Chapter 4 #2
“Shocked to see you out here,” Pope said as he stuck his board in the sand several feet away. “Didn’t think Danger would have the insurance claims finished until Wednesday at the latest.”
“They’re not finished, but he kicked me loose since he was already in a pissy mood after Mz.
Kat cut him off from the ice cream bars,” Roan explained.
“No one is supposed to go to the gas station to grab him any either. She told me to make sure I passed it on, since he’s killed a box already today. ”
“He’s in there smoking his ass off, isn’t he?” Pope asked, while the always silent Kazzy stood his board in the sand much the same way.
In the six months he’d been with the club, Roan hadn’t heard him utter a word.
Whether it was by choice or because he lacked the ability to speak, he’d never heard anyone say, so the silent man remained a bit of an unnerving enigma to him and a mystery too.
His piercing blue eyes resembled Pope’s, so much so that now that they were standing side by side, Roan began picking up on other similarities too, enough to leave him convinced they were related.
“Yes, sir,” Roan replied as Ocean, the last one out of the water, jogged over with his board. As soon as he’d situated his beside the other ones, he tugged the elastic from his hair and turned away from them to shake out some of the water.
“Hey man,” Ocean said, grinning down at Roan. “You should join us next time.”
Roan just glanced over at the boards and shook his head. “I’m not the best swimmer, so going out there as far as you guys do wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Ocean appraised him for a moment, and Roan could have sworn he saw a flash of disappointment before Ocean cocked his head. “No better place to learn than when you’ve got a private stretch of beach to play on and plenty of people willing to lend a hand.”
“S-seriously?” Roan stammered, shocked to his core at the offer. “You wouldn’t mind giving me pointers.”
“I hate being indoors,” Ocean replied. “Any time I get to spend in the water is time well spent.”
“Thanks. I’d like that.”
“Let me know the next time you’re free,” Ocean said before plopping down in the sand across from Roan and digging his fingers into it.
When he started scooping sand toward him, Roan saw the beginnings of a hole forming, made wider when Pope sat between them and lent his hands to Ocean’s excavation efforts.
Roan reached forward, hesitant at first, unsure if his help would be welcome, but when no one said anything or cut him a scathing look, he happily dug the hole with them.
Every now and again, one of them would scoot back so they could widen it more until Kazzy returned with an armful of dry, sun-weathered driftwood and knelt across from Pope to begin arranging it in the hole they’d dug.
Oh, right on. A fire meant they’d be here a while instead of heading in the way Roan had expected them to do when they’d come out of the water.
“Did you grow up inland?” Ocean asked. “Is that why you never learned to swim very well?”
“Yeah, Durham, at least until the state sent me to live with my grandparents in Raleigh,” Roan replied.
“How’d you wind up all the way out here?” Pope asked.
Roan shrugged. “Wasn’t exactly intentional, more like I just picked a direction and drove. I didn’t realize I was headed for the ocean until I saw it for the first time. I just knew I had to get the hell out of there.”
“That’s how I felt about California,” Ocean admitted.
“Too many ghosts. It got so the waves couldn’t gray them out anymore.
When everyone I knew started gearing up to jet off to Newcastle Beach, I decided to end my season out here.
Meeting you guys was the universe’s way of telling me I made the right decision. ”
“Do you ride?” Roan asked.
“Only if someone else is driving,” Ocean replied, chuckling.
“My dad’s old bike is in storage, along with other keepsakes from my folks, now that the house is finally off the market.
I wish the new owners well; it’s a beautiful place, but there was no way I could ever live in it. I’d miss them too much.”
“Sometimes, the wisest decision you can make is to walk away from something you know will hurt you,” Pope said.
His words resonated with Roan, who knew all about what it was like to live in an unhealthy environment, though he suspected that he and Ocean were talking about two vastly different experiences.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kazzy nodding as he finished arranging the wood to his satisfaction before lighting the pieces he’d broken into kindling beneath the bigger chunks.
“I always wanted to learn to ride, but I was afraid of wrecking dad’s bike in the process,” Ocean explained.
“Didn’t make much sense to get a shitty one to learn on when I couldn’t exactly haul my board around on it, at least not easily.
I checked out the way a few guys had rigged theirs and decided it was way too complicated for someone who didn’t have a clue what they were doing and stuck with the Jeep. ”
“Yeah, those boards will throw the balance off if you’re on two wheels,” Pope said. “I’ve seen experienced riders miscalculate the lean the first time they tried it.”
When Pope started rubbing at the spot between his eyes, Roan’s first thought was that he was trying to rid himself of a piece of ash or sand until he frowned harder, cracked his neck, and dropped his hand to stare into the flames.
“That bike,” Pope said after several long moments of contemplative silence. “It wouldn’t happen to be a blue and black Triumph chopper with a spider web wrapped around the gas tank, would it?”
Ocean blinked, fingers ceasing the lazy patterns he’d been tracing through the sand. “Yeah.”
“I remember when it was nothing but a stripped-down frame half-sunk in a patch of mud in this old guy’s field,” Pope muttered.
“Took three of us to dig it out and smooth out the hole to the dude’s satisfaction before he’d let us leave.
Took your old man a year to hunt up enough parts to get her running again, and he was still swapping out parts when he rolled out of here. ”
“I’ve got some pictures of him on it back in my cabin if you’d ever like to see them,” Ocean said. “I’d have broken them out the other night, but they were still tucked away in all my stuff.”
“Love to,” Pope replied.
“If you still want to learn, I can teach you,” Roan offered. “Call it a trade.”
“Works for me.”
“Then it’s settled, as long as you guys don’t mind me getting in on the lessons too,” Pope offered.
Roan immediately sat up straighter, while across from him, Ocean sat nodding his head.
“I don’t mind,” Roan said.
“I’d welcome all the help I can get,” Ocean said. “But only after the competition, where the only whipping out I’ll be doing is on the waves.”
“I can appreciate that,” Pope replied. “Sounds like you plan to stick around afterwards then.”
Roan felt a twinge of jealousy at the hopeful tone in Pope’s voice and immediately shoved it aside, not wanting to feel that way about the first potential friend he might have found out here.
Pope’s interest was probably just because of his closeness with Ocean’s father and the nostalgia their conversations conjured up.
Besides, Pope had given him no indication that he was anymore interested than the rest of them were, even if Roan wished for something different.
Better to have a new friend than face another rejection.
Those were seriously starting to sting.