- surfing feelings ⛅️ | ari gibson | a surviving summer fanfiction

part 19 - new crush + fight before the big heat

"Hey, Griff." I say and I feel like a piece of meat in a tiger den. All these Anchor Cove surfers are staring at me with the meanest looks. Of course they are. What the heck am I, a member of the rival Shorehaven club, doing here?

I walk closer to Griff and he gives me a sneaky smile and puts his arm around my shoulder. I wanted to physically vomit having to intimately hug him. At most, in the past surfing competitions we'd just give a sportsmanlike pat on the back or handshake at the end of it. Except Manu always forced us to. Encourages healthy competition, he says. Ugh. He probably read that in some team building pamphlet. There's dozens of them littered around the house.

"Hey... babe." Griff says and kisses my cheek. Wow. Really going all out. I'm not even surprised since he did attack my lips when I was in his car. Last night is still a total fever dream.

Sheridan gapes her mouth open and looks at Lily. She nudges her head and Lily crosses her arms against her chest. "Guys, this is Mina." Griff introduces me.

"Ohhhh yeah, Mina. I saw your pics on Instagram. With Nikki. That's super cool. Weren't you supposed to be there Lily?" One of the boys say and smiles and gives me an awkward fist bump. I recognized him from the dinner after the shoot. The cute boy, Noah.

Okay. Making my way into the group one at a time. Maybe Id learn something new about the Anchor Cove members. As much as there's rivalry, it'd be nice to get along with them. Friendly competition. Like when me and Poppy compete against each other today. We'll still support each other.

Griff holds my hand with his other arm around my shoulder. I push my face into his hard chest to avoid eye contact with the AC girls.

"We know who she is. She's one of those cheap Boardrider kooks. She totally pushed poor Lily off her board in order to win Jackson Bay." Sheridan says and nudges Lily. Of course she tries some low-ball scheme to make me look bad. She's been like this since forever.

I was close to grabbing Sheridan's stupid blonde hair and throw her facedown into the sand but Griffin notices and squeezes my hand. I smile ditzy at him to mock his group. "I'm Sheridan Morehouse and I'm part of Anchor Cove which means I'm better than everyone." I mutter under my breath which Griff hears since my face is still muffled against his body. He stifles a laugh and I kick sand at his foot. Turns out he actually has a sense of humor.

"What's so funny?" Lily says. She looks taken aback and she crossed her arms to death stare Griff. I guess she's used to people being on her side of things.

"How dumb you are to try to insult my girlfriend." Griff says and pulls my face up to kiss my forehead. It actually seemed tender and genuine. He's a good actor.

I spot Bodhi walking up the stairs to the parking lot. I remember what she said in the crew van yesterday. Her dad needs help fixing up one of the big houses in the hills.

━━༺❀༻━━

I told Griff I needed to get ready for my heat— which is true. I just needed to get the hell out of the shark tank. They're all looking at me like fresh meat.

Someone clasps my arm and I turn to see Ari. "Ari?" I shake his hand off me. He looks worried. "What?" My heart started beating fast. Had he came to talk to me about last night? Or Griff?

"Have you seen Bodhi?" His face looks pale and like he ran a mile just to ask me this. I roll my eyes.

"No. She left early and went to help her dad at the big house up the hill." I said and walked away.

I change into a purple and sage green wetsuit that Manu gave me and the Vic Surf t-shirt in the girls' bathroom. My body isn't stiff or rigid like how it gets when I'm nervous for a heat. I guess Manu's early morning surf session did help loosen my muscles for today.