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lay down on your stomach on the board and pretend your paddling out into the ocean with your hands.”

We continue like this for about an hour, him telling me what to do and me trying my best to do what he tells me to. Final I role off the board and into the sand.
“No more,” I wine exhausted “I’m tired.”
“Okay.” Keith says as he drops to the ground next to me. “One question. Why do you want to learn to surf if you don’t like the water?”
“Um… that’s a good question,” I pause think of the right answer “I really don’t know, it was a spur of the moment thing.”
“So what are you going to do when it’s time to practice in the water?”
“Go to a wave pool.” I say smiling.
“Will you tell me why you don’t like the ocean if I beg you?” He rolls over onto his stomach so he can look at me.
“Really” I look over at him “you don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do..…. I care about you and I want to know why the water scares you so much.” He frowns, touching my face with the tips of his fingers. “Please.” He whispers giving me a puppy dog face.
“Fine.” I say blowing out a huff of air. I take a long, deep breath before I start again. “On my fifth birthday my father took me to the beach to celebrate. I had on my little bathing suit and my dad took me into the water. I wanted to go further out into the water than my dad would allow so when he turned away for one second…” I pause taking in his reaction “ I went out deeper, but the under tow was too strong and I got sucked under. My dad swam out and got me before I drowned, but I ended up in the hospital for a few days.” I look up from the small pile of sand I built while I was talking to look at his grim face. “That’s why I don’t like the ocean.”
“You could have told me before.” He says playing with my fingers.
“You don’t understand how hard it is for me to talk about this.”
“Your right, I don’t. Mind telling me how come it’s so hard?”
“Um…” I look up at his face quickly then back down at my hands “When I was in the hospital my dad visited me every day, but my mother didn’t come in at all. When I think what happened that day it reminds me of all the times my mom chose work over me.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” We look at each other for a few minutes. “You ready to go?”
New Friend

