Page 8 of Under the Waves

Daniel seemed to read the words tangled in my mind across my face, as he didn’t push me for information. “I knew you surfed,” he said with a smile, “you’ve got that determined look in your eyes that only a surfer could recognize. How long have you been surfing for?”

I paused.

Since as long as I could remember, my feet were glued to a board.

“Since forever.”

“And when did you stop?”

I gazed wide-eyed at him.How did he—

“I haven’t surfed in a long time either, kid.”

Nodding, I offered him as much of a smile as I could manage. I knew he couldn’t surf anymore since his accident—I remembered my dad telling me about it, threatening it would happen to me if I didn’t stick to my routine and concentrate on the waves. Friends were only ever distractions.

Poppy Wells didn’t do distractions…no matter how badly she wanted to.

Even from here, I could taste the salty air—could feel August slipping away from me, time never being on my side. It was blurred between bottles of wine and pill bottles, when wanting to be a star that hung from the heavens was more than enough to deter me from slipping out from under the sheets. The familiar crashing of the waves against the cliffs soothed myaching limbs and bustling mind.

“Do you want to tell me why I got a panicked call from one of my staff telling me that there was a girl passed out in his arms in the medical room?”

My fists clenched defensively.

“You’re lucky one of them was there or you could’ve been in some real danger, kid.”

“First of all, it wasyourteacher that hitmein the face with the door, giving me a nosebleed and minor concussion. And secondly,Ididn’t ask to be taken there, he justdid. So none of that was my fault.”

I stood up, pushing back away from the chair, ready to walk away.

“Oh, and I was here for the teaching job actually, if you need to know why,” I said, trying to sound unaffected when I was anythingbutthat, before pulling out the blood-stained leaflet and placing it down on the table, “Not that it matters anymore. I just want to go home.”

Not that I had a home to go home too. I had ahouse.

There was a big fucking difference.

I wasn’t made for comforting conversations, or friends, orhappiness. I wasn’t made to be happy—I was made to surf, to be the invisible daughter, to be the greatest shame. I’d forgotten how my laughter sounded.

I’d forgotten how it felt to be loved.

This was a mistake. I didn’t know why I even thought coming here was a good idea in the first place.

“Poppy, wait! I’m not mad at you. If anything, I’m mad at him for doing this to you,” when he noticed the whirlwind of emotions clouding my face, he sighed. “I’m sorry it happened like this, kid. I wanted to see you after…what happened, but my movement is limited these days. That’s not an excuse though, and I’m sorry again it took this happening for us to meet again. I was hoping to catch you at one of your heats…but it was like you disappeared, Pops. One moment you and your little brother were running through the waves laughing and playing like the kids you were, and the next minute you and everyone else were gone.”

I didn’t know what to say. The pounding of my heart echoed in my ears so loudly I could feel it in my bones.

“And the job, Pops…you didn’t even have to ask. If I knew you were back in town, I would’ve gotten my wife, you remember Isa? To ask you to come down here again like you and Oliver did when you were little. It’s yours of course, if you still want it.”

I nodded after a moment, too shocked to speak. Perhaps I was in shock, because it sure as hell felt like it. I didn’t remember him at all…my dad had always told me to stay away from him, so I did. I thought it was because he wanted to kidnap me or sell me to his friends back in…Columbia, was it? I couldn’t remember anymore. He had spun me gory tales of young kids going up by the cliffs where the surf school was and never coming back down. The mysterious lure of it appealed to me and…

No. I would not fall three steps backwards after spending every fucking day since the accident working up the strength to move even one step forward.

“That’s great, Pops. All shifts will start after your classes since you’ll be on the same rotor as one of the other teachers. He’s the grade above you, maybe you two know each other already?”

I swear mischief glinted in his eyes. I blinked, and it was gone, replaced by…happiness. Jealousy began to pool in my gut but I pushed it away because allowing that ugly, blackened hole inside me to grow was like accepting death by a thousand cuts.

“…I can get Isa to email you the schedule and everything else if that would be easier?”

I must have spaced out because those were the last words I caught, so I just nodded. “Yes, that would be great, thank you.”