Page 14 of Beyond The Break

“I can do the basics,” I argue, a heavy feeling settling on my chest.

“Good, then all you need to do is show me. Once you do that, I’ll have you start on aerials.” He presses his lips together in a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

I shove my annoyance and anger down and nod curtly at him instead. Eliana watches me curiously and I decide to channel all my feelings into a death glare directed at her. She widens her eyes before ripping her gaze away.

“You two have already met, right?” Gabriel asks, gesturing between Eliana and me.

“Oh yeah, it was such a pleasure to meet. Wasn’t it?” she asks, turning to look at me with an innocent smile, but I see the mischief sparkling in her eyes.

“Such a pleasure,” I say dryly, playing along.

“Great, love to hear it because as I mentioned last night, Eliana, he’s your first campaign focus,” he says, smiling excitedly at us both.

“What exactly does that mean?” I ask, clenching my jaw.

“Eliana here is going to announce your return to the team to our supporters. You two will need to work closely together,or else this won’t work.” Gabriel answers, patting us both on the shoulder with a knowing smirk.

My eye twitches as I stare back at him, wondering how she has him wrapped around her finger. Fear settles in my chest at the thought of this stupid campaign exposing too much to my team, to the world, so I make the executive decision to ruin this campaign before she even has a chance to start working on it.

I mentally map out my daily schedule, making sure to add extra practice time to fill in any free time that she might try to catch me in. I’ll be so busy she won’t be able to deliver on the campaign and Gabriel will let her go.

I smile to myself. I can get rid of her without sacrificing any practice time. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

FIVE

ELIANA

“It’snice to finally have another girl in the house to balance out all that testosterone,” Maliah says, hugging me as I let out an amused giggle. “These boys can become a bit much.”

Maliah has long straight blond hair, blue siren eyes and ivory skin. Her petite frame disguises how much of a beast she is out in the ocean. Before flying down to Saltwater Springs, I did my fair share of research on each member of the team, and she is by far the most aggressive one in the ocean. But you wouldn’t think that just from looking at her.

“Some more than others,” Kairi mutters, giving Zale a once over.

Kairi is tall, with caramel skin and mid-length curly brown hair; her hazel eyes add to her beauty. She’s an amazing surfer but doesn’t seem to have that competitive drive that Maliah does.

While watching them interact with the others before practice this morning, I realized Kairi is the opposite of Maliah in every way. Maliah is very direct and honest, whereas Kairi prefers a softer approach. She walks around with her nose in abook and prefers to read silently over joining in on conversations.

I can’t help noticing how attractive everyone on this team is, as if it’s a requirement to look good to join them. Feeling self-conscious, I pull my sleeves down and fall silent as I study the others.

“Maliah and Koa,” Gabriel calls, waving them towards him, “get over here.”

“Ugh,” Maliah grumbles, planting her bright pink surfboard in the sand next to me, “why does he always pair me up with Koa? Everyone knows I don’t want anything to do with him.”

I watch as she walks over to Gabriel speedily while Koa, who is avoiding looking in her direction, is already there, eyes never wavering from Gabriel.

“They have a history together, don’t they?” I speculate, watching the awkward body language as they stand side by side with enough space for the rest of the team to fit between them.

Koa’s body is tense, his hands balled up into fists behind his back, legs spread apart. Maliah, on the other hand, stands as far from Koa as she can without making it too obvious, with her arms crossed over her chest. He’s about a foot taller than her and gorgeous with his almost-black hair and grey-ish blue eyes.

“Big time,” Kairi says, nodding slowly. “But don’t ask her about him, she won’t talk about it.”

“How come?” I ask, eyes wandering to Griffin who is deep in conversation with Zale a few feet away.

Griffin’s eyes have held an emptiness ever since Gabriel told him to prove he can handle basic surfing. It must be embarrassing to be told he needs to do that at his level. I watched a few YouTube videos from fans filming him surfing at past competitions and he’s good. Really good. But Gabriel is a coach for a reason and if he wants Griffin to prove himself, it must be for a good reason.

As if sensing my eyes on him, Griffin turns his head in my direction and our eyes lock. His eyes travel to my lips, and I feel my cheeks heat as he zones in on them. I nervously nibble on my bottom lip, his eyes darkening as he watches, before he returns them to mine.

“I think she’s still processing whatever happened between them.” Kairi says, popping her bubble gum again and pulling my attention back to her.

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