Free In Too Deep by D C Grant

on.
    “You want to come to my place?” he asked as he picked up his board.
    “Yeah, sure.” She picked up her towel and slung it around her neck.
     
    His mother was the only one in the house when he got back and he introduced Gina to her. His mother smiled warmly at her and then raised her eyebrows at him when Gina wasn’t looking. He’d never brought a girl home with him before.
    After lunch they walked to the caves at North Piha, where they kissed again while leaning against the cool rock wall. This girl turned him on like no girl had before and he couldn’t get enough of her.
    It was late afternoon when they walked back along the road, hand in hand. Josh wanted the day to last forever, but Gina stopped outside a bach. The black convertible was parked in the drive with a late-model Holden beside it.
    “This is my stop,” Gina said.
    “This is where Bevan lives?”
    “And his parents, don’t forget. I share a room with Katie. Not that I see much of her.”
    “What about Bevan?”
    “He shares a room with his brother Rhys. Why? Are you jealous?”
    Josh could feel his cheeks burning.
    “I just … you’re living in the same house as him.”
    “You are jealous.” She put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. “You’re just all over too cute, Josh.” She pulled him close and kissed him.
    A movement in the house caught his eye as he glanced past her shoulder. For a moment he could have sworn he saw Bevan at the window watching them.
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    He was drowning.
    There was water in his nose and mouth. He couldn’t find the surface. His board had been ripped from his hands and the turbulent water had carried it away. He felt the pull of the leash at his ankle and it twisted him around. Then there was no more tension and he knew the cord had snapped. The water sucked him down. He was in a hole. He tried to crawl to the top but didn’t know which way was up. Water gurgled in his ears. It filled his nose and mouth. He couldn’t breathe.
     
    He hit the floor with a thud. For a few seconds Josh struggled with his sheets until he realised he was not in the water. He was gasping, pulling in oxygen, thinking he had been deprived of it but it was just that crappy dream again. He let his head fall onto the carpet and waited for his breathing to slow.
    He rubbed his sweaty face with a corner of the sheet, which, he noticed, was torn. He must have become tangled in it while sleeping and then ripped it when he’d fallen off the bed. It was a dream, just a stupid dream.
    He rolled onto his side and got to his feet. It was light outside and his bedside clock told him it was 8.30 a.m. He might as well get up as he wasn’t going to get anymore sleep.
    “Where’s Mum?” Josh asked his father as he made his way to the kitchen.
    “She’s gone,” his father said despondently. He sat at the dining room table, staring into a cup of coffee.
    “Gone? Gone where?”
    “To her mother’s – your nana’s house,” his father said. “She’s staying there for a while. She said she had to get away until she sorted things out.”
    Josh looked around and noticed that Cyndi’s things were gone from the lounge.
    “She taken Cyndi’s too?” he said.
    “Yes, but she said that you’d want to stay here, where you can surf. She took the car, too.”
    Josh was stunned. He’d heard his parents fighting again last night, but he didn’t realise that things had become so bad.
    “When is she coming back?”
    “I don’t know, Josh. Will you stop asking so many questions?” He drank the last of the coffee from his cup and got up from the table. “I’m going for a walk,” he said.
    Josh watched him as he walked out the door. He’d always thought of his father as a big man, but he seemed small and defeated as he descended the steps onto the lawn.
    Josh left the kitchen. He didn’t feel like eating. He saw his father at the driveway, waving his hand in greeting to someone and Hayden came into