Waves (l.r.h)

Part 56

Luke's POV

The storm had passed, and, by some miracle, the bungalow weathered it with no damage. Of course, our yard was a mess and there were a few fallen trees, but it was nothing to worry about since Mr. Tremain was giving our little shack a remodel.

Since the storm passed, Greyson had been doing a lot better. You couldn't even tell that she was having any pain unless she tried to run or walk at a fast pace. I always hung back with her, though, as I was now. The lot of us decided it would be a nice idea to take a walk down the beach and look for shells. Michael, Sadie, and Ash reminded me of bees. They ran wildly along the coastline, laughing and play fighting with each other, until they would all abrubtly stop and bend down. They'd pick up a few shells, put them in the little bag they had, and then proceeded to run around like little kids.

Calum stayed back with us, though he walked a bit ahead with Snoop by his side. Calum wasn't one hundred percent just yet. He wasn't injured, but you could see by the way he walked that his body was stiff and sore. Snoop kept a good pace with him, and Calum seemed to enjoy the dog's company.

"How you feeling?" I asked Greyson as we walked side by side. Her sparkling eyes had been trained on the line of seashells that littered the ground beneath our feet when I asked the question. I watched as she took a deep breath and rolled her eyes at me, tearing her gaze from the ground to meet mine begrudgingly.

"I told you to stop asking," she stated half-jokingly, though it was clear she wasn't messing around in the slightest. "I'm fine. And I'll be fine in five minutes when you want to ask me again."

"Ok, Grumpy," I said as I stuck my tongue out at her. Her eyes playfully widened at my words, and her jaw fell open in mock astonishment. Her lips couldn't help but to perk up though, and the mischievous glint twinkled in her eye. Before I could react to her, she had pushed me back and made me trip into the water that was washing in and out. "Grey!" I shouted playfully at her, but it was loud enough to gain the attention of the others. Greyson didn't notice, though, she just stood over me laughing at my now wet figure.

"How did she manage to get you down?" Ash laughed as he and the others jogged over to the two of us.

"I don't know, man! She just did," I replied as I tried to brush some sand out of my hair and stand up.

"I hope your embarrassed of yourself. This weakling couldn't even knock me over," Sadie said unimpressed with me. I quirked an eyebrow at her, silently asking her if she wanted to take back what she'd just said. When she didn't say anything, I shrugged and grabbed her waist and threw her over my shoulder. "Luke!" she shrieked, though it was muffled by my back. I simply laughed and jogged towards the water before diving in with her on my back.

I resurfaced a second later, Sadie coming up not a second later. Her hair covered her face awkwardly, and she whipped it out of her face dramatically. She glared at me and I gave an innocent smile back. "I hope your embarrassed with yourself," I mocked her girly American accent.

Our attention was stolen by the shouts of Ashton, Calum, and Michael. We turned toward them only to see Ash and Calum carrying Michael into the water. "You guys suck!" Michael shouted as Cal and Ash released him and threw him into the water. "Why can we never do anything without someone being thrown into the water?" he shouted rhetorically once he resurfaced and shook the hair out of his eyes.

I laughed at his comment and looked around at everyone splashing one another. I caught sight of Greyson standing on the shore with her arms crossed over her chest watching on. I escaped the splash war and jogged up to her. "Hey, what are you doing? You can't let Cal and Ash win this water fight," she said gesturing to the group in the water with a laugh.

"I've got to even out the teams," I shrugged, but I gave her a cheeky smile. She looked at me questioningly before her face was overcome with a look of realization. I grabbed her waist and threw her over my shoulder as she started complaining. "No, Luke! I don't swim!"

"That's a lie, Ms. World Class Surfer!" I called back carelessly as I leisurely walked into the water.

"No, I haven't gone in the water since-," her plea was silenced as I threw her into the water amidst the others. All the splashing ceased as everyone saw what happened.

"Now," I completed her sentence aloud as we all waited for her to resurface. They all had a look of horror on their faces at what I'd done, but I didn't care. If Greyson didn't want me treating her differently, then I'll treat her just as I would anyone else. And if it was anyone else, you better bet your ass that I would be throwing them in the water.

She came up coughing, and she immediately made eye contact with me. I looked at her daringly, just asking her to do something about the fact that I threw her in the water. That's when I knew she was good. Her glare turned mischievous, and without a second thought, she was splashing me with waves of water and laughing. This caused everyone to get back into the war, and suddenly the little circle that formed among the group was washed over in a fog of white spritz.

"You know, this is the first time she's been in the water since it happened," Sadie said from beside me as she caught me watching Greyson splash around in the water with the guys.

"I had a feeling," I responded not taking my eyes off Grey. It made me happy to see her enjoying herself. If I hadn't known she was a surfer before, I'd know now. Even after not being in the water for nearly a year, there was no denying how natural and comfortable she looked in the water.

"I still can't believe you just threw her in," Sadie said, laughing a bit. "I mean, how did you know she wouldn't freak out?"

I shrugged. "I didn't. I just figured that whether or not she liked that I did it didn't matter. What mattered was that she needed it to happen."

"Thanks, Lu," Sadie said thoughtfully after taking in what I said. I smiled back at her before grabbing her hand and pulling her back to the group to rejoin their fun.