by Blair, E. K.
“Look at this flat, shit,” Micah drones.
“We’re skimming, little bitch,” I shout as I run past him, drop my board, and jump on, riding the sliver of water that rolls up the shore.
We spend the next hour or so throwing down tricks and skimming the swashes that rush up the sand. The beach is pretty much ours with only a few people scattered about, which is why I love it here. No tourists flock to this area; it’s all locals.
“Are we calling it?” I ask when Micah grabs his board.
“Yeah, man. I need a breather.”
When we sit in the sand and Micah tosses me a bottle of water from his backpack, he asks, “Is that Henley?”
“Where?”
“Over there,” he says, pointing to the chick I couldn’t get rid of after we hooked up last year.
“Fuck.” I breath the curse, praying to the gods above that she doesn’t see me. “Who knew she’d turn into a crazy barnacle?”
Micah laughs. He knows the nightmare she put me through. The girl kept texting and calling, blowing up my damn phone and not taking the hint, which wasn’t even a hint. I flat-out told her that I wasn’t interested in anything other than having fun. I eventually had to block her.
“Should we warn the guy she’s talking to?” he says under a chuckle.
I shake my head. “Not my problem, bruh. But speaking of chicks, what’s going on with you and Ady?”
“Nothing, man. The girl is still completely hung up on her ex.”
“Still?”
He shrugs.
“So, are you going to tell her that you’re smacked?”
“I’m not fucking smacked,” he defends, but it’s bullshit.
“Dude, don’t even try to deny the fact that you’ve had a thing for her ever since she moved here junior year.”
“Whatever, man.” He brushes it off before chugging his water and turning the damn table on me. “And what about Kate?”
“What about her?”
“You guys are hanging out all the time. What’s up with that?”
“Nothing’s up.”
“Your eyes are turning brown.” He laughs.
“Fuck off.” Truth is, it doesn’t matter how I feel about anyone. I’m not into commitment. It isn’t my thing. I’m down for fun. The last thing I want is drama from a relationship. Never had one, and I’m not interested in starting one. “We’re friends, man.”
“Are you sure that’s all?”
“Yeah, she’s turned me down a few times, so I gave up.”
I still see the way she looks at me when she thinks I’m not paying attention, but I can’t read her beyond that. Every advance I make, she pushes me away. Most of the time, she seems annoyed with me, but I’ve hung out with her enough to know she’s a chill girl. Fucking her would only ruin our friendship. Since we run in the same circle, it would wind up creating tension because she’s made it clear that she isn’t into anything casual.
“Why do you keep her around then?”
“It’s kind of hard not to when she’s friends with Ady and is always at our place. Plus, she’s good friends with Brody and the whole crew,” I defend, but I can tell he isn’t buying it.
Yeah, the chick is hot, a surfer, and mellow—the perfect package. I like that it’s uncomplicated and easy.
“Has Ady said anything to you?”
I release a breathy chuckle. “Ady would have my meat kiwis in a blender if I did anything with Kate.”
We both laugh because it’s the truth. Ady has become a little sister of sorts, and she has no problem voicing her opinions about me. Plus, after watching how much she’s struggled to make girlfriends after she moved to Florida from Texas, I don’t want to be the cause of ruining what appears to be a solid friendship between the two of them. It’s also evident that Kate is helping Ady through whatever Kason did to her, which is another reason why it would be a terrible idea to hook-up with her.
“Enough shit,” he says, changing the topic. “How’s everything with your mom?”
“Not good.”
“Have you talked to your stepdad since you’ve been home?”
“Hell no.”
Despite all the shitty men my mom has been with throughout the years, I kind of liked Richard. But him pissing away all the money and lying to my mom about it is fucked up. That dude can eat ass shit for the rest of his life as far as I’m concerned.
“I’m sorry, man,” he says. “Shit sucks.”
“Tell me about it.”
And just like that, the pang in my chest returns.
KATE
After a month off for Christmas break, it feels good to be back at school. Not that I didn’t enjoy my time at home, but tensions were making me want to get back to Miami. Audrina hasn’t been getting along so well with our parents lately. I know it’s just her age. She wants to be treated like an adult when she is still a kid and she doesn’t know how to navigate it so she lashes out. But she has a boyfriend now, so it’s no surprise that all she wants to do is spend time with him.
“Kate,” someone hollers across the bustling lawn, which is lined in pristine palm trees, as I’m making my way across campus to my communications class.
When I turn, Kylie is rushing my way. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Nothing,” she says as she catches up with me. “You heading to class?”
“Yeah, but I have a few minutes. How are you feeling this morning?”
“Like utter crap.”
I met Kylie last semester. The two of us don’t hang out much, but she was in my English Lit class last year and she always seems to be at all the parties I go to with Brody and Trent, including the one last night.
“Well, at least you don’t look like crap.”
She laughs. “Thanks.”
“How’s Jenna feeling?” I ask of her roommate. “She was so crazy last night.”
