Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (5 page)

He dragged his exhausted limbs along the shore, dragging half a surfboard behind him from his ankle across the sand. When he removed the leash from his leg, he tossed it to the ground, not bothering to reclaim what was left of his surfboard now broken into pieces. There was no question in his mind…his board wasn’t the only thing that was broken. He fell to the sand and rolled onto his back, lying there without motivation to stand, all confidence abandoned in the ocean behind him.

5. FROZEN YOGURT

Falling asleep wasn’t easy that night. I kept analyzing my conversation with Rayne in my head. Did I do the right thing? Would I really be able to suppress the feelings enough to be completely happy on my own? I was sure it was the best thing before I went over to his house, but I already missed him. Then I remembered that none of it was real in the first place, and I drifted into sleep with new confidence in my decision.

I woke the next morning feeling energized. It was a new day. The first day of my own, totally real, not at all forced or fake in any way, life. I was ready to move on. I stepped into the kitchen with a gleam on my face.

“Morning, sweetheart,” Mom said, glancing up from a bowl of fruit and granola.

I poured myself a bowl of cereal and sat beside her at the table, contemplating whether or not to fill her in on the recent changes in my relationship with Rayne. She would figure it out eventually, but I wanted to focus on the positive this morning. I wanted to take advantage of the time I had left with my mom before graduation.

“What are you up to today?” I asked.

“Oh, I’ll probably just get caught up on some stuff around the house this morning.”

“Sounds exciting,” I teased. But I could feel my cheerful expression already starting to droop.

Despite my efforts to forget about my strange run-in with Dr. Jensen in the stairwell the day before, I couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive. “So…is Dr. J coming over before you go to work?” I asked.

My mom walked her empty dish to the sink and shook her head. “No, not today. He has some special work meeting to go to. Something about a new medication he’s researching. He didn’t really tell me the details. It’s supposed to be some big surprise I guess. But tomorrow we both have the day off, so we’re thinking of heading over to the farmer’s market for a while, before we all meet for dinner.”

Even though my mother didn’t seem to know the details about this new, secret medication, the fact that Dr. Jensen told her about it made me feel even more sure that I had overreacted about the whole thing when I ran off.

I decided not to bring it up. All I said was, “Sounds fun. So it seems like things are going pretty well for you two.”

 “Sure, honey. It’s going great.”

I wasn’t surprised by her reply. It was the same answer she gave to pretty much every question I asked her. But despite her always positive, predictable answers, my mom wasn’t as good at hiding things as she thought. I could tell that things actually
were
going well between them, and it made me happy.

I pulled out the manila envelope I’d been hiding in my bag and held it up in my mom’s direction. “I have something for you,” I said, the smile growing on my face.

Her eyes widened happily when she realized what she was holding. “Sweetheart! Is this what I think it is?”

I laughed. “Open it and see…”

My mom pulled out the letter from UCLA just long enough to read the first sentence. At first, she squealed and jumped up and down like a child as soon as she realized I had been accepted to the school. But as the news sunk in, she stopped and clasped her hands meaningfully over her mouth, gazing at me with the look of a proud parent.

Her arms reached out in my direction and she embraced me warmly. “Congratulations, sweetie. I’m so happy for you.”

I left for school with a positive outlook, feeling determined, like I finally had a purpose. I knew where my future was heading, and it was a good future to work towards.

I stopped just outside my car door, peering at Rayne’s house just a few yards away. It looked cold and distant. It might as well have been on another planet. My gaze fell to my feet for a moment, missing his smile and his soothing presence.
It’ll be okay
, I told myself.
You’ll still see him this afternoon
. Then I got in my car, turned on a song I knew every word to, and sang every last note while I drove to school.

By the time I walked to fourth period physics, I had already told at least thirty people about my plans to go to UCLA in the fall. Each time the words came out of my mouth, the better I felt about my decision to go. I even had a couple of friends in my class that were planning to go there as well.

