We headed over to the function room where Hoppo, Terry and Kerrbox were already stood at the bar.
“Who won?” Hoppo asked
“The Blues, of course” Maxi said holding up what he was classing as our “trophy”, our blue bear mascot. He’d actually managed to persuade the guys at the arena to let him have the bear as a prize
“Go the Blues” Whippet laughed holding up one side of the bear with Maxi holding the other side like a championship football cup.
“This is going up in the Tower” Maxi waved the bear in Taco’s face.
Taco screwed up his nose and smirked. By now there were more people piling into the function room; other lifeguards, wives, girlfriends, surfers, clubbies, friends. The room was fairly plain except there were Happy Birthday Taco banners pinned up everywhere.
There were tables scattered around the room, we got our drinks from the bar and headed off to sit down. I wasn’t used to this much exercise and my whole body ached. I was glad to have a rest. It was hard work competing with these trained athletes. I felt rather proud that I’d managed to keep up.
The guys were all talking and ribbing (or bagging as they called it) each other, I was sat next to Itchy; Whippet, Jesse & Maxi were sat across from us. Jesse got his phone out and was tapping away. Maxi took his phone out and took a photo of our Blue bear to upload a picture onto Instagram. I’d learned that the guys certainly loved their social media.
“I bet I can get 200 likes in half an hour” he bragged.
“You’re on” Whippet said “I bet I can beat you to 200 likes” he laughed.
Whippet quickly took a pic of the bear and uploaded it. They both sat staring at their phone screens watching the notifications pop up. Within minutes they both passed the 50 mark.
“What does the loser have to do?” I asked
“Erm, dunno” Maxi shrugged.
“How about loser buys lunch for a week?” Whippet suggests
“You’re on” Maxi replied
It was like watching horse racing, everyone staring at the 2 phone screens. A few of the other lads came over to see what all the fuss was. A couple placed bets too on who was going to win. Man these guys were competitive.
Maxi won but Whippet was very close behind – within a minute. Maxi had 3 times the amount of followers that Whippet had. The next few hours flew by; it was nice to be part of such a friendly bunch. I was glad I’d accepted the invitation. I chatted with a couple of the guys that I hadn’t had a chance to get to know. Tom was nice, quiet compared to most of the other guys. He seemed a little bit which surprised me as he was the one who struck up a conversation with me. I’ve never been a shy girl and I’m fairly confident when it comes to talking to pretty much anyone but I admit I had been a bit star struck meeting the guys. That day was the first time I’d actually started to see them as mates rather than TV stars.
The bar called last orders and the crowds had filtered out. Kerrbox offered me a lift back to my apartment as he was dropping Itchy off too. We all piled into Box’s white pickup, Jesse came too as he was staying with Kerrbox for a few months. The guys were arranging an early morning training session at the pool. I was asked if I wanted to join them which I politely declined. If they only knew how much I hated early mornings.
The journey back to Bondi was a quick one, it took less than 10 minutes and we were outside my apartment block. Jesse offered to walk me to the door but I told him that it wasn’t necessary; it was only a few metres to the complex door. They waited until I’d got to the front door and opened it before they started to pull away. I turned and waved.
“Hi” I said to Justin as I walked to the lift
“Good Evening?” he asked seeing the huge grin on my face
“The best” I replied “It was awesome” I was so tired. I didn’t have the energy to explain anymore than that. My exhaustion seemed to just hit me in a huge wave. The lift appeared almost immediately and I stepped inside. As the doors closed, I leant backwards on the wall and sighed. Today had been the best day ever. I would definitely sleep soundly tonight.
