Coasting

Chapter 12

Day 32

I was surfing.

In the ocean.

"I'm not going in the water," I told Fletcher when I originally met him on the beach outside my house at ten in the morning.

He thought about it, tapping his finger against his chin before smirking at me. "Yeah. You are."

"I'm not," I told him sternly.

He kept smiling before he turned around and stalking farther north along the beach. I had no choice but to follow him.

It only took him fifteen minutes until I was on the rented surfboard, floating up and down in the waves next him.

I watched him ride a lot of waves, straddling my surfboard. I watched him as he paddled with the wave until it peaked and then he would disappear on the other side of the breaking point.

Finally he told me the next wave was mine. I shook my head.

"You're doing it."

"No I'm not."

Then he pointed a few swells back at a medium sized wave; big enough to actually ride. "That's yours."

I shook my head. "Nope."

Sure enough, he started yelling at me--obnoxiously loud enough to convince me--until I was paddling alongside the swell, popping up as it broke.

The board was slippery so I stayed put, my arms out like a doll as I balanced on the white wash until I reached shallower waters. When it was all over I looked back into the water and saw him smiling and clapping.

It was exhilarating. Frightening, but exhilarating.

"Holy shit," I whispered.

Then I was hooked. Even though I wasn't particularly good at it, I spent hours out in the depths of the water with Fletcher, bobbing up and down, trading off waves.

Eventually we both swam in when our stomachs began rumbling so loud I'm pretty sure the fish could hear us.

"It's two in the afternoon," I said, stunned, when I checked my phone back on shore.

"Time flies when you're having fun," he said in a cheesy old man voice, elbowing me. I rolled my eyes and we both grabbed our stuff, heading back to Fletcher's car. We placed our boards in the trunk and hopped in.

"Where do you want to eat?" he asked, turning onto the main road towards the busy part of town.

I shrugged. "As long as it has nothing to do with the ocean, I'm good."

He shot me a look. "You loved it. Don't lie."

I didn't respond.

We ended up at a Mexican restaurant called Torre Siete. We both got ordered burritos and made stupid small talk about how ridiculous all the relationships in our friend group was.

"Do you think Dan and Avery will last?" I asked.

"To be honest," Fletcher said, swallowing a rather large bite. "I think they'll end it when Avery leaves for UNC. It's just not realistic. Plus, they have so many problems."

"Do you know if he actually hooked up with Darcy?"

Fletcher furrowed his brow, but shrugged. "Maybe. Honestly, it's hard to tell with Dan. He's cheated before though, so I wouldn't put it past him."