A Queen Is Strong

Chapter 5

Christiano's POV
(The night after the party)

Last night had been a lot better than I thought it would be. Amelia had made a lasting impression on my mind because I couldn't seem to get her off my mind, and believe me when I said I had tried.

After I'd got home last night, I went to sleep. Wanting to rest, and get my mind off of the gang and the girl who I felt I had some sort of connection with.

When I woke up this morning I called Alonzo, one of my best friends and right hand man, to see if he wanted to hang out today.

When he answered the called, I heard a few voices in the background. I assumed it was our other friends, Kyle, Matteo and Vince, and my thoughts were confirmed when Alonzo yelled at them to shut up so he could hear me.

Once they quieted down a bit, he put the phone on speaker so we could all talk.

After a brief conversation, we decided to head to the boardwalk and maybe go surfing or something.

We decided to take two vehicles, as I said I would meet them there in 40 minutes.

It was just after 11am when I arrived, and after a quick scan of the lot, I determined they hadn't arrived yet. So I took out a cigarette and leaned again my car as I waited.

After a few minutes they arrived, and all piled out of the car.

We walked to the nearest burger place to get lunch before heading down to the water.

On the walk there Kyle – the eternal ball of energy, and the dubbed 'fun one,' filled me in on their night. How they played poker and watched the soccer game, finishing off his story with Alonzo's sister Maria, coming home with some guy.

He went into great detail about how the guy looked like he was ready for a 'great' time, until he made eye contact with the four of them. "You shoulda seen the colour just drain from his face, and his smile, gone in a flash. The second Alonzo stood up, the kid made up some story about how he was just dropping her off and making sure she got home safe. Then ran for his life back to his car," Kyle says laughing, barely able to get the words out as he was laughing so hard.

One look at Alonzo, and it was clear he didn't find the story so funny. I however released a chuckle, being able to picture this all unfolding, and as soon as he heard the noise leave my mouth, he threw a glare my way.

Once we had ordered we talked a little about gang business and the party last night until the food arrived. After that we just had some light conversation about what we would do later and discussing the surf competition in a few weeks.

All 5 of us surfed, not all of us were good – Matteo especially, he had trouble just standing on his board. But he wasn't one to give up or bow out of something, so he keeps trying. Trying being the key word in that sentence.

After some more laughs and conversation we grabbed our food and headed back to the cars to get our boards, before heading to the beach.

The water was relatively calm today, meaning there wasn't too many good waves, but there were a few if you had patience.

Patience wasn't my strong suit, but my desire to let loose and relax on a wave was greater, so waiting was what I did.

When a wave came I was ready. It felt nice to be able to focus on something other than my thoughts for a while, but after about 45 minutes in the water, I was done, I had surfed a total of 6 waves and was growing tired of waiting for more, so I paddled back to shore and laid on a towel, with my arm over my eyes to block the bright light, letting the suns heat warm my skin and dry the water off of me.