𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑾𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑰𝒔 𝑼𝒔

𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒐 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒚

One name, yet so many things to learn about me. Since I remember myself, I was always at the beach surfing either alone or with other guys. Once I was awake I was riding my bike to the beach and was getting lost under the huge waves of the island. I have reached every single beach, surfed for hours, bought numerous surfboards and walked through the coast infinite times. All summer long my phone had plenty of calls both of my mum and dad, who were worried as I was missing for hours. Fortunately, they were always deep down aware that I was at the beach and that I would soon be back home for our family dinner.

Buying a house by the sea was always a dream of mine. That's the main reason I started working while on summer holiday. I have changed a battery of jobs so as to get enough money and move to the east coast of the Anus Island. My mum and dad told me not to, but I wanted to move there as soon as possible. And here I am now, sitting on my balcony, watching the sea as the sun goes down, and listening to the waves' sound when they hit the coast. You may all fairly suppose that I'm surfing all day long as I finally live next to the beach, but still the answer is no. And that's because I met them. Don't ask who, you know exactly who I mean.

I first met Logan, when we moved to the east coast. He lives next door and he was always watching me surfing from his window even though he didn't know I was aware of him staring at me. One day, I saw him walking by the sea. It was the moment I realized I need a friend, so I grabbed my surfboard and an old one I had and ran towards him. "Wanna surf?" I asked him and that's how it all started. We were surfing together all day long since that day and our parents met, they became best friends and we remain this way till today. I also had a crush on his sister for once, but we'd better keep this as a secret. Thank god, he did never learn about that, elsewhere he would kill me.

One day, I woke up by the sound of rocks hitting my window. That was a code we had with Logan when new people, and especially girls, were at the beach. I stood up immediately and checked outside. Two blonde girls, who almost looked alike, were playing with a white dog which was running along the coast. I dressed up and headed for the beach. Logan was already talking with them when I got there. "That's my friend, Mateo" he said and introduced me to the girls. Once I saw them, my theories about being twins came out to be true. "The French Twins" as everybody was calling them had just moved into the island. We spend the whole day and night showing the girls the island and the way we have fun in here. They got amazed by everything and we had a branch of things in common as they were both swimmers in a professional team when back in France.

After that day me and Logan had two more people to pull our craziness with.
The girls were living on the south of the island on a huge house up on a hill, next to which there was one of the most beautiful beaches of Anus. On the 20th of June, the last day of school, the whole island's teenagers celebrate the initiation of the summer on this abandoned beach. That was the day we met Olivia and Cameron. They were only the two of them. Back to this night, Cam was way too drunk and Livie, as I love calling her, was unable to handle him. She walked towards me and asked for my phone. "What's going on with him?" I asked her once her phone call was over and we both realized that this was the beginning of an everlasting friendship. We all helped Livie that night get Cam home. We spent the night on her brother's treehouse when she was explaining us about her friend. "He's not always like that, he's constantly a nerd but he broke up last night" she said so as to help us understand the situation. We exchanged our numbers up on the treehouse and promised to keep in touch.

At that moment it was just a promise. However, now it seems like a bond.
We all met up the exact next day and after that we couldn't get enough of each other. We new nothing for one another but that was what kept us even closer.

When I was a kid, surfing was the only thing that was keeping me happy. Although I'm still obsessed with it, these people I met in different parts of my life showed me what true happiness is all about. Happiness was having a friend to surf with. Happiness was walking and observing the island with two newcomers. Happiness was helping a friend when in need. Happiness was making memories with 5 new people who meant the world.