“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?
The Adventures of Laura Thompson 