Blue by Lisa Glass Read Free Book Online Page A

recover from.”
    “Well, I think you’re a nut for riding super-heavies.”
    “Yeah, sure. No doubt. But I love it. You’re in the middle of a huge tornado, just chaos and heavy water all around, but in the center there’s this pocket of total calm. So long as you come out clean, it’s fine.”
    “Why risk it?”
    “Just for the smile. I always get out of the water happier than I went in. Literally always.”
    “Just don’t tell Mom, eh? She has no idea what you’re doing out there. She still thinks you’re taking on clean little five-footers. Lucky for you she doesn’t have the Internet, ’cause you’d be shipped off to a psych ward. She’d think you were suicidal.”
    “I’m not. And I’m not stupid. I know that any wave could kill me, and especially the big ones, just like that.” I heard the snap of his fingers. “But that knowledge that you’re real close to death? It makes you feel totally alive.”
    Adrenalin junkie. No doubt about it.
    Then my eyes settled on Cass, who was running up the beach, shrieking, with Daniel chasing her in an attention-seeking way. In five or six steps he caught her and swept her up in his arms. It was one of his old moves. He was super-charming when he wanted to be. It had made me ache the first time he’d done it to me. I thought I was lucky to be with someone who had that much swagger.
    Always be suspicious of a person who doesn’t question any of their own beliefs, my mom says. They think they know it all and that makes them dangerous to be around.
    Oh yeah, Daniel had all the answers. I should have known to beware.
    My teeth had begun to chatter in the cold sea air and Zeke put his arm around me. Suddenly Daniel was looking right at me. Slowly he shook his head.
    I checked my watch and saw it was way past my curfew.
    Crap.
    “I gotta take off,” I said to Zeke.
    “Yeah, no problem.”
    We walked to Zeke’s van so he could give me my skateboard, and I saw that someone had left a note pinned to his windshield.
    He read it, crumpled it up and tossed it in the back of the van.
    “What was that?”
    “Just some punk kid.”
    “What’s it say?”
    “Huh? Oh, that some dude is gonna mess me up and telling me to beat it. I dunno. It happens. Just your run-of-the-mill localism.”
    “Jesus, surfers can be such assholes.”
    “Don’t sweat it. People get the wrong idea sometimes. Assume stuff, you know?”
    Yeah, I knew all about that. But what had Zeke done to piss people off? He’d only been in town a week.

Chapter Five
    The next morning my shift started at 8:30 and I paced around tidying up the shop and sipping at a monster cup of coffee for at least an hour. My hands were busy, but all my brain could do was relive the events of the night before.
    It was the kind of thing that Kelly liked to say could happen to a girl like me, especially in the months after Daniel, but I never believed it. But then, I’d never met anyone like Zeke before.
    There were only two customers and neither of them bought anything. As I pointlessly said thanks to the second of them, the shop phone rang. It was my boss, Billy, in a total panic.
    “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he said.
    “It’s Saturday. Shouldn’t you be relaxing with the wife and kids?” I said.
    “The damn press is coming. The Cornish Guardian , can you believe? The shop needs to be shipshape and Bristol fashion.”
    “OK . . .” I said, not entirely sure what he was talking about. Probably another Billabong promo gimmick. I tossed my empty cardboard coffee cup into the wastepaper basket and began flicking a duster around the till.
    “Do I need to do anything else?” I asked.
    “Tie your hair back. You’ll want to look presentable for the paper.”
    “They won’t want me in any pictures,” I said. “I’m nobody.”
    “Not true, my dear.”
    “What’s happening anyway?” I said, but he had already put the phone down.
    I slipped away from the shop floor to tidy myself up. I kept a kit