Top Ten Reasons Why...

I love my life right now 

10. I’m almost seventeen years old.

9. Finally got my own room complete with a bay window facing the water.

8. I have a golden retriever named Sammy who is the best dog in the entire world. 

7. I’m in my graduating year which means I’m getting out of San Clemente A.S.A.P.

6. I’ve nearly completed a full year of practicing yoga everyday. 

5. Just got out of my bad relationship with Riley....thank god. 

4. I have an extremely annoying little brother Jake, who is insane at surfing.

3. My erratic but ever so loving mother is actually starting to be happy these days. 

2. I have the best friend ever, Evan Wiley.

1. I get to surf everyday.

Beep.Beep.Beep. My alarm clock buzzed. Its sound muffled by a pile of molded towels that needed to be washed for at least a week now. With one long reach I smacked the damp pile and the buzzing stopped. In another fluid motion I pushed myself up and out of bed. 5:46am. My stomach growled loudly as I blindly stumbled into the kitchen and threw what was left of the whole grain bread into the toaster, two crusty end pieces. I carefully ran my fingers through my hair to comb out the tangles, and then pull the strands of my yellow hair into a bun. I tiptoed around the creaky tiles and quickly gathered up, my surf board, two towels, my iPod, and a peanut butter granola bar for Evan. I heard the toaster pop and I used my fingers to smear as much chunky plum jam as I could onto the bread before running out of the door. I beat Evan to the beach, but I guess it helps when you only live a block away. 

I clicked on my iPod and began my morning yoga on the beach. It had been a ritual of mine to practice yoga every morning for both flexibility in the water, and to

help manage my anxiety out of the water. I closed my eyes and stood in tree pose for a moment listening to the rhythm of The Chemical Brothers swim through my ears. I remember last summer when I had mono and I wasn’t allowed to surf for the first month; I was a wreck. Evan had rescued me one night when my mom was at work and snuck us into the Chemical Brother’s concert. I still have the scars on my knees from hopping over four fences; not to mention the verbal scars my mother left on us when she found out. I smiled at the memory. I lost my balance, fell onto the sand, and decided to nix the yoga this morning and continue it later. I relocated to the spot I promised to meet Evan; at the bottom of the famous Zigzagging foot bridge. 

As I dropped my stuff off I glanced at my phone. 6:03am. We had planned to meet at six but Evan is never on time. I walked towards the water and stood at the edge of the ocean, as my iPod switched to the music I meditate too. I closed my eyes as I felt my toes touching the crest of the chilled water. I got instant goosebumps and a smile broke from the left side of my face. The morning wind curled behind me and my eyelids quivered behind the breeze. I felt the stray strands of my hair tickled the back of my neck and I was finally reaching my center of relaxation. Just then someone kicked the back of my knees and I collapsed like JELL-O between fingertips. Evan hopped over my stunned body and pulled my headphones out of my ears. 

“Morning Evie,” he said laughing. 

“Hey what the hell Ev,” I said pushing him off of me. “I told you to never call me that.” 

He stopped laughing and smile down at me.

“That’s why you’re mad?” he said brushing the sand off his shorts and offering a hand to me. 

I accepted the gesture and just as I was getting up he tucked his foot behind my ankle and pushed me over. “You are just too easy!” he said laughing. 

“No, I’m not!” I protested. “I’m a huge klutz, and you’re taking advantage of me!” 

He leaned over and pulled me up for real this time and when I finally got up I planted a handful of sand that I collected while rising right into his hair. I then retreated to where I had left my stuff. Evan laughed and chased after me.

“So what happened this morning?” Evan said shaking the sand out of his sweeping golden locks. “I thought we were meeting at the Pier this morning, that’s why I was a little late.” 

“Bull,” I said without missing a beat while I collected the towels from my bag. “You just wanted to stay in bed with Ah-man-dah a little longer.” I said tossing him a towel. 

