Avra's God by Ann Lee Miller

clamped around her
waist from behind. Kallie’s octopus sprung to her mind—a giant,
sci-fi creature—and she wrenched away with all her strength.
    “Avra!” Cisco held his hand to his lip. A
tiny trickle of blood ran toward his chin. “You didn’t have to deck
me.”
    She panted and pressed her palm against her
racing heart. “You didn’t have to scare me to death! I thought you
were Kallie’s octopus.”
    “Kallie’s what?”
    Avra reached for his chin and wiped the blood
off with her thumb. “You’re bleeding. Now we’ll have sharks.”
    Cisco licked his lip. “I’ve woken up with
worse than this after a night of partying.”
    She looked at him to gauge whether he was
serious.
    “Yeah, puking in the sand—my head rolling
around like a bowling ball, my skin burned tomato red, tighter than
a flipping rubber band.” Cisco swam out beyond the wave break.
    She followed. She touched bottom and felt the
sand recede beneath her toes as she stood. “Why did you get that
wasted?”
    Cisco shoved soggy corkscrews of hair from
his face. “For a few hours I could forget.”
    “Forget what?”
    He shrugged. “Pop’s freak-out—ditchin’ Mamá.
I could forget that we moved into the projects, that Mamá’s
breakin’ her back cleaning schools.” Cisco hurled a hunk of seaweed
toward the horizon. It sloshed into a wave ten yards away.
    “I’m pretty sure killing brain cells with
alcohol won’t make the pain go away.”
    He treaded water as a wave rolled through.
“Your point is—I’m just gonna be whacked, goin’
nowhere.”
    She watched a seagull take off. “You’re going somewhere .”
    Cisco jabbed his chin at her in challenge.
“Where?”
    “Where do you want to go?”
    Cisco focused on the clouds. “I want a life —a family that works. Not the family I was born into.”
He darted a look at her, then stared hard at the horizon.
    “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a happy
family. That’s what everybody wants.”
    “Ha! Not the guys in Computer Science. In
last week’s PowerPoint presentations, they said they want hot
girls—not marriage—and definitely not kids.”
    She arched her brows at him. “And you told
them what you just told me?”
    “What? Are you loco ? I told them I
wanted a fast car, homemade chocolate chip cookies—and a hot
girl.”
    She shot him a smug look. She’d picked up a
thing or two living with brothers.
    He shrugged. “Nobody cares what I do
anyway.”
    “I care.” It was out before she realized
she’d said it.
    “Yeah, that’s why you gave me a fat lip.”
    She splashed him.
    He walked toward her in the chest-high water,
arms dragging behind. “Repeat after me, Cisco is not an
octopus.”
    She scooted away, grinning. “Cisco is a
barracuda.” She dove and sprinted for shore.
    His hands grabbed at her feet. When her
fingertips brushed the sand, she put her feet down to stand. But
Cisco lunged and tackled her. They fell into the sloshing waves,
laughing.
    Cisco’s arm clamped around her middle, his
skin slick against hers. His breath warmed her neck, melting her
desire to break away.
    A wave crashed behind them, tumbling them
further toward shore. Her backside planted hard in the sand. Her
legs flowed over Cisco’s.
    They sat nose to nose, Cisco’s arm still
gripping her waist. He smirked as though he’d planned it that
way.
    Her eyes widened. She felt the blush crawl up
her face.
    He grinned and squeezed her tighter against
his chest. “What’s the matter, Avra, am I in your personal
space?”
    Her heart raced as she sucked in her
breath.
    His grin faded, his eyes searching hers. His
gaze dipped to her lips and returned to reading her eyes. Water
channeled around them and retreated.
    His eyes warmed and softened, reminding her
again of hot fudge.
    He relaxed his grip.
    She didn’t move. Finally, she remembered to
breathe. She scooted a couple of feet away and wrapped her arms
around her knees, her senses reeling. Cool water rushed in