Rising To The Surface

Chapter 36

"You're going to be late." Nick grumbled, standing at my door as I scrambled to put all my belongings into a beach bag mum had let me borrow.

"It's your fault!" I snapped at him.

"It is not." He scoffed, glaring back at me. "You told me you wanted to be treated like Austin, well guess what, Ash, I don't wake Austin up." I ignored him and threw my hat in my bag.

"I'm ready now."

"No. Sunscreen." He pointed to the yellow bottle sitting on my desk. I grabbed it, then huffed my way past him. I was annoyed that I'd slept late, and I hadn't even thought of setting an alarm or anything. It was only when Nick had very abruptly ripped my covers off that I'd realised I was going to be late, which he ever so kindly pointed out, more than once.

"Have fun, honey! Send me lots of pictures!" Mum called out from her car in the driveway. I grinned back at her, relieved to be leaving. I wouldn't be that late.

"How's Logan?" I asked Nick. It had been ten minutes of driving and I didn't like the silence.

"Fine." He grunted.

"Are you dating him?"

"None of your business." I groaned and tossed my head back in frustration. "How much time have you spent with this Levi kid?" He asked, clearly trying to change the topic.

"None of your business." I mocked.

"You used to be so much nicer."

"I've learnt from you." I shot back at him.

"Logan and I are untitled." He sighed, after a while. "Do not ask me anything else." I'd already had my mouth open, ready to ask another question, leaving my jaw hanging uselessly. "I tell you that only so you'll answer my question."

"We have biology together. And he came to my track meet last weekend. And we've been out for ice cream."

"When?"

"That's two questions."

"Ashlyn." He warned.

"I don't know, maybe two, three weeks ago."

"Where'd you go?"

"Does it matter? I had a good time." I sighed, trying to make him stop asking.

"Does he surf a lot?" I told him what I knew and also added in the fact he brought his dog when we went for ice cream, and that he has an adorable little sister who I'm excited to meet today. "I want to meet this Levi kid."

"Stop calling him 'this Levi kid'. He's human." I rolled my eyes. "And I'd rather you didn't."

"Why?" He shot me a puzzled look.

"You don't like people. What would make me believe you're going to be nice to him and not frighten him away. Apparently, Austin already spoke to him, although I wouldn't have a clue what about. I don't recall Tate or Gabby mentioning Austin trying to talk to them, which seems awfully strange, considering they're all my friends."

"He's learnt well." He smirked, seemingly to himself.
"Huh?"

"I can be pleasant, Ash."

"Well, that's news to me."

~

"I can't see him." I frowned, trying to juggle both my bag, Teddy's lead, and a hand to block out the sun.

"Obviously not. They all look the same." I turned around to glare at him, then tried to hand him my bag. "I don't want it." He kept his arms crossed over his chest. When I shook it in front of me, huffing, he finally grabbed it.

"Thankyou." I smiled smugly. Teddy barked once, immediately gaining my attention since he'd never done that before.

"What's wrong?" Nick moved closer to me, assessing me.

"Nothing, I'm fine." I ignored him. I followed Teddy's line of sight, only to see a very creamy white version of Teddy standing there. "Let's go say hi to vanilla, huh, Teddy?" I grinned, walking off.

"Where are you going?" Nick grumbled after me. I got close before I froze, realising I didn't actually know who I was going to introduce myself to. "You can't chicken out now, Ash. Come on." I then had a turn in following Nick, approaching Vanilla, Levi's mum, and little Evie.

"Hi, are you Levi's mum?" Nick asked politely. If I hadn't been nervous, I would have laughed at his unfitting change in demeanour.

"Yes, I am. Oh! You must be Ashlyn." She grinned. She had thin pale blonde hair, styled into soft curls, held neatly in place by her sun hat. "I'm Deb, it's nice to meet you both."

"I'm Nick by the way, her brother." They shook hands as Evie took note of us.

"You have a doggie like me!" She grinned.

"I do. This is Teddy." I smiled at her, kneeling down in the sand to be more at her level.

"Livvy told me your doggie is special. I can't touch him."

"He's right. Teddy is a working dog."

"Teddy and Vanilla are twins." She giggled.

"Evie, come watch, sweetheart, your brother is about to surf." Deb leaned down and scooped Evie into her arms, setting her on her hip. I felt, with just a minimal interaction, the sheer love she had for her brother, even if she couldn't pronounce his name. It made me feel upset that I hadn't been able to spend the same period of my life with my siblings, but I knew I was making up for it now. I leant against Nick as he put an arm around my shoulder, as Deb pointed out which one was Levi. He had a fluoro green strip down his arm, which made it so much easier to recognise him. On his first attempt, something happened and he crashed before he'd really done anything. I hoped I wasn't just missing the spectacular bit but was comforted when Deb sighed and Evie told her mum, "Livvy fell off", meaning he hadn't done the best bit yet.

It was a lot of waiting, watching the surf tournament, but I'd hardly spent any time at the beach, ever, so was enjoying the sand between my toes and watching the waves.

When it got to Levi's last run, I was holding my breath. He chose his wave and went for it, seemingly lasting forever. He did all these cool manoeuvres, which I'd never be able to explain, and everyone cheered.

"Go Livvy!" Evie clapped, grinning.

"Well done, baby, I'm so proud of you!" Deb gushed.

"Mum!" He hissed at her nickname. I giggled.

"Where's your trophy?" Evie asked, reaching out to be held by him but retracting when she felt his dripping wetsuit.

"Later, Evie. What'd you think?" He turned to me.

"So cool!" I grinned. "You're really good." He smiled proudly. Nick coughed from next to me and I was reminded he was there, and it wasn't just me and Levi. "This is my brother, Nick, by the way." I introduced him.

"Good job out there." Nick said, back to his serious personality.

"Can Ash come with me to grab my stuff?" Levi asked, both to his mum and Nick. Nick nodded and Deb agreed, so off we went.