Chapter 23 #2
“C’mon. I’ll get you beyond the break so you can float. The good news is Pismo is a great beginners’ beach.” He already said that, but I don’t mention it.
“What’s the bad news?” I side-eye him quickly and return my focus to the water and my board, still not taking his hand.
“No bad news really. Just paddling out isn’t really a first step. You got me breaking the rules, Davis.” His smile has a dimple winking at me. He drops his hand, lays down on his board and begins to demonstrate form.
I try not to zone out on the dimple and the images it conjures.
Before I start to paddle, Lilly catches a wave and rides it for a few seconds before she falls.
I feel my smile in my whole face this time.
I close my eyes for a long blink. When I open them, Seth is watching me.
We lock eyes. I wet my bottom lip and roll it into my mouth with my teeth.
He tracks the movement. I turn my head back toward the sea and the waves rolling in, ignoring the weight on my chest and oscillating my hands through the water.
More than an hour later, my skin feels toasty, my eyelids heavy. A perfect day on the coast. Seventy-five degrees and clear. My arms burn from paddling, but in a good way.
“Anyone else hungry? Let’s get breakfast burritos from the taco truck.” Noah is stretched out between Seth and Lilly, arm flung over his eyes, not moving. In answer, my stomach growls.
Next to me, Seth quietly chuckles. “Davis wants one.” He tilts his head toward me.
I track it in my periphery but don’t turn my head. “I’m in,” I say with forced pep I hope sounds natural. As the words leave my mouth, my stomach churns in protest. I hope food will help settle it.
“You’ll love these, Ev. Best burritos ever.” Noah stands and starts rummaging through his cinch sack. “C’mon, my treat. Who else?”
Lilly and Seth both raise their hands, not opening their eyes or otherwise moving from their flattened positions on their towels.
“Come help me carry them.” Noah holds his hand out to me.
I clasp it tightly as he pulls me to my feet. We walk barefoot to the parking lot, where the taco truck serves a line of at least six wetsuit-clad surfers.
“Tell me a story, Davis.” Noah parks a few feet behind the last patron and turns to face me, arms folded over his bare chest.
Swinging my hair as I shake my head side to side, I ask lightly, “Can we just pretend I missed you guys and wanted to see your new life? Besides, Lilly is the storyteller, not me.”
Nodding slowly, like he’s considering whether to push me on it or not, he wraps one arm around my neck in a half hug/half choke hold and kisses me on the cheek. “Okay, babe. Get ready for the best burrito of your life.”
“I’m ready. Starving actually.” And I am, I realize. Noah and Lilly meeting me where I’m at, no third degree, is calming my nervous system. But my cynical mind knows it’s the calm before the storm, because I can’t hide here forever. Still, I’ll take my calm while I’ve got it.
Returning to our spot on the sand, the universe confirms it. Lilly holds up her phone to me, display showing an unread text from Julian. Or Jayce. Or whoever the fuck he is.
“Don’t open it,” I plead.
She inclines her head, pursing her lips in a tight thin line.
“Can we just eat our burritos first?” My voice sounds damn close to a whine, even to my own ears. And I don’t whine. I clear my throat and add, “I don’t want to ruin the best burrito of my life.”
Lilly’s heavy sigh and Noah’s grinning nod give me my answer. She drops the phone on her towel and unwraps her burrito. Seth takes it all in but says nothing.
After we eat, Lilly doesn’t waste time and circles back around. “I gotta respond. I can’t just ignore him. What do you want me to say?”
Noah and Seth already paddled back out and float beyond the break, waiting for a set.
I guess the thirty-minute break after food that adults hammered into our brains isn’t a thing. “I wouldn’t ask you to lie for me. I just . . . I don’t know. Fuck! How is this my life right now?”
“What the fuck even happened?”
“I don’t know how to explain it or even understand it myself.
But he lied to me. That much I know. I’m not sure I even know who he really is.
” Lilly’s eyebrows shoot up, and I know she assumes this is a metaphor when I mean it quite literally.
