Free Breaking Point by Lesley Choyce Page B

was like the kayak was part of me. At first it felt pretty wobbly, but as I got moving, things smoothed out and I was thinking, Hey, this is easy. I’m loving this.
    We were all together in a group, headed toward a rocky island ahead. I felt like I needed some more space, so I took a deep stroke with my paddle and split off to the left. The sun in my face and the smell of salt water all around made me a little dizzy, and I was thinking I hadn’t felt this good in a long, long time. But then I heard someone yelling. Chris.
    â€œCameron. Get back with us. Don’t screw around.”
    Well, I guess I knew that was coming. Only thing is, I had this little voice in my head that said, Don’t do it. Just keep going.
    So I did.
    â€œCameron. Back here now!” I heard Chris scream.
    I could have been a good boy and done what I was told. But that wasn’t my style. I just kept paddling, straight into the morning sun. Straight off into oblivion on my own. It wasn’t like I was trying to split. I just wanted to go where I wanted to go.
    I was always listening to that voice in my head. It said things like, You can do it. You’ll get away with it. You’ll never be caught.
    By then, I knew that Chris had struck out of the pack and was headed after me. That was inevitable. He wasn’t going to let me just paddle off into the wilderness. Then I made the mistake of turning around to see how close he was.
    I guess I leaned too far to the left and then lost my balance. Wham. I went over. I can’t begin to describe the shock to my system. The water was icy cold. I was completely upside down with my kayak above me. I flailed the paddle underwater, but that didn’t seem to do any good, so I let go of it.
    I wanted to scratch my way up to the surface so badly. But the worst part was I couldn’t get out of the kayak. I was still sealed into place by the spray skirt. And I was upside down. I hadn’t paid attention to the part of the lecture about how to rip the skirt off the kayak, how to push downward, out of a kayak when you are upside down.
    I thrashed about and felt my lungs begin to burn. My brain was screaming at me to get to the surface, but no matter how hard I twisted and turned, I couldn’t get free to swim up. I was totally panicked.
    And then suddenly I saw the shadow of something above me on the water’s surface. I saw an arm push down into the water, and then a hand grabbed my wrist and yanked hard.
    I twisted free of the kayak and felt myself being pulled upward. I surfaced a second later, gasping for air and snorting seawater out my nose. When I could catch my breath, I saw Chris scowling at me, but he didn’t say a word.
    I draped myself across the front of his kayak to get some breath and my bearings. I wondered what would happen next.
    â€œYou got the balls to get back into your own kayak, or you want me to just haul your sorry ass back to shore?” he asked.
    I was cold and still pretty freaked by what had just happened. “I don’t know, man,” I said.
    He looked at me for second. “If you can follow directions, we can do this.”
    I looked around me and realized how far from shore we were. Once again, I had been the screwup. I decided I would let Chris call the shots. I nodded at him.
    â€œOkay, you’ve got your life jacket on, so you’re not gonna drown. So slip off my boat and get back in the water.”
    I looked at him like he was crazy.
    â€œJust do it.”
    I eased back into the icy-cold seawater.
    â€œNow lift the nose of your kayak onto mine.”
    My kayak was still upside down and seemed to weigh a ton. I struggled with it as Chris braced his kayak with his paddle to stay steady. Eventually, I got the front tip of my kayak on top of his and he reached forward with one arm to slide it up and over. I realized then just how strong this guy was.
    When most of the water had emptied, Chris flipped it upright and back