Aggro - CoraLee June Page 0,21
me. I was so caught up in my defeat and sadness that my pop up was too slow. My feet weren’t planted in the right position, and I had no control over the board. I was too stunted to ground my feet and ride like I’d been doing my entire life. Rookie mistake. “Breeze!” Kai screamed as the force of the wave collided with my back. I got caught in the pressure of it, my body getting dragged down, down, down. It was a weightless feeling. My limbs tumbled and rolled, and I didn’t know where my board was. It wasn’t until I collided with a sharp rock that the pain truly started.
My lungs burned. My head swarmed. A searing pain in my side made me choke on water as salty sputters coated my throat. I didn’t even fight the ocean. I let her take me—crush me in her fist.
Time passed. Slowly. Excruciatingly slow. One second felt like an eternity as I drowned. My lungs went from burning agony and need to a settled emptiness. Every muscle in my body relaxed, slowly, slowly, slowly. I felt weightless. Free. I looked up at the foamy water knocking against the sharp rock. A shadow passed above me. Black hair. A mischievous smile.
Violet.
Then, two muscular arms grabbed my middle, and they hoisted me out of the water. My first breath felt like a drug. I spasmed as oxygen filled my lungs. The warm, muscular body cradling me yanked me through the current toward the shore, and I felt my head grow heavier and heavier. “Fuck, Breeze. Stay with me,” an angry voice called out.
It wasn’t until I was lying on scorching sand that I rolled over and coughed up more salty ocean water, purging it from my system as I hacked and gagged. And once it was all out of me, I lay there like a shored shark, settling my breathing as awareness wrapped around me like a blanket of urchins. It poked and prodded as a shadowed figure hovered over me.
“You know not to turn your back on the water.” I nodded. I’d been surfing since I was just a toddler. Couldn’t walk, but I knew the laws of the ocean. “You’re going to need stitches.”
I cracked open my eyes and looked down where a stinging pain was blooming on my ribs. There, a four-inch cut splayed across my skin. “That hurts,” I grunted.
Kai was hovering over me, looking at the cut like a skilled surgeon. “Let’s take you to the hospital,” he murmured.
“I’m fine,” I choked back, making Kai grumble.
“You’re not fine. You wanted to talk? Fine. Let’s talk. Let’s talk about how you didn’t even try to get out of that swell. Let’s talk about how you just let it take you. Get your perky ass up and in my truck, Breeze, or I swear to God I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you there myself.”
I sat up and dug my hands into the white sand. Kai was breathing hard and staring at me as more blood flowed from the wound. My head felt heavy. My vision blurred. “Fine.”
It was hard walking to the truck. I must have hurt my foot, because it ached with every step. Kai finally got fed up with my slow movements and stayed true to his word, carrying me to his old burnt orange Chevy while cursing under his breath. Once I was safely in the front seat, he walked around the car with angry stomps and slid into the driver’s side.
“I’m sorry,” I croaked, not sure why I was apologizing.
“You should be. Why did you go out there, Breeze?” he asked while speeding down the road.
“I wasn’t planning on surfing...I just wanted to talk.”
“We could have talked at the funeral. I was there. You and Chase weren’t,” Kai replied, his voice accusing.
“I couldn’t be there. I just...I couldn’t handle it.”
“Did Chase hold you while you cried? Did he use his sister’s death to get in your pants? I bet you were willing. I bet you told yourself that it’s what Violet would have wanted when he slid inside your tight little pussy and made you come on the sand.”
I snapped my gaze to Kai and gaped at him. “Fuck you, Kai,” I yelled. Part of me was angry at his crude suggestion, and the other half was disgusted with myself because he wasn’t entirely wrong. That kiss haunted me. It felt like betrayal and grief. “I just wanted to check on you.