“Can you just say I’m here visiting for the weekend? What’d he text anyway?”
“‘I’m sorry to put you in a weird spot, but is Everly with you?’” She closes the screen she read from and sets the phone face down on her towel, raising her eyes to me in question.
I don’t speak, but my eyes must beg for me because she concedes, “Yeah, I can say that.” Picking her phone up again, she slides it open and reads her text out loud to me as she types.
Lilly: Yeah, she showed up last night to spend the weekend. I got her. Don’t worry.
To me, she says, “Cool with that?”
I nod and blink away the pressure behind my eyes.
“Good. Don’t make me a liar too. Let’s make it a weekend for the books, yeah?
I think the brΩs are having a party tonight,” she informs me, referring to Noah’s unofficial fraternity.
Her phone buzzes in her hand, making my heart jump in my chest. I don’t have to ask.
She reads it to me, then sets it back down.
Julian: Thank you.
“I guess I better turn my phone back on and text Olivia before she flips her shit. Or calls my mom. Or Allie. Fuck my life.” I dig into my bag and draw my phone out with a shaky hand, pulse jumping in my wrists.
I hold the button down to power it on, blowing out a long exhale through pursed lips, and watch as the notifications load one after the other.
Seven missed calls, one voicemail and a handful of texts. All from Julian. Or Jayce. I throw my phone down on my towel, pop up and stalk toward the wet sand just as Seth rides a wave all the way in.
He picks up his board and strides toward me and the shore. “Ready to try it again?” He shakes his wet hair loose, sending drops flying, and smiles at me with those straight white teeth, brighter against his tan skin.
“Ready to float again, maybe. The water feels amazing. Not sure I’ll ever be ready to surf for real.”
“Try a few pops. See if you get it enough to give it a try out there. You can use my board.” He flops his board onto the sand and begins demonstrating the move. “First, do it on the sand a few times. Then switch to the board.”
I follow his instructions and do about ten surfer burpees in the sand until my legs and arms quiver with the effort. I stand, shaking out my arms and kicking my legs a couple times.
“Impressive. You must work out. Wanna try the board now?”
I nod and ignore the comment about working out—mostly because of where it takes my thoughts.
I straddle his board and plank on top of it before collapsing my full body weight.
After a few deep breaths, I repeat the burpees on the board.
Afterwards, I roll onto my back in the cool, wet sand and catch my breath.
“Going hard. I love it. We can rest before we take you out.”
“No, I wanna go now.” I spring up off the sand and walk back to our spot on the beach to grab my borrowed board.
Lilly squints up at me as I approach. “You gonna answer those?” She tosses her head toward my phone that’s buzzing on the towel.
I shake my head before she’s done asking the question. “Not right now. Right now, I’m going to surf. Coming?”
Shaking her head and smirking, she says, “Yeah, okay, Davis, let’s go catch a wave.”
***
Euphoric. After two hours in the water, I mastered standing up—three times.
Only for a few seconds each, but I did it.
I ate shit way more than three times. And now muscles I didn’t even know I had hurt, but I don’t even care.
It was fucking incredible. Now I’m showered, changed and ready to go to my first frat party.
Ish. Beta Rho Omega, or brΩ, is a rogue fraternity, not recognized by the university.
Mostly, it’s just a bunch of wicked smart beach bums who like to drink beer and surf, which is why they call it brΩ.
Seems like a fuck you to traditional fraternity and sorority life, but they’re too nice to be true assholes.
More like an irreverent sense of humor. This I respect.
I borrow clothes from Lilly. In my reckless haste, I grabbed handfuls of whatever was on top of my drawers and shoved them into a duffel bag and ran out the door.
Mostly workout clothes because that’s my life.
Or was. Nothing matches or even makes sense.
Lilly is shorter than me but about the same size, so she lends me a pair of jeans that are long on her that work perfectly on me. With my Dunks and a cropped Guns N’ Roses tee, my fit is on point for a frat-ish party.