Page 7 of Beyond The Break

I follow her gaze and notice a vein on the side of Koa’s jaw begin to tick and I know he must have heard her. I don’t really know what happened between them. I was certain they were endgame until a year ago when they suddenly broke up, without any explanation. I tried asking Koa about it, but he never answered. He just stared off into space with a blank expression each time.

Although he seems to have improved in the months I’ve been away, he’s still nowhere near the person he used to be. Instead, he’s an empty hollow version of himself.

Maliah on the other hand turned into a fire breathing dragon after the split. She’s refused to get near him, speak to him, or even look at him. To her, he doesn’t exist, and she putson a facade that that’s what she wants, but I see through it. She’s just as obsessed with him as he is with her.

I lower myself into the chair beside Koa and watch as the smart TV lights up with Gabriel’s computer desktop. It’s a picture of Zalea Evans, Zale’s older sister.

“I don’t know if I should be grossed out or pissed off,” Zale mumbles as he stares up at the picture of his sister in a bikini on the TV screen.

“Did they finally get together?” I ask.

“In his fucking dre—” Gabriel clears his throat, cutting off Zale’s raised voice, as he shoots him a warning look.

“Team,” he starts, pulling up a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide has a picture of my face on it with a confetti border. “I want to officially welcome Griffin back to the team; Fin, it’s been a long six months without you, and we’re pumped that you’re back.”

Zale reaches across Koa’s back and smacks mine, grinning from ear to ear. Kairi, on my other side, gives my forearm a comforting squeeze.

“Thanks, Coach, it’s good to be back,” I say, giving him a half smile.

“Now, as you all know, we lost Colton to the Rip Raiders?—”

“Good riddance!” Maliah barks out, crossing her arm as she looks up at Colton’s picture on the screen.

My heart starts to beat hard in my chest, anger building rapidly inside of me, and I’m almost certain Koa can hear it as he slides a sideways glance my way. I swallow past the lump in my throat as I stare at Colton’s face on the screen. I would have risked my life for him, but he betrayed me in the worst way.

“We have a team of amazing surfers, but without Colton we’re at a disadvantage.” Gabriel continues, as if he didn’t hear her. “It’s too late into the season for us to get another surfer on the team and learn his strengths and weaknesses, so we’ll haveto make-do with you three for the remainder of the season.” He nods his head towards Zale, Koa and me.

“You got it, Coach,” Zale says, winking at him. It earns him another cold stare.

To a stranger, it might seem like Gabriel and Zale don’t get along. That wouldn’t be a bad assumption, in a way they don’t. Gabriel has been pining after Zalea since they were teenagers, from what I hear.

Zale, being the protective brother that he is, doesn’t want Zalea in a one-foot radius of Gabriel. Aside from that elephant in the room, they work well together when it comes to surfing. Which is probably the only reason they haven’t strangled each other yet. Gabriel needs Zale just as much as Zale needs Gabriel.

“Anyways,” Gabriel drags his eyes, with far too much effort, from Zale and toward Kairi and Mal instead. “You two ladies have been doing an amazing job of leading the women’s scores, but I’m going to be working hard to bring in one more lady for you guys to really help boost up our overall numbers.”

“That new addition wouldn’t happen to be my sister, would it?” Zale asks, grinding his teeth.

Gabriel studies him curiously. “No. Zalea wouldn’t rejoin us even if I got on my knees and begged her.”

Zale nods in response, but both of his hands remain tight fisted on the tabletop. Zalea used to surf with us when we were all in the youth team together but there was a lot of friction between her, Zale and Gabriel. She left two years ago to get away from the tense environment and pursue solo surfing; she hasn’t been back since.

Kairi claps excitedly and Mal nods with a competitive energy that scares even me. She’s the best female on the team, maybe even in the region, but to keep that title she must surf dirty sometimes and that’s birthed a fierce competitiveness in her.

“Speaking of new additions,” Gabriel continues, skipping to the next slide of words. “We’ll be hiring on four non-competing members.”

He skips to the next slide that has a middle-aged man with a mustache that twirls at the ends. “Meet Louis, he’s the team’s very own nutritionist and chef. He’ll be scheduling in appointments with each of you to go through your diet, numbers, and then working with you to create a new meal plan.”

“He’s cute,” Mal purrs.

Koa balls his hands into fists beside me and slowly drags his arms under the table away from view. The tips of his ears turn red as he stares ahead, his nostrils flaring.

“And a little old for you, Mal,” I mutter, side eyeing Koa.

“I said he was cute, not that I wanted to fucking marry him, Fin.” she responds with so much aggression that it sends a chill down my spine. She’s a scary woman.

“Will he be living in-house if he’s the chef?” Kairi asks, eyeing me and Mal as if she’s expecting us to lunge at each other’s throats any second.

“No, he’ll be stopping by every Monday with his delivery truck and delivering containers of everyone’s meals for the week.” Gabriel answers. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any available rooms for a live-in chef.”

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