"Hey! Fitzgerald!" Micki smacked the water in between us, sending icy brine in my direction. "You OK over there?"
Not for the first time this week, I was a million miles away in thought. I knew I should've been the one asking her that, but everything was backwards this week.
Where Micki had asked me to take her surfing on Tuesday, it was me that insisted on getting up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday—the day we were both set to leave town for Spring Break, to catch one more set of swells before heading out. I guess I was hoping the 56 degree ocean water would clear my head. We'd been out here for an hour and a half, and so far, no luck.
My teeth chattered uncontrollably, but I barely noticed.
"SF, your lips are blue," Micki murmured.
"Yeah, this is my last ride, we better head back so I can catch my flight," I said monotonically, bobbing with the waves and staring at nothing in particular. My feet were almost numb under the surface.
"Aren't you the least bit excited to go home?" Micki asked. She had definitely noticed my total avoidance of the subject this week. I had not told a soul what happened with Talyn.
I just shrugged.
"...but you get to see Barton in four days?" she cautiously tried another angle.
Internally, I grimaced and my stomach contracted around the knot I'd been dealing with all week.
Outside, though, I just gave the distance a sad smirk, and started paddling for the shore. I caught one last wave, and rode it as long as I could before I gave up without a fight.
For a split second, I wanted to stay underwater—to refuse to surface, inhale the ice cold brine and drown. I hated myself.
But, I never had made things easy on myself. I pushed off the bottom, swam for the shore and in seven hours, I was home...in Pontiac, Oklahoma...across the street from Talyn Parrish.
YOU ARE READING
The Beautiful Truth
RomanceSawyer Fitzgerald thought she knew the story of her now-divorced parents. It's colored her whole life thus far. Now in college, her English professor assigns her class to read the book that made her dad famous -- the one that he wrote for her mom ne...
