Chasing Forever Down (Great White Surf Saga, #1) [Wattpad Featured Story] | ✔

Chapter 7: Great White Surf

The Crescent Cove Bakery overkills the crescent moon theme, but their cheese biscuits make up for it. Linzi's pink CSI notebook rests on the table next to her frosted donut. She scribbles our shopping list for the morning onto a blank page: sunglasses, sunscreen, bikinis, more flip flops, and beach towels. Then she slides a pack of tourist brochures she swiped from the hotel across the table to me.

I flip through them, ignoring the shopping attractions and repeated ads for Strickland's Boating. "Hey, here we go, Crescent Cove history," I say, flattening the brochure on the table.

I keep my voice low as I read the contents to Linzi, from how Crescent Cove was a small town with little tourist activity and only known for its old carnival (which is now shut down and the grounds are believed to be haunted) until present day – surf town and home of recent surf star Colby Taylor.

"Finally, the good part," Linzi says. She bites into her donut and attempts to tell me with a full mouth to "read on."

"He's the first surfer to be sponsored by Great White Surf," I say.

I turn to the back of the brochure and see him posed in front of the local surf shop holding a blue and orange surfboard. My own adrenaline pumps up and surges through me like a monster wave crashing against the shore. I fold the brochure and stick it in my purse. I can't read on. The thought of someone leaving my world and chasing after something as awesome as being a big name surfer makes me long for an escape even more than I already do. I literally feel my bones aching for that freedom.

I take a deep breath and break off a piece of cheese biscuit. "So, what's on the agenda for today?" I ask, trying to focus on anything but surfing.

"Shop for necessities, more research on the surfer, then party with his friends?" Linzi wiggles her eyebrows as she says 'friends.' It's not hard to figure out where her mind is.

"Reed and Alston," I say, trying to wrap my mind around what will happen tonight, what I'll say, how I'll get a step closer to the reason I'm even here in Crescent Cove Bakery eating cheese biscuits.

"Oh, Alston!" Linzi exclaims, clasping her hands over her heart and falling back against the booth. "Beautiful, beautiful Alston."

My instincts want to warn her not to get too close because we're not going to be here forever, not to mention his player reputation. But my mind decides against it because she's way too excited and infatuated. She might as well have some fun while she's out here trying to help me uncover sunken treasure and buried secrets.

"Let's go, Juliet," I say. "Time to shop."

*****  

Linzi suggests we start on the other end of The Strip and work our way back up to Strickland's Boating. The vendor booths are clones of the next, the same beach wear and T-shirts with a random fresh fruit shack wedged in the middle. We avoid the mob of little kids begging their parents to buy them inflatable water toys and floats. Linzi manages to dodge a huge inflated dolphin without even dropping a shopping bag.

Even with the surf craze and Colby Taylor billboard, the heavy surf culture of Crescent Cove doesn't become a reality until we stop at the entrance of Great White Surf. An aqua wave projects from the roof, hanging over the top of the store.

 "That's insane," I say, pointing up at the frozen wave. It glistens like the ocean in the sunlight.

"So is the surfboard. This place is amazing," Linzi says.

A silver surfboard with the Great White Surf logo is centered under the wave, the body of the surfboard painted like that of a shark, complete with a black eyeball and jagged white teeth. I can't move from the arched entranceway. This store is the closest I've come to seeing his life, seeing what he disappeared for – what he died for. My stomach flips and flops like a washed up fish as Linzi tugs my arm and pulls me through the doorway.