Growing up Cody

Chapter 6 - The Beach

The beach is packed but Baz is able to get his mustang into a spot, shuts off the engine, placing his hand on Julia's thigh, "you know I really love you, more than I have ever loved anyone before." He smiles, Julia looks at him, "I know" leaning over brushing a kiss on his cheek, then jumps out of the car as the loud speaker announces that the next surfer up was "Local boy Deran Cody"

She turns back to Baz, "Deran's up, let's go" she slams the door and dashes out onto the beach.

The beach is a crowded mess of surfers, surfing fans and people just trying to enjoy a beautiful California Saturday, Julia is scanning the crowds looking for anyone she knows, Baz hasn't yet caught up with her. Then she sees her brother Craig standing with his friend Marco, Julia sighs to herself. She glances back at the car she just left in the parking lot to find a brunette entwined with Baz.

She approaches Craig, "hey bro, so how's baby brother doing?" She turns to Marco, sarcastically "glad to see you here today, Marco" if her voice hadn't said it all, her rolling eyes did, Marco smiled, "great to see you too, Julia, did you see Lucy? I'm sure she would love to see you." She slugs him in his arm. He feigns pain, "whatever we came to support your brother."

Craig grabs her arm pointing out into the ocean, "there he goes, it looks good, man he's killing it today, he missed the last one, I swear Jules everytime you come he kills it." They watch as Deran surfs all the way to the shore, he in his own 13 year old way, knows that he might have just beaten the field on that last wave. Julia smiles at Craig, "you just going to hold that all day or you gonna share?" Gesturing to the joint forgotten in his hand.

He takes a toke, then passes it to her, she hits it a few times before passing it off to Marco. Julia feels people approaching from behind her, not looking she can hear Lucy's incessant giggle so she heads down to the water line to greet her baby brother as he emerges from the surf. He is so excited to see he, he picks her up in a hug, dropping his board in the shallow water. "Did you see that last wave it was perfect"

Julia smiles, "you did great Der. I'm glad I made it, but I've gotta go find Tracy, Baz is over there with Craig, and Marco, and he brought Lucy" the last word said sounded like a curse word, she rolls her eyes as Deran picks his board back up heading back towards the tent to get his score,

Julia heads off in the opposite direction. After walking a ways down the beach she hears someone call her voice, she looks to see who it is, and finds her friend Tracy sitting on the beach right in front of her twin and Catherine who hadn't noticed her arrival. She runs over to her friend, and flops down onto an empty towel next to her in the sand. She rolls her eyes, "of all the beach, you picked to sit right HERE," motioning behind her with her head and raising her eyebrows.

Tracy looks where she is motioning and quietly responds "shit Jules I didn't even see them, I'm not even sure if they were here when I sat down, but I'm done here if you wanna head over to my place, I was just here trying to score some trees" Julia leans back in the sand, "it's all good" she rolls onto her stomach and starts watching her brother dote on Catherine she can see he really is in love with her, and she files the fact that she is going to have to have a very serious conversation with her but it can wait until later.

She rolls back up facing Tracy, "well I thought Baz might come, until we got here, Marco brought his sister Lucy to watch Deran, and I'm sure he's doing something with Craig too, so I doubt he will be coming by your place later." She says it while inside she is happy, because she can't stand how her friends fawn all over her brothers, it gets old fast.

Tracy has gotten her stuff together and they were ready to leave before Pope notices her standing in front of her. He looks up surprised, "hi, Julia, Did you see Deran?" Julia smiles at him "yeah I saw, now I'm outta here, see ya later Pope, have fun Catherine." Another sentence dripping in sarcasm.

Julia and Tracy walk across the sand in the direction of Tracy's house, her family has a house right on The Strand, so it's only a short walk back to her house. They step off the sand onto their back porch, which is surrounded by a mid height fence. Their back porch has a covered hot tub and the small yard is littered with surf boards, boogie boards and other beach detritus, they cross onto the raised deck and enter the house through a glass sliding door, inside on the couch were 2 boys, Tracy's brothers and Deran's friends or so they want to believe. Julia knows that they annoy her brother they are playing some video game, Tracy takes in the fact that they are there

"why are you 2 still here, I thought you were spending the night somewhere, so get out, now" she is not happy, the girls make their way back to Tracy's room where Julia drops her stuff, beside Tracy's bed. She flops down on the bed,

"so who is coming tonight?" She asks, not really caring as long as she isn't home, with all her brothers constantly judging her and Smurf. Tracy laughs,

"who knows who will be here, I told everyone, I was really hoping Baz was coming." With this Julia has realized that she really doesn't much like any of her friends, she's coming to the realization that Smurf, as much as it pains her, might be right and family might be the only people you can trust, but she's a Cody, and that means something. Tracy heads into her bathroom to shower leaving Julia alone in her room.

Finally alone Julia retrieves her vial dumps some out onto her hand and drifts off into blissful nothingness. She comes back to realize several hours have passed and a party is in full force. She gets up looks at her vial, which is almost empty, so she pulls out her phone and quickly texts Renn, to see if she can swing by, since it sounds like a blow out party in the next room.

Julia steps out of Tracy's room, into a full fledged rager, there are so many people in the house and spilling outside both on her porch and onto the beach. No where does she see Tracy but she doesn't really care, because everyone from school is there. She walks outside to find Craig sitting on a chair, with Renn wrapped around him.

"How did you get out tonight, I figured you would be home helping Deran celebrate, he did win right?" He looks up sheepishly at Julia, "Smurf's gone for the night so, I think Deran is celebrating with his friends at the house, Pope is there, so no worries" he nuzzles his face back into Renn who is now talking to someone else.

Julia looks Craig right in the eye, "I am not helping you clean up that mess, and Smurf might kill you for leaving him alone with Pope, where's Baz?" Craig's eyes shift towards the beach, where Baz and Lucy are locked in a passionate embrace.

Julia's blood is boiling, she grabs Renn's hand, "I need to talk to you, now" she pulls her inside the house and into the bathroom "I don't even care what you got I need to not feel and like 10 minutes ago."

Renn looks at her, "you are out already I just saw you last night, damn Jules you need to chill. I think I have some oxy or if your brother hasn't sniffed up all my coke I might have some left."

Julia looks at her, "I'll take the oxy, let Craig stay up. I want to feel nothing."

They finish their transaction, Julia swallows a pill and heads outside intending on giving Baz a piece of her mind only to find him gone, she intends to spend the rest of the night drinking beers, and smoking on Tracy's back porch.

She wakes up early the next morning to find herself in her bed at home, unsure of how she got there or much of the night. She looks at the clock, it's past noon and the house is unusually quiet. She gets up and walks into her bathroom, looking into Deran's room, he and Adrian are asleep on his bed, stupid kids she thinks before closing the door and getting herself a shower.

She keeps trying to recall how she got home, she does know her head is thumping. But she pushes that thought from her head and let's the hot water wash away everything from last night and a lot of sand. Thinking to herself "what the hell happened last night"

*****************************************
Wow things are getting crazy? Right? Vote and comment below much love! Thanks!