“She should be feeling on top of the world,” Kylie says with a sly grin as she pulls her cell phone out of her backpack. “I have to show you this guy she hooked up with last night.”
When she hands the phone over to show me a picture of the guy in question, my stomach sinks.
“How do you know they hooked up?”
“Because I could hear them,” she says. “Isn’t he hot? I snuck the picture as he was leaving this morning.”
I nod as I look at the photo of Trent before passing the phone back to her. “Yeah,” I agree while faking a painful smile. “I, um, I’ve got to run, but I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Sounds good.”
There’s a tightening in my chest as I rush off to my class. It isn’t that I’m shocked he hooked up with Jenna—he does this all the time—but to have it right in front of my face hurts.
I like Trent. I like him way more than I should, and I just wish he weren’t so unavailable. It’s stupid, I get it, but knowing he hooked up with Jenna last night makes me want to cry. With each step, my heart hurts a bit more, and I have to get this off my chest, so I pull out my phone and text Ady.
Me: Trent is an asshole!
When I walk into my communications class and find a seat, I check my phone to see if she’s responded, but she hasn’t. With frustrations swarming, I silently groan when the professor walks in and I’m forced to shut my cell off and spend the next hour listening as he reads through the syllabus.
It’s hard to sit still when my mind is somewhere else. I consider talking to Piper about all this but I feel pathetic as it is. Plus, we’ve been drifting anyways. Even though we live together, I rarely see her because she’s constantly at the sorority house with all of her friends that I’m not a part of.
I slump back into my desk and count the minutes until class is over. My whole mood just sucks now, and when we’re dismissed, I shove the syllabus into my bag, turn my phone on, and file out of the room with everyone else.
Ady: Why? What happened?
Me: Are you at the condo?
As I make my way to my next class, I wait
for her to text back, but nothing comes. So, I switch my phone to silent and shove it into my bag.
I’m completely distracted by my own thoughts as I sit through my marketing class. Again, it’s nothing more than listening to the professor drone over the syllabus, so when my phone vibrates from my backpack, which is sitting next to my feet, I don’t feel guilty when I pull it out and check the message.
Ady: No. I’m on campus waiting for my class to start.
With fifteen minutes left, I duck out early and text her back.
Me: Thank God! I’m here, too. How long until your next class?
Ady: An hour.
Me: Where are you? I need to talk.
Ady: In front of the Cox building.
Me: On my way.
Picking up my pace, I hustle across campus and find her sitting on the grass near a palm tree.
“What’s going on?” she asks.
With an aggravated sigh, I toss my bag to the ground and sit next to her. “I swore I’d never be this girl.”
Ady raises a brow in curiosity.
I grab a wad of grass and rip it out of the ground before saying, “I found out that Trent slept with my friend’s roommate. And before you say anything, I know I’m being stupid . . . but still . . .”
“You aren’t being stupid,” she tells me, but we both know that this is a pointless crush.
“I am, and I hate that I’m letting this crap get to me.” I continue picking blades of grass, and when she shakes her head, I add, “I’m serious, I’m so not the girl who obsesses over a guy.”
And that’s the truth. Never has anyone captured my attention like Trent, and he did it without even trying. I don’t have a clue what it is about him that has me so crazy. He’s nothing like my ex. Heck, he’s nothing like any guy I’ve ever met.
“Has he always been this way?”
Ady nods. “He means well, and I promise you, he isn’t a bad guy,” she tells me. “He’s just a free spirit and does his best not to lead girls on. I’ve only ever seen him be upfront with that.”
“I get it.” And I do. It’s obvious that he’s just into chick surfing. It isn’t like he’s ever hid that about himself. “I just . . . I really like him, and I’m stuck in the damn friend zone.”
“I know you like him, but I assure you that you’re better off having him as a friend. He’s too into his own thing to make a good boyfriend, and you’re too good to sell yourself short just to get the satisfaction of hooking up with him. That isn’t who you are anyway.”
When she says this, I yank out a wad of grass and toss it out in front of me. With jealousy over Jenna and him having sex roiling through me, I question if Ady is correct in her assumption of who I am. Maybe I would sell myself short for a night with Trent.
No. I do not want to be a hit-and-run girl.
“Don’t you ever tell anyone that I’m desperately crushing on a guy like this. It’s majorly embarrassing.”
She laughs. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Enough about me, how was your break?”
“Good,” she says. “My mom came here and we celebrated Christmas at the condo.”
“Why didn’t you go back home to Tampa?”
She shrugs. “I thought Miami would be fun. You know, do something new.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with your ex, does it?”
Something shifts in her eyes a second before she says, “No.”
I’ve struck a chord with her, the same chord I seem to strike every time I mention her ex. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about him; heck, I don’t even know his name. But with how much I’ve opened up to her about all the Trent stuff, I wish she would do the same, so I test the waters and ask, “What happened between the two of you anyway?”
“Nothing,” she quickly responds. “We just . . . we just didn’t work out.”
“Did you want it to work out?”
“Of course I did.”
Her eyes fall, and now it’s her who begins picking nervously at the grass.
