England's Finest Rebel

Chapter 16

I soon forgot about the stranger who had come into the diner because Dave had come back from ordering with a cocky smile pasted across his face. Until our food arrived, we spoke about how much my technique was improving and other surf stuff. Finally our main course arrived, it was brought by the waiter that had been talking to Dave earlier, and it looked disgusting. And that’s putting it nicely.

“Uh, what is this?” I asked, pointing with a solitary finger at the brown and green mush on my plate.

“Well, its mashed potatoes mixed with chickpeas and cayenne peppers, and the green stuff is fried and slated sea weed!” Dave responded whilst happily digging into the mound of food sat on his plate. I still made no move to pick up my fork and eat the mush.

“Hey! Don’t knock it until you try it, go on, one bite isn’t going to hurt” Dave encouraged, clearly noticing my blatant refusal to eat the food. But the hopeful look on his face made me slowly lift up my fork and scoop up a pile of the mush. Gingerly, I lifted it up to my mouth and ate it. My eyes widened in surprise at the taste. It was delicious, what the dish lacked in presentation, it certainly made up for in taste, so I hurriedly scooped up the rest of it, and shovelled it into my mouth in the most undignified manner.

Dave watched me finish the meal with a knowing smile thrown in my direction. I was just about to thank him when a low, and slow spoken voice butted in.

“Hey man” the owner of the voice fist bumped Dave from behind me so I couldn’t see his face but I had a feeling it was the stranger from earlier.

“I saw you out with a chick earlier catching some waves, she looked pretty good” the stranger continued. Either he hadn’t realised I was sat right in front of him, or he didn’t realise I was the ‘chick’ he was talking about. I had to admit though, it did feel very good to have someone say I looked like a good surfer.

“Well, this is the chick right here. Charlie, meet John-John Florence, John-John meet Charlie” Dave introduced us with a smirk on his face. Being the nice person I am, I turned around in my seat and stuck my hand out for him to shake, but instead of shaking my hand, he grabbed onto it and pulled me up into a bone crushing hug. When he finally released me from his grasp he smiled down at me.

“Sorry I’m a hugger” he muttered sheepishly, I replied with a laugh.  When I looked up again, I noticed how tall he was and how handsome John-John was as well. His hair was still damp from surfing and it had begun to curl at the ends, he had a really tanned complexion which was presumably from the hours he spent in the sun. John-John’s eyes were an electric green that seemed to glow in the dimly lit diner, he had a nice nose, it wasn’t too big or too small and he had plump and pink lips that curved upwards in a graceful smile. John-John had clearly been doing the same thing as me; I could see his eyes scour their way across my face, taking in every detail and slight imperfection. I suddenly felt self-conscious.

Dave awkwardly cleared his throat. “Well when you two are done checking each other out, can we go surf?” he asked with a cheesy grin spread over his features, clearly he had noticed us staring at each other.

“Yup! Let’s go!” I excitedly responded  

“Mind if I tag along?” John-John asked us, I didn’t really care, so I looked over at Dave, telling him with my eyes that it was up to him.

“Sure” he eventually decided. So the three of us left the diner and walked back down the beach with our surfboards tucked under our arms. As soon as we came in line with the best spot, just to the right of the pier, we stopped and dived into the ocean. We paddled out to the line-up in silence, each reflecting in our own thoughts. Quickly we reached where the waves break and I began to look for a good wave.

“So JJ, what do you do for a living?” I curiously asked.

“JJ?” he questioned me back.

“John-John is too long for me to say” I shrugged with a smile.

“I don’t let people shorten my name” he responded, throwing me a smirk.

“Well, you’ll have to get used to it then” I retorted quirking my eyebrow up at him. JJ shook his head and smiled his perfect smile at me. After a few minutes of silence he spoke

“Professional surfer”

“Oh, you look a bit young though” I murmured. I was trying to see where Dave was, but I couldn’t see him, I think he must pf paddled through the pier and onto the other side.

“Yeah, I dropped out of school, but I’m joining again in a few weeks”

“Oh that’s cool, to be in?” I questioned, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Well, I’m sixteen so probably year eleven. What year are you in?”

“Eleven” I smiled sheepishly and paddled off, trying to catch a wave. Luckily I succeed and I did a good run, jumping, tail and bop turns, all without falling off. As quick as I could, I paddled back out to the lined up where JJ was.

“Careful, I might start to think you were trying to impress me” he laughed at me, while I glared and splashed him with the salty sea water. He gasped in mock hurt and splashed me back. The afternoon went on like that, laughing and joking with each other, surfing and having a good time.

A/N: OMFG! THERE'S ALMOST 800 READS!!! THANKYOU SOOO MUCH, I NEVER EVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAPPEN OR THAT I WOULD GET THIS FAR!

TARGET FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER 850 READS AND 80 VOTES.

THANKS!! :)