BREAK POINT - chris sturniolo

CHAPTER 5

"Do you have Chegg?" Chris asks, standing up to peak across the table at Charlotte's laptop.

"You're a child," Nick lets out a cackle that's absolutely too loud for the library. 

"Ugh," Chris throws his head back and groans. "I just want to get out of here. Sammy said the swell is so good today." 

"I give you one in nine odds of passing that test if you dip right now," Jace gestures to whatever notes Chris had open on his laptop.

"Those feel like good enough odds, no?" He asks, looking around. 

"No." Matt and Jace mutter at the same time. 

"Why don't you just study now and go later? Ocean isn't going anywhere." Jace suggests, "I'll come with." 

"No, it is bro!"

"Well! No, it's not." Nick cocking his head in confusion, earning a glare from Chris. 

"What I mean is the storm that's rolling in off the water is what's making conditions so good, and it's supposed to start raining at like five, so I need to get out there now!" He whines. 

"Then just go! Damn! Asking us like we're your parents." Nick whisper-yells at his impatient brother. 

I sip from my coffee, watching the boys bicker back and forth. I've completely given up hope on completing any work while I'm here. I always find it hard to be productive around friends, let alone these ones. 

"Why don't you wait till three?" Charlotte says to Chris and then turns to me, "That's when you were planning on going on your run, right Annabelle?" She says, her expression unreadable. I want to kick her under the table to let her know her suggestion feels like a big mistake, but if I didn't know better I'd say she's doing this on purpose. 

The two of us hadn't talked since that night on the beach. We were drunk and dealing with a common enemy, so we were getting along, but following up that performance is big shoes to fill. 

He looked at me with an expression that was the perfect love child of pleading and apologizing. 

"Yeah, okay." I say, unable to resist his big doe eyes. I running my hands over the lengths of my hair. "I can drop you off." 

"You're the best." He smiled and I stifled a sigh. This whole hot-and-cold thing is getting tiring.

+ 

The surf conditions looked absolutely treacherous, but from what little I know, it was always the scarier the better. The air was balmy and growing thicker by the minute. Storm clouds loomed low above the water, creating a stark contrast from the shore, where the mid day sun carried on obliviously. 

"Good swell or death trap?" I mutter as we pull up along side the beach.

"I'll be the judge." He smirks, watching the waves hungrily. 

I pull into a parking spot along the beach and hop out to look for my AirPods in the backseat.

"What's up man?" I hear Chris say to someone walking by. 

"Who was that?" I ask, peaking my head out at him, thinking he saw a friend. 

"Someone that was checking you out," He says, sounding annoyed.