No Name | Completed

Chapter 68 - They Call Me Cheeto?

Jesse POV

"Yo man, your heat is coming up," Ray, the competition manager, cupped my shoulder and squeezed before walking to the next contestant one tent over.

I glanced up at the waves for a moment before my eyes fell back to the screen of my phone.

She was back in Texas. She was okay without me.

With a sigh, I closed out of the app and tossed it back into my bag.

I grabbed a chunk of wax and stood to go work on my board, but I couldn't get her out of my mind.

The muscle memory took over as I waxed my board while my mind wandered. Did I mess up? I sighed, no. What Olivia sent me made me want to yell at her, to tear the rockstar apart.

Would those images ever leave the front of my mind? I should have told her, maybe it was a misunderstanding.

A piece of the wax crumbled from the pressure of my hand.

"Shit," I breathed and rest my board back on the table, tossing the wax off to the side.

"You don't look so good," she said from behind me. I tensed, sucked in a breath and turned around to see the girl everyone called Cheeto, Lauren.

"Having a hard time focusing today," I admitted. I grabbed my competition rash guard and pulled it over my head then tied my hair back at the nape of my neck.

She leaned against the tent pole and crossed her arms, her access badge flapping in the wind.

"I didn't think that was possible for you," she said.

"Me either," I mumbled and grabbed my board, sliding my flip flops under the merch table.

"Is it because she's not here?" she asked gingerly.

I froze. "No, she went back to school."

"Right," she said softly. "I'm not stupid Jesse, I know how much you care about her."

"Mmm," I acknowledged while I shoved the rest of my belongings under the table.

"You used to care about me like that once."

I stood up to face her. "Lauren."

This wasn't what I needed to be dealing with today. This conversation didn't need to come up right now.

"I was right, wasn't I?" she asked, a sad look falling across her face.

Glancing at her, confused, I placed my board under my arm.

"I knew you loved her. I knew you would choose her."

Our eyes met and my heart sank.

"I'm sorry," I finally said. "If you don't mind?"

I pointed at my board and she moved over for me to pass.

"Hey Vanderlin!" she called after me.

I glanced back while I walked. "Good luck," she said.

I nodded before turning around with a sigh. It wasn't her I wanted to hear that from. Her face wasn't the last one I wanted to see before I ran into the water.

.....

"Jesse! Dude, what happened out there?" Ray jogged up to me, looking panicked.

"Man, it's been awhile since I wiped that bad," I chuckled.

"You still won the heat, but are you okay to move on? Shit, your head looks like it's pouring blood out."

Confused, I touched my fingers to my temple and when I brought them back down, there was bright red blood.