Free Rough Waters by Nikki Godwin Page A

chances.”
    Topher shifts in the sand as he talks. I can
tell he’s uncomfortable with the topic at hand, but I have to dig
deeper. I hardly know Theo. I’ve seen him a few times with the
Hooligans, and I know he lifeguards, but that’s pretty much the
gist of it.
    “What happened?” I ask. “To Theo,” I add for
clarification.
    He waits for a minute before he speaks. He
doesn’t look at me. He just stares off into space, somewhere above
the ocean but under the sky.
    “Theo had this dream of being a board
shaper,” he begins. “He wanted to make surfboards for Shark. They
used to joke around about having a side shop where Theo made the
boards and Shark would sell them. He actually took a few classes on
how to do it, but it was expensive, so he needed a real job.”
    I sip from my water bottle and keep my eyes
on Topher, hoping he’ll just ramble on and on. He pops another
sugar cube into his mouth and chases it with a drink of Ocean Blast
Energy.
    “So Shark convinced him to give lifeguarding
a chance,” he says. “That way, Theo could be on the beach all day,
and he could always find jobs at pools or gyms. You can’t keep Theo
out of the water, so it was pretty much perfect for him.”
    Topher props his elbows on his bent knees and
runs his hands through his hair. His anxiety radiates off of
him.
    “Theo wasn’t like this, Haley. I swear. He
had things going for him,” he says. “He was smart and driven. He
was going to be someone, you know?”
    I can’t bring myself to actually speak so my
voice comes out in a whisper. “What happened to him?”
    Topher sighs. “The first time he had to save
someone’s life, he failed. He fell apart after that. He drank to
forget, and then he’d get so drunk that he’d remember, and then
he’d cry until he passed out. He still has nightmares.”
    I can’t even imagine. I can’t fathom trying
to save someone, knowing that a person’s life is literally in your
hands, and not being able to pull them through.
    “If anyone is a broken down mess, it’s him,
and people just assume he’s a drunken idiot who parties too much
and doesn’t give a damn about life, but when you’ve watched someone
literally take their last breath because you couldn’t save them, it
ruins you,” Topher says. “I’d destroy anyone who messed with
Theo.”
    Hell, right now, I want to destroy
anyone who messes with Theo.
    “Anyway, that’s why he can’t keep a
girlfriend,” Topher says, steering the conversation back to the
original topic.
    It’s obvious that he would rather talk
awkwardly about girls than Theo’s situation, so I go along with it
and let him revert the conversation.
    “And Miles has a girlfriend because Emily
knew him back when he was dating Kristin,” he explains. “Well, sort
of. I like Emily, though. She’s good for Miles. She doesn’t like
him for his sponsorship, and she doesn’t judge him by his
reputation or dreadlocks, like some people.”
    He not-so-secretly fake coughs the words
‘Ocean Blast Energy.’ Sadly, I think they truly believed Dominic
would win that day. He looks like a poster boy. Colby looks the
part as well. But Miles isn’t the wholesome image you want
representing your company. He doesn’t even look like a surfer or an
athlete. He’s small but ripped like a Spartan warrior.
    “He’s my best friend, no doubt,” Topher says.
“He’s been my best friend since I was like…seven or eight. I’d die
for him. But I’ll never understand how he gets girls and I don’t.
He’s so awkward with them, and they think it’s cute or charming or
something. So lame.”
    I love that Topher doesn’t have to get drunk
to be honest. He talks about growing up with Miles and all the
crazy stunts they pulled as kids. Then he tells me about teaching
Miles to surf and how hard it was because Miles surfs goofy-footed
and Topher surfs regular stance. He wasn’t kidding when he said he
likes to talk surfing. He’d just rather talk about Shark