Physics was the only class I had with Heather this semester. It was also the only class I had with Justin Crane and his girlfriend, Ariana. Heather and I sat one row behind the happy couple, so we always had a clear view of their giggling and googly eyes and passing of love notes. It was pretty cool that some of my friends had stayed in relationships for so long, including Heather and Nick Christensen.

All of my other close friends, Lindsey, Kelly, Julie, and Nicole, had all broken up with their boyfriends over the last few months. Some of them would get back together and then break it off again, or trade boyfriends for a while then end up switching back. I was glad I stayed out of all the drama. Julie and Kelly even got in a big fight because Julie went out with Kelly’s ex, Sean, but Kelly was hoping to get back together with him. It turned into this big, catty mess. At this point, it was anybody’s guess who they would all end up going to prom with this year.

Heather leaned over the side of her desk towards me before class. “Did you go see Rayne last night after we talked?”

I nodded hesitantly. “Um, yeah, I went over to his house for a little bit.”

She smirked. “So…did he finally plant a big wet one on you?”

“Shhh,” I said, looking side to side to see if any students were listening. “No,” I whispered. “I sort of told him we had to talk. We’re kind of on a break now.”

Heather’s voice shrieked a little too loudly, sounding appalled. “You broke up with him?”

Just then, a textbook dropped on the desk in front of me. My head shot up to find Ariana looking at me with the biggest, saddest eyes I’d ever seen. “No, tell me you guys didn’t,” she said in horror. Ariana sunk down in her chair, face pale. “Oh my gosh, I seriously think I’m going to cry.”

Justin was walking up to the desk across from us, when he saw his girlfriend’s face—which pretty much looked like she’d witnessed a box of puppies getting run over by a semi.

Justin hopped over his chair and landed swiftly by Ariana’s side. “Babe, what’s wrong?”

She buried her face in his chest dramatically. “Sadie and Rayne…broke up.”

Justin patted Ariana’s back. “Don’t worry, baby. It’ll be okay.” Then he turned to me with a scowl and said, “What a jerk-wad. Do you want me to go punch his face in for you?”

Heather cut in, “That’s sweet, Justin, really. But it won’t be necessary. Sadie, of course, was the one who broke up with
him
.”

Justin turned to me and lifted his eyebrows. “Way to go,
Sade
.”

I gave Heather a pleading look and spoke under my breath. “Can we please just talk about this later?”

Mr. Reed’s half balding head and goofy checkered shirt appeared at the front of the classroom. For the first time all semester, the sight of my teacher as he brought our class to attention put a smile on my face. I was relieved this conversation was officially over. Unfortunately, the damage was already done. Ariana and Justin would probably have the whole school informed of my new single status before the end of lunch.

Then again, once I thought about it, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. The whole point of cooling things off with Rayne was to focus on what was real, to get involved in my own life again. What better way to make myself fully available to my friends than to make it clear I wasn’t tied down to anyone?

Once I survived the hour of physics, Heather and I strolled out towards the lunch area together. I walked up to the end of the line near the salad bar, but Heather grabbed my arm.

“No…” she said slowly, examining my face. “No salad for you. You definitely look like you need carbs today.” She pulled me sideways. “Come on. We’re hitting the pizza line.”

It wasn’t exactly difficult to convince me. “Ooh, pizza,” I said happily. “Let’s go.”

After paying for a slice of ham and pineapple, Heather suggested we find a quiet spot on the grass rather than sit with the girls at our usual table. “Let’s just talk alone for a minute,” she said, settling down on the ground. “Sorry about earlier in class. I can be a little…loud sometimes.”

I laughed. “You? No way.” Heather stuck her tongue out at me like a four-year-old. “Seriously though,” I said. “Not a big deal. I’m over it.”

She took a bite of pizza. “So what really happened last night? Rayne has to be, like, totally heartbroken. I mean, it had to be you who broke it off, right?”

“It was mostly me,” I said. “But he’s fine with it.”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s fine?”

“He
is
,” I insisted.

