Page 27 of The Other Side of Paradise (Story of Paradise #2)
Stella
I was not a climber.
I tried my best to be for about five minutes.
Full of hope and dreams and lofty aspirations while Brooklyn was guiding me, Ryan, Oscar and Allison through warmup stretches.
And then I hit the wall and I felt what it was actually like to hoist myself up the thing, wobbling around on the tiniest little footholds and grabbing at anchors on the wall that felt like trying to hold a beach ball with one hand, and I reached that conclusion before I was two feet off the ground:
“I’m not a climber,” I said, exhausted and wiped already, as I walked away from the wall together with Oscar and dropped down on the bench next to Ryan, Oscar sitting on my other side.
Brooklyn was still guiding a feisty Allison up the wall despite the latter’s complaints, but I was tapped out, sinking back into the seat with a groan. “This kind of sucks.”
“Ah…” Ryan laughed. “You and Allison are so in sync.”
I rolled my eyes, laughing, looking across the gym at Allison struggling while reaching for a hold. “She’s not nearly as bad as she said she was,” I said, and Ryan sighed.
“She’s… trying to show off. Even if she’s mad Oscar is better than she is without putting in the slightest bit of effort.”
Oscar grinned at the two of us. “It’s kinda fun. Brooklyn’s a good teacher.”
“She is… definitely very good at what she does,” Ryan said, her voice measured. I didn’t get why the careful wording, but I wasn’t prying. I looked across the gym, off to where Brooklyn hopped up onto the wall next to Allison, demonstrating a technique for her.
“She’s really cool,” I said. “I don’t know how she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
Ryan snorted, which I assume was about me going on about everybody’s love lives, but she should have known by now who I was. “Ah… you know how it is,” she said. “Not a lot of people really stay on the island. Everyone’s just coming and going.”
God, that sounded miserable. I frowned at her. “That’s kinda sad,” I said. “Doesn’t that get lonely?”
Oscar laughed. “Doesn’t sound half-bad to me. You’re left alone to your own devices, anyone annoying in your life eventually leaves…”
I elbowed him. “Not everyone is a misanthrope. Some of us want real connections!”
Ryan laughed quietly. “Like with you and Jacob.”
I grinned at her. “That’s not a real connection. But some of us want real connections and a couple of fun connections too. It’s called living life. You should try it!”
Oscar spoke lightly. “I think Ryan’s living life as it is.”
I snorted. Ryan pitched in with, “I really, really am,” and I rolled my eyes at her.
“Okay, sure,” I said. “You won’t even entertain the idea of a little flirting with somebody while you’re here.”
“Ah… yes, well,” she said, her words carefully picked. “I’m having my fun.”
I elbowed her. “No, you are not. Come on. After this, we should go to a bar or club or something and you can at least tell me if any of the guys there are attractive.”
She plastered on a thin smile. “I’m good, thanks.”
“Come on . What’s the holdup?”
Oscar sighed. “Stella, she’s hooking up with Brooklyn,” he said, and Ryan choked, putting a hand over her mouth, and I whipped over to face him.
“What?” I scowled. “Ryan’s not a lesbian.”
He shrugged, like I was being unreasonable. “I don’t know how she would choose to describe herself, but they’re very obviously a thing.”
Oh, god. There was no way. “What?” I turned on Ryan, who still wasn’t looking at me. Oh my god. Was there a way? “Are you—huh?” I fumbled. “Are you hooking up with Brooklyn?”
“Yep.” She inspected her fingernails, dripping awkwardness.
Oh my god. I was going to kill her. My jaw fell to the floor, staring at her, before I looked over to Oscar, and across the gym at Brooklyn—at my sister’s lesbian hookup—before I looked back at Ryan.
“Huh?” I shook my head. “Oh my god. That’s why you won’t go talking about boys or flirting or anything, because you’re already—? ”
“Uh… uh-huh.” She refused to look away from her fingernails. I gestured vaguely.
“But—but you were with Shane and everything, and now…?”
“Yep.”
God, she was giving me nothing. I blinked fast. “So you’re… what?” I said. “You’re like, bisexual or something?”
She spoke in probably the most awkward voice I’d ever heard her use. “That’d be the term for it, yeah, pretty sure that’s generally what people call it.”
Oh my god, Ryan was bisexual. And hooking up with the bartender. “Oh my god, you never told me.”
“You never asked.”
This damn woman. I threw my hands up. “Who the hell asks? When was the last time you just dropped on someone hey are you bisexual? ”
Oscar spoke like he wasn’t paying too much attention. “It’s been kind of obvious for a long time now,” he said, and I shot him a look, but Ryan joined me this time, glowering at him with me and speaking before I could.
