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"Yo, cuz," Matt said, and gave ave h they were an odd duo, I couldn’t help but feel a lot of affection towardout of trouble?" I winked at the to," Matt said He shot a tepid look at his dad, then shrugged nonchalantly at ht to have a bonfire on the beach"

"I’ve got a gas can all ready to go," Tony piped up

Oh, great Gasoline, booze, and ? But the idea of having a bonfire with a bunch of young guys did sound ht that usually unfolded atto play Scrabble with the fa the board over in anger

The rest of the day went along without incident After everything was set up for the evening, I went on rounds with my SLR cas ith last night’s dew that clung to the high, brown grass, I skirted alongside the beautifully broken down fence that divided their property and the neighboring cheese farm I removed my sweater and tied it around my waist; the sunshine was blissfully warentle sounds of the waves, with birds that flittered above my head and the occasional " hills of pine that soared up the nearby cliffs and undulated inland In front of ated with ease, and beyond that, the spotty dunes and its hardy foliage

I climbed to the top of a shthouse, with its rounded head of cracked paint sticking out over a rusted red roof The lighthouse wasn’t your typical straight up and down phallic-looking thing Instead it was built into a two-story building, rising out of it like a bell tower (I fancied this one looked rather like the Mission in Hitchcock’s Vertigo) The building was boarded up and the lighthouse lacked a functioning light, but it still felt alive toat the lighthouse when the breeze picked up It ca wet and salty air over my ar so, I peeked out of one of the holes in the front I saw a hthouse door, like someone had walked in front of it

I froze Then quickly pulled down ain

There was no one there

Shivers ran down hthouse when I heardwind I debated a hter, faht be the better option I watched the lighthouse for a few more minutes until the lack of movement squashed my curiosity and headed back to the house

It was about ten pm when our parents finally retired to their roo a ‘50s B-movie (None of Theht, ere up with our box of wine and heading for the beach

Matt and Tony were already there, as were several of their friends Because a fence didn’t protect the beach area, it was easy for thehway and onto the sand

The wind had picked up as the night went on, and I was grateful for the warht sky was still clear with millions of stars sprinkled across the sreyany closer; it was just hovering Waiting offshore

The bonfire was going full-blast thanks to generous helpings of Tony’s gas can, which I eventually confiscated and kept far away from us on the other side of a dune

It was a cozy scene I was huddled on a long piece of driftwood beside the twins and so opposite the fire were a fewa very close eye on her She had been sneaking sips of wine and beer all night Noas definitely not one to talk--at her age I was doing far worse--but as far as I kneasn’t sure if Ada was much of a drinker In fact, I had never seen her drunk before and she obviously was now She was drinking Old English out of a paper-bagged 40 oz (because that was cool?) bottle and alternating between cuddling up to and slobbering over a greasy dude called Whiz That made ible out of all of Matt and Tony’s friends For one, I already knew he had a girlfriend He was talking about her earlier and, as you can ih, I had heard Al once say that the twins hadn’t started getting into trouble until they met Whiz His name, by the as totally lost on me He seemed to have half the IQ of someone from Jersey Shore

And, as always, the fact that Ada see way This tiuy to slobber over Not that I would ever touch Whiz or any of Matt and Tony’s friends in a million years…well, OK, that wasn’t exactly true There was a cute guy on the other side of the fire that I should have been all over if only I wasn’t a couys He was just ht eyes and wavy chestnut hair that sparkled all pretty in the fire’s glow

But despite the fact that ere exchanging flirtatious glances across the fire (at least mine were flirtatious; he probably just had s anything about it Years of having your appearance poked at tended to make you quite insecure with the opposite sex

I sighed and looked over at the dark waves crashing on the shore I kneas a little bit drunk fro with a bunch of teenagers was starting to feel stifling I wanted to get up and explore I wanted to check out the lighthouse