A New Beginning

Chapter Two- The Incident

I see a blurry picture of Dakota staring down at me about 2 inches from my face. Surprised, I stupidly shoot up into a sitting position and smash my forehead against Dakota's.

"Ow!" she exclaims, clearly just as surprised as I am. "What the heck, Cass?" she rubs her forehead and winces.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to- I mean it all happened so fast- what happened?" I stammer.

Dakota hesitates before telling me. "Well... you were out in the water, surfing while I was staring at Zach-"

"Who's Zach?" I ask, confusedly.

"The new lifeguard- duh! So anyway..." she tries to continue, but I stop her.

"You know his name? How?" I ask, in awe at my best friend's neglect to tell me more.

"That's not important right now, Cass! Just let me finish!" Whoa. Who is this girl and what has she done with Dakota?? She continues with her explanation. "So I was staring at Zach and then I was going to go join you, but I couldn't find you and then I saw your surfboard floating out deep and I started to panic and I was going to paddle out there to try and find you when Zach came running into the water after you. He told me that he saw you just, like, faint off your board!" she says, enthusiastically. I turn my head to see Zach walking toward us.

"Hey are you ok?" he asks me. Me! His voice is deep but gentle.

"Yeah... I'm... uh..." my voice trails off. What? He's gorgeous! Ok, maybe I am a little boy- crazy.

"She's great. I was just telling her what happened. She doesn't remember! Weird, huh?"

"Yeah, weird. Why don't you continue your story, I've got to get back on duty." he says, and walks back towards his tall chair. Wow.

I'm about to say something when Dakota beats me to it. "Don't even say it!" she says.

"He said duty!" I say, anyway. We laugh. "Anyway, continue your story."

"Ok, so then he swam out looking for you for a few minutes and he came back with you and carried you all the way to the shore! He layed you right here and you didn't move. You were breathing, but you didn't move. I thought- you were... you were..." she seems at a loss for words.

"Were... what?" I ask curiously.

"It doesn't matter anymore," she says quickly.

"Ok, then," I mutter to myself. We're both silent for a moment. Dakota looks away.

"Cass! Sweetie..." my mother rushes up to me. She is wearing an apron with a wooden spoon sticking out of one of the pockets. I guess I must have interrupted her while she was making dinner. Oops.

"Mom!" I exclaim. I am so happy to see her. For some reason, it seems like I haven't seen her in a long time.

"Wait, Dakota," I say. She looks over her shoulder at me. "How long was I out?"

She pauses. "Um... a half hour maybe? I don't know," she says. "I didn't think about getting your mom until Ty came down and I told him the story and then he went up to get your mom and-"

My mom butts in. "And now I'm here," she says. Tyler is my 10 year old little brother. He can be pretty stinkin' annoying, but I still love him. "We should probably be eating dinner now. Cass, let's go," she says, walking up the beach.

"Bye Dakota! I'll... see you tomorrow!" I give her our signal for I'll text you later and follow my mother up the boardwalk.