The Bus Stop

05: Surfing lesson

I was terrible.  I mean, I thought the whole surfing thing couldn't be that bad but holy crap was I wrong.

"Okay," Max said as we carried our boards down to the beach, trying not to trip on the steep, wooden steps.  "First suit up," he pointed to his old wetsuit as he looked at me. "Zipper goes to the back.  You want it to be tight, but loose enough to breathe freely."

I nodded my head at him as I picked up the black wetsuit and pulled off my clothes, revealing the pink bathing suit I bought for the rare occasion I'd go to the beach.  I didn't feel self-conscious standing in front of Max showing 80% of my skin, he'd seen me in a bathing suit on multiple occasions at swim practice and it felt nothing less then normal.  I stumbled slightly as I tried to place my feet into the legs of the wetsuit.  Max noticed and stopped putting on his own to move so I could use his shoulder as a balance.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I pulled the material up and through my arms.  Max placed a hand on the bare skin of my back as he began to pull the zipper up. His touch was so icy cold that it made me flinch.

"You okay?" He asked, stopping what he was doing and removing his hand with a concerned expression.

"Sorry," I began, feeling my cheeks heat up, "your hands are just cold."

Max smirked before placing his hands back onto my skin and zipping up the wetsuit so it sealed up at the top of my neck.  It sunk low in the legs and arms, proving that the wetsuit was going to be rather pointless from stopping any of the sea water from getting in.

"Okay, lie flat on the board,"  Max said once we were outfitted and he had checked to see that my wetsuit was secured tightly.  "Palms on the front of the board.  You want to be right in the middle so you don't falter and lose your balance in the water."

I nodded my head at the brunette and grunted slightly as I attempted to get into position.  I was squinting against the evening sun rays reflecting on the water, tiny little specks of golden light seeking through.

"Am I surfing now?"

Max chuckled from behind me and came into view in front of me so I could see him. He bent down so his eyes were level with mine and I forced my eyes to stay set on his. Moving my hands slightly, his touch sending shivers down my back and goosebumps to appear on my skin, he flashed me his famous, boyish smile.

"Not quite, Clar-Bear," he began, grinning ear to ear, "you're still lying down on the board.  The kind of surfing I'm going to teach you actually requires a standing position."

  I groaned, this was so much harder then I thought and we hadn't even touched the icy water yet. My ability to focus on anything else but Max Elliot's adorable, blue eyes was plummeting downwards by the second as he demonstrated how to jump up into the correct surfing position. I watched as his muscles tightened in his arms as he used them to spring himself up, pretending to surf on his board cemented into the sand. The smile on his face beamed so brightly that the enthusiasm seeping off his lips was contagious.

  Letting out a huff of breath, I bent my arms down and swiftly swept my feat underneath my body to support my weight. I smiled as I did it a few more times, managing to succeed without face planting into the sand beside me. When Max thought I was ready (which I thought was misjudged by his eagerness to get into the ocean), we walked down to the water, dragging our boards behind us in the sand, the leg ropes attached to our ankles.