Ocean Blue & You

only ones

That evening we had just fallen into our beds tiredly and slept almost immediately. Since I wasn't quite comfortable sleeping in the same bed with Jack yet, he slept in his bedroom and I slept in the guest room. Jack's house was very big, as American suburban houses usually are, with a spacious basement and very large bottom and top floor. It was on a flat street unlike the cobbled, steep Littleton ones, that stretched on for a while with very similar looking houses. But I could spot Jack's out already after staying there once because it had a beautiful, Japanese maple tree outside, with leaves of crimson and gold.

Jack's dad was there when we got to the house. He was a tall, broad man with dark, smoldering features that suggested he was very handsome in his youth. His facial features were sort of similar to Jack's, but you could tell Jack probably got most of his looks from his mother, even though I had never met her, because he had lighter looks than his dad. I told him I was Mia, since it was the first name that popped into my head. Jack also told his dad he was just coming over for a long visit with agreement from his mum, and that he would be going back to school in September. Despite Jack's dad's looks however, he was a warm, friendly guy who welcomed me kindly into their home and wasn't too overprotective or intruding. He let us get on with our thing.

But the next morning we had woken up exceptionally early from jet lag at about 6 am. I ate some breakfast with Jack, and then, though it was very early, Jack was all energetic and excited.

"I'm so happy I'm back home! It's been five months. I've missed it so much," he said, scooping some cereal into his mouth.

"I know. This house is really nice."

"I want to show you around the places I usually go to hang out here. Hey! We might even see a few of my friends on the beach. And the surf! Oh my God! You will love it!"

"I'm not really a surfer actually-" I started.

"Doesn't matter," he quickly said, "I'll teach you."

"I know I'll suck," I said.

"No you won't!" he exclaimed, "you just have to practice."

So we decided to wait a bit until we went down, since the sun was only just appearing over the horizon, but when the clock reached nine we had waited long enough, and got on our swim stuff. Jack grabbed his enormous turquoise surfboard and wet suit, and then we headed to the beach. I was surprised how short the walk was. Usually in Littleton it took about fifteen minutes to walk down the hill, but here it only took a five minute walk.

When we got to the beach, Jack went straight for the water. I put a bit of sunscreen on and then decided to go for a little swim. The beach was wonderful. It had golden sand and stretched on for ages just like Jack had said, and you could also tell it was popular because lots of people were lying on the beach with multi coloured parasols and sandcastles. But it wasn't just the scenery that brought people to this beach. I watched Jack as he made straight for the enormous waves, that were quite far out. He had to swim for a bit, and by the time he was where the swell of them were, and where all the surfers were looking extremely excited, I couldn't really see his face. I recognized his figure though. And it turned out, Jack was actually an amazing surfer. The waves were really huge. But he surfed them like a professional, dipping in and out of their arch and crouching under their swell. Diving under the frothy white foam and sliding over waves that hadn't crashed yet on his board like a dolphin. They stretched up to about 10 ft high. I watched him from the shallows. Hence the water was pretty choppy from the waves, so I lay back there, where I could feel a slight bob from them, but it was a lot calmer.

Jack seemed to be really enjoying himself. I almost began to get impatient after he had been in there for two hours. The golden sun shone down it's mid-day heat on to my shoulders, when I decided to retreat back to the shade of the stone, beach wall we'd put our stuff against. It was much cooler with it's shadow over me. The sapphire sky was as clear as a crystal. Not a cloud could be seen. I read the magazine I had brought with me for a bit, until I saw Jack finally get out of the water, looking refreshed and exhilarated, shaking his hair and clutching his surfboard in the gusty wind that reminded me of Littleton. Beaches were always where I wanted to be. I peered over the magazine at Jack, smiling to myself. By now I was used to girls turning round to stare at him sometimes as he walked past. It didn't bother me.