Surfers Paradise

Chapter 4: Almost North Shore Memories

In the few minutes it took us to drive to ANS and park in the area above the beach, I had cooled down. Everything was fine as we took our stuff out of the back until Ryan took off his shirt. It was another one of those things I had never really noticed until I started to like him all of a sudden.

Of course, Ryan took off his shirt to surf, but it never really affected me before as it did for some of the girls we passed as we walked a few blocks down the street to the shave ice stand. They would all check out his abs and give me jealous glares, assuming that he was my boyfriend. They guessed wrong. I just had a really attractive best friend. Lucky me.

The first time he had taken his shirt off after I started seeing him differently was when he convinced me to surf in the spring and I was practically drooling. I think he could tell and I was sufficiently embarrassed. Now, I hadn't even noticed that I was staring at his abs until he said something after a full minute of me standing there.

"Like what you see?" he asked, smirking. My face immediately turned bright red.

"No, I thought I saw a snake by your feet," I said nonchalantly as his eyes widened. He hated snakes of any kind. He didn't care about spiders, bugs, frogs, caterpillars, or any of those other nasty creatures, only snakes. I burst out laughing.

"I'm going to get you!" he said, coming after me. I wasn't fast enough and he ended up catching me around the waist. Then he tickled me on the ground for five minutes straight until we both got a grip as Johnny just showed in his car.

After that initial Ryan-taking-his-shirt-off moment, I kept my eyes from wandering and just pretended that he was one of my brothers shirtless. Sometimes it was just too hard like his six-pack was begging me to look at it. My self-control was limited and I looked.

Just as my staring was about to turn into a too-long territory, Johnny slapped my arm. I had to remember that Ryan was my best friend since birth and I couldn't ruin that, but why did he have to have such a nice body?

"Thanks, Johnny," I said sarcastically. His slap was pretty hard and there was still a red mark showing against my tan.

When he didn't reply in his usual sarcastic "You're welcome Hannah," I turned and saw a serious expression on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"We've got company," he said with an edge to his voice. I knew exactly who he was talking about.

~

I speed walked faster than I ever had before. I was practically about to go into a full-on run so much so that Johnny and Ryan were even having trouble catching up to me. I knew the path down to the cove of ANS by heart. I could honestly do it backward or with my eyes closed. I stepped over the rock on my right, someone had never thought about moving it. Then I slowed down my pace because the dirt was slippery in the next portion. I walked around the turn, being careful not to hit the prickly bush. I carefully made sure to step over the tree root sticking out and avoid tripping. I went around the second turn and ducked under the low-hanging leaf branch. After that, the trees ended and I could see down to the beach. I saw all of them; Miranda, Jared, Mila, Dominic, Sage, and Bret.

I lifted my foot to avoid hitting my toe against the stepping stones we each made during our freshman year. I walked across the 12 stones and around a curve then slid down the sand slope onto the beach.

I stood in place for a moment and dug my feet into the sand. I didn't have sunglasses on so I had to shade my eyes from the bright sun with my free hand while the other held onto my favorite board. I absolutely loved that board. It moved perfectly along the crescent of a wave and had a blue body with green edges. My parents had given it to me for my birthday and I was so happy when I opened it. Boards were expensive and I knew my parents must've spent a lot on it.