Rough Waters (18 page)

“Hey,” I say, reaching out to Topher’s
shoulder. “Let me help Jace with this. I need you to do me a
favor.”

Once Topher joins Kieran and Clover at the
carousel, I assist Jace by handing him whatever tools he asks for
to detach the dragon from its ship. For the most part, I really
just hold the flashlight for him while he works.

“I asked them not to throw this out,” he
explains. “I can’t stop them, and there’s no way to haul it, but I
know how much it means to A.J. If I can get it off of the actual
ship, maybe they’ll leave it out here until I can find someone to
move it.”

I doubt we can find anyone with a big enough
truck to move the dragon that’s been attached to the side of the
ship all these years, but deep down in my bones, I hope Jace finds
someone to save it.

Two hours and a few trips back to
Strickland’s Boating, we’ve moved most of A.J.’s carnival – well,
what we could actually take. We may not have the most manpower, but
I’m impressed with how much we’ve accomplished. Miles oversees as
Topher and Kale work to unhinge the life-sized Solomon from the
carousel. I’m pretty sure the other Hooligans are silently cursing
Emily for bringing Miles out here, knowing he’s worthless to this
mission with those stupid crutches.

I stand back, about as useless as Miles, and
watch the guys move Solomon into the back of Colby’s truck. I
pretty much want to take this one back home with me. Jace already
staked his claim on the carousel’s octopus, although I have no idea
what he’ll do with it.

“I wish we could take the dragon,” A.J. says,
pointing across the carnival grounds.

The turquoise dragon rests back against the
sunken pirate ship. The ride looks even more massive sitting on the
ground. Jace’s flashlight batteries are dead, but he set out to
detach a dragon and did it.

Topher glances over at it after he jumps down
from the bed of Colby’s truck.

“Looks like a wave,” he says. “I wish you
could take it too.”

A.J. looks down at the dragon inked on his
arm, the same one from the ship, and shrugs. “I guess, in a sense,
I’ll always have it,” he says. “We don’t have a truck big enough to
haul that thing.”

The House of Mirrors stands as the only
intact item on the grounds. The tilt-a-whirl is in metal shambles,
strewn across the ground like a junkyard. What’s left of the
carousel sits behind us. I didn’t think this place could be any
creepier in the glow of the moonlight, but it looks like a storm
swept through here and ripped the place to ghostly pieces.

“Alright,” A.J. says, glimpsing around one
more time. “Let’s go. There’s nothing more we can do here.”

He walks over to Colby’s truck, gets into the
driver’s seat, and cranks up the truck. It actually breaks my heart
that he never looks back.

An hour after we drop the final items off in
the storage unit at Reed’s dad’s store, Topher still buzzes with
adrenaline. He fidgets next to me on the couch while Alston and
Kale curse each other throughout their racecar game.

“We should go surfing,” Topher says. “Right
now. Night surfing. Who’s in?”

“I’ll go,” Kale says, looking back at us. He
raises his game controller as if he were raising his hand. His
racecar smashes into a wall.

Alston declines the offer, and Reed
volunteers to take Kale’s place behind the imaginary steering
wheel. Topher then turns to me.

“You’ll come, right? Just come watch us. I’ll
call Miles and tell him and Emily to come watch too, so you won’t
be alone,” he says.

Great. That’s exactly what I want to do with
my night – stand on the Horn Island shoreline while Emily babies
Miles and Topher and Kale dominate the night waters.

I glance to A.J. “Will you go with us?”

He shakes his head, and I want to slap him. I
sort of need the company right now, Mr. BFF.

“I have to get up early,” he says. “Vin wants
me to do the inventory in the morning since he won’t be there, and
I want to make sure I get it all in on time. I don’t want to screw
it up doing it on my own the first time.”

Damn. I’m proud of A.J. and his manager
position, but he’s completely changed gears since he started
working for Vin. Maybe this is what growing up is.

But since I’m technically unemployed and
don’t have a day job to hold me back, I agree to go with Topher and
Kale, even if it means standing with the super couple on the
shoreline. It’s better than watching the guys play video games.

I ride back to Horn Island with Topher and
Kale, sandwiched between them in Topher’s tiny excuse for a truck.
Emily and Miles are meeting us at the beach. Kale’s phone reflects
off the window while he texts Jace. Maybe I won’t be alone after
all.

