Aggro - CoraLee June Page 0,11

waves breaking all around me.

I paddled hard, yelling his name as I went. Soon enough, I was almost right on top of him, but Kai still didn’t see me until he had to swerve to avoid a collision with my board.

“What the fuck!” he exclaimed. “Breeze? What the hell are you doing?” He was obviously confused. We took a second to get to an area of flat water, our boards bobbing in rhythm with the ocean.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. I wanted to see if Violet was with you?”

Kai gestured to the ocean and sarcastically asked, “Do you see her here?”

He ran his fingers through his wet hair, pushing it back from his face. He looked like a god with the sun glittering off the water droplets on his tan skin. I refused to find Kai attractive. As my best friend’s boyfriend, he was strictly off-limits. My mind just didn’t go there out of respect for Violet. But out here, there was no denying the power in his presence. He had hard muscles carved to perfection, a result of a lifetime of working out and riding waves.

“I don’t have time for your attitude. Nobody has seen or heard from Violet since the party. I’m really worried. Do you know where she is or not?” I demanded an answer from him while trying to choke back the panic at the realization that Violet was not here.

“I haven’t seen her since last night. After I dropped you off, I went straight home. We were fighting at the party, remember?” I remembered them arguing about her drinking, but it wasn’t anything new. If anything, Violet would have been eager to come back here and make up.

My heart practically climbed up my throat. “What?” I choked out.

“Fuck,” Kai grunted before paddling toward the beach. I chased after him, pumping my arms quickly while trying to think of where she could be. “She wasn’t arrested, was she?” Kai asked the moment we were standing on the sand.

“No. Chase would have known,” I replied while wringing out my hair and racing over to my pile of clothes. I felt Kai’s cynical eyes on my back as I bent over to pull out my phone from the front pocket of my shorts. No notifications. No nothing.

I quickly dialed Chase. He answered on the first ring. “Did you find her?” he rushed out.

“No. I’m at Kai’s, and she’s not here. Chase, I think we need to go to the police.” I spun around to look at Kai, who was standing a foot away with both hands propped on his hips.

“Fuck. My parents are in LA right now. They’re going to kill me.” I seethed at his words. I didn’t give a fuck about him getting in trouble, my best friend was missing.

“I don’t care where your parents are. You need to call the police. It’s been almost twelve hours.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll call,” Chase replied before screaming, “Fuck!” I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at Kai, who had already pulled on a shirt and was stomping over to his truck.

“I’m going to drive around downtown. Maybe she went shopping,” Kai yelled. “Call me if you hear anything.”

I nodded and went back to my dad’s Jeep. There was no way I was going back to work. I dialed Dad, but it went to voicemail. I left a message. It was better to ask forgiveness than permission.

“Dad,” I began while starting the car, “Violet wasn’t with Kai. Chase is going to call the cops. I-I don’t know where she is. I’ll call you when I know more, but right now I need to look for her.”

After hanging up, I peeled away. I needed to go back to Violet’s house. Back to where it all started.

I pulled into Violet’s driveway, my breath catching when I saw her red Mercedes parked in its usual spot. A little sliver of hope shone through, and while I wanted so badly to believe she was upstairs sleeping off an interminable night, I had to remind myself that just because her car was here, it didn’t mean that she was.

After putting the Jeep in park, I hopped out and practically flew to the front door. I knew Chase wasn’t home, but I’ve had a key to their house ever since we were little. My parents worked a lot getting the surf shop going, and Vi’s were always gone, so I guess they figured we were safer unsupervised together than alone.

I