Riptide

Chapter Fourteen: Wicked Scars

A platter of fresh grapes, kiwi, mango, melon and peaches is closest to me, so I pick at grapes and wait for the chicken and seafood to be passed down. Ryan is cracking prawns and eating them. Kris has made smoked salmon and dill pikelets and she is trying to convince Tammy that you can eat the pink salmon flesh slices. A pavlova covered in berries and cream is the centrepiece of the table. Mum passes the chicken down to Sally, who serves herself and passes to Dom. Rose has made a salad with couscous and fresh vegetables and I pile some onto my plate. I fight Kris for the baked potatoes and take two.

When we've served ourselves we fall into the silence of devouring everything. My favourite is the cold chicken with the salad and gravy and I help myself to seconds, adding more potato salad. Kris starts eagerly cutting up the pavlova before I'm able to decide whether I can fit in more oysters or prawns.

Pavlova is an Australian summer staple - a fluffy cake made mostly with sugar and cream, with a crispy meringue outside that melts on the tongue.

When I start to become sickeningly full I slide back a little in my chair. The conversation moves to talk about work at Sally and Dom's law firm, and Sally amuses us with an anecdote about a client. Dom pitches in, filling in with voices while Sally provides the jokes.

'No, Dad,' Ryan says, laughing. 'Mr Gertzberg has more of an accent like this: "I did not give Miss Leroy a promotion because of my sexual relationship with her."'

Dom roars with laughter, and then says, 'Ryan has been helping out at the firm some afternoons after school, so he's gotten to know a few of the clients.'

'Hey, university offers will be coming out soon, won't they?' Mum says to Ryan. 'You might get into the same school as your parents. Follow in their footsteps.'

'That's the plan,' Ryan says. 'But if I don't get into law at my first choice I'll hopefully get into law at a smaller uni.'

'You'll get in,' I scoff over a mouthful of pavlova.

'What about you, Indy?' Rose asks. 'What are you going to do?'

I make an 'I-unno' noise through my food.

'You'll follow in my footsteps,' Mum jokes. 'Two unfinished degrees.'

'Not unlikely,' I say honestly when I swallow.

'Or maybe your dad's footsteps?' Rose asks cautiously.

'Don't know what he does,' I say.

'Uhm,' Mum makes a noise through her mouthful of wine and puts the glass done. 'That's not true. I think he's an accountant or something financial. Maths maybe.'

'Well then I'm definitely not following in his footsteps,' I laugh, and Ryan laughs with me.

'You don't know him?' Rose asks.

'Never met him,' Mum says, which is met by a vacant stare from Rose.

Kris laughs and offers Rose more punch.

'Indah and Krishna are the happy result of a sperm donor,' Mum says. 'I had to have my ovaries removed when I was younger because of a really high cancer risk. Decided I better have kids first, so that was the way to go.'

'Oh wow,' Rose says. 'That's actually kind of awesome.'

'Mum's got wicked scars,' Kris says. 'C-section scars and then getting her ovaries removed. It looks like she's been stabbed twice.'

'Feels like it too, with you two hanging around,' Mum teases.

When we finish up lunch and clear it away we head down to the beach. There are already plenty of families on the sand, swimming and eating picnics and drinking. We find a clear place in the sand and Ryan and I set up the volleyball net.

We divide into two teams, with Ryan, Dom, Kris and Tammy on one side, and my side with Mum, Sally and Rose. Ryan and I are the most competitive and quickly steal the game, making it mostly him against me. Dom and Sally are drunk and can't stop laughing and they're no use at playing. Tammy gets distracted because Hayden and his family are further down the beach. I actually have to stop Rose from taking photos through the match instead of playing. When she gets really into it she's not even half bad, and she ends up being my second strongest player. I realise as Rose hits a good shot over the net and Ryan misses it that I actually like Rose. I liked her singing along to Christmas songs in the car this morning, I liked how she wasn't afraid to ask my mum questions at lunch and didn't get bothered by the answers, and I like how she's independent in her own way. I think that even if Rose and Ryan aren't meant to be together, I think I actually want to stay friends with her.

After the volleyball game is over, Sally, Dom and Mum head back to the house to prepare dinner and drink more. Kris goes off to meet Meg the juice girl, Tammy wanders down the beach to say hi to Hayden, and Rose goes down to the water's edge to take photos of the surfers.

I start rolling up the volleyball net, but I need another set of hands to help me get it back into its bag, so Ryan and I wrestle with the net to shove it into the plastic bag it came in.

'You played well, Indy,' Ryan says. 'I think I have another idea for a job for you.'

'You do?' I ask him. 'Am I allowed to know this time?'

'Yeah, okay, I'll tell you,' Ryan says teasingly, pushing blond hair out of his face and behind his ear. 'I think maybe you could do a personal trainer course. You love exercise, you love the coast, and you might even be able to find a course around here. I think you'd make a great personal trainer.'

'Me?' I ask him. 'I'm not really good at shouting at people to do push ups.'

'Well, no. You're not really a bossy person. But you could help people exercise, lose weight or train to gain muscle, don't you think? I mean look at you,' he says, and he reaches out and touches my upper arm.

I laugh, pulling back. 'I'm not as muscly as you,' I say, and I bite my lip as I touch his arm, feeling the tensed muscle.

'I think it might be worth looking into,' I say.

'Well next week I'll take you to see the gym that does training courses,' he says, and he swings the bag with the volleyball net over his shoulder. 'Pretty sure I need a shower before dinner. Wanna come?'

'To shower with you?' I ask.

Ryan laughs. 'Well you can if you want.'

I follow him up the beach, back towards our houses.