Heather set her pizza down on the plate. “Okay, Sade, I don’t know what fantasy world
you
live in, but back here in reality, Rayne is like, more into you than any other guy has ever been into a girl before.”

“But we totally talked everything out,” I said. “When I told him we should spend time apart, he said he agreed with me.”

Heather’s mouth was full, but it didn’t stop her. “Of course he did,” she complained. “That’s what guys
do
when they’re getting their hearts broken. They pretend they don’t care, to save face, so they don’t look like idiots.”

“I don’t think Rayne’s like that, though.”

“Believe me,
all
guys are like that,” she said with full confidence. “What were you thinking anyway? You can’t break up with your boyfriend with barely more than a month left before prom.”

I swallowed a gulp of soda. “So I’ll find a new date. Or maybe Rayne will still go with me. We’re still friends. And just so you know, he was clear from the very beginning that we would probably never be more than that. Why do you think we still haven’t kissed yet? I mean, I do miss him, but what’s the point in staying with him if we’re never going to go anywhere with it?”

“Well, if he really said that, then I think he’s in major denial,” Heather said. “When you guys were together, he hardly let you out of his sight.”

I looked down and picked at my pizza crust. “Yeah, well, things are complicated with Rayne. I feel like the best thing for me right now is just to forget about guys in general for a while, you know, spend more time with my
awesome
best friend while we’re still seniors.”

She laughed. “Okay, I’m super flattered, but now you’re just talking crazy talk. You know what you
really
need? You need some
new
guy coming around to make Rayne jealous. As soon as he sees you with someone else, he’ll totally realize what he’s missing.”

“No way,” I said. “I don’t want to play games. The last thing I want is drama.”

I looked up when Heather’s boyfriend, Nick, appeared from around the corner. He smirked and signaled for me to pretend I didn’t see him while he snuck up to Heather’s back and placed his hands over her eyes.

“Guess who,” he said.

Heather giggled and turned in Nick’s direction, landing a quick peck on his lips. “Hey, you,” she said.

Nick turned to me. “So
this
is where you’ve been hiding my girlfriend all lunch hour. Do you mind if I steal her away for a minute?”

I stood and brushed the grass from my white capris. “Sure. I guess I can share.”

Before I could step away, Nick placed his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, and sorry to hear that things didn’t work out with you and Rayne.”

I pulled out half a smile and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.” I had a feeling this was going to be the topic of conversation with everyone I talked to for the rest of the day.

Sadly, I was right. By the time I finished sixth period, I was begging for someone to talk to me about anything other than Rayne and the tragedy that was our relationship’s demise.

All I wanted was to sneak out to my car as soon as school was over, but I had to stay late after class. I was confused about a homework problem, and it took forever for my pre-calculus teacher to explain the answer. I glanced at my watch when I was finally hurrying out through the classroom door. Usually, I would stop at home before heading to work at the yogurt shop, but I didn’t have time today.

I half walked, half ran down the sidewalk, trying to shove all my papers and folder into my bag, when my body bounced into something firm and warm. I gasped and stepped back to find a tall, bulky person’s back facing me, wearing a black t-shirt.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, trying to move around the person in my haste.

“Sadie. Hey.” I looked up and found Emily Reese with her cropped brown hair and clunky black boots. After chatting on several occasions in the past few months, she wasn’t nearly as scary to me as she used to be. Weird and quirky, yes; but not scary.

“Oh. Hi, M,” I said.” Sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

“You didn’t see me?” she said with a smirk. “I take up like half the sidewalk.”

I laughed. “I guess I was distracted.” I tried to finish sorting my schoolwork into my bag.

Emily folded her arms. “What’s up with you? You’re acting kind of freaky.”

“Me? No I’m not. I’m just in a hurry because I’m late for work.”

“Oh wait, I know why you’re being so weird and jumpy; it’s because of what happened with
you know who
…” she said. “Word on the street says
you
were the one who called it off.”

I took a step forward, still feeling the need to hurry. “I guess. Sort of.”

“So if
you’re
done, do you think I might have a crack at him?”