“If you knew, you could have said so earlier and saved me a lot of trouble wondering if I was supposed to say it.”
Oscar raised his eyebrows. “I thought that was how we were all just acknowledging it. Figured you weren’t really looking to talk about it.”
Ugh, Jesus Christ. This damn family again refusing to use their damn words. I gestured wildly between them. “Wait, so did everyone know about this but me?”
Ryan laughed awkwardly. “I honestly think it was just Oscar,” she said. “Given some of the things Grandpa has on his Facebook, I don’t think he suspects the… the horrors of a single non-straight person in his family.”
Okay, thank god. Probably just Oscar. I could see that. Harder to slip something past your twin. Just Oscar. And now me. Knowing that Ryan was gay. I stared at her, and I laughed breathlessly. “Oh my god, so you’re hooking up with Brooklyn,” I said, and she scratched her head.
“We’ve covered that part, yeah…”
I laughed again, louder this time. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you,” I said. “You’ve been introducing me to your hookup and you didn’t even tell me.”
“You… didn’t ask.”
“Shut up,” I laughed, just about ready to vibrate out of my skin. I hadn’t given her nearly enough credit. She’d been hooking up already. With someone ten times more interesting than some random volleyball guy on the beach. “Oh my god, I love it,” I said. “She’s really hot.”
She gave me a weird look. “I’m not looking to share, sorry.”
“Ew. I’m not sharing a hookup with my sister. That’s disgusting.” I laughed. “I can’t believe you’ve been doing this right under my nose and you never said.”
Oscar sighed. “Like I said, it’s been obvious to anyone looking. They’ve been flirting nonstop.”
“I thought you two were just, like, really good friends.” I laughed again, shaking my head. “This is my favorite thing ever. Your ex tried to cheat on you with this girl so you went and slept with her instead.”
Ryan cleared her throat hard. “It’s not like I was doing it to make a point,” she mumbled. “She was just… well, she was really supportive and gave me a place to crash—”
“Oh, I’ll bet she did,” I said, voice dripping with innuendo, and she withered.
“And she’s very nice to be around,” she said, very polite, very measured. I laughed.
“I’ll say. Oh my god. Okay, so I was underestimating you. You beat me to the hooking-up game and now I’m pissed off.”
“I’m… sorry for that, then?” she said, hands up awkwardly.
“So?” I rested my elbows on my knees, leaning in and dropping my voice. “She’s better in bed than he was, right?”
Oscar stood up with an exasperated groan. “I think I don’t feel like being part of this conversation. I’ll go climb some more.”
I waved him off impatiently. “Yeah, yeah,” I said, not looking away from Ryan. “Answer the question.”
She cleared her throat, not looking at me. “Ah… yes. A lot.”
I just about scream-laughed. “Oh my god, I love that,” I said, a hand over my mouth as I kept laughing. “I would be rubbing it in Shane’s face if it were me.”
She picked at her fingernails. “I… have.”
“ Stop, ” I shouted, muffled into my hands, laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. “Are you serious?”
“He did not like it,” she said, in that kind of measured-understatement voice.
“What did you say? ”
“That’s between me and Shane. And between me and Brooklyn.”
“Literally tell me right now,” I said, and she relented, hands up.
“I told him I could see why he’d want to trade me in for her, and that I was very much enjoying trading him in for her.”
That was great and all, but I pouted. “But you didn’t mention how the sex is better with her?”
“I…” She looked away. “I did that later.”
Oh my god, this was the best day of my life. I was going to treasure this memory forever. “God, I wish I could have seen his face,” I laughed, and I looked across the gym to Brooklyn. Tall and athletic, kinda ripped, very cool. Huh. “So that’s your type, huh?”
“Very much, categorically, yes. I’m finding this out now too,” she said, doing that thing where she was dripping embarrassment from every word and trying to bundle it up inside professionalism to hide it badly.
“I mean, I can see it,” I laughed. “She’s seriously hot. I’m a little jealous.”
She gave me a wild-eyed look. “What, you want to find a hot girl to hook up with too?”
“What? No. No, I’m… no.” I frowned. I didn’t like how uncomfortable that made me for a second. “I just mean, I wish I had a hookup that hot. God, that would really make this vacation.”
“I’m sure… I’m sure Jacob would be happy to be that hot hookup for you if you’re willing to get over all the gender roles enough to ask him out,” she said, and I sighed wearily.
“I don’t know. I just want it to happen organically.”
She looked at me skeptically. “You want it to happen without you having to do anything.”
“Look, it’s just weird!” I said, elbowing her. “Maybe it’s different with a girl, I don’t know.”
“You could try it out,” she said, gesturing across the gym. “You know Allison has a crush on you.”