Misguided

“Now that we’re done with the last thing on our errands list,” Anastasia spoke as she held the door of the bank open for me to follow her out, “do you want to stop for smoothies?”

“Yes! Please! This weather is torture and I could definitely go for a cold drink,” I responded as I fanned my face with my hand to see if it’d help in the meanwhile.  Unfortunately for me, it didn’t…which Stasia must’ve thought was funny because she shook her head at me and giggled.

“What’s so funny?  You know I’m right: it’s hot! Would be a perfect day to hit the beach if Cosette wasn’t busy…”

“I couldn’t agree with you more on that one,” Stasia replied.

“Oh so now you agree with me,” I sarcastically remarked, laughing simultaneously.  She lightly punched my arm and joined my in my small fit of laughter.  A few seconds later, my arm got hit again but this time it wasn’t by her.

“Hey! Watch where you’re go- Travis??” I asked, surprised.  “Sorry! If I would’ve known it was you I would’ve hit you back instead of starting to yell.”

“Oh be nice, Laur.  Aren’t you supposed to be at work, Trav?” Anastasia asked.

“I sure am, pretty lady.  Just finishing up my break, so if you don’t mind I have to get going.  Nice to see you again, Stasia! Oh, you too Laura,” he said, almost forgetting that I was there.

I rolled my eyes and went to turn back around to enter the cafe, but my friend seemed to be in a trance –  instead of walking towards the door with me, she just stood there looking after him.  Okay, that’s the third time I’ve seen them getting a little too flirty for comfort.  I need to have a chat with this girl, I thought.

“Hello? Earth to Anastasia! You coming or not?” I asked, having decided to keep my mouth shut until after we ordered our fruit smoothies.

We sat down caddy-cornered to each other in the refreshingly air-conditioned building, each of us setting our drinks down.  I popped into my mouth the kiwi slice that had been placed on the rim of my glass while I thought of how to best approach things…though I couldn’t think of a way to start out the conversation, so I went with what first came to mind.

“Okay, what just happened?” was what I chose to ask her.

“What do you mean?” she asked innocently, picking up her phone to check what time it was.

“You and Travis.  ‘Pretty lady’? Staring at him as he left?  What the hell is going on?  You already know that he’s unavailable, so please explain it all to me.”

“Nuh-thing is going on.  She’s our best friend’s boyfriend, so of course I know he’s taken,” she insisted.

“Good.  Promise me you’ll keep your distance?  He’s our friend and surfing instructor.  He can’t be anything more to you; I don’t want neither you nor Cosette getting hurt.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said before sighing. “Fine, I’ll try.”

I stared at her face to try and read what she was thinking, but she always made it pretty hard considering she’s one of the best actresses I know.  After a minute, I gave up.  We both reached for our smoothie glasses and, as I took a sip of the refreshingly delicious beverage, I couldn’t help but second guess her words and wonder if she actually meant them or not.  I guess I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open.

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The “Need to Know”:

⇒ A new makeover is up that looks absolutely amazing thanks to GlamDylanMarvil!  I’ve been super busy lately so she graciously took the time to put together a makeover for me.  So a big thank you goes out to her!

Surf More, Worry Less

“If you can’t ‘hang ten’, you can’t hang with us.” 

“Don’t even think about it, Cosette.  This wave’s mine!” I yelled back to her as I started paddling forward towards where the wave was starting to form.  

“Remember what I told you: swerve your body with the board and don’t cut it too hard!” Travis yelled to me.  Travis, Cosette’s boyfriend, had made it his own little mission to help each of us fix our surfing flaws by the end of the summer.  He was usually busy during the day, so we opted to have this week’s lesson be a night one.  Plenty of beach-goers say you can’t catch nice waves at night, but they’re all wrong.  We’ve each taken our turns, competing for a few waves every now and then to see who’s faster, and Travis has given us little tips after each run.  I could feel it helping as I rode the length of the wave, making a few cuts here and there to show off my board-coordination skills.

I approached the last few feet of the wave and knew this was usually where I screwed up.  I turned my head in the direction I wanted to go and followed the advice I was given.  It worked; It actually worked! I held my arms up victoriously as my board slowed with the calming sea-water and I fell backwards into the water in order to dismount it.

