Her chest puffed out slightly, bravado always preceding sense with this girl. With another one of her loopy smiles she asked, “Because I'm the perfect test subject?"
Leaning in, I lowered my voice to a whisper, "Because of all the porn, Cee."
Her face blanched. "You found that, huh?"
"Ceci!"
This had her bursting out laughing. "I'm kidding! I’m kidding! Serves you right for being such a smartass, though.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, reaching up to pinch her face. “But that’s really that. I've been
perfecting my own proprietary software in hopes that I can maybe someday, you know?"
She shook her head.
"So I might someday start up my own thing. Cyber security, data analytics, that kind of stuff.” More insecurity filled me as I peeked over at her. But instead of finding her making a face of judgment, she was nodding her head. Listening as if she was ready to hear more.
“What would you name it?”
“What?”
“Your company, what would you name it?”
“Hmm.” I looked out past Ceci’s shoulders toward the moving sea, a memory surfacing. “I've always thought I’d name it after the cliff on the edge of North Seaside. Not the high one, the low one. Everyone hated it there because you couldn’t go too close to the edge without constantly getting sprayed. It was also really loud. Sometimes rocks would fall from the edge of the cliff too. It’s known for being the most temperamental ledge in the city.”
“And that's what you want to name it after?" she asked, her brow furrowing.
“Well yeah,” I said. “Everyone else hated it, but I loved it anyway. No one else saw the beauty in it like I did. I used to go there all the time to read up on computers and code before I grew the balls to just do what I loved at home. I learned a lot of what I know today getting drenched out there. It’s a good memory even though it’s a pretty shitty cliff.”
Her mouth was smiling softly, but her eyes held a tip of trepidation. Shaking her head she said, “Then do it, Connor. Tell your family to fuck off and do what you want.”
I shook my head. “I'm not you, Cee. I'm not capable of just telling my family to fuck off.”
Letting out a long sigh, she slapped her palms over her thighs and said, “You'll get there one day grasshopper. But until then, let's do something more fun than moping around the beach, yeah?"
“Like what?” I asked, caution lacing my tone.
You had to watch out with Ceci. Her whims were vast and could consist of anything from laying on the couch all night, to flying to the Bahamas. You just never knew. Luckily, she read the apprehension in my eyes and reassured me with a nod toward something behind me.
“Don't worry, I swore off my crazy when I broke this remember?” She asked, holding up her wrapped wrist.
I snorted, holding out my hand. “I doubt that. How’s it feeling?”
Easily, she offered me her injured wrist to inspect. "Feeling better, I think. It's done throbbing at least."
“Good,” I said. “So, what are we doing?”
Tossing her chin to something behind me, she waited impatiently for me to get the hint and look. When I did, I saw two short boards stuck in the sand.
“No way,” I said, turning around to meet her eyes. They were smiling happily in contrast to her know-it-all smirk. Probably because she’d somehow figured out that I loved skim boarding and secretly thought it might be fun for the two of us to do it together. “When did you get these?”
“Today," she said.
“For me?"
“Who else?"
I looked away as my heart squeezed.
