Surfing with Eli

Chapter 7

Eli:

"I have to admit I was a bit surprised when I got a call from you wanting to get together, I could have sworn you died since I haven't heard from you in oh... a month!" Carson hissed at me.

We were sitting down at a restaurant for lunch catching up on lost time with one another, Carson was my girl next door when I was younger. I thought she was the prettiest thing on earth and I would repeatedly rip up flowers from my neighbours gardens to give to her.

She was my partner in crime, my mom had her babysit me as well saying that she was such a good influence. Little did my mom know that Carson was the person I first got drunk with and smoked weed with, we used to dare each other to steal candy from convenient stores too.

"How many times do I have to beg for your forgiveness, I said things have been really busy lately" I smiled knowing she was just teasing around with me.

"I know, I know, I've become too old for you to hangout with" she winked flicking my nose, "You're only twenty-three Carson that's not old" I told her throwing a French fry at her face.

"Tell me all the dirty news, how is school?" she asked biting into her salad wrap, I shrugged because there really wasn't much to tell I had my last exam on Monday and I was thankful the whole experience was over and done with.

"Well what have you been doing with your life then geez come on, tell me you've been living it up while I wasted away at my internship" she groaned.

"I've been volunteering at a hospital group for young adults" I said taking a sip of my water, "I already earned enough hours to graduate but, I don't know I like it there so I'm thinking of sticking with it. At least till summer is over" perking her head up at that she grinned.

"That wouldn't have anything to do with a person would it?" did it have anything to do with a person? I guess the answer to that question is yes, it had to do with three people to be exact.

When Carson moved out of my neighbourhood to go live her life I was sort of left behind, I didn't have anyone I was really close to in the friend department. I mean sure I got along well with everyone and I did have people I hung out with at school but I didn't feel particularly close to them.

Meeting Luka, Grey and Miles was like flipping some big switch on of everything I had been missing out. I now had friends I had inside jokes with, guys who I could be myself around without feeling judged, who liked me for me.Could you really blame me for not wanting to part with that just yet?

"You know my love life is non-existent these days" I said making her sigh in disappointment, "That last jerk you dated needed to hit the road though, it's good to be single for a while. It helps you discover what it is you really need and also it helps you find yourself" I raised my eyebrows up at her.

"Since when did you become so deep" I chuckled making her stick her tongue out at me. Carson did not have the best record in dating either, always going out with losers who didn't deserve her.

Carson was a down to earth type of girl, she had tan skin and long light brown hair that fell to her hips. I used to think she resembled a mermaid whenever we would go out surfing together, she had this energy that was infectious and bubbly you couldn't not like her.

"When I realized I couldn't date assholes anymore" she replied with a smile, "You should meet my friends sometime, I bet you'd like them" I said finishing off my lunch and grabbing my wallet.

"There is actually a graduating party next weekend, maybe we could all go?" I suggested knowing how much Carson loved to party. "Yes! That would be awesome, I've been dying for a little fun lately" she squealed causing some guys at the bar to glance over at her.

I began to wonder what she would think of Luka when she met him. The day that I had first walked into the support group I hadn't really known what to think at the start, and then my eyes landed on him.

Sitting alone with his earphones on, he looked like he was comfortable like that. On his own, without anyone there with him.

Something inside me wanted to change that, I wanted him to not feel so comfortable with being lonely, there was nothing wrong with needing company and someone to talk to.

When I had sat down beside him and really got a good look at his eyes all I could see underneath the annoyance was pain and sadness. The type of pain and sadness that was never unleased, it just festered away bottled up.

Luka Holton was on the verge of being lost that much was obvious.

"What is your secret talent?" I asked going down the list of unanswered questions while Luka and I sat at a table in group.

"The distinct ability to detect bullshit" he replied tapping his fingers along to whatever song he was listening to. I had a feeling that his answers were containing too many swear words to be appropriate but oh well.

"Do you sing in the shower?" he said reading the question out to me, "Loud and proud" I told him throwing an eraser at his forehead. Luka kicked me in the shin under the table in response, "Ever been in love?" I read out, his face scrunched up at that one.

"What kind of questions are these" he groaned rubbing his eyes. "I have never been in love and I don't want to be" he said as I wrote down his answer wondering why he would never want to be in love.

"Do you want to come to a party with me and the guys next week? I already asked Grey and Miles and they said they were in" I explained changing the topic off the project for the billionth time, we probably were never going to get this thing finished.

"A high school party?" he made a face at the thought of it making me roll my eyes, "You hangout with me practically every day and I'm in high school, so I think you can manage one night with a bunch of teenagers graduating" I pointed out.

I really wanted him to come, I knew I would be able to make him have fun if he gave me a shot. He had mentioned before that he used to be a big party guy so I was curious to see if I was capable of returning a bit of that to his personality, even if it was for one night.

"Fine, if it'll make you happy" he muttered under his breath making me pause for a second, since when did he care about whether something made me happy or not? Was he beginning to possibly like me on a higher level than friendship?

Shaking my head clear I told myself that I was thinking too into things and that he hadn't meant anything specific when saying it. I really had to break this dumb crush I had on him, he was straight and we were actually good friends now, I didn't want to ruin it.

So I decided to keep these feelings locked down and to remain friends with Luka because I was pretty sure living without him wouldn't sit well with me. We ended up completely forgetting about the rest of the project and basically just talked about random stuff until group was over and headed out to his jeep.

"You know, pretty soon we will have to get that project done" I chuckled as we drove, we still had about half the page of questions to still go through.

"Who cares, that worksheet is like playing a game of twenty questions when you're fifteen and you're messaging back and forth with some girl you like" he commented.

He did have a point there, the questions were dumb but it was made to try and help two people become friends by learning more about each other and seeing that you might have stuff in common.

But the problem was that none of them asked the really personal questions I wanted to know about Luka, like why he was so angry at his father and at the world, even angry at himself.

"It's kind of cool how it brought us together and how we became friends due to it" I shrugged glancing over at him.

"Don't tell me you're going to go all sappy on me now" he sighed, typical Luka I smirked. He never really talked about his feelings but I knew deep down he was glad that I was his friend, and that was good enough for me.