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Zac swam back out and came beside me. “Ha try and beat that. I felt like I was flying.” I laughed and felt a little intimidated but didn’t let it show.
“I can beat that easily,” I told him way too cockily and of course with my luck it went totally flat. I was just sitting on my board getting colder and colder, I wasn’t thinking straight when I jumped into the sea with just my bikini on, Zac seemed fine just in his trunks, so going in with no wetsuit did have its advantages. I sensed myself going a blue, purple colour; thankfully a decent wave came about ten minutes later. “Right, this is how you properly surf.” I paddled like crazy I was so determined to catch it before it broke. It seemed for once luck was on my side, I got the wave I stood up and for the first time in three years I felt free. The wind in my hair was an incredible feeling, I know some people just say that but I wasn’t over reacting it was truly amazing, I put in a few turns and at the end I jumped up and turned 360. I have these foot straps on my board so it’s easy to find it again after I do a trick; my dad put them on especially. I dived off the board at the end and looked at back at Zac who was gaping at me, I shouted at him, “Come on I’m waiting!” I have no clue what I was waiting for. He caught a wave in and it still amazed me, I was sitting on my board on the sand just watching him, he looked so serene. That was until he got off his board and ran through the water and bellyfloped smacking the water, I was in hysterics somehow Zac always was able to make me smile no matter the situation.
He got up and drenched me with water, then sat next to me looking out on the sea. He asked me without looking at me, “Where did you learn to do tricks like that? You were incredible.” The corners of my mouth slowly rose up.
“My dad used to be an international trick surfer when he was about twenty so he taught me. But I would love to have technique like yours, where did you learn to surf?” I thought he would say his parents but his sister actually taught him before she got a boyfriend. I wondered why he got into surfing because so many people surfed for different reason. “Why did you choose to learn to surf?” I asked him. He didn’t answer straight away like the other times, I glanced over at him.
He took a deep breath, “It’s kind of a long story but to make it short, I felt like I didn’t fit into my family because they were all in the sea surfing and I was just on the beach watching them. I asked my sister to teach me and I practiced every evening for four months to be just as good as them and when I showed my mum that I could surf she told me that I surfed like her dad, he lived in Hawaii and entered as many competitions as he could and he won all of them. That’s when I felt accepted by them, I’ve never told them about it, I mean it was about ten years ago but still I didn’t want them to know” I was gobsmacked, mostly about that a six year old could surf just as well as a man who won everything he entered.
“Jeez you must have been determined. Well I think you could win many more competitions than your granddad however good he was.” I thought I needed to compliment him and it wasn’t a lie it was just what I was thinking. “How do you think Noah is?” I asked as he popped into my mind.
“I’m sure he’s fine as long as he didn’t look out of his window last night. I’ll go get my phone to see if he left any messages, he probably hasn’t.” Zac picked up his T-shirt and unrolled it and out fell a phone, he turned it on and there were no messages left. “See? Nothing to be worried about, now can we please redo that race?” I twisted round to him and looked at him like, ‘really!?!?!’ “What I’m a bad loser and I think I could beat you.” I laughed and just looked at him just thinking, ‘how can he make me smile so much? How can he make me feel so relaxed around him? Why would he want to hang out with me not Noah?’
