Blue Belt

Chapter 6

            "With them?  No."  Jed said back intently watching the next point begin as Cody moved to the center of the line.  I maybe expected Cody to look over at us and say some snide remark as he usually does, but in this case he seemed pretty intent on the game itself.

            We just stood there and watched as a few points later it was over and Cody's side had won.  Then Cody made his way over.

            "Shit.  So what's going on tonight?"  Cody asked looking at Jed.  Another Mexican guy, a teammate of Cody's in this Volleyball game, approached and stood next to Cody.

            "Jon, Matt, and I just came down here to hang out.  We thought we would see what's going on.  Brett said a lot of people would be down here tonight."  Jed said.

            "Always is.  Yeah, shit.  Actually, I'm planning on going out with Chang and Lee tonight.  There going down to San Diego.  We're going to Abergiene and then meeting up with some friends of Lee's or something like that."  Cody stated.

            "Are you staying for another game?"  The Mexican asked Cody, tapping him on the arm.

            "Damn straight."  Cody said.  "Hey, later guys.  And don't get too wild tonight Matt."  Cody said with his usual smirk.  I'm not sure I appreciated the sarcasm in this case.

            Jon asked Jed if he'd seen some gal whose name I did recognize.  Jed asked some questions back regarding her as I pretty much followed them as they made their way back toward the pier.  I looked back toward the volleyball court, watching again how intense and how good Cody was at the game.  Unfortunately I did not get to see Cody directly involved in any more points and the action from that court was getting somewhat out of sight from where we were.  Needless to say I was caught up in the moment.  The beach, the sunset, the atmosphere, Cody's volleyball play, getting away from the school for a night, being out amongst the other people my age; it was great.

            It turned out that we ran into some people that Jon knew as we had crossed over the pier and headed down toward a small concession area on the other side back on the beach.  The crowd was starting to pick up in size, and I decided I was going to wander out on my own for a bit.  I could see the cars streaming in as this was clearly a popular place on a weekend night.  I walked a little ways further down the beach to back off from the crowd a bit.  Again, the atmosphere was jovial to say the least.  I'm not sure that Jed nor Jon even noticed I had left them.  All of their talk had gotten me board anyway.  And for whatever reason Jed had made little attempt to get me involved in their conversation; not that he should, although he usually does.  I could tell he wanted to get to know some of these other people who he was getting to know through Jon.  I was in a curious mood anyway and felt fine walking the beach on my own for the time being.  After I got down the beach a little ways I just decided to look out on the ocean before it became totally dark out.  The pier was now two to three hundred yards back the other way.

            "Hey."  I heard a voice and looked down to my left.  It was a surfer maybe a year or two older than me, another guy, with black hair in kind of a bowl cut, who was sitting down on the beach.  I had not noticed that I was standing so close to where he was sitting.  I was thinking to myself how he encapsulated the term "pretty boy" as I looked down to him.

            "Hello."  I said back.  I noticed his yellow board with white stripes which was sitting next to him.  That was a pretty good sized board I thought to myself.   

            "Live around here?"  He asked me.  I looked back at him and immediately asked myself how it could be possible for someone to be that tan.