Under the Dusty Moon by Suzanne Sutherland Page B

the stank shirt needed. But I breathed in deeply through my nose and let the wind toss around my still sweaty hair. I could feel the tense muscles in my shoulders start to relax a bit. I just had to remember to breathe.
    We docked a few minutes after that. We walked with the crowd getting off the ferry, and then as soon as I had the space to move, I hopped back on my bike. At least while we were riding we didn’t have to talk. And I couldn’t say anything stupid.
    We rode more slowly than on the mainland. Shaun kept trying to catch up and ride beside me, but I fought to stay ahead, where he couldn’t hear the words coming out of my dumb mouth. It only took a few minutes before we found the entrance to the beach. There was a little path that led to a boardwalk and we locked our bikes up nearby.
    The sand was scorching hot on our feet and we walked in slow motion over the little hills of sand that finally gave way to the lake. It looked good enough to drink, though I knew that that was a terrible idea. Lake Ontario was a giant pool of poison, but it looked pretty good from the Island.
    We inched our way closer to the water, and I pointed out a spot near a giant beach umbrella. “Is here okay?”
    â€œYeah,” he said, “fine by me.”
    He took off his shirt and his sandals. His belly was soft and a little bit flabby, and his chest was pale and spotted all over with freckles. There were thousands of freckles, nearly blotting out the pale skin on his shoulders and his chest. I wanted to kiss every single one of them. Or his lips, at the very least. I dared myself to do it. I was buzzed already, but I definitely wasn’t drunk enough for that kind of bravery.
    I took off my shirt, grateful at last to have an excuse to stash the offending stench. It’s okay , I told myself, let the bikini work its magic. Just relax . I rolled my head around on my neck in a full circle and felt a tiny crack. Loosen up , I thought. Loose. Loose. Loose .
    I laid my towel out and flopped down onto it. I breathed deeply and tried to slow my heart to the speed of the crashing waves. “More?” I asked, offering him the spiked Coke.
    â€œSure,” he said, stretching out on the sand next to me.
    But as I reached over to pass Shaun the bottle, my eye got stuck on something.
    Something yellow.
    Fluorescent yellow.
    A huge, hairy man in a tiny fluorescent yellow bathing suit.
    The huge man turned around — it was a thong!
    â€œWhat?” Shaun said, noticing my wide eyes. “Oh, yeah, I guess this is, like, a nude beach, huh?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I asked, turning to look behind me as my eyes bugged out of my skull like a chihuahua.
    Naked people. Men, mostly. Old ones. Wrinkly ones with beef-jerky skin. There were some young people, too, though. A group of girls with their tops off were playing a game of volleyball not far from where we’d sat down. Their boobs jiggling as they jumped up to hit the ball.
    Naked people.
    A beach full of them.
    That was where I’d taken Shaun on our first date — a naked beach.
    Did he think I’d brought him here on purpose? That I wanted to take off all my clothes in public — or worse, that I wanted him to? He’d think I was some kind of pervert.
    I could see naked people everywhere now. There was so much skin. How had I not noticed as we sat down?
    I felt sick, nauseous. I was going to hurl. I was going to puke in front of all the naked people on the beach. Oh god, they were so, so naked. They were everywhere.
    A couple in their seventies walked past us on their way across the sand and offered a wink and what I’m sure they thought was a friendly, knowing nod.
    Oh god.
    I had to go.
    â€œI’ve gotta …” I said, grabbing my putrid shirt back out of my bag and pulling it back over my head. Somehow the smell was magnified now, like it had been put under some kind of smell-microscope .
    â€œWhat?” Shaun