“Why do you do that?” Evan said. “You know, pronounce every syllable in her name. I never used to call Riley, RYE-EUH-LEE.” 

“Not the point loser. The point is I get another gold star in our friendship chart for showing up on time for EVERYTHING, and for bringing you a towel.” Evan opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off. “AND I brought you a peanut butter granola bar.” I said flicking the treat at him. 

He closed his mouth. 

“Okay Bird. I’m sorry. Yes, I didn’t want to leave my bed this morning but you have to understand, she’s just so hot!” he said grinning.

Bird. Evan had always called me that and I never knew why. My name is Eve Cooper but people call me Coop. My theory is that he associated birds with coops and voila, but I never questioned it. 

I smiled at him. “Ha. See I know you too well. It’s gross.” 

I pushed by him and headed to the water. After nearly seventeen years together, there isn’t much that Evan and I don’t know about each other. We grew up together, born literally hours apart in the same hospital. Our mother’s became friends after bonding over our absentee fathers and Oprah. They picked our names together and ended up with Evan and Eve so that later in life they could shorten our names and call us at once. The rest was history, and Evan and I have been there for each other since forever. You know the saying that goes, “Friends are the family you choose,” yeah, it was something like that. 

Evan and I paddled out towards the waves. We ducked under the cold water and pushed past the most aggressive part of the swim. 

“I guess this is sort of perfect for you isn’t it?” I said as Evan looked confused. “You know, a nice cold...swim,” I said laughing. 

Evan splashed some water in my general direction before ducking under another wave. 

“After you,” Evan said. 

I headed down the first wave with Evan following close behind me. We carved down a series of waves for about an hour and playfully tried knocking each other off our boards. The score was tied, we both had knocked each other off twice. Just as we were about to go for the tie breaker, something had caught my eye. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me. There is no way those guys are here, this is our spot,” I said gesturing over to three boys paddling over to us. 

Evan squinted to see who it was, and then frowned. I could tell by the way his temples were pulsating that he was just as annoyed as I was. 

“Just forget about them,” he began. “They’ll stick to their end and we’ll stick to ours.” With that Evan began paddling out to catch his next wave. 

“But,” I protested. But Evan was already gone. 

I groaned and started to paddle but I managed to catch a glimpse of Riley out of the corner of my eye. He was laughing with his friends Malcolm and Clay, as they kept looking at me and then looking away. I couldn’t believe that they would think about coming to Trestles beach considering this is where I had brought Riley on our first date. I realized too late that I had been focusing more on the boys than on the water, and I was now at the tip of the wave. I didn’t have time to stand up. I didn’t have time for much. I fell down into the water and felt the weight of the wave crash over me. I was being tossed around under water, and I was using all my might to swim up for a breath. My board, that was still attached to my ankle, was caught under a rock and I couldn’t wiggle it out. I kicked as hard as I could and smacked my shin against the sharp rock. I screamed in agony and in doing so swallowed a bunch of water. I managed to rip off the strap on my ankle, and I pushed off a nearby rock. 

“COOP, grab my hand!” Evan yelled. 

I blindly reached for his hand and pushed myself onto his surfboard. “Paddle, paddle!” he said as he followed me. I managed to make it to shore with nothing more than a bleeding shin. 

“Are you okay?” Evan asked. 

“Yeah. Fine,” I said examining my shin.

“Don’t touch it, I’ll drive you home.” 

I stared at Evan, “You DROVE here and you were still late?” I said and we both erupted into laughter. 

• * * 

“Thanks for the ride,” I said as I gathered my things. 

“Yeah no worries,” he said. “Let me help you take that stuff in.” 

“I’m fine, really.”

“Yeah I know, but I want to come in.” 

“Okay...” 

We went inside and I limped on his shoulder as I propped open the door. My mom was in the kitchen prepping breakfast and looked up when we got in. 

“Oh my god, what happened?” she said rushing over. 

“It’s nothing mom, just a scratch,” I said. 

