Chasing Tides

Chapter 8

I woke up to a gentle hand on my shoulder, that shook me only slightly. I turned around to see who it was, expecting to see Hunter or my Dad. But when I flipped over, I saw the sad hazel eyes, everything came rushing back to me. The beach, the car, the surfing, the party, Josh, and Chase. My thoughts were broken when he spoke, his voice kind, unlike the night before.

"I'm going surfing, do you want to come with?" I sat up, and nodded my head. Quite honestly there wasn't anything I wanted to do more. Something about Chase was comforting and made me want to be around him, and while he was mysterious, I felt unusually safe when I was with him.

He removed his lingering hand abrubtly from my shoulder walked out of the room. I got up to change, but quickly reconsidered when I realized I didn't have any clothes. I snuck out of the house with only the T-shirt I had on and ran towards my car. I pulled the keys out from on top of the wheel and got in the front seat, pushing it into drive and pulled down his driveway. I parked off to the side, so that I was completley out of his way, and I was behind a bunch of trees so I was almost out of view. Then got out and ran to open my trunk. In the trunk I pulled out a black bikini and put it on, covering up with a pair of denim shorts and a black tanktop, and my favorite pair of sandals. I yanked my hair into a messy bun tossing his shirt in my trunk, and checked to make sure that I had no left over makeup on my face. On my arms, I had a few bruises from where Josh had gripped to tightly, so I pulled a cardigan over the darkened surfaces.

When I finally walked back over towards his house, Chase was loading the car with his surfboard.

"Come pick a surfboard." he said, I was intrigued. I followed to his garage, where he had rows and rows of surfboards and in the middle, was a station with a piece of wood, that was being carved into a board. I was like a kid in a candy shop, as I pushed through all of his boards until I came to a white board with designs of waves down the sides. It was medium length, and looked handy and stable, which was a safe choice for pretty much any situation I was going to find myself.

"Will this one work?" I asked, pulling it out to expose its surface. He nodded and brought it to his truck. After multiple offers to help he load and multiple denials, I gave in to sitting on the steps and watching. He loaded both boards and secured them down, then he added a big plastic box, whos contents were unknown to me, and finally a cooler. I pulled out my phone, which I had already retrieved from my dress and tossed my dress back in my car. I had a few new missed calls from my parents. I had to get to them at some point, but now wasn't the time.

"You ready to go?" Chase asked me, looking at me on the steps.

"Yeah." I stood up and walked towards the car. My mind was still on my parents when I got in the car. I wondered if they were worse. I was surprised they hadn't sent the mafia out looking for me by now, but Hunter must have done a wonderful job reasurring them of my safety. I was even more surprised Hunter hadn't been emailing me every hour.

"Are you ok?" I turned to see Chase looking at me. He didn't talk much, but when he did his words always made me warm. It took me a moment to respond, but I looked up into his eyes and replied.

"Yes... Great actually." my lips curled into a smile and his eyes softened. He drove off and something in the air seemed to lighten the mood, like there was an unspoken agreement. I could tell that there was something deep and important that had hurt him, and he could tell something bothered me, but nobody addresed either issue. We sat in agreeable silence, and drove down the beautiful Hawaiian coast. Eventually he pulled off the main road and onto a small dirt path that led through the trees, we bumped and slid down the mud hill until finally pulling onto the sand. The forest opened into a small cove, the sand was pure white and the ocean was the most beautiful I had ever seen in my life. He drove down to the far end of the beach and parked in the sand. He pulled the key out of the ignition and turned to me.