Trust me, babe

Chapter 6

Kathryn

"I've been waiting for so long for you to finally have a free Saturday!" Persimmon told me, a dramatic tone to her voice. "I thought you'd never have one. It seemed as if you were always at work on Saturdays."

"Yeah, well, I do have Saturday shifts pretty often," I said. "Saturdays are a good day to be at work when you have to be at school during the week, you know."

"It's just that I honestly don't get it why you even want to work at all during senior year," Persimmon said. It seemed she would never stop being confused about it. But she hadn't ever been in a situation where her whole destiny was dependent on someone else's money. And then ended up being betrayed by that very person your whole future was depending on.

"I want money," I told her simply. Just as I had told her so many times before. "Money that is my own. Isn't that the reason people usually go to work?"

Persimmon didn't answer my question. Instead she switched the subject to weather. "Anyway," she said. "Isn't it wonderful that it's such a sunny day now that you do have a free Saturday? It could be raining, or at least it could be cloudy, but instead, it's just the perfect weather to get fabulous beach photos for Instagram."

We were in Persimmon's car, heading towards Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Australia. Persimmon had insisted on taking me to try surfing with her. She had told me she had been wanting to try surfing for so long but no one had ever agreed to come with her. Then she had gone on to telling me how trying surfing was something very important to add into my 'Australia experience'. As I'd had no other plans, and she hadn't exactly seemed like she'd accept a no, I had agreed to come, even though I wasn't exactly excited about it.

Persimmon leaned over the steering wheel to peek at the blue sky. "There isn't even one cloud to be seen," she mused, her glance anywhere but on the road ahead. "It's just the perfect weather. I hope the waves are just as perfect as the weather is."

I sighed, praying Persimmon would somehow manage to stay on the road. I really missed being in Kenzie's car right now. I mean, sure, Kenzie was scared as hell about driving which made her really ill company in the car, all pale and silent, definitely not babbling happily like Persimmon. But unlike Persimmon, Kenzie was always concentrating on her driving, on the traffic and on the road ahead. You didn't need to fear she'd drive off the road.

After listening to Persimmon's babbling for a couple more minutes, constantly praying she'd concentrate enough to manage to stay on the road, we finally arrived at Bondi Beach Parking. As Persimmon parked her car and shut the engine, I heaved a sigh of relief. I could finally feel safe.

Though I didn't know how long the luxury of feeling safe would last. I was pretty sure safe wasn't exactly how I'd feel like once on the surfboard. Not with all the stories I'd heard of sharks attacking surfers in Australia.

It didn't calm me much that Persimmon had assured me that Louisa had told her that her brother had said that Bondi Beach was a very safe surfing location. Being honest, the way that information had come to me made it seem more like The Broken Telephone game than reliable information.

"Just look at the waves," Persimmon exclaimed, staring at the ocean, her voice full of excitement. "They look just as perfect as the weather."

"As long as they're not too big," I mumbled, already worried how on Earth I would manage to control the board. Or even to stay on it.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Persimmon said, turning to look at me with a wide smile. "The waves are not at their biggest at this time of the year."