The Surfer Girl

tagged

Early the next morning I woke up to get ready for the hike. I threw on a sports bra, crop top, and nike shorts. I pulled on some socks followed by black and white nike sneakers. Then I went into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. I threw strawberries, bananas, dragonfruit, and a few other things into blender to make a smoothie bowl. I sat eating for a while before I got a text from Alex

Aussie boy:

Heyyyy I'm almost to your house. See you in 5.

I shut my phone off, going back up to my bedroom. On the dresser was a bluetooth speaker, and my small drawstring bag that I normally used for hikes. Going to the bathroom connected to my room, I grabbed a scrunchie, throwing another into the bag. By the time I had made it downstairs, Alex was calling me.

"Just walk in, door's unlocked." I said quickly before hanging up. In the fridge, I grabbed a lemon, going over to the counter. I heard footsteps getting louder as I grabbed a large plastic water bottle. I could tell Alex was behind me as I went back to the fridge, grabbing roughly three handfuls of ice and putting them in the bottle, filling it up afterwards.

"Tate should be here in about 10 minutes, so we can just hang out. Want anything?" I asked, pointing to the fridge. Alex had made himself comfortable, sitting on one of the barstools. He shook his head, clearly engrossed with his phone. I peered down, seeing him go through the process of posting something on instagram. A few seconds later, my phone buzzed, lighting up with the notification for instagram.

@alexhayes tagged you in a post

I opened my phone, tapping on the notification. The app opened to a video, and in the video was me. I recognized it as one of the two of us surfing yesterday. There were only a few short clips of me, the rest being him and then just regular shots of the water and the island.

Then I read the caption. Enjoying the beautiful island with my new bud @chandlerrr.

I heard the horn honk and before I could comment, Alex had practically dragged me out of the house. Tate was sitting in his Jeep, nearly identical to mine, with none other than Mia sitting in the front, staring at her phone.

"Huh, she actually showed up today." I said, not realizing it was out loud.

"What?" Alex asked.

"Oh, it's just that whenever me and Tate want to do something together, she usually bails. But I guess she just feels more comfortable with you around so I'm not a third wheel."

He nodded, throwing his arm around me and walking me to the car. For some reason my heart did the "!" thing. No, don't do that, stop it. You're just friends, you don't have feelings for him I kept telling myself. We both hopped in the jeep, Alex sliding over to allow me room. We both fastened our seatbelts and Tate began to drive away.

"So, where are we going exactly?" Alex asked, placing his hands around Tate's headrest.

"I was thinking wiliwilinui." He replied, taking a left onto a road covered by thick trees.

"Wili what now?" Alex asked again.

"It' this really cool trail that not a lot of people know about, it has some pretty sick views I've heard."

"You've never been?"

"Never really had the time." I replied, looking out at the scenery. I took out my phone and made a quick snapchat as we drove through what seemed to be a deep part of the jungle.

After about 15 minutes more of driving, we finally made it to the trailhead. I grabbed my bag and programmed my bluetooth speaker, beginning my hiking playlist. We walked up the steep trail, through the thick trees for what seemed to be hours.

Alex had of course been filming here and there, getting shots mainly of the island and all of the different plants and flowers. At the moment I was the first in the group, with Tate and Mia behind me with Alex at the back.

"Hey guys, I think I see the end of the trail!" I called, noticing the peak of the mountain not too far away. Tate smiled and took a large gulp of his water, and Mia huffed.

"Finally." she said almost angrily. Didn't she pick the hike? I said to myself.

"We made really good time, only about an hour and a half." Alex said, turning off his gopro.

"Well we probably would have been faster if someone didn't stop to take pictures every 10 feet." Mia snapped, looking at me.

I chuckled, adjusting the straps on my bag.

"I took all of six pictures. And besides, you were the one constantly complaining about your ankle even though the injury only appeared after 20 minutes of being on the trail." I turned away, walking up farther to the trailhead. We had made it practically to the center of the island, surrounded by views of the city, the mountains and the ocean all at once. After waiting for a few seconds, I turned back around, running into -surprise- Alex.

One of my feet slid down the slippery mud as I tried to move out of the way, but before I could fall any further, his hands shot out from his sides. They wrapped around my waist, firmly grabbing me and pulling me back up.

"You okay there?" he asked, guiding me away from the ledge.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just clumsy I guess." I said, trying to laugh it off. It was then that I noticed his hands were still around my waist. Not in the same protective way, but more of his hands gently being on my hips, like a slow dance. I bit my lip, awkwardly letting go of him as he did the same. I looked back up to see Tate and Mia staring at us. I did my best to ignore it, but there was something about the way they were looking at me. Mia had the same glare on her face as she always did, but this time, it was more directed toward Alex, who was turned the other way filming again. And then I saw Tate. He looked at me with an expression that I could only describe with three words. Angry, jealous, hurt. But why would he be looking at me like that? It's not like he doesn't have his own girlfriend, and besides, Alex is just a friend. I did my best to shrug it off and took my water bottle out of my backpack, taking a few large gulps.

We made it back down the hike in about 30 minutes, and had all decided to go to the beach together. After Tate dropped Alex and I off at my house, I grabbed all of the necessary gear and placed it in the trunk, changing into a swimsuit and giving Alex a spare pair of men's shorts my dad kept laying around in case any guest needed it.

We drove the short distance to the beach and found a parking spot in the dirt under some trees. Alex hopped out of the car while I texted my dad to let him know where I was, getting both surfboards from the top of the car. I saw another instagram notification, and opened the app yet again. I saw a similar post to the one yesterday, with pictures of the scenery as well as short clips of Alex catching waves and goofing off. Along with it, I saw about a dozen people that had requested to follow me, most of them from Alex's page. 

"Hey guys, over here!" I heard a familiar voice call. I turned around to see Tate waving at us, motioning to a large set of blankets and umbrellas. I nodded, gathering my things and telling Alex to follow me. When we arrived at our spot, I noticed the group of people surrounding Tate was more than just Mia.

"Great." I muttered under my breath.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, catching up to me. I sighed, glancing at the different towels scattered on the sand. One in particular caught my eye. It was blue, with large green leaves on all four corners and embroidered with the words "Conrad, Bora Bora".

"Nothing. Let's go" I tried to change the subject. Today I was wearing a bikini that was a dark, forest green, each piece covering a bit more of my skin than a normal bikini would. We ran to the water, paddling out on our surfboards and feeling the warm water. 

This should be fun.