Melt With You

Chapter 3

It wasn't too long after that when the sun was beginning to set and Behati and Farai had come back inside. Jonathan stayed in his room and read a book he found on the shelf until he heard a male voice coming from nearby.

That must be Trexlor, Jonathan thought. He put the book down on the nightstand before yawning and getting up and moving towards the door. When he opened it, everyone noticed that he was awake and alive and greeted him happily.

"You must be Jonathan!" Trexlor greeted, then introducing himself. "I'm Trexlor, and I live with the girls here, as well as my friend and teammate Jesse. The girls have told me a lot about you so far! Ice hockey, huh?"

"Yeah, I feel really out of my element, here." Jonathan laughed. "But it's nice to meet you, too. Santana let me borrow a pair of your board shorts, I hope that's alright."

"That's fine, I have a lot. Santana told me that you landed here without anything, no sunblock, no hat, sunglasses or swimsuit. Nothing. How did you manage to do that?"

"Caught the first flight and didn't know how to pack because I didn't know where I was going."

"That seems like a great story. I think dinner is almost ready, Jesse isn't Jamaican but he spent a lot of time surfing there and is making his famous jerk chicken with rice and buttered vegetables. You don't want to miss it, I promise. Come on down when you're ready." Trexlor responded, and he made his way down to the beach with the girls.

Jonathan grabbed his hoodie since it might get cold outside, and followed them down to the beach. They were all gathered around a firepit, ready for dinner to be served. Jonathan ate without interrupting their conversation, just quietly enjoying their company.

24 hours ago, if you told Jonathan he would be in South Africa hanging out with some professional surfers, eating jerk chicken on the beach, he wouldn't have believed you. It's almost crazy how fast your life can take a turn, changing a bad event into a good one; at least as far as Jonathan could predict just from today.

When everyone had been served and gotten seconds, Jesse sat down by Trexlor and leaned over, quietly asking a question to him.

"What's up with Chicago? He's all quiet, and it's a little weird."

"Jet-lagged and heartbroken. Let him sleep it off and he'll be alright in a few days." Santana explained discreetly, leaning over Trexlor to answer Jesse's question.

Jonathan only hoped he would be able to get over this in a few days. He slept for that long, though, and didn't even realize he was gone for three days straight. He felt amazing afterwards, though, and he's usually unable to sleep off his problems. That's why his newfound clarity was a little strange, but it wasn't his place to question how he felt. He was finally content for the first time in as long as he could remember, which was something he wasn't going to tamper with.

After waking up and having some cereal, he decided to head down to the beach. He slipped on his borrowed board shorts and jogged down to the shore, grabbing a surfboard from the rack and wading into the surf.

He already knew how to wakeboard and waterski and was very good at both, so hopefully this would be somewhat easy. He got his bearings on some two-foot high waves, figuring out things as he went along. The tide was low and was perfect for Santana to teach him how to surf. She was frustrated with the waves herself, so this was basically the best opportunity for her at the moment.

"I see you're starting to figure it out." She said as she paddled over to Jonathan.

"At least I'm trying."

"You're good, but you said you don't know how to surf. I'm confused."

"I would wakeboard at the lake, you know. Get towed behind a boat,"

"I know what you mean. I might not have as much to teach you as I thought." She smiled, then moving into a lesson. By the end of the afternoon, Jonathan had gotten on and rode a wave that was five or six feet tall, actually doing a little carving while he was at it. He got the hand of surfing faster than he thought, it was comforting to know that he was actually getting something out of his trip here.

When he had gotten tired and hungry, he walked out of the surf, placed his board in the sand and went back up to the house to make himself a sandwich. He took it out to the beach and laid down on the surfboard, soaking up some orange afternoon rays.

He was beginning to doze off, but was awoken by a shadow suddenly appearing. He opened his eyes and sat up to see Behati holding his phone, telling him if was ringing off the hook.

"It was only a matter of time. Who is it?" He asked, reaching for his cell. He had it turned off but turned it back on to see if he needed to charge it. His phone plan was international, and he was actually kind of surprised he had service here, but that wasn't important.

"A lot of people. You have at least 50 missed calls. Someone misses you back home."

"I don't think 'miss' is the right word." He said as he swiped the screen to answer the call.

"Hey, Sharpy. Before you scream a me, I'm fine. I need you to tell everyone I'm fine. I won't be home for a long time, but I'll see you at training camp. Alright?"

"Jonathan, you can't just up and leave like that! You have shit to do here!"

"Don't you think I know that?! I left because it was all too much. I needed some time to myself, Patrick."

"Yeah, well you could have gone on your journey of self-discovery after you wrapped things up with the media and management. Where are you, anyway?!"

"I'm somewhere far away, laying on the beach and living with hot surfer girls. I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"Peyton came around, you know. She was worried about you."

"Alright, let her be worried. She hasn't cared about me since we broke it off, I doubt her worry is going to last."

"We're all worried about you, Jonathan. This isn't like you."

"Maybe you just don't know me as well as you thought you did."

There was silence on the other end.

"I'll see you at training camp, Sharpy." Jonathan solemnly concluded before hanging up the phone, sighing and laying back.
He had no idea how this trip would impact his career, but he wasn't going to worry about it until he called his head coach. He would do that in a week or so. Until then, he trusted Patrick Sharp to explain and take care of things while he was gone.

Granted, Jonathan didn't give Patrick much to explain, but it would have to do. He came here to escape himself for a while and wasn't going to spend it all talking on the phone. He tossed it onto his towel that was laying on the sand next to him and went back to dozing.