“I’m sorry. If you don’t want to talk about it just tell me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she says thickly, and I feel bad for prying.
“I won’t ask any more about it. But if you ever want to talk . . .”
She nods, takes a hard swallow, and says, “I’m just trying to move forward without looking back.”
Giving her an encouraging smile, I let it drop but allow the questions to linger in my own thoughts. She moved here nearly three months ago, so for her to still be this emotional over a high school boyfriend is strange. It doesn’t add up to me, but everyone is different, I guess.
As I head in to my third and final class for the day, I feel better about the whole Trent thing. Ady is right; Trent isn’t a bad guy, so I need to stop being pissed at him just because I wish he acted differently. It kind of makes me want to laugh. I like him for who he is, yet here I am, trying to change him to make him something he isn’t.
I do what I can to shake it off as I take a seat toward the back of the stadium lecture hall and settle in for another boring syllabus review.
“Hell yeah!”
Oh, no.
Trent smiles down at me before taking the seat to my left.
“What are you doing?”
“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he remarks as he gets cozy. “Were you saving this spot for someone?”
“What if I was?”
He stares into my eyes, effortlessly melting my irritation. The thaw only lasts a split second before he cocks a grin, knowing damn well I’m not saving the seat for anyone.
“Don’t think that just because you’re sitting next to me that I’m going to let you cheat off my work.”
“I’m a whiz at this shit,” he states concededly. “The only one you need to be worried about cheating is yourself.”
“You’re annoying.”
“You’re always so aggressive,” he says before leaning in to me and whispering, “It’s a turn on.”
Shoving his shoulder, I push him away.
A part of me wants to ask him about Jenna to try to make him feel like shit for sleeping with her, but I know he won’t. I doubt there’s anything I could do that would get under his skin like he’s gotten under mine. It’s an ever-constant irk I wish would go away, and now that we share this class, I’m forced to endure its torture for the rest of the semester. With that being said, I can either be miserable or do what I can to make the best of it.
I choose the latter.
“How was your time back home?” I ask.
“It was chill,” he responds. “What about you?”
“It was good.”
Nothing else is said as we wait in awkward silence for class to start, but after a while, he surprises me when he says, “By the way. I didn’t get a chance to apologize to you before you left for break.”
“Apologize?”
“The way I treated you when you were helping me with my economics,” he explains. “Sorry I was a prick to you.”
I’m shocked that he’s even addressing this after a month. Sure, I was pissed and hurt with how he’d just kind of dismissed me, but it didn’t take long for me to let it go. I just didn’t expect that he was still hanging on to it.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
He gives an appreciative nod.
“I hope everything is okay with whatever that situation was.”
“Everything’s cool.”
Before I can say anything else, I catch Jenna from the corner of my eye as she walks in. I look at Trent to see his reaction, but he doesn’t notice her at all as she glances our way. Suddenly, visions of the two of them together cloud my head, abrading my mood and tearing it back down.
She takes a seat a few rows down, and when Trent leans in and says something to me, she glares over her shoulder at us.
I quickly take my eyes off her and turn into Trent. “What?” I ask, too distracted to hear what he
said.
“I still feel like shit from last night,” he repeats.
“Maybe you shouldn’t drink so much.”
“Okay, Mom,” he teases, causing me to chuckle under my breath, and when I look back at Jenna, she scowls before turning around.
When class begins, I grab my phone out of my bag, and without Trent noticing, I shoot a quick text to Jenna.
Me: It isn’t what you think. He’s roommates with one of my friends. That’s all.
I watch her, and after a few seconds, she pulls out her phone and reads the message that’s only a half-version of the truth. Her response is to drop her cell down into her bag and ignore me for the rest of class.
KATE
Pulling the sleeves of my wetsuit over my arms, I look out at the ocean where the morning sun hangs just above.
“You ready?”
I give Brody a nod as I reach over my shoulder, yank up the zipper pull, and secure myself in my suit. “Let’s go.”
“Fuck yeah,” Trent calls out as we grab our boards and head out into the chilly February water.
My dad called and woke me up at five o’clock when he was heading to work this morning to tell me that waves would be at a rare high this morning in Palm Beach. Because the swells are moving in the direction in which they are, they’re able to refract around the Bahamas to give this beach a great day of surfing. When I called Brody to tell him, he was all in and invited Trent and Micah to join us. For whatever reason, Micah bailed, so it’s just the three of us.
After jogging into the water, I hop belly first onto my board and paddle out, duck-diving through the breaks until I’m out in the lineup, where I stop and push myself to sitting. The rising sun pierces my eyes as I glance to Brody, who is on my left, and then to Trent, who is on my right. Like me, they are both waiting for the next set that’s rolling in. We’re far enough apart from one another that Brody has to holler for me to hear when he shouts, “Paddle!”
When I see the wave set, I turn around on my board, lie down, and dig my hands into the water before popping up. A rush of spray blasts my cheeks as I glide down the face and ride out the wave until I hit the closeout and kick out.