Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) (4 page)

After jumping on the board and awkwardly
paddling past the waves, Kira made it to Dave and Luke, who sat
like pros with their feet dangling in the water and the nose of
their short boards angled up into the air. Kira noted her own very
long board, which hadn’t left the surface of the undulating water
even though she sat on its back tip.

"Why is my surfboard so huge? I could barely
lift the thing."

"It’s a beginner board," Dave spoke up now
that the conversation was of real interest to him, "We only started
teaching Miles about a month ago, and he’s taking a little while to
get the hang of it."

"Don’t worry. I can tell you’re a natural,"
Luke chimed in and playfully nudged the edge of her board with his
foot, almost sending Kira into the ocean. "Well, maybe not a
natural, but it’s really not that difficult."

Kira nodded and listened to their detailed
instructions carefully. She had never heard Dave speak so much.
That alone was exciting as he told her exactly what she had to do.
When the wave was approaching, paddle as quickly as she could, then
make one last push right when it felt like the wave had complete
control. Quickly put her palms on opposite sides of the board and
push her chest up. Then, she had to move her right foot
perpendicular to her left knee while still keeping most of her leg
on the board for balance. Finally, the hardest part, she had to
jump up by swinging her left leg through her arms in front of her
other leg and then lift her upper body up while keeping her legs
bent.

Easy, right? Kira tried to assure herself,
but as she waited for a wave, Kira couldn’t stop the anxiety from
building in her chest. How fast did these boards really go? Kira
was no adrenaline junkie by any means, so in the back of her mind
she tried to envision a
Blue Crush
scenario where she
becomes a super hot surfer chick who woos a professional
quarterback to try and calm herself.

"Here comes a wave. Start paddling, Kira!"
Luke and Dave shouted at her. She started pushing her arms through
the water with as much power as she could muster, felt the push one
of the boys gave her right at the end, and then the wave was in
control. She pushed up on her palms, moved her leg forward as
quickly as she could, and promptly lost her balance by swinging the
board over and crashing into the water. She rolled around
underwater, riding the wave in like the boys told her, and felt the
strong tug of her ankle strap as her board and her went in opposite
directions. Finally, the speed slowed and she was able to break
through to the surface of the water to swim over to her board. Kira
flopped her arms over the board, rested her head for a few moments
and then looked up to search for Dave and Luke. She waved to them,
gave a thumbs up, then jumped back on her board to paddle back
out.

"I’m going to do this," she told them
resolutely as she spun her board around back towards the shore. She
turned for a second to watch Tristan who had just stood up on the
wave. He looked like such a natural. She watched as he took steps
along his board to control speed and did a few tricks despite the
smaller nature of the waves. She was totally captivated by it.

"Kira, here comes a set," Dave brought her
back around and she started paddling again. This time, Kira did it
by herself without a push from Luke, and got caught in the movement
of the wave. After a few seconds, she toppled over, but this time
it was when she tried to fling her foot to the front to stand. She
paddled out after escaping the churning waters, already feeling the
exhaustion in her arms, but not ready to give-up yet.

After about ten more tries ending in belly
flops, Kira had about reached that point where she was ready to
give-in.

"I cannot do this," she told the boys after
lying back on the board and resting her body. "It is physically
impossible for me to stand up on this board." She crossed her arms,
trying to maintain her balance while also looking stubborn. It was
a difficult task.

"Come on," Luke prodded her with his finger,
"wakey wakey."

"No," she put on a five year old voice.

"One more try, I have a really good feeling
about this one."

"Oh, fine," she sat up and let him spin her
board around. Kira looked back at Tristan, hoping to spot him in
action, and instead met his eyes, which had seemed to turn the
color of the sky. He lifted the corner of his mouth in a half
smile, which she first thought was meant for her, until he turned
to watch Jerome who had stood up on his board to do a pretty good
impression of her last fall, which was a total body flip off her
board as soon as she had attempted to lift her hands and stand.
Spurned into anger, Kira decided to act. She had always thought
that nothing was as good a motivator as being mad and shoving
someone’s joke back in their face.

