Page 41 of Beyond The Break

Right before Mal reaches the water, the purple haired girl trips her. She falls on top of her surfboard, breaking it in half, and the crowd gasps. I peek a quick glance at Gabriel and he’s holding onto his temples, stressed, as he watches her pick herself back up.

She quickly surveys her board while the other competitors are already out in the water paddling. Deciding there’s no saving it, she starts to run towards us with both pieces of her board, so I run back to the board rack near the tent and grab her spare board, running it towards her until we meet in the middle.

“That bitch should get a penalty for that,” she huffs in frustration as she tears off the ankle strap from the broken board, replacing it with the ankle strap from her spare board.

“Don’t worry about penalties right now, just focus. You can still win it.”

Without a word, she turns back around and runs into the water, hopping onto her board and beginning her powerful paddling. When she reaches the lineup and the second horn blows, she surfs more aggressively than the others to catch a wave, and when she does, she hits perfects scores which is almost unheard of.

“She’s definitely going to need to visit our board shaper now,” Kairi mumbles as she throws the broken pieces of Mal’s board into a trash bag, completely entranced as she watches Maliah.

When Mal’s heat ends, she runs up to us, pleased with her first-place scoring. I pull her into a bear hug and spin us around twice. I notice Koa watching us closely just over her shoulder, so I shoot him a cocky wink and he returns it with a roll of his eyes before he focuses his attention on Eliana, looking her up and down before sliding his tongue across his bottom lip, causing her to blush in response.

I hate that another person can elicit that response from her. I don’t blame her; Koa is a good-looking mother fucker, but I still don’t like the way her cheeks continue to grow red under his attention. I quickly release Maliah, clearing my throat and shooting him a dirty look which he laughs at.

“You did great, Malipop,” I say, roughing up her soaked hair with my hand.

“Don’t call me that,” she laughs, swatting my hand away and fixing her hair, “it’s either Mal or Maliah. You know that.”

“Whatever you say, Malipop.” She gives me a friendly shove before walking off in search of her towel, Koa’s eyes burning into her as he passes.

I look around and notice that Eliana is walking away from us towards the shade of palm trees, so when the airhorn for Kairi’s heat blows, I leave the others in search of Eliana. Itdoesn’t take long to find her leaning against some palm trees. She’s staring down at her phone with glazed eyes.

You’re the world’s biggest asshole. She’s on the verge of crying because of you.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, shoving the guilt down before I refocus on her.

“Earth to Eliana,” I say, waving my hand in front of her to catch her attention.

She jumps up, looking at me in surprise before her lips turn downward into a frown and she wipes at her watery eyes as she turns red. I hold my hands up in surrender as I take a step toward her.

“I’m having a shit day, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have done that,” I say, stopping in front of her.

My words do little as she continues to glare at me.

“We can talk more about it later, but my heat is next, and I figured you wouldn’t want to miss that.”

She bristles. “Why, because I’m obsessed with you?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I return my eyes to hers. She looks pissed as hell and rightfully so.

“No,” I say as I approach her and place my forearm against the tree trunk above her head, caging her in, while I use my other hand to lift her chin so that she’s looking up at me, “because I want you there and because you have a job to do.”

I watch as her pink lip’s part slightly, her cheeks flushing, her eyes dilating as she looks up at me, and although it’s hot as hell outside, goosebumps run across her arms. My eyes snag on her lips and it takes everything in me not to lower my mouth to hers. Her eyes slide down to my lips and I see the want and need reflected in her eyes too.

I push myself off the tree and turn around, heading back to the others, ears strained to hear her almost silent steps behind me. When we reach the others, she stands further off to theside away from me and snaps pictures of Kairi battling it out in the water.

Kairi comes in first place for her heat which means she’s up against Maliah for first place in the final round later today.

The male surfers are up next, and Zale is placed into my heat.

“Let’s not fight each other for waves out there. I’ll stay at the opposite end of the lineup,” Zale says.

“Sounds good,” I reply before Zale walks off and takes his position at the other end of the lineup.

I stare towards the ocean, mentally preparing myself to get out there and put in my best effort but I don’t expect Colton to walk over and take a spot right next to me. I refuse to look at him, although I can see his face turned towards mine in my peripheral vision, and the silence is deafening. I can’t promise that I won’t swing at him if we make eye contact, so it’s best that I keep my eyes forward.

When the airhorn blows, I’m sprinting towards the shore, Colton keeping up beside me. As soon as we reach the water, we throw our boards down and begin paddling with all our strength. Unsurprisingly, Colton takes the lead as I’m still unable to paddle as fast as him, let alone the other surfers, but I push myself to my limits to make sure that I’m not too far behind him.

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