Can't Get Enough [Wattpad Featured Story]

Chapter Thirteen

"How'd you like the food at the Café? Pretty good, right?"

Though Alana shot him her brightest smile, the corners of Cole's lips didn't twitch a centimeter. "Yeah, great food," he said without emotion.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get anything out of him, Alana sighed and let her smile fall. "Look...can I talk to you?"

He held out his hands, palms facing up. "I guess."

"I'm just trying to help. I don't know what your problem is, but you need to let me—let us—help you. We're all worried." She gestured towards the rest of the gang, scattered throughout the water. "It seems like you're not really a part of our group anymore. You keep yourself distant from the rest of us, and we don't know why."

He avoided eye contact. "Why do you even care what I do anyway?"

"Because we're friends, Cole. Friends care about each other and make sacrifices for one another. I know you weren't exactly thrilled to go on this surfing safari, but now that you're here, you have to admit it's been pretty fun. So what's with the attitude?"

Cole stayed silent. She did have a point.

Alana paddled closer into his line of vision. The ends of her white-blonde hair just barely touched the water. "Something's bothering you," she stated, making it sound like more of a fact than just a mere observation.

Cole opened his mouth to respond, then quickly closed it. What good would it do to lie? They had already had a similar conversation back at Zuma. He knew Alana was hot on his trail. If it was blatantly obvious that something was bothering him, then why argue the point?

"Okay," he sighed, averting his gaze from hers. "I just have something on my mind, that's all."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Of course! I would love to tell you all about my relationship problems with Taylor. Oh, and did you know I've become randomly attracted to you over the past week? Cole shook his head to chase away those thoughts. "Not really," he muttered.

"Okay, well, just know that I'll be praying for you." Alana gave him a slight smile before paddling away.

Prayer? Cole snorted. Yeah, like prayer was going to help. What he needed was to get Taylor back to normal—and his own self back to normal. And when the girl sitting a few feet in front of him was the source of his problems, obviously distance was the solution, not prayer.

"Outside!" a surfer hollered. Cole glanced over his shoulder and saw everyone scrambling to get into position. A set was looming on the horizon, and no one wanted to get stuck in the impact zone—Cole included.

He lay down on his stomach and paddled towards the oncoming set. Though the waves were small, they had the tendency to snap over due to the low tide. He wasn't expecting the first wave to break so quickly. The two surfers who took off on the peak were quickly swallowed in a spray of whitewater. The wave unpredictably dumped over, leaving a small shoulder open—right in front of Cole.

He had a split-second decision to make. Since he was a good distance to the left of the lineup, no one else was in position to catch the wave. But the wave itself was dumpy and crumbling at the lip. Was it even worth paddling for?

"Ah, screw it," Cole muttered, whipping his board around. He dug his hands deep into the water and stroked into the wave. Since he was about to do a late takeoff, he popped up to his feet early and drove down to avoid the breaking lip.