"Luke, I am so ready for this. Don’t push me
into the wave. I just got that feeling where I know I am going to
kick some ass." He took his hand off her board to let her try by
herself.

Kira saw the set approaching and, like Luke
had said, let the first and usually smallest wave go by. She
started paddling for the second one and felt the acceleration when
the wave latched onto her. Quickly, Kira lifted her upper body,
smoothed her foot along the board until it came perpendicular to
her knee, flung her left leg to the front of the board and stood as
quickly as she could. She waited to lose her footing, to slip off
of the edge, but that moment never came. She paid close attention:
never letting the board wobble too much and trying to hold her own
against the water rushing her towards the shore. This is
exhilarating, Kira thought. The excitement mounted in her with
every moment that she didn’t fall and with every increase in her
speed. When she finally felt herself slow down and saw the sandy
beach through the water, Kira threw her hands up in the air, leaped
off her board, and jumped up and down, splashing water
everywhere.

Luke and Dave rolled in on the third wave,
only seconds behind her. Luke picked her up and spun her around
while Dave slammed her hand in a high five. She looked over at
Tristan again and caught the grin curving his lips. Maybe he had
been rooting for her all along, she mused.

"That was awesome," Kira said with a beaming
smile.

"It really was, now let’s grab some food."
Luke turned towards the towels with a hopeful look that silently
prayed Emma and Miles hadn’t emptied out the cooler.

"What? Food? I just got the hang of this."
The boys looked at her with sad baby faces. "Okay, you guys go eat,
I’m going to try for a few more waves."

"You sure?" Dave asked and Kira could tell he
had finally warmed up to her. A day in the water could do
wonders.

"Go, go. I’ll be in soon," she shooed them
along and then threw herself back on her board to paddle out past
the breaking waves. As she caught the next wave, Kira knew she had
the technique down. She rode in perfectly and paddled out for more.
After a few turns on the small waves, she decided to try for
something bigger.

Tristan sat alone in the water, closer to the
pier where the waves were breaking earlier and getting larger. Some
part of Kira wanted to prove to him that he was wrong, wrong in
judging her based on stolen glances and wrong in making fun of her.
Kira could feel his eyes on her as she paddled closer, and maybe
she was being too self-assured or was too pressed by the anger he
had sparked in her, but Kira knew she had to try to show him
something about her that he hadn’t already assumed. Kira never met
his stare. She didn't want him to know how much his presence
affected her, and so she instead looked out at the horizon for the
next set.

Kira saw the curl, saw it break early against
the pier and paddled with all the strength she had left. When the
wave got closer, she knew it was too big for her to handle and
almost wanted to back out, but Tristan was still watching her. The
wave picked her up and pushed her faster than she had ever gone
before. When she tried to stand, her board nosedived with the speed
and Kira fell head-first over her board and into the water. She
flipped underwater a few times, felt the strain of her board
pulling her forward until she finally broke to the surface for
air.

After a gulp, the next wave crashed and she
was thrown under again. She caught her breath for a moment of
relief before the third wave in the set smacked her and she had
nothing left to fight. The wave pushed her under and her board
smacked her forehead. She felt a moment of pain and then nothing.
She was sinking. Her board tugged her, pulling her underwater. And
then Kira fell into darkness.

"Kira, come on," she heard the command in his
deep voice, but couldn't respond. "Kira, wake up." A hand slapped
her in the face, once, twice, a third time and then her eyes shot
open and she tried to breathe, but her throat was stuck. Someone
flipped her to her side as she began coughing, and finally she spit
up what seemed like a gallon of water. Kira laid down again and
closed her eyes, wanting to sleep.

"Kira!" She felt one more smack on her face.
"You have to stay awake." She opened her eyes and saw the blurry
outline of a boy with dark hair and pale skin.

"Tristan?"

"Hello," she saw the corner of his mouth
curve upwards despite her uneasy vision.

"What happened?"

