𝙾𝚌𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙴𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎

𝚃𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝙵𝚎𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝟷𝟺𝚝𝚑

The ocean motions my surfboard as I sit upon it and survey the horizon. Although, it'll be a miracle if I catch a wave. My attention is constantly distracted from where the ocean meets the sky. Instead, too frequently, I am looking down at my bikini.

Dare I say, my boobs look great. I tightened the bikini string around my neck so they sit higher and fuller upon my chest.

What gives me anxiety are my bikini bottoms. I find myself constantly pulling the front this way and that.

Admittedly, I didn't shave everything.

Already, my shower floor looked like I'd skinned a gorilla.

After all, I'd spent two hours in the shower. I'm not dramatic. I'm dead-gorilla serious.

Having good eyebrows means thick hair everywhere else. But in most places, it's unwanted. Shaving – it's annoying. Pushing a razor over my skin is like trying to push a lawnmower through a rainforest.

It's tedious, okay?

Then my skin responds with redness, rashes, bumps. Basically, my skin gives me the ultimatum of hair or a disease. And so, I'm telling myself the disease isn't noticeable.

The rhythmic sound of hands dolloping into the sea approaches. Cooper wanted me to take the last wave but I insisted he have it because it was too big for me. Cooper sits up on his board.

"Guess what," I say, having remembered from earlier on in the day.

"You wish you'd taken that wave," Cooper replies, a cheeky smile expanding across his face.

Becoming giddy again, I smile back at Cooper, "Mick messaged me 'happy v day'." And the moment replays over and over again, the first time any guy has acknowledged me on Valentine's Day. All of high school, every year on this day I would see girls holding a rose, a teddy bear, the hand of their boyfriend. In the early years, I would turn my nose up at it. Cheesy. Corny. Consumerism. Maybe it was once I saw Callie get this treatment from Reef, or growing up a little, I accepted I wanted it for myself.

"I'm surprised you're not with Mick," Cooper comments.

"He only asked me to be his Ball date," I shrug, "He hasn't asked me on a date." And the giddiness disintegrates.

"Would you go on a date with him?"

"If he asked me, sure."

Cooper looks out at the horizon, looking for his next wave.

"I thought I was invisible to boys," I confess.

Callie always got attention from guys. Maybe it helped having a twin brother, but I reckon it's because she sparkles. Like the ocean does when it's still and sunny. Callie and Reef have been together since the beginning of Year 10. Guys didn't even speak to me in Year 10. Conveniently, Cooper and Reef are best mates so Callie has known Reef well since nappies presumably. Seraphina is another who seems to be a guy magnet. Gabriel asked her to the Ball for goodness sake. As much as Callie doesn't like Seraphina, what they both have in common is their outgoing personalities. If that's what it takes to get a boyfriend, I'll be single forever.

"You're definitely not invisible," Cooper says.

Says the guy who has to see me because I'm at his house every second weekend.

I think I will change the subject. Not with the weather. Too cliche. With the waves? More cliche. For a surftown anyway.

"I'm glad the waves are small today," I comment, "I don't like big surf."

"That looks like a small wave coming," Cooper says, his eyes having returned to the horizon.

He's too right.

I turn around then lie upon my board. I'm cold as I do so. I think I should have worn a wetsuit – like I usually do. But it was Valentine's Day – I wanted to look cute. I begin to paddle. As I feel the wave begin to lift the bottom of my board, I pop up.

And my breasts pop down.

I hear a whistle, a hollering male.

Immediately, I try to pull my bikini top back over them. But I lose all balance on my board and crash into the surf.

I surface to see Cooper paddling towards me.

Paddling in the opposite direction, a couple of men continue to laugh and whoop.

"Leave her alone!" Cooper shouts back at them.

I'm tying up my bikini top beneath the surface. The strings like gnarly seaweed.

"Are you okay?" Cooper asks.

I stagger onto my board, lying over its middle. I go to answer but feel thick snot exiting my nose. I groan. I'm humiliated. The thought of going back out to the line up with all the guys who laughed at me.

Cooper reads my thoughts. "I know what'll make you feel better. Let's paddle in."

༄ ❀ ༄

Cooper decides to rinse his entire body off. I only use those outdoor showers for my feet. The idea of getting cold all over again is a sad one. I tell Cooper I'm taking the boards back to the car to strap on. With a board under each arm, I reach Cooper's Land Cruiser. Along walks Gabriel.

I smile at him. Gabriel smiles back. Then his eyes find their way to my crouch. His smile is replaced with a grimace.

A strand of hair must have strayed from my bikini line. Fuck.

"Are you on your period?" Gabriel asks me.

I look down, and without dropping and denting the boards, I can't even spread my hands over my crouch.

Let's face it. The irritation left from shaving isn't a blush colour. It's coral red. At least it feels like it is at this moment.

"It's a rash," I say.

"Oh," Gabriel manages to say before moving on past me.

Never have I put on my shorts fast enough. I hear Gabriel and Cooper greet one another before Gabriel heads down the dunes.

All rinsed off, Cooper now approaches me. "Let's go grab an ice cream," Cooper says.

On the other side of the car park is Sea Breeze Surf Shop & Cafe. A conjoined building, the door on the left gives way to surf goods and the door on the right gives way to surf foods. Cooper holds the door open for me and I enter through the latter.

The owner greets us immediately. "Eden, Cooper. Good to see you!" he says. Sunny, the best local out. He owns both the surf shop and cafe. He's one of the old dudes that rips in the surf. One watches him and wonders how he wasn't on the WSL. Or maybe he. He was alive in ancient times, aka the 20th century.

"I'll get a rocky road and a mint choc-chip, both in cones," Cooper says to Sunny. This does not surprise me. Cooper consumes food like a shark. He's a perpetual eating machine. Cooper's parents would take us here every Sunday after a surf and Cooper would always be first to finish his ice cream. Thinking back. I lived part time at their house. Oftentimes, I'd go back home with them after Little Athletics on Saturday, stay the night, then come down here with them to the beach on Sunday. The Collard Family has spent hundreds of dollars on ice cream – for me.

"And I'll get a mint choc-chip, in a cone," I say to Sunny.

"I'm ordering for both of us," Cooper says to me, outstretching his hands. His face is a 'duh' expression.

"I can pay for me," I state, holding out my phone.

"I know," Cooper says, "But I want to pay for you."

I fight with Cooper at the till but the cashier ultimately lets Cooper pay for my ice cream.

Another one of my ice creams bought by the Collard family. Cooper goes to give me my ice cream, a smile across his face. But my phone buzzes.

I check the message and my smile mirrors Cooper's.