Ocean Boy (TSU x Our Life Book 1)

Step II: Cove

"Last one in the water is a rotten egg!" Elizabeth yelled just before darting off to the surf. Andre grinned.

"You two be careful out there," his mom cautioned as he reached for his own board.

"We will!" He promised over his shoulder. Then he turned to his latest friend, Jesse Hernandez. The two were similar in age, so their parents encouraged them to hang out. Plus, it was nice to have someone he could walk around town with that wasn't his sister. "You coming?" Andre asked Jesse. When the shorter boy shrugged and shook his head, Andre gave a shrug of his own and dashed after Elizabeth. She didn't play fair. He watched his sister's mahogany hair flutter in the easy breeze then begin to float as she got into deeper water.  Andre slid the surfboard into the water and laid on his stomach, using his arms to paddle him out. It was another clear summer day in Sunset Beach. He enjoyed activities on land, but during the break, he gave himself over to the sea. Surfing, snorkeling, sand volleyball and more filled his days. His family joked that he was beloved by the sea. When he was 8 years old, he had swum too far and began to drown. The tide had pulled him further than he had meant to go, and his small limbs had begun to burn. His lungs, everything burned. That's when he was enveloped by a strong hold and hair the color of fresh seaweed. Andre had barely glimpsed it before losing consciousness but, he was sure. He had been saved by a merman; he had told his parents. They said they hadn't seen anyone, just found his body asleep on his towel with some seaweed. No one in town had admitted to the rescue either, and of course they wouldn't. His savior, Kai, lived far beneath the waves.

Elizabeth looked back at him and grinned. She scrunched her nose and stuck out her tongue before laughing. Andre began to paddle faster until he had reached the drop off. He moved to sit on his board. "We'll see who gets the most hang time," he called out to his sister who waited a couple feet away. A wave was coming. They both felt the swell of the tide. Which way would it go, he wondered. Right? Left? An even split? Another swell hit them. Then the wave began to rise from the surface. It was an even break. Andre and Elizabeth didn't even look at each other before they began paddling.
"Left!"
"Right!'

They called their directions out as they eagerly paddled and turned the noses of their boards to the shore, waiting for the wave to pick them up. Andre grinned as he felt the wave approach his back, eagerly paddling to his right while checking the crest over his shoulder. Not yet.... not yet...now! There was no Elizabeth, no Moms, only the ocean and his board. He needed all his focus for the drop in. He burst to his feet and maneuvered his board with an amateurish but still practiced relative ease.  His arms went out to steady him and he laughed with triumph as he rode the line. This was his longest ride ever! It was exhilarating. A shadow formed over his face, and he looked up to see he was now in a tube. Big mistake. His form was lost from his momentary panic. He had never ridden a tube before! His board turned into the wave and he was thrown to the side, spinning under the water. His leash pulled his ankle, and the board must have hit him in the face. All Andre could do was cover his head with his hands like he had been taught and try to regain equilibrium.  His foot being tied down by the board was hindering any attempts to tread, so he used his other foot to rip himself free. Another big mistake.

Andre got taken by a current almost immediately. His head popped to the surface and he got two weak gasps of air before being pulled under again. For the second time in Andre's short life, he was drowning in the ocean. After all the surfing and struggle, he decided to give in. It was clear this current wanted to take him somewhere. There was no use fighting it anymore, so he stopped. He turned and swam with the current, feeling a burst of speed when he did so. The sensation gave him a sense of déjà vu, but he had never swum like this before. The sea floor began to rise and he rose with it, a small wave giving him one last push into a modest cove. Floating on his back in that cove, crying and glaring angrily at the sky, was his friend Kai.