Renaissance

Chapter 6

Bloody hell.

He couldn't stand to look at her. Of all the things she could have worn? She wore a bikini. A soft blue string bikini that matched her eyes, topped with a lazy sun hat, which her blonde hair flowed out of from underneath and onto her ivory-skinned back. How could he actually bear to look at her?

Damn her.

He scowled.

"I hate suntan lotion."

"You hate everything."

"I hate you."

"Love you too, Greyson."

"Don't you dare say tha- ha-hey!" He jerked his leg away from her. She had been trying to surreptitiously put suntan lotion on him. Of course, she failed. Miserably.

She put her hands on her hips. "Look at that -" she pointed to the bright sun, and he shielded his eyes, "and look at that." They both looked down at his own pale-skinned legs. "You're going to melt into ashes not even after ten seconds!"

He held a finger up. "Exactly why I say that I don't need to come to the beach. You can play by yourself." With that, he got up - but got yanked down onto the mat by her again.

"Nuh-uh. We're here for you, Greyson, not me!"

"Really? That's a surprise," he muttered, recalling how excited she seemed to be about everything, and how he was the exact contrary.

She shoved the bottle of suntan lotion in his face. "So you are putting this on you," she said in a firm tone, "or I'm doing it for you."

He stared her down like he always did with Victoria Eagles, and she did the same, challenging him. Finally, his resolute melted and he sighed and looked away from her azure eyes. He couldn't do it. "Fine." He grumpily snatched the bottle away from her. Her fierce gaze immediately switched to a bright smile. It almost scared him.

When he was done with the lotion, he looked up to see Melodie suddenly holding two surfboards as if she had conjured them up out of nowhere. "Uh... what are those for?"

She gave him a duh look. "To surf, dummy."

"What? No! I'm not surfing!"

"Why not?"

"Oh, gee, I don't know," he answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "maybe because I don't know a thing about surfing!"

"So you'll learn," she replied simply without a care, pushing a surfboard to him. He had no choice but to take it and follow her as she ran to the water. Carefully, she waded out until the water was at her hip level, then pushed the board underneath her and sat on it. She looked at him, nodding in approval as he did exactly as she did. "Good boy," she cooed. He scowled at her.

"Now we paddle further out to sea."

"I swear, Cadence, if we die out here -"

She paddled off before he had even finished his sentence. Groaning, he followed her and they stopped about 150 metres away from the beach, then turned around to face the shore. "Okay, so when a wave you want to catch is coming, you get ready by slowly standing up on your board. You can start by first kneeling on your board, then planting each foot one by one on it, until you finally stand up and steady yourself. One foot in front of the other, depending on your dominant hand. Got it?"

"I think so," he muttered. From lying flat on his stomach on his board with his legs out straight, he attempted to bring his legs up to his chest. He successfully kneeled on his board, and he heard Melodie's soft words of murmured encouragement - "that's it, that's it, steady now" - as he proceeded to try and stand up. The second he lifted a leg, however, the entire board toppled over and he subsequently fell into the water with a loud splash.