Walking along the road with the sun beating on you has to be the worst feeling ever. It was miserable, I feel like I'm going to die. It was so hot, "Pops it's so hot out here" I spoke out fanning myself dramatically. I get hot so easy, like to a point where I can barely sleep with covers on. My face gets super red, and it is really embarrassing.
"Hun we live in Australia, it's gonna be hot" she giggles out, as she takes her water bottle and pours some water on my head. It felt really good. "Thanks Pops" I huffed out of relief.
I wipe off my forehead so there wasn't water falling into my eyes. The water was cold since Poppy had ice water in her bottle. So I take my hand with the cold water on it and wiped it on Marlon's back since he was in front of us. "Ah what the hell" he turned back to us girls. I kept a straight face but the other two didn't. They busted up laughing as a smile broke on my face. Marlon took his own water bottle and poured more water on my head. My hair was soaked, and water was dripping off me.
I hear a loud shriek from behind me, and I turned around to see what happened. It was Wren and she also got water her. Nobody stopped walking, we all just looked at her. Her mouth was opened as she let out a grumble. "Sorry blondie" Marlon spoke apologetically, I started to laugh. He only got her arm a little wet. Wren has always been so dramatic, "What are you laughing at?" she huffed out crossing her arms at me. She stopped walking, and so did everybody else. My laughter stopped as my face dropped, as I looked at her. "You, and your reaction to getting a little wet. You're a surfer. You should be used to the water." I bite back at her. This caused an angry expression to appear on her face.
"Kaia, Marlon" Manu harshly spoke, I turned my head from Wren to Manu. "Sorry Manu, it was an accident. It's my fault I started it." Why are we the ones getting yelled at when Wren was the one that started it? Manu has also been hard on me, not because he did not like me, but because he believed I would make it far. "Manu stop" Poppy ordered him, and he did. Pops always knew when Manu wasn't being fair, and heck she always called him out for it. We all start to walk again; this time we stayed silent not wanting Manu to get upset. I could hear Wren behind me though, she knows I can hear her. She is speaking to Bax about how awful I am, and how I had no right to talk to her like that. I could not see Bax, but I am guessing he has blanked her out.
We start to walk down the stairs to reach the beach. I hate that Wren makes me upset, there were times even when we were friends when she would make me upset. And somehow it was always my fault. Like I get why she was upset when I started to date her brother, but her, Bax and I had a sit down conversation about it. I told her nothing would change, I would still be there for her, and I was. The thing is, she was never there for me. I told her about my parents, but she never understood. She would stop the conversation and say she didn't want them to get more into my head.
Poppy nudges my arm, and I looked over at her. She mouthed a 'You, okay?' I nodded at her with a little smile. Manu stops us before our feet hit the sand, I quickly kick off my Berkenstocks as he begins to speak. "So, trust building is going to be a little different this week." I lean down to grab my shoes preparing to step down into the sand once he's done talking. I watch as he reaches into his beach bag and pull out a notebook. I look over at Poppy and she looks at me. "Each piece of paper I give you has questions; these will make each other vulnerable. You have to trust that your partner will only keep what you say private. Plus, it gives the Radics a chance to get to know Ari and Kaia." My face gives Poppy a deadpan look, great. This is just great.
Manu rips a piece of paper from the notebook and gives it to me. He points over to the beach, "you two go ahead and find a spot" Bax walks past me and down the steps. I begin to walk after him paper in hand, but Manu stops me, "don't be afraid to open up, okay?" I nodded at him; he knows enough about my family life so he kind of understands why I don't open up a whole bunch. I walk down the stairs and find Bax a little closer to the beach. I take a deep breath, Bax knows enough about me, he doesn't need to know anything more. He will probably use it against me later on or something.
He takes a seat in the sand as I make my way over to him. I take a seat across from him so I can see him. I bring my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around my legs. The paper was still securely in my hand. "So, do you want to ask me them first to me or do you want me to ask you first? Or maybe we both answer at the same time?" I ask looking into his eyes. I am nervous, like hand shaking nervous. He always had that effect on me when we were together, and I hated it. I am mad he still does have that effect on me. He reaches his hand out for the paper, and I give it to him. "I'll ask you" he spoke, I nod a little at him. He definitely knew I was nervous, I talk a lot, and shake a little.
"These are pretty dumb questions" he laughs a little, making eye contact with me. "Well Manu wrote them so humor him a little" I smile back at him, taking my eyes off his. He takes his hand and fixes his hair a little. That's when I notice the tattoos, the stingray on his bicep was definitely new. "Do you like it?" He questioned me, I look back to his eyes and shrug. "You know the answer to that." I remind him. When we were together, I told him several times that's I hated tattoos, but my thoughts have changed since then about them. They are okay, depending on what they are, and mean.
He clears his throat, trying to cancel the awkward silence. "First question" he pauses for a second. "What's your favorite thing about yourself?" I look from Bax's eyes down to my knees trying to think. "Um....I guess my hair; I really like how long it is." I pick up my hand and twist my hair between my fingers. It has gotten long since Bax has seen me last. It was a little past my shoulder blades, and now it's at my lower waist. I look back at Bax with a little smile on my face, "what about you? What's your favorite part of yourself?" I ask him, a smile appears on his tan face, "My smile." I nod in agreement; he knows I'm a sucker for a good smile. Kaia stop you're supposed to be mad at him.
"Give me the paper" I order with him still smiling. He hands the paper over to me and I grab it, reading the second question out loud. "What's the best advice you were ever gotten?" I watch as Bax begins to think, "A really good friend told me that if you are too worried about what others think you won't succeed. I think that a pretty good one, since I used to care too much about what others thought about me." He explained, that person was me. I know what game he is playing, because he began to smile a little. I gave him a 'are you serious' look, since I'm kinda annoyed that he has this stupid effect on me.
"What's yours?" He asks, while lying down on the sand. The only one I could think of was when Manu found out about my home life, "um.." I paused a little, "Manu once told me to forget everything while I surf. Just to be in the moment, and forget about-" I cut myself short since he doesn't need to know anything about me anymore. I brought my legs straight out in front of me, "you know school" I finished, but Bax knew me way better than that, I would spend how many nights at his place, hoping my parents could just disappear.
YOU ARE READING
TAN SKIN // A Baxter Radic Story
Romantik🎶I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile, so good to me, so right🎶 Seventeen Year old Kaia Smith has always been a surfing prodigy. She has competed since she was six, along side Wren Radic in Queensland. They dominated every competition, but Kaia...
