RIDING AWAY

CHAPTER 12 - Confession time...

"Do you have questions?" Noah then said and I could tell there was more to his question.

"About the video?"

"About my crazy life..." He replied jokingly and I could tell he was anxious to hear how I really felt.

"It's the kind of life Ri and I have always dreamt of..." I admitted but added, "Minus the constant competing, even though competitions sound way more laidback in surfing than they are in snowboarding..." I paused hoping I hadn't offended him. "I'm not saying that surfing is easy. It's just the impression I got..." I shrugged embarrassedly.

"I think I know what you mean..." He jumped in. "We get lots of opportunities to show what we're capable of whereas in most disciplines if you lose, you just lose..."

I sighed out of relief at that. He'd perfectly understood what I'd failed to convey with words.

I shivered as he once again reached to move some of my hair away from my face.

"What I wanted to know was whether it was a deal-breaker for you..." He then said with a small voice.

"I was kind of surprised when you showed me the planning you'll follow next year and when I saw you didn't really have an off season..." I admitted. "I suppose it depends on how you are when you compete, really..." I added.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, Riley and I are different from Shawn in that respect, for example... Sports, working out and riding whatever we can find to unleash our negative energy, like Ri would say, are as important as breathing for us so that we don't get overstressed when competing season starts..." I paused. "Shawn, on the contrary, is always on his board but he gets lazy in between competitions so that he has to reinforce his core muscles in a short period of time to be ready for each new event, which makes him irritable and basically hard to like, really..." I explained. "So what I'm asking is, are you just your natural polar bear self when you compete or an ogre who doesn't want to be approached because he's in the zone?"

He chuckled at that.

"So being a polar bear is not that bad finally, then?" He joked.

"Ogres are way worse..." I played along.

"Then I'll have you know that I'm pretty much a polar bear all year long..." He interjected with another mesmerizing smile. "In fact, I only reach the kind of ogre status you're hinting at when I'm injured or really ill..." He added, which made me smile. "So what are you saying Blake?" His voice was suddenly deeper and my hands were trembling slightly when he took them in his.

"That if you make some room for me..." I paused and made a grimace. "And maybe Ri... I don't think I could leave him behind..." I chanced a glance at him to see how he'd reacted to that and was relieved to see that he was smiling. "Then no, your crazy life wouldn't be a deal-breaker..." I finished. "Especially now that I've sort of fallen in love with surfing..."

"What about the sharks?" He teased me.

"I don't know how you did it on Saturday but you totally erased them from my mind and to be honest, I haven't even thought once about being swallowed while paddling peacefully in the water..."

He started laughing at that.

"Because in the event in which you'd be unfortunate enough to be attacked by a shark, you would get swallowed entirely by it of course..." He shot back shaking his head and I lifted my shoulders.

"Of course!" I played along. "Not my fault I've always had a vivid imagination..." I added, before yawning for the fourth time in the last five minutes.