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

part 20 - kiss and make up

My body was hot and sweaty and my eyes were still dry from crying in front of Griff Temple. He told me we needed to go to some gathering afterwards to get Lily's attention as part of the agreement. I just nodded without thinking.

I hear Ari yell out good luck behind me and I turn and give him a small wave. Griff also yells out some happy wishes.

I'm on the beach now in a row with Poppy, Lily, and Sheridan. Poppy peeks her head at me from the end of the row to give me a sad, fighting smile. I nod to reassure her I'm fine. In reality, there's a lot of things I need to figure out. Such as the fight with Marlon, Ari seeing the whole thing, my feelings for Griff that need to be squashed immediately, and if Bodhi ever made it.

That didn't matter now. Right now in this moment was the biggest comp in my life. If I get first, it's a full ride into the finals tomorrow and get that Wildcard. It's wildly sexist that there's only one girls spot and two boys spots but I'm willing to make Poppy and Bodhi eat my dust if it means to make a name for myself in Shorehaven. There's still an impending doom in me that's scared I'll be outcasted in the group again.

I've been superficial and a jerk to everyone by coming up with my own conclusions but still. I want to win.

The signal to run blares and I dash across the hot sand to the water. I interrupt small waves trying to crash onto the beach and throw my surfboard to begin paddling out. My feet bob in the water while I'm thrashing out. I remember my training with Manu and control my breath when swimming to the flat water so I'm not tired once I get there. I see Lily keeping her eye on me. A wave begins to rise and I begin to paddle out but Lily immediately cuts me off and takes it. Fake out. She tumbles and gets wiped out by the wave. It takes a few seconds for her to surface and come back to me.

"I don't get why you're dating Griff, but just know it's wrong." She says.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I ignore her comment and try to focus on the competition at hand and see Poppy taking on all the waves she can.

"I dated him. I know what I'm talking about. And stay away from him. He's my ex-boyfriend." She finishes and paddles out to another wave, intentionally kicking extra hard to splash me.

I'm not going to take her warning and just try to surf. I begin to catch up with the others and follow the years of advice I've been given and follow the wave's current and stay on for as long as possible. I carve and make several turns on the last wave and perform a swift off-the-lip. I push half my board up off the wave and bring back down quickly as a finisher.

When walking back down to the beach, Poppy gives me a smile and a thumbs up. I turn to see Griff running towards me and lifts me in the air. "Put me down, Griff!" I laugh.

"Was that a laugh I hear? You got second place." Griff asks and smiles, putting me down. I shake my head and see him walk off. Lily's waiting for him. She glares at me before Griff puts an arm around her and he looks back giving me a huge thumbs up. I guess our deal's over now.

"I guess you and Griff are done for?" I hear Ari's voice and I turn to step back. He was a bit too close.

"I guess." I shrug and pat his back before walking away.

"You don't seem that sad about it." Ari quips, jogging to catch up with me.

"Just a summer fling right? Kind of like my crush on you. Quick and long gone." I shrug, turning backwards to face him while walking.

"We're cool?" Ari asks.

"We're cool." I bring out my hand to shake his. Getting second place today made my mood a lot better. And I regret taking Griff's deal, but since it's over with, Ari and I are back to being friends.

━━༺❀༻━━

It's the boys heat and unsurprisingly, Ari won. I have to admit, it's a lot easier just getting over everything that happened. Poppy's a lot quicker than me when it comes to forgiving people and I've been a huge jerk lately, too.

I'm sitting on the boat dock by the surf club, splashing water with my feet and the cold water making little ripples. It's satisfying seeing the circles progressively more bigger. Today's competition trials are over and the evening is all for myself. The others are probably hanging out but I'm taking an off day to just soak in the hot sun. I need a tan anyways.

"What are you doing?" Ari comes and sits next to me, his backpack slung over his shoulder and his cheeks slightly red. He must've run here. He smells a bit like seawater still.

"Just relaxing. My body's all sore from swimming all day. Are you dropping off something for Manu?" I say and tug his backpack strap, accidentally pulling him forward to me.

"No. I came here to see you." He says quietly and sits next to me on the dock and sets his bag down, hanging off one of the fence posts. He splashes water on me and my legs were all wet.

There's a long silence with both of us sitting next to each other, the surface water moving back and forth.

"Do you have your phone on you?" I ask him.

He shakes his head and out of instinct, I push him off the deck several feet into the water below. I wasn't planning on it but it was needed to break up the awkward air. His body makes a large splash, spraying me with more water. He bobs back up to the surface and I take my foot to kick water in his face, causing him to flip his hair over his head to see.

"You like causing trouble for me." Ari says and spits out water.

Laughter echoes through the skinny beach along the dock. He tries to grab my ankles and I manage to dodge his grip but he gets ahold of one of my anklets. I didn't have time to prepare and dive and I cannonball in thanks to Ari.

I swim up and accidentally gulp some sea water, making me choke. "Ari! I'm going to kill you!" I laugh and swim to him as he makes a jab for the shoreline.

He lies on his back on warm sand and looks up at the  setting sky. He turns to look at me catch up and sit next to him while he catches his breath.

My clothes are wet and sticking to my body and I'm pretty sure my hair is crazy looking but Ari still looks  good as ever just lying on the sand.

The two of us just collecting our breath and the sun setting on the horizon made me get butterflies for no reason. It's been a bit since we've had this much fun together and my adrenaline is still going strong. 

Ari turns his body to his side, sits up, scoots closer to me, and puts an arm around my shoulders. My head falls onto his shoulder and my arms go around his waist for a side hug.

"Ari?" I say his name softly, a bit concerned for the mood I'm sensing.

"Yeah?" He looks down at me and smiles.

I feel my face warming up and it didn't take long for me to reach up and kiss him on the lips.

It was only for a few seconds and I pull back to gauge his reaction but he only looks at me.

And leans back in to kiss me again.

I guess we did kiss and make up.