The ocean rushed fiercely all around Pilot, but he couldn’t let it engulf his thoughts and quiet his mind like he usually did. Normally, being out on the water every weekend invigorated him, but today it left him hollow and empty.
Justin and Rykken bantered back and forth over some surfing game they were playing, but Pilot wasn’t paying much attention. He wasn’t overly competitive like the other two; those guys could go at it all day sometimes, trying to one-up each other over the dumbest things. Pilot was more of a lone wolf. He wanted what he wanted and he figured out how to get it. End of story.
Except when it came to Kennedy.
He remembered their last encounter; it was raining, and he was waiting for her at their rock formation. He had kissed her for the second time, and this time she didn’t resist; it had gone on and on until she suddenly shoved him away and ran.
He hadn’t seen or heard from her since then. He had texted her the next day, but her phone had already been disconnected. For weeks, he took a variety of paths to his various classes in hopes that he might run into her at school. He had gotten so desperate to find her that he had even bribed a freshman to check her school records for an address.
She had leaned against her lockers one day after school, waiting for him. She was cute—long brown hair and chocolate eyes, but too serious and bookish for his tastes. He had noticed she had a crush on him and suspected that was why she broke the rules for him. Well, that and the hundred bucks he promised her on delivery of Kennedy’s information.
“Did you get her address?” Pilot had asked.
Crystal squirmed when he spoke to her. In a soft voice, she replied, “I’m sorry, but she wasn’t in the database. She must not go to Punahou.”
“That’s impossible,” Pilot had said. “I met her at school. I know she goes here.”
“She doesn’t,” Crystal replied. “I spent almost all of my office hours looking, but we don’t have any records of a Kennedy ever attending Punahou.”
Pilot had sighed, frustrated by her incompetence.
“You don’t have to pay me,” she said, embarrassed.
Pilot had thought for a moment before pulling out his wallet. “No,” he said. “Take the money.” He handed her five twenty dollar bills. “I’ll figure out how to contact her another way.”
That was two days ago, and since then, Pilot’s frustration with Kennedy had grown until he was so angry he could punch something. He didn’t understand her at all. He was tired of her toying with his feelings, and he didn’t like losing control over his emotions. He never had this problem with girls—if anything, he was always the one turning them down, discarding them when he got bored, or dictating the terms of the relationship. With Kennedy, though, everything was different, like she was beating him at his own game. And frankly, he was tired of losing.
“Yo, van Rossum, wake up!” Justin shouted at him. Pilot looked up from his board, allowing the ocean, the beach, and the people that peppered it to come back into view.
“Behind you!” Rykken shouted.
He looked back, just in time to notice a wave barreling toward him. One of the the locals whooped and prepped to ride the wave in. He could tell it was going to spin into a pipe right at the spot where he was paddling.
He cursed, loudly. With no other recourse now but to catch it, he took a deep breath and got ready to mount his board.
He could hear Justin and Rykken shouting at him from near the shore, but he couldn’t make out their words. He didn’t know nearly as much about surfing as they did, but the wave didn’t look too bad—fourteen, maybe fifteen feet—and he thought he could manage it. If he tried, he might get sucked under… if he didn’t, he would definitely get sucked under.
