Chapter 2
TWO
COLTON
“Everything alright, Kairi?” Gabriel calls from the shore.
“Sorry Coach!” She shouts, surfacing from her third fall in the last thirty minutes. She grabs her board, pushing loose, wet curls from her face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.”
I steal a glance at Koa, who joined us for training today, despite his temporary hiatus from competing, and he returns the same knowing look.
We both know exactly what’s going on.
Zale is at the airport picking up his Italian friend, Alessia, before bringing her back to the Shredder House where she’ll be staying for the next month. And Kairi has been wiping out ever since he left.
“Do you need the day off?” Gabriel asks, but Kairi shakes her head and mounts her board again.
“I’m fine!” she shouts. “Let’s go again!”
We continue our session, though he barely pays attention to me—as usual.
I glance to my left where Griffin is coaching our five new team members—Josh, Bodhi, Summer, Lindsey, and Cass. Any day now, they’ll be joining the intensive team practices with the rest of us, and I’d bet anything Gabriel will spend more time watching them too.
I hate to admit it, but lately I’ve started wondering if I still belong here. Griffin and Koa keep telling me the team needs me, but every day that Gabriel ignores me, it gets harder and harder to believe them.
The sound of Kairi crashing into the water again pulls my attention back to our practice.
She surfaces, gasping for air, one hand pressed against her forehead as her face twists in pain.
Her board—snapped free from the ankle strap—floats farther out, and within seconds blood trickles down the side of her face.
“She’s hurt!” I shout, already paddling toward her as Gabriel blows his whistle, signalling to the rest of the team to exit the waters.
My heart kicks hard against my ribs as her blood drips into the water.
It’s been years since anyone’s spotted a shark out here, but I’m not taking any chances—especially not with her.
I help her climb onto the front of my board and start paddling us toward the shore, Koa following close behind with the pieces of her board.
When we reach the shallows, I jump off and grab her arm to steady her. She tries to wave me away, but I keep a steady hand on her until we’re safely up the beach and she’s seated in the sand.
“Are you alright?” Gabriel asks as he rushes over and kneels in front of her with his first aid kit.
“I’m more embarrassed than anything,” Kairi mutters. “I pretty much face-planted on my board.”
She wipes at the blood running down her cheek, only managing to smear it worse.
Gabriel examines the cut before clicking his tongue. “I could be wrong, but I think you’re going to need a stitch or two for this one.”
He presses gauze to her forehead and she winces, taking over holding it there.
“I’m so sorry for ruining practice, Coach,” she mutters as she watches Griffin usher the new members out of the water.
“You didn’t ruin anything, Kairi,” he says with a frown. “Now, let me get you to the doctor to get that stitched up.”
“I can take her,” I say quickly.
He looks over at me, as if only just realizing I’m here. “Okay,” he nods. “Sure. Why not?”
I help Kairi to her feet and wrap a towel around her before grabbing one for myself.
We walk to my pickup truck and I help her in, shutting her door and walking to the drivers side.
I toss my towel on my seat before I hop in, trying my best not to wet anything, and take off toward the doctors office in the town square.
“Today sucks,” she mumbles, staring out the window.
Her hair is still damp, dark curls sticking to her neck.
“It’s barely started,” I say, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Well, I wish it would just end.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to hide my smile.
She’s been dreading meeting Alessia ever since I told her the news, and she’s definitely not looking forward to seeing Zale trip over himself around Alessia either. To be honest, I’ve been dreading it too, but mostly because I know how much it’s going to hurt Kairi.
I don’t like seeing her hurt. It makes me want to step in and fix everything for her because she was the first person to welcome me back into that house, and the first person to treat me like I still belong on the team.
She took care of me when I nearly died at The Cove bonfire party two years ago, and a part of me has always felt like I owe her for that; for being a good person; for caring when no one else did.
“How about we go to the movies after the doctor?” I suggest.
She’s quiet for a moment, and when I look over, I find her staring at me as she anxiously nibbles her bottom lip with a deep frown.
“Just us?” she asks.
“Yeah.” I shrug. “By the time the movie ends everyone will already be out enjoying the evening free time anyway. And I doubt Zale will be hanging around the house with Alessia.”
She lets out a deep sigh, looking out the window again.
“Plus,” I say, dragging out the word until she looks my way again. “It’ll give us more time to come up with a strategy for the coaching sessions. Maybe we can even start today.”
She brightens at that, and a warm feeling settles in my stomach, strong enough that I have to force my eyes from her face and back to the road.
“Deal,” she says, finally relaxing back into her seat. “But I get to pick the movie.”
I laugh under my breath. “Deal.”
I’m not usually picky when it comes to movies—I once sat through a two-hour silent film about the circus—but put me in front of a giant screen playing a paranormal horror movie?
That’s a different story.
Kairi, on the other hand, lives for them.
I’ve never met anyone who enjoys scary movies as much as she does, and somehow I forgot about that when I agreed to this.
I figured she’d be scared out of her mind, grabbing onto me during the scary scenes, and all I’d have to do is close my eyes and pretend to be brave for her.
But instead, it’s me fighting the urge to grab onto her every time there’s a jump scare, while she isn’t even phased by a single one. In fact, she’s laughed at most of the scenes as if this is some sort of sick comedy.
My eyes track the movement of her hand as it lifts from the arm rest to put more popcorn in her mouth before coming back down. An overwhelming feeling of want courses through me as I stare at it, ignoring the voice screaming in my head to lace my fingers through hers.
Friends, I remind myself. We’re just friends.
By the time the movie finishes and we’re walking out of the theatre, her popcorn bag is empty and she’s taking the last sip of her soda before dropping it in the trash can, while I’m still trying to get the demonic faces from the movie out of my mind.
“Of all the movies you could have picked,” I say once my heart rate finally settles. “It had to be the one where they had a real priest blessing people on the way to our seats and a medical team on standby?”
She giggles, and the sound melts away the last of my fear the way it always does—I call it the Kairi Effect.
“That was such a good movie,” she says, grinning widely. “Thanks for watching it with me. I couldn’t get the girls to go with me when it came out last week with everything going on in their lives right now.”
“You and I have very different opinions on what makes a movie good,” I mutter. “But, if it made you feel better then it was my pleasure.”
Her smile softens. “It did,” she says. “It took my mind off the fact that I basically look like Frankenstein now.”
She points to the bandage that covers the three stitches she had to get on her forehead, and I laugh.
“The doctor said it should heal without any noticeable scarring,” I reassure her, but she doesn’t look convinced. “Anyway,” I continue, changing the subject. “Let’s go get some real food.”
“A movie and food?” she says, shooting me a playful wink. “Is this a date?”
“No,” I say quickly, almost sounding offended. “I’m just hungry, and we still have to go over the love coach plan.”
Her face falls slightly, but it’s enough for me to notice and feel like absolute shit about it.
“Oh. Right,” she says, brushing off the moment a second later like it never happened, the smile returning to her face. “Let’s go to Burger Shack!”
I feel like an ass. Kairi has always been the one looking after everyone else. She manages the comfort levels, the reactions, and the moods of every person around her because she cares about us so much.
But it makes me feel too aware of her; too aware of how much little things truly bother her deep down; too aware of how no one else seems to notice. And that bothers me, because while she’s busy taking care of everyone…who’s taking care of her?