Mango #7
Title: Chill
Author: cbrin
Challenge: Mango #7 if you only knew
Wordcount: 874
Rating: PG-13
Story Arc: Fortune-2
'Verse: Nu 'Verse
Summary: Kimmie and Dakota chat over ice cream.
Notes: Kimmie's personality is still in the developing stages, unfortunately, and I think this reflects it. Oh well.
“That’s an interesting necklace,” Dakota said, reaching out for her neck. His hand was close enough that she could feel the alternating heat radiating from his hand from the sun and cold radiating from his fingers from the ice cream, but he retracted his arm before he could actually touch it or her.
Kimmie passed her hand over the bell. Dakota stared, his narrow, pale green eyes following her movements. She accepted her ice cream from the vender and turned back around. He was staring at her, but it wasn’t desire in his eyes as his gaze travelled down her body. It was like he was cataloging her, making notes to be gone over later. Most guys, at least, stared at her chest, and she couldn’t actually fault them (okay, maybe a little) when she was hanging out as much as she was.
Adjusting her bathing suit top, she frowned at him. “So where did you get it?” he asked as they walked along the sidewalk, waving a hand to indicate her necklace again. “I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.” He smiled; it was wide and smug, like he knew what she was thinking. Not likely.
“Oh?” It was impossible for him to have seen it, though. He might have seen something like it in those punk-rocker/goth-type stores, but nothing exactly like what she was wearing. He had no idea. “It belonged to my mother.” Frown lines appeared between his eyebrows. “It’s a family heirloom.” He nodded, like he was agreeing with her.
“That’s nice.” His cheek dimpled and it would have been cute and endearing except it felt like he was humoring her.
Kimmie frowned at her melting ice cream. Leaning against the fence, she watched him as he rested his foot against the post. “So,” she said, changing the subject. “that guy, Denver was it? Your brother?”
“Yes.” He smiled again and she really felt like he was mocking her, like he knew exactly what she was doing. “Twin, actually.”
“That must have been fun.” Because she didn’t know what else to say.
“A barrel full of monkeys.” She snorted a laugh. Catching her gaze, he searched her eyes for something. Frowning, she turned away, unwilling to have someone look so intently into her eyes. It was weird. “At the risk of sounding like Denver,” she snorted again, “do you come to the beach often?”
Rolling her eyes, she turned away from him and stared at the waves crashing against the shore. The last thing she needed was some guy trying to get into her pants. It had been nice having a conversation that didn’t involve sex or fashion or her lack of both sex and fashion. And Gigi just studied too much, more now because of finals. Frowning, she faced Dakota again. “Is this your thing? You and Denver, I mean.” He looked confused. “Separate the herd? Divide and conquer?? ”
Laughing, he crossed his arms. “I sure know how to pick ‘em,” he muttered (not very softly). She scowled. “Contrary to what your ego might be telling you, this was intended to be a normal conversation. I have no designs on your body. I just wanted to know if this was the average crowd level. Denver and I are from the city and Crescent Beach gets way more traffic than this. ”
She scowled. “You’re just doing this to annoy me, aren’t you?”
He blinked at her, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well, I’ll have you know it’s not working.” He raised an eyebrow. He was infuriating, but she refused to let him get to her. “You’re from the city?” she asked with forced nonchalance. “How very interesting. Why didn’t you go to the college there?”
He laughed again, but played along. “I do. Class ended about a week ago and I’ve been hanging with Denver, trying to get him to study for finals. Things like that.”
“If he’s anything like Holly it’s pretty much a loss cause.” Laughing, he nodded. “Holly and I and our friend Gigi were thinking of getting an apartment in the city,” she admitted, swallowing the last of her cone so she wouldn’t have to see his face.
“Cool. Maybe we’ll see you around.”
She frowned. “Not likely. It’s just for the summer.”
“Okay.”
“But if it’s in a good location we’ll stay and commute. It’s barely twenty minutes and I finally have enough for a car.”
“Yeah, that’s what Denver does most of the time. He’s in a dorm this year, but I have an apartment and he’s usually there more often than not. It’s not too bad.”
“Great,” she said flatly. Silence stretched between them. Kimmie’s breath came out in a frustrated explosion. She’d tried to catch him in a lie, but he seemed to have a perfectly reasonable response to everything. And his smug grin hadn’t wavered yet. “Let’s go make sure Holly and you’re brother aren’t scarring little children.” Making a sound of agreement, he silently followed her. He didn’t pointing out that the beach was owned by the college and therefore most of the inhabitants were also trying to eat each other’s faces. Inexplicably, that pissed her off more.