One Summer

Chapter 3

“You remember how to do this, right?”

“Relax Jake. I’ve been doing this as long as you!” I chuckled.

Jake held his hands up in defence. “I have to make sure, health and safety and all that.”

“Heath and safety,” I scoffed. “I know how to use these things better than you.”

“I doubt that!”

“When you two are done flirting, I’d like to hit the water some time this summer,” Alex called.

“We’re not flirting!” Jake and I yelled back at the same time.

Jacob, or Jake, ran the Jet Ski hut with his father, Max. It had been in the same spot on the main beach for as long as we had owned the beach house. When Alex, Chris, Chase and I were younger, we would ride on the back of our parents jet skis. When Alex and Chris hit 15, our parents allowed Chase and I to ride on the back of theirs, but from the summer after that, we were allowed our own. With adult supervision, of course. That’s how we got to know Max and Jake so well. When we were first allowed to use the jet skis without our parents, we used them pretty much everyday. Because we were legally underage, Max always came out on the water with us. He was the one that started the jet ski race tradition.

“Lexi!” Chris yelled in a warning tone. “We’ll go without you if you don’t get a shift on!”

I rolled my eyes. “Throw me a PFD?” I asked Jake, as I climbed down the dock, onto my jet ski.

“Here,” Jake called, grabbing my attention as he threw me my PFD. I made quick work of fastening it around my torso, before I attached the shut off cord to the personal flotation device.

“All set,” I called to Jake.

He gave me a thumbs up, as a sign that I was free to go. Chris and Alex had already sped off, away from the coast and into deeper water. I started off on the lowest speed as I edged away from the shore, before twisting the throttle and turning up the power. When I reached Alex and Chris, they were crossing each others wakes. They did this all the time, in hope that they would knock each other off, but in truth, they were both brilliant at handling their crafts, so they hardly ever went in. Whilst they were good at riding wakes and swells, and doing crazy tricks that I wouldn’t even dream of doing, I was much better at racing. When I used to wake up early, and when no one else was awake, I would come for a walk along the beach, and sometimes Max would be setting up. He would take me out on my own craft and teach me everything he knew. I was, and still am, too much of a chicken to do the tricks he showed me, but he taught me a few tricks of the trade about racing, giving me an advantage over everyone else.

“Hey Lex?”

I spun my craft around to face Chris, who had stopped making wakes with Alex. They were both looking at me.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t Chase wanna come?” He asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to him yet?”

Surprise flashed across both of their faces. “You haven’t?” They said simultaneously.

“Nope.”  I looked at Alex. “Did he tell you why that he wasn’t coming? It’s not like he didn’t know we would be riding this morning. We do it on the same day every year.”

Alex shook his head. “He never mentioned it.”

“He’s such an ass,” I muttered.

Alex narrowed his eyes at me, curiously. “So are we doing this or what?” He grinned.