“Yeahhh!! Way to go, Laura!” Ana cheered as I swam back towards my friends, receiving a round of high-fives when I sat back on my board.

“Alright, everyone gets one more run for the night,” Travis instructed.  “Let’s start with Ana.”

Did he just….?  I could’ve swore I saw Travis wink at Ana when he said her name.  I took a second to think but just shrugged my shoulders and dismissed it from my mind.  It was probably just him giving her a little confidence booster to help her beat my run.  After all, I am really competitive about these kinds of things.  But in the end, Ana and Cosette both had rip-roaring last rides.  Tonight was just an all-around great night for us.

The girls, Travis, and I made plans for next week’s lesson as we made our way from the water to the sand, which was still warm from the day’s heat.  I sat on the top of my board – not wanting the sand to stick to my bottoms – and un-velcroed the safety strap from around my right ankle.  A few minutes later, I joined the others at our cars when I was done and slid my surfboard into the back of my jeep.  A high-pitched giggle came from two cars over and right away I knew who it belonged to: Anastasia.  I looked over and peeked around the side of my car to see Travis helping her wipe down her board, something she was perfectly capable of doing herself.

I didn’t want to overthink it too much…if I did, I wouldn’t be able to sleep during what was left of the night.  So I simply hopped into the front seat, started the ignition, and drove off with a few honks of the horn to say “see you later”.  However, I couldn’t help but wonder: What was going on?

“Chillin’ On a Dirt Road”

“You never know where you’ll end up, so you have to be prepared for every kind of situation.”

“We’ve been walking for hours!  I don’t even think they know where the fuck we’re going,” Jason complained to himself, though I was still able to hear him.  I looked back at dad and the Corporal – one of his soldiers – but they looked like they hadn’t even heard Jason, thank gosh.  Even so, I was still a bit bothered when I saw them.  Jason and I were practically dragged ourselves along the heated dirt, yet those two looked like this was just a morning hike that they were enjoying.  Well, to them it was probably was.

Jason was right though.  We had been walking for hours and this road seemed like it was nowhere close to ending.  Everything just looked like a sorry stretch of land to us at this point.  Our feet were already raw and forming blisters, we had run out of water, and the only reason we were even going the direction we were is because “according to the compass, that’s the direction we need to go”.  Well, at least that’s what dad said.

“If we were going in the right direction, shouldn’t we have run into a cottage or farm or even an outhouse by now?” I asked to no one in particular and nervously picked at my nails.

“You never know, because in these situations, the ‘right direction’ may not even be the right direction,” Corporal Stenson advised, more than likely putting a smile on dad’s face.

“Thank you so very much for that, Mr. Fortune Cookie,” I sarcastically remarked.  To my dismay, all they did was laugh.

My muscles were becoming more sore by the minute and I really didn’t want to walk anymore.  Yes, dad loved training us and I loved training the majority of the time, but this was just boring and was taking way too long.

“Can we go home now?  I think we’ve trained long enough, sir,” I asked my dad.

“I dunno, Laur.  Maybe he was planning on having us spend the night out here, camouflaged in the trees as we take turns napping on branches, like Katniss in Hunger Games,” Jason joked, though he sounded half scared and nervous.

“Katniss, my ass.  I’m not sleeping out here,” I declared.

“Just calm down.  Take a left at the split between the fields and we’ll be home in no time,” our dad chuckled, clearly making fun of our mini little quarrel.  “I’m sure your mother and Stenson’s wife will have a good home-cooked meal ready for us by the time we get there.”

Jason and I exchanged relieved looks.  We couldn’t wait to get home.

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The “Need to Know”:

⇒ I’ll be blogging with The Monarchs (if you don’t know who they are, check out my Monarchs page) as soon as they have their blogs finished, but I just wanted to post this to give you guys a post involving more of Laura’s backstory.

⇒ This blog may have a few PG-13 words and themes thrown around occasionally, but most of it is perfectly PG.

⇒ The title of this post was inspired by Jason Aldean’s song Dirt Road Anthem (which I love).

⇒ Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! Hope you enjoy reading it!