"You were being stupid." She started to
remember the wave and wipeout, and then her anger brimmed back to
the surface.

"Only because you were being an ass," she
grumbled and he laughed.

"Come on, try to sit up." Tristan curved an
arm around her back to help lift her up. She noticed, at that
moment, that they both wore only bathing suits and she was
basically sitting on his lap. Kira tried to discreetly look at his
chest, which was quite chiseled, and then she noticed the nice
bulge of a bicep in his arm. Kira let her eyes wander a few moments
longer until Tristan picked her up far enough for the pain in her
head to finally hit. She groaned, put a hand to her head and curled
into his body a little more.

"Ow."

"Yeah, your board got you pretty bad."

"I know." Kira was starting to get annoyed by
his habit of stating the obvious. She pulled her hand back for a
moment. "Crap! I’m bleeding." He stared at her hand, which was
covered in running red liquid, until she put it back to her head.
Kira noticed he was staring again, but this time at her wound. She
felt him lean in closer, inspecting it she hoped. After a minute,
she couldn’t take it.

"Tristan, tell it to me straight. How bad is
it?" She felt him jerk as if she had interrupted him
mid-thought.

"Oh. It’s nothing. You’ll be fine. Might need
a few stitches." He sat her up on her own and moved back a
foot.

"Thanks…for helping me, I mean." She looked
at Tristan, saw a few different emotions pass over his face until
he finally settled on the half-smile she had started to like.
Tristan grabbed a shirt from the unguarded towel next to him,
looked at it, looked at Kira, and shrugged. He put it to her head,
told her to hold it there, and helped her stand up.

"Get away from her." Luke’s voice boomed from
behind her. He came barging in and pushed Kira to the side.

"Chill out, Luke. I didn’t do anything."

"I don’t care. Leave." Kira had never heard
such anger in Luke’s voice.

"And if I don’t want to," Tristan asked. Kira
knew he was saying it more to test Luke and less because he really
needed to stay.

"Then," Luke paused, clenched his fists,
looked around, and punched Tristan in the face. For a moment Kira
thought she saw a flashing light, but she quickly realized it must
have been the sun, which had previously been silhouetted behind the
two boys. Tristan fell over and rolled once on the ground.

"Luke! Stop it. He just saved my life."

"Come on, Kira," Luke tugged her hand. She
glanced back at Tristan, who just nodded to her, and followed Luke.
"We have to take you to the hospital." She didn’t mention the
punch, wanting to wait for a good time. Instead she went with her
friends back to the car, listened to them talk about trivial things
to distract her, allowed Luke to carry her into the hospital, and
tried to process the thoughts churning in her head.

During the car ride home from the hospital,
Kira tried to drone out the lecture her parents were offering from
the front seat. Surfing is dangerous, blah blah blah. She put her
hand to her scalp and felt the five stitches that had been sewn
there to hold her skin together. She was just relieved it had been
the back of her head—losing a little hair was nothing compared to
having a scar on her face.

Kira noticed her little sister was starting
to nod off and pulled her head over so it rested on Kira's lap. She
ran her hand through her sister’s silky soft hair, looked outside
at the moss covered trees passing by, and did her best to respond
to her mother at the necessary moments, so she would think Kira was
listening.

When Kira reached her hand up to the back of
her head a second time, she finally realized how close she had come
to drowning—a fact she would never tell her parents. She didn’t
even remember getting out from under the water. All she could
remember were the waves pounding her every time she tried to
surface and the searing pain of her board hitting her on the head.
Kira couldn’t blame surfing. She could only blame her own
stupidity. She’d known the waves were too big, but she was too
stubborn to stop when she had a point to prove. Hopefully Tristan
had been trying to prove a point too—maybe he didn't hate her like
she knew his friends did.

When she got home, Kira ran to her room and
called Emma. She needed to discuss things with a girl. For her
entire life, Kira had been one of those girls that was one of the
guys. Now, she needed a girl who was her opposite to help her
dissect the situation. After half an hour, headlights pierced
through the window and Kira went downstairs to get the door.