library, yet another tall, magnificent stone building with archways and enormous windows. Inside she wandered past the endless computer stations and stacks of books and tables until she spied Lucas lounging on a couch, absorbed in a book, his feet up on the corner of a low table—almost the same position she’d found his father in.

  She sat down on the other end of the couch. Lucas looked up. When he saw her, he blinked long and hard. Then slowly he lowered the book to his lap.

  “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to happen,” Avery said.

  He responded with an almost imperceptible nod.

  “I mean, if this were a movie, here’s what would happen,” she went on. “I would have come in here and found you with another girl. And you’d be whispering or touching or somehow being close in a way that would make me think she was your girlfriend. So I’d burst into tears and run away, but just as I did, you’d look up and see me and you’d run after me and be really glad to see me and I’d say, but who was that other girl, and you’d say, oh, that was just my cousin. And then we’d hug and kiss and the movie would end and we’d live happily ever after.”

  She hoped he’d smile. But he didn’t. Instead, he asked, “What about Curt?”

  “It’s over,” Avery said. “It’s been over for a long time. I just had to figure that out.”

  “Are you sure?” Lucas asked. “Because you weren’t so sure last time.”