The moon splashes a string of light across
the water’s surface, just enough of a glow for me to see the
unsteadiness of the night tides. The water sloshes, pushing toward
the shore and then pulling back as if the ocean has made a sudden
change in plans. Topher pulls his blue and white board out of his
truck bed and glances across the water.

“Looks choppy,” Kale says as a wave slams
into the rocks to our right.

Topher studies the ocean for a second. Then
he shrugs. “It’s not like we’ve never surfed in rough waters
before,” he says.

“You’re right,” Kale says. “Let’s paddle
out.”

The two of them hit the water as Jace makes
his way through the clumps of sand to join me. The headlights of
Miles’s truck glow behind us. Emily gets out of the driver’s side
and walks around the vehicle to wait for him.

“I’ll be glad when he gets off those damn
things,” Jace says, glancing back at the glowing headlights. “He’s
about to go stir crazy being out of the water, and in turn, he
drives all of us crazy.”

I don’t doubt for two seconds that Miles
would be out there with them if he could be. He’d be paddling and
elbowing them, just to get the best position to catch an epic night
wave. He’d probably howl at the moon or something. He can go from
calm and mysterious to a wild Hooligan in two seconds flat.

I change the subject as Emily makes Miles
take the concrete steps down to the beach rather than coming
through the sand.

“You think you’ll be able to find someone to
haul that dragon?” I ask Jace.

He shrugs. “Most of the people I know who
could do it aren’t exactly the people you want to ask,” he says.
“But that guy Terry, the one you somehow found, has a friend who
drives an eighteen-wheeler. He gave me his number, said he does
side jobs, legal or not. I think I might actually call him.”

Who knew a drug supplier might actually save
A.J.’s carnival dragon? In a sick, twisted way, I’m glad I went
behind Vin’s back to pay that entry fee because meeting Clover
might turn out to be worth losing my job for.

While Miles cheers Topher and Kale on as they
battle the night’s rough waters, Jace tells Emily and me about how
Joe taught him how to surf at the same time he taught Shark.

“Shark surfed goofy, like Miles, so it was
confusing at first because I always thought I was popping up the
wrong way on the board,” Jace says. “Luckily Joe surfs regular too,
so it was easy for him to teach me.”

Jace talks about forming his band Sapphires
and Sunsets, how he met Emily’s friend Alex who works at Summer
Snow, how the Hooligans formed because Shark didn’t like non-locals
in their waters, and gives us an in-depth version of what happened
when Topher got kicked out of his parents’ house.

It doesn’t feel like thirty minutes have gone
by when Kale emerges from the water. “Sets are shifting,” he says,
drying his long hair with his towel.

“Where’s Topher?” Jace asks, looking out into
the water.

“One more! Then I’ll come in!” Topher shouts
from the distance.

The waves rush in, one after another – black
water overlapping black water – and in the midst of the night
waves, Topher pops up on his board. Then he wipes out.

Seconds pass, feeling longer than they
should, as we wait for him to resurface.

But Topher doesn’t come back up.

“Where is he?” Miles asks, digging his
crutches into the shoreline. “Where the fuck is he? Why hasn’t he
come up?!”

The panic in Miles’s voice fills my chest. A
lump forms in my throat. Every second that passes – every second
that Topher doesn’t come up – is another second that he’s trapped
under those waves, another second without oxygen. Each second is a
second closer to losing him.

“We have to get him out!” Miles screams,
throwing his crutches onto the clumpy sand. “I’ll fucking die
before I leave him out there.”

Jace grabs Miles by the arm and pulls him
back. “You idiot, you’ll sink straight to the bottom with that damn
cast. Calm down.”

Miles pushes Jace away from him. “Calm down?
Don’t tell me to fucking calm down. Topher pulled me out of the
water when I smashed my fucking leg, and I’m not letting him die
out there!”

The seconds tick by while Jace and Miles
argue. Life moves in slow motion. The ocean plays tug-of-war with
the sand, pulling the waves back and forth in a never-ending
battle.

But Miles is right. We can’t let Topher die
out there.

I grab Miles by his shoulders, somewhat
pushing him back but also steadying his wobbly stance. There’s no
way he can save Topher, and he’s not even kidding when he says he’d
die before leaving Topher out there.

