Riptide (An Emblem3 Fanfic)

Chapter 7

I jolted awake the next morning because I was being poked with something hard and plastic. 

"Hey Avery, wake up your phone's been ringing off the hook all morning. I could hear it through the wall." Owen said as he stopped poking me. He tossed my phone onto my bed. I checked the time; it was 2:30. I had a bunch of missed calls from from an unknown number. "By the way, if you're feeling better, Adrianna and I are going to hit the waves." He told me and then walked out of the door.

"Yeah I'm feeling better. I'll just get changed and meet you guys downstairs." I replied. And it's true. I was feeling a lot better. My headache had completely disappeared. I guess the only thing I needed to sober up was time. I put on a simple black bikini. Since I've been here, I got a pretty good tan so I think the color would look good against my skin tone. I threw on a band tee and some ripped denim shorts. I rubbed some sunscreen on my face and bolted out the door.

I met Adrianna downstairs who was sitting at the breakfast bar with Owen. She saw me and tossed me a banana and some yogurt. "Eat quick. We've been waiting all day for you!" She said "I'll be getting the extra board from the attic." I didn't realize how hungry I was until the banana was actually sitting in my hands. I ate it and then downed the yogurt in a matter of seconds.

"Let's go!" I said. On the way out the door I shot Wesley a text message just to tell him I was okay. I think he told me to text him. I'm not exactly sure what happened last night.

Adrianna was patting a pretty cool board when we walked into the garage. "Here ya go!" She said as she passed it over to me. It was simple white, but it had this wicked design of a sun on it. It was pretty sick. 

"Sweet! Let's roll." The three of us jogged out to the waves, surfboards in hand. The cool sand felt so good on my toes. I paddled out into the waves with Adrianna and Owen beside me. It felt so natural, surfing with them. It's crazy, I feel like I've known both of them my entire life. It's probably because they're both just super likeable, their personalities are so friendly and outgoing.

I dove under a wave and popped up on my board on the other side. I saw the wave start to form before they did. It was perfect. The best wave I've seen so far. All the surfers in the water started whooping. I got ready, and soon enough, the wave pushed against the back of my board, and I was riding it to shore. I was so caught up in the moment. My fingers felt like they could graze the sky. The cool mist from the ocean splashed me in the face, but it wasn't burning my eyes like as I was used to.  The Pacific was so different.

I was strong. I was invincible. I was... falling.

At that moment I realized that the wave had already pushed me as far as it could, and my board was ramming into the sand. I lost my footing and started tumbling. I braced myself for slamming my face into the ground and getting a mouthful of sand, but it didn't happen. Instead, I fell into a pair of well-tanned, muscular arms.

"Why does it seem like I'm always saving you lately?" I looked up into Wesley's familiar brown eyes. They glowed with a sense of warmth that I hadn't seen before.

"Because I'm a walking disaster." I told him plainly. I was still in his arms in the position he caught me. I was holding on to his neck again, and his arms supported my back so I wouldn't hit the ground when I fell. I cleared my throat awkwardly. He set me upright and we just kind of looked at each other for a while. He had no idea I was awake. He doesn't know that I know.

"Uhhh... sup Wes?" I asked him. He full on cackled.

"How am I? Uh how are you Avery? You seemed to have a good night." 

"Yeah," I shook my head in disbelief. I really gotta build up a tolerance to that shit. "Again, I'm sorry about that."

"Seriously Aves it's cool. You actually looked kinda cute drooling all over my jeans." He laughed again. His hair was wet, like he had just come out of the ocean. It looked kind of cute, swept to the side, sticking to his forehead like that. I couldn't help but smile at him. We locked eyes. But I automatically snapped out of it. I've been here for three days and I'm already engulfed in boy drama. What more could go wrong?

At that moment, Owen and Adrianna came out of the ocean. They sprinted over to me, and started asking me a million questions at once. Owen looked the most concerned. He started looking at me frantically as if I had fallen off a cliff, and not lost my balance. 

"Owen, I'm fine!" I chuckled. He still looked worried. He lightly brought his hand up and grazed my cheek. He cupped my face in his hands and looked me directly in the eyes. He moved my head lightly from side to side checking to see if I was okay. When he finally realized I was completely unharmed, he dropped his hand from my cheek, probably slower than he should have. His touch still lingered on my cheek. I shuddered. What was going on? He wrapped his arm around my waist.

I looked over in Wes's direction, but he wouldn't make eye contact with me. He kept his head bent, pretending to be insanely interested in an old piece of wood. When Adrianna finally spoke, I was extremely glad to break the tension. 

And then some how we ended up at a frozen yogurt place. We were all getting along pretty well, talking and laughing and just loving life. It was finally working out, Wes and Owen were actually tolerating each other. We were walking back towards the beach when a guy on a skateboard blew threw us. I accidentally dropped my cup of fro-yo on the sidewalk. 

"Watch where you're freaking going asshole!" Adrianna shook her fist at the skateboarder who ran into me. I couldn't help but laugh at her; she is the least threatening person on the planet. She looked ridiculous. We sat down on a bench nearby. 

"Here Avery, take mine." I looked down into Owen's cup and I shook my head.

"I- I- can't." I told him.

"Why not? Here. I don't mind." He shoved the cup over to me. I could feel my throat closing just by the smell.

"She's allergic to peanuts." Wesley said gesturing to the Reese’s cups on his fro-yo. Then he just calmly went back to eating his yogurt. We all gave him a confused look. "You uh, told me. Last night. You kinda just blurted it out." He said before awkwardly looking around, purposely trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Oh." That's all I said. Oh.

"Hey but you could share mine if you want. I got all fruit and some cheesecake pieces." Wes said. That was one of my favorites. I nodded and took the cup from him. We both dug in to the same container with two spoons. Wesley had plastered a smirk on his face, aiming it straight at Owen, who didn't look very happy at the moment. He kept his gaze fixed on Wes, his eyes shooting angry glares at him every five seconds.

But Wes just smiled bigger, and took another spoonful of the yogurt we were sharing.