Chapter Four
New Friend

I role out of bed at seven-thirty, and head to the shower. Turning the on stereo when I pass it in the hall, “Hey, Soul Sister” comes blasting through the speakers. When I hop out of the shower I get dressed and then go strait for my cell phone and check my messages. “You have one new message.” The robot on the other end says, “This message was recorded at seven a.m. June 20th” There’s a long beep, then “Hey, babe, it’s Keith. I just wanted to know if you’re busy tonight? So… um… call me.” I take a deep breath the dial Keith’s number he picks up on the first ring.
“Hey babe.” I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Hey.” I can’t keep the smile off my own face. “So about tonight?”
“Well, some of my friends are throwing a party on the beach tonight so I thought we could go?”
“Sounds good to me.” There is a long pause “Do you think it’s too early to call Megan?” I ask trying to fill the silence.
“Well Meg gets up at like six in the morning to go surfing so… no I think you’re good.”
“Really? Six? You’re kidding.”
“Yes, really. Megan is a really serious surfer she spends almost every waking hour surfing.”
“Oh…cool.” I don’t know what else to say “Well I have to go.”
“Okay, I’ll come by around seven.”
“Okay, bye.” I hang up, rolling off my bed. I dial Megan’s number as I sit down on the couch. It rings four times and then goes to voice mail. “Hey, you’ve reached Megan Miller I’m not able to come to the phone right now but I’ll call you back as soon a I can.” There is a long beep “Hey, Megan, it’s Bailey just wanted to see if you’d like to hang out to day. So… um… call me.” I finish talking and push end on my phone, sitting on the couch with nothing to do I feel like a total loser. I turn on the TV flipping through the channels so fast I can’t even tell what is on. Suddenly the door bell dings making me jump, the remote flies from my hand and smashes into the wall behind me. I leap off the couch and run to the door. Who could this be? I throw the door open and see Maya’s smiling face.
“Surprise.”
“Oh my god! What are you doing here?” I scream.
“You invited me remember?”
“Your early.” I answer pulling her into a hug. “Come in, Come in. Where are your bags?”
“Your dad said he’d have some kid named Keith bring them up for me.”
“So you met Keith?” I ask suddenly feeling possessive.
“No, why? Is he a hunk?” Her face lights up in excitement.
“You could say that.” I giggle.
“Ooooh I can’t wait to meet…” The doorbell dings cutting her off.
“Looks like you don’t have to.” I giggle again then open the door. Keith smiles at me then picks up the two pink bags that sit at his feet. “Hey, come on in.”
“Hey, Bailey. Where do you want me to put these?”
“By the couch is fine, thanks.” He drops the bags then turns back to me.
“You need to get a elevator installed or something because those stairs are a killer.”
“Tell me ‘bout it.” I say suddenly remembering Maya “Oh! Maya this is Keith, Keith this is Maya.”
“Hi.” Maya waves.
“Nice to meet you.” Keith smiles at Maya then turns back to me. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Um… well… could Maya come with us?”
“Yea. Sure.” He pauses taking my hand, he squeezes fingers. “I’ll see you later.”
“Okay bye.” I squeeze his fingers back before letting go of his hand. “Now shoo we have girls stuff to do.” I say pushing him back out the door. When I turn back to Maya she has a smug look on her face. “What?”
“Do you have something you want to tell me?” Her eyes fall on the space where Keith was just standing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you dating the hottie?”
“Maybe.” I say looking down at my feet.
“OH MY GOD! YOU ARE!” She screams and I rush to cover her mouth with my hand.
“Shut up.” I glare at her.
“Fine.” I she say taking in my mood. “So what are we doing to night?”
“We’re going to a party on the beach.”
“Are there any other hot guys in this town? And I thought you didn’t like the beach?”
“I don’t like the water and about the boys I really couldn’t tell you.” I say bringing her bags to my bedroom. “Oh and just a warning the girls here don’t like new girls.”
“As long as the boys like me I’m okay.”
“When did you become so boy crazy?” I ask eyeing her.
“When Brett and broke up.”
“What? Why? When? Who?” I gasp
“The day you left. He broke up with me. Why? Well his exact words were ‘I want us to just be friends, I just don’t like you as much as I used to.’”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I frown, dropping her bags at the end of my bed. “I didn’t like him anyway.”
“Yea sure. Look I don’t care about him what do you want to do today?”
“Well… I need to get a bathing suet. We could go shopping?”
“Oh, yes please! Do we get to take your…” The phone rings interrupting her.
“One sec.” I say holding up a finger and picking up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hey! It’s Meg!” Megan’s voice as bouncy as her hair comes through the phone.
“Hey! What’s up?” I say sitting down on the couch.
“Do you want to hang out to day?”
“Um… my friend Maya is here from Connecticut.”
“Hey, we can all hang out together!”
“Yea, sure. Come on over, we were just going to go shopping.”
“ ‘Kay. I’ll be over in five minutes.”
“Okay see you.” I say hanging up, then turn to Maya, “My friend Megan is coming over then we’ll all go shopping together. Maybe we can get lunch or something too.” I smile at her. She mumbles something that sounds like “So we can’t take the Porsche” but I ignore her.


A few minutes later Maya, Megan and I are standing in a small shop digging through a rack of bathing suits.
“How ‘bout this one?” Maya says holding up a black bikini.
“Um… too plain.” I say. She frowns then puts it back on the rack.
“This one?” Meg asks handing me a white halter-top bikini with thick red stripes running across it.
“Hmm. I like it.” I look at the size, S is written on the tag. “I hope it fits.” I hang it over my arm and keep digging. “Now I have to find a mono-kini and a tan-kini and a one-piece.” I say signing.
“Why do you have to have a one-piece?” Maya asks “Only old people wear one-pieces.” I ignore her and we finish picking out bathing suits in silence. In the end I buy a yellow mono-kini, an emerald green tan-kini and the bikini Megan picked out.
“Do you want to get lunch?” I ask
“Sure.” Megan answers. Maya just nods looking pissed.
“Where should we go?” I ignore Maya again.
“We could go to this café I know.” Megan suggests.
“The Coffee Pot?”
“Yes! Have you been there?”
“I went there for breakfast with Keith.”

A few minutes later we all walk into “The Coffee Pot”. Megan and I lead the way with Maya trailing behind. After ordering we sit down at a table to eat and talk, the whole time I can feel Jenny’s glare on my back.
“So are you guys coming to the party tonight?” Megan asks.
“Yea, we’re coming.” I say taking a bite from my sandwich.
“Cool.” We sit in silence for a few minutes.
“What’s the name of the beach were going to?”