“Just a scratch,” she repeated dabbing my leg with a cloth. “Thank you Evan that was very sweet of you to bring Eve in.” 

“Yeah no problem Karen, I’ll help her to her room, we should probably get that wrapped up.” 

As Evan and I walked down the hall neither of us said anything. I continued to limp on his shoulder, and he cleared his throat a few times. When we reached my room I turned to him. 

“Okay. Cut the crap, what’s going on?”

“I think you should sit down.”

I felt the blood trickle down my leg again.

“You need to clean that up,” he said. 

In a fury I got up and went into my en-suite bathroom and couldn’t find a towel. I let out a frustrated sigh and went into my mom’s bathroom, and returned with a towel and wiped off the blood.

“Happy?” 

Evan went into my bathroom and picked out an ointment and bandages. He began wrapping my leg and then started talking to me. 

“Okay, so I got asked to surf for Track Magazine. It’s a huge deal and can almost guarantee that I’ll get sponsored by a company like Patagonia or Rip Curl.” 

“Track Magazine?” I asked slowly. As Evan nodded I slowly gulped back the lump in my throat. I was happy for him. Track Magazine is one of the biggest surf magazine’s in the world, probably the biggest in Australia, but I wasn’t prepared to lose my best friend to a bunch of kangaroos.

“So...,” I tried to muster up a sentence. “Um, I,” I tried again. 

It was like Evan could read my mind. He started telling me that the job would take him to Sydney in his first month, and then they would head north to the Great Barrier Reef and spend about six months there. He would be the face of their magazine and get the chance to surf in some of the best surfing locations in Australia as well as South East Asia. They want to hire him the minute we graduate. He would be gone for at least two years. 

“So, what do you think?” said Evan 

“I think,” I couldn’t talk my voice was quivering and I sounded pathetic but I tried again. “I think I need some time.” 

That was all I was able to get out. Evan got up and let himself out but before he left he turned to me. 

“This doesn’t mean I don’t love you and this doesn’t mean I’ll forget you. You’re my best friend, you’re my Bird, you know that.”

With that, Evan left and I burst into tears. 

Author's Note

Hey guys!
As I said before I'm hella nervous but I'd appreciate any and all comments!
You guys rock! <3
As soon as I get some feedback I'll add more chapters. xo!

Reviews

[Orma]

Mark!!!

Thank you SO much for your input!! I'm thrilled that someone has finally commented! I'm definitely going to take your advice and work-on this story...possibly re-post it. The concept is more diary that story anyway, the Top Ten Lists, are something Eve holds on too throughout the story- but I really love your description of Evan's laughter close on my heels...might have to steal that ;)
I'm going to keep writing, so thanks for the encouragement! I'm excited to stat reading some of your writing as well, please tay in touch- I value your opinion!!

Mariam

[Lowesy]

I'm wondering how you got 30 odd views and no comments!
Now, a few things, the way you've written this does sound like a coming of age type story, the writing seems a little too simple at times, like a diary more than a story. So I do suggest re-reading it and changing a few things, the style, words, sentences, descriptive words.
For example; 'I headed down the first wave with Evan following close behind me. We carved down a series of waves for about an hour and playfully tried knocking each other off our boards.' Here you could've said something like; 'I headed into the first wave with Evan's laughter close on my heels. We carved through a series of the clear blue mountains and laughed as one or the other nose dived into the water from knocking each other off balance.' Or something to that effect. It's more descriptive and not too simple, it describes their actions rather than just telling us. But don't make it too wordy, like you've got; ' I relocated to the spot I promised to meet Evan; at the bottom of the famous Zigzagging foot bridge' The word relocated, I don't think is right, just doesn't sound right, not something thata 17 year old should say, yeah? Annoying I know, I've just told you not to be simple and not to be complicated.
Anyway, I hope this helps! I do like the concept, it seems like a typical teenage situation but oddly enough, people don't write about this kind of thing too much so, well done!
Mark