Dangerous Waves

Chapter 5- Leilani

I'm placing my towel down next to Sophie's on the soft sand, laying on the fabric with my book in my lap, when I hear her gasp.

"You can't be serious."

Cars start filling the parking lot, groups of families and teenagers stepping onto the beach to enjoy the sunny day. With all the people crowding, it was easy for me to miss the dark skinned boy with curly hair approaching, flaunting a purple surfboard carved for professionals and a smirk that knows he's causing trouble.

"You guys remember Javi from the other night, right?" Rowan chuckles awkwardly, rubbing his neck in anticipation of the storm he has brought.

"I've been told I'm pretty hard to forget," the cocky boy says, dropping a backpack of belongings at Sophie's feet.

"He must be lost," she murmurs to me before turning to Javi, plastering a forced smile on her face. Sophie raises her hand, pointing downshore across the miles of sand that form the coast. "Asshole beach is actually that way."

"Oh that's where it was! I couldn't find it so I looked for the area reserved by annoying brats instead." Javi spins in a circle, searching up and down the beach like he missed something. "Judging from your presence, I'm in the right place."

Sophie lowers her brows in warning.

I've never seen her patience snap before. The most level-headed person I know, Sophie's biggest flaw is how far she goes to please others, letting them walk over her to avoid conflict. So much as insulting someone is entirely out of character for her, and suddenly we have met someone that she refuses to satisfy.

"There's not a lot of room for your massive ego on the sand," Sophie turns, her arm no longer pointing to landscapes miles away, instead going towards the open ocean. "But feel free to find some out there."

I must say, I like this side of her.

"Stop it," Hayden's irritated voice cuts through their bickering. His eternal smile drops from his face, the jarring sight enough for us all to fall silent. "Sophie, you're better than this. Rowan invited Javi so he could meet some people while he's here, and I'm expecting you to be mature rather than start problems."

Sophie sucks a deep breath through her teeth, taking the reprimand like a slap across the face. Losing her defiance from moments before, she grabs her surfboard from its spot in the sand and walks to the water without uttering another word.

I want to question why Hayden is pressuring his sister to behave instead of the stranger, but the tension in the air drives us all to ignore our questions. And honestly, we know the answer. Hayden was left in charge of Sophie when he was eight, his parents deciding to travel the world and abandon the kids with their grandparents. For all their goodwill in housing the Sanders for half their lives, their grandparents have avoided bonding with Sophie since her parents left. Pushing Hayden to not only parent his sister, but also keep their family from falling apart. His method of this has always been keeping the peace, avoiding their problems and laughing to cover the truth of their pain. I don't think he's realized that he has pushed the expectation of silence onto Sophie's shoulders as a result.

It's not fair of Hayden to erase her feelings like that, but it wasn't fair to ask a child to solve his family's problems, either.

"Do we finally get to see the professional surfer out on the water?" Hayden jokes, spraying his wet hair at Javi and cracking the icy air around us with ease.

"Definitely," Javi grins, laying his board down behind our towels. He finds a spot next to me in the sand to sit down, reaching a hand to grasp my book. His dark eyes read the cover, a fond expression taking shape over his arrogant features. "I've read this one. It's pretty good, though I wish it went more in detail about the laws posed against climate change."