“I’ll go,” I say. I fish Topher’s truck keys
out of my pocket, hand them to Miles, and crane my neck to see the
water.

“Haley,” Kale says from behind me. “You’re
not strong enough to bring him back to shore. I’m going with
you.”

Jace tells Emily to call 911. That’s the last
thing I hear before Kale and I rush into the water. The Pacific
Ocean clearly isn’t up for company tonight. The sea rushes into my
ears, and the salt water stings my eyes as another wave slams into
us. I shake my hair back and paddle through it, doing all I can to
keep up with Kale’s pace. His arms pummel each wave, slicing
through the water like a determined soldier’s sword.

“His board!” Kale shouts before duck diving
under a wave.

That same wave crashes into me, knocking me
backward into the water. The reef scrapes my skin. Kale’s hand
grasps my forearm when I come up to the surface.

“You okay?” he asks, pulling me toward
him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Where is he?” I ask.

Kale grabs the board’s leash, but he freezes.
I reach out and pull it to see if there’s a response. Nothing. I
hope and pray and wish on every star in tonight’s sky that Topher
is still on the other end of the surf leash.

I stare at Kale for what is too many seconds,
waiting for him to dive under, but the fear etched into his face
won’t allow him to move. The tides shove me back, showing their
strength as they try to guide me back to the shoreline, as if
they’re telling me that I don’t belong out here. I force Topher’s
board forward, resisting the push of the ocean. I refuse to be
washed back in just yet. I squeeze onto to the leash, take a deep
breath, and go under.

The darkness of the ocean is terrifying, but
losing Topher scares me more. I blink a few times, trying to adjust
to the sting of the salty water, as I follow the leash deeper into
the darkness. I tug it just enough to see if there’s any weight on
the opposite end but not hard enough for it to snap away, just in
case Topher’s still somehow attached.

The leash feels heavy, and a surge of energy
hits me, forcing me through the rough waters that want to teach me
a lesson for even stepping into them. Topher’s body swirls through
the backwash of the waves, pulling the surf leash closer to the
ocean bottom and that awful reef. I pull his body to me and unhook
the leash before kicking my way back toward the surface.

Salty night air floods my lungs when my head
bobs above the water. Kale was right – I don’t have the strength to
haul Topher in myself. I credit the adrenaline rush for being able
to get his head above water. But Topher doesn’t gasp for air.

“He’s not breathing,” I say, gasping for air
myself. “He’s not breathing.”

“Here!” Kale yells from about ten feet from
us.

Kale paddles toward us and uses all of his
strength to pull Topher to his board while the waves throw punches
at us. Topher’s body falls limply onto his own surfboard. Kale
paddles with all he has, although his energy has faded and the
panic has taken over. Headlights sweep around the shoreline, and a
black sports car squeals as it leaves the pavement and plummets
down the sand toward the water.

I help Kale push the surfboard through the
ocean, heavy from Topher’s deadweight. The Pacific doesn’t argue.
She pushes us toward the shoreline, making her point once and for
all that no one should’ve been surfing tonight.

Jace rushes toward us, hoists Topher over his
shoulder, and rushes him back to the shoreline. Theo jumps out of
his car without even killing the engine. Emily runs toward me with
a dry towel. She wraps me up in it when I come out of the water.
Sirens wail in the distance.

“I can’t! I can’t!” Theo yells, shaking his
head while Jace lowers Topher onto the sand. “I can’t be the reason
we lose him. I can’t do this again.”

“CPR, Theo,” Jace says calmly. “He’s not
breathing, and he needs CPR. He needs you. Look at me – focus.
CPR.”

Kale wraps his arms around me, and I squeeze
my eyes shut, burying my face into his chest because I can’t watch.
Theo counts off numbers, Miles starts to pray, and that’s when the
tears fall down my face.

The screaming sirens grow louder but not loud
enough to block out Theo.

“You’re not fucking dying on me, Topher!” he
yells. “Fucking breathe!”

I don’t look up, but from the tightening of
Kale’s arms, I fear the worst. Emily sobs behind me, sniffling
every few seconds. Miles loses all redemption when he adds the
words ‘better not fucking die’ to his ongoing prayer. And then
there’s coughing.