Page 79 of The Surfer

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RIPLEY

It’sa long drive to New Water Airport. A long-ass drive. I lie back in the reclined passenger seat next to Sandy and close my eyes, listening to the relaxing clicks of the car’s indicators and the sound of Sandy’s hands smoothly spinning over the steering wheel as we drive to the airport. My best friend hasn’t turned the radio on, and I haven’t asked her to, so we sit in silence as she drives the car through the town I’ve called home for the last few weeks and up past the ocean towards the airport. I prefer the silence.

Yeah, it is a long drive to the airport.

I just want to get out of here, I just want to leave. There are too many good memories here in this small town, memories that have turned bad. Rotten. Memories of Cove and me.

All those memories are false. I was living a lie.

Cove didn’t really love me. He had run away. I was just another girl with a willing pussy to massage his ego for a few weeks, that’s all. He told me to fuck off back to America when he’d grown tired of me. He didn’t truly want me in his life.

I was just another one of his girls in the revolving doorway to his bed. Silly me for thinking I was special in any way.

It’s time to go back home.

I’ll just have to find - fund - my own way through university, make my own money somehow, support Mom somehow. I don’t want to think about it. I will have to figure it all out somehow but, right now, as I leave New Water, I just want to see my Mom again. Screw the worries and stress I’ll have tomorrow, now I just want to go home.

“I’m so sorry,” I say softly to Sandy in her car. “I’m so sorry for everything.”

“Stop repeating that,” she replies sternly, eyes on the road.

“But I do. I am.”

“Ripley, you don’t have to be sorry for anything. In some ways it was my fault, I knew exactly what I was doing pairing you two together, I knew what a dick my brother was. I shouldn’t have put you under that kind of stress.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help him. I know you really wanted me to. I know I was your last resort.”

Sandy shakes her head. “If Cove couldn’t change for you, then he won’t change for anyone. He really is a lost cause now.”

There’s a lump in my throat as my emotions start to get the better of me. All the memories flood back into my mind. Cove and me on the beach. Our secret kisses. His tender touch on my body. His smile. “I really thought I loved him, Sandy. I really did.”

She leans over and rubs my shoulder as tears well in my eyes. “I know, Ripley,” she coos. “Men, hey?”

I laugh at the roll of her eyes. “Yeah, men.”

“I just wish you were leaving under better circumstances. I’m really going to miss you, Ripley.”

“You’re always invited to New York, you know. Anytime.”

“Well, I might just have to come, then,” Sandy says, smiling at me. “I’ve always wanted to see the Big Apple. I’ll just need to get the time off from the school.”

“I hope you do. I could show you around like you’ve shown me around New Water.”

“That would be magical.”

Sandy takes her arm off me and turns back to her driving. I lean back against the car seat and stare out the window. We’re passing up into the hills overlooking the ocean. The same road I had seen the dolphins from that first morning I arrived in Australia. I peer down through the window hoping to catch another glimpse of the animals. Out in the waves I see the usual surfers, but no dolphins. The sun streams down on the water. It’s a clear blue.

I am going to miss this.

I’m going to miss Australia and New Water, I’m going to miss Sandy, but, most of all, I’m going to miss the Cove I’d fallen in love with.

The Cove that didn’t really exist.

The fantasy Cove who was mine for a few glorious weeks.

The best few weeks of my life.