Melt With You

Chapter 4

Flashback- After the Olympic Opening Ceremony

"Jonathan, ask her out! I saw the way you looked at her, and you two had some major chemistry on the plane. What could go wrong?"

"So much could go wrong!"

"Buy her a nice flower and have hot chocolate. Get to know each other! You're going to regret it if you don't."

"What if she's already in a relationship?"

"Then that's it. You won't date. I'm just saying, this can only be good for you. I know you want to focus on hockey, but come on. You're missing a great opportunity, Jonny."

"I don't even know where she is-"

"Sixth floor, room 519. Have a good time!" He said before shoving Jonny out of the hotel room and closing the door.

This was all happening so fast, and jonny's heart was racing faster than it ever was in a game. He paced up and down the hallway until he decided to finally go up to her room. I was late and he was ready to be rejected, but she opened her door with a smile.

"Jonny! What are you doing here? It's a pleasant surprise to see you."

"Hi, Peyton. I know this may seem rushed, and I'm not sure how to say this, but I'm asking you out. Hot chocolate? Now, maybe?"

"Of course. Let me go get my jacket." She accepted, blushing and closing the door. Jonathan heard some muffled shrieks of excitement before she came out of the room, calm and collected.

"Let's go!"

********

"Let's go!" Jonathan heard as he was waking up, being shaken out of sleep by Farai and Behati. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head while turning away from them.

He was used to early morning wake up calls, but this was his vacation and he wasn't going to be upright before at least 9. From the glowing red numbers on the clock next to his bed, he saw that it was just after 4 in the morning, which was confusing and completely crazy.

"What do you want?!" He groaned again, now sitting up, but still wrapped in blankets. The girls wouldn't stop bugging him until he was out of bed.

"Santana told us to go get you. We're going on an adventure, Jonny boy!" Behati answered, ruffling his hair, while Farai began pulling the blankets off of him.

"Should I be scared?"

"No! Well, maybe. It depends on how you view it." She pointed out, dragging him out of bed.

"Pack up your bag for about a day, maybe two, then meet us down by the boards. Hurry up, we've gotta get going!" Farai explained, and Jonathan went along with it.

He threw on his board shorts and packed his bag, grabbing a banana from the kitchen to start the morning off. The sun was just beginning to rise, a sneak peak of Orange on the horizon somewhere far away. Santana was already in the driver's seat of the open top jeep and Behati and Farai were loading their surfboards onto the rack on the roof.

Behati and Farai jumped in the back, leaving only the passengers seat open for Jonathan, to which he didn't decline. Before he had even gotten his seatbelt on, Santana had floored it and they were accelerating towards the adventure the girls had been promising all morning.

They wouldn't tell him anything about where they were going, just that it was going to be insanely fun. The only thing on Jonathan's mind was staying alive, because at some points of the ride he felt like he was going to get tossed straight from the Jeep. He thought that the fast pace of NHL hockey would have at least desensitized him to this level of commotion, but Santana's driving was downright thrilling and terrifying at the same time.

The Jeep was fairly clean when they took it out at the beginning, but Santana was taking all of the possible back roads and driving through muddy puddles, getting the Jeep incredibly dirty in such a short amount of time. Not long after, Santana had begun to slow down and the sun was in the process of rising fully. It was almost six when they approached a small alcove and a private beach with fantastic waves to surf on.

The girls had timed it perfectly; high tide had just begun, and they were ready to catch some waves.

Jonathan was hesitant to jump right in the water, so he watched the girls surf for about fifteen minutes before they had to drag him in. They gave him another surfing lesson and encouraged him to go for a wave that wasn't as big and strong, and he caught one after only two tries.

He was beginning to get very good at surfing, but nowhere near where the girls were at. They've been doing this their entire lives, and this was just a newfound hobby, but he wasn't half bad at it. For a while, he got lost in the waves and didn't even think about what life was like back home at the moment.

For Peyton, that's all she could think about. She had woken up that same morning and the first thing she thought about was Jonathan. It haunted her, almost as if his spirit was lingering near her wherever she went. To get her mind off of him, she headed to the gym and practiced her beam routine.

Her gymnast friend and workout buddy, Hannah, was also there. She immediately knew that something was bothering Peyton, so she thought it was worth asking about.

"Hey, Pey. What's going on? You look particularly distressed this morning."

"I'm thinking about Jonathan again."

"Maybe you care more about him than you think," Hannah suggested.

"That's the thing; I really don't care about him anymore. I just feel like his ghost is still hanging around my apartment. Like, he won't leave me alone, but he's nowhere to be found." Peyton explained between moves on the beam.

"About that..." Hannah started.

"Hannah, what do you know that I don't?"

"Maybe it's best if I tell you when you're not doing illusions on the beam."

"No, I'm fine. Tell me now."

"Okay, well, you do know where Jonathan is, right?" Hannah began, a slight touch of nervousness in her voice, like she was afraid of what Peyton's response would be. It wasn't an unreasonable fear.

"Not here, that's for sure. Probably at a friend's house." Peyton brushed off, doing a perfect and graceful back tuck without thinking.

"If that friend lives in South Africa, then yeah." Hannah answered, causing Peyton to lose her balance and fall off the beam, dislocating her hip in the process. Yet, the only thing on her mind was Jonathan. She wanted to punch him for making her feel like this even after he was long gone.

On the beach, Jonathan didn't hear his phone ring in his bag. This was a good thing, because he was having a fantastic time here. He had caught the wave of the day, only after some frantic yelling from the girls, encouraging him. Without thinking too much, he caught the wave and rode it to shore, resulting in a group hug on the sand.

They were all tanning in the afternoon sun, and Jonathan was also busy making a grand sandcastle around him. He knew he still had to face his problems, but this breath of fresh sea air filled his lungs and revitalized him. Maybe he wasn't a disappointment like he thought, and things weren't as bad as they had previously seemed.

Then he listened to his voicemail.