Chapter 23

STACY

I'm normally not that big using on metaphors for life, but right now I can't stop thinking that lately mine has been like a roller coaster ride. You know how most days you just coast along on a nice, level track? Well, yesterday was just off the rails, in so many ways.

It started out with Nathan calling me early this morning to remind me about the surfing contest at Ballona. Like I would have forgotten already. We had only heard yesterday at the Zephyr shop that the ET team guys were coming up here for an unofficial showdown, but the 6am surf report confirmed that everywhere south of Toes was going off so Nathan was stoked. He got here by a quarter after and we drove over to the Kensington Motel and grabbed our boards out of the storage lockers, then swung by and picked up Sarlo on the way down to Ballona.

The contest was pretty intense. Solid four-to-six foot A-frames and consistent sets for almost the whole time. The other team was awesome, I'll give them that, but we were better. Ha, poor PC only got one shot and broke his board on the rocks. It was a good run, though. I started to offer mine even though it's brand new because hey, that's what teammates are for, but he said his knee felt tweaked anyway and sat the rest of it out. Anyway, the Tavares Bros both held their own and Sarlo was unreal as usual. That guy could carry a contest by himself, I swear. For my last heat they put me up against their most senior guy, a serious ripper named Derek, trying to psych me out most likely. By that point the waves were getting kind of sloppy too, but I still worked in a good backside off the lip and almost got upside down right before the whole thing crumbled on the rocks. And not even a ding on my new Jeff Ho single fin. Needless to say we walked away the victors but there were no hard feelings from the ET guys. They even invited us to stick around and party and a few of the guys did but I had already told Muir that I'd go to his party that night.

Sarlo was one of the ones who stayed, so I just had Nathan to drive home, which was good because he only lives down the hill from me. After I dropped him off and got up to my place, I saw my girlfriend's car parked in front of the house. That seemed strange right off the bat because Camille almost never comes over without telling me first. Not that I'm uptight about things like that or anything. She's just like that. I don't roll up on her place without advance notice, either. Like for like, I guess.

Anyway, when I walked inside the house she was sitting on the couch talking to my mom and everything seemed cool. At first. After only a minute or two Mom said she was going to the grocery store and left. That was the second strange thing. Neither of my parents are too big on leaving me alone in the house with my girlfriends, like they're afraid I'll call all my friends over and have a big drug and sex orgy on the living room carpet or something. Gimme a break, like I'd ever touch anything stronger than NorCal bud. Hell, I don't even sneak girls into my room when the folks are out of town. At least not after Camille and I started going steady, anyway.

After Mom had gone Camille said those words that every red-blooded male never wants to hear: "We need to talk." Well, I had a feeling that this moment was coming. Things had been strained between us over the last few weeks, which is probably putting it mildly. So I let her talk although I already had a pretty good idea what she was going to tell me and how this whole thing was going to turn out. When she said all she had to say, all I really could do was agree with her. True, I'd hardly called her over the past few weeks. True, we hadn't hung out much lately except between classes. True, I had been more focused on skating instead of her. And true, we had barely touched each other when we did spend time together. It was all true and I genuinely had no excuses for it even though she was totally pleading for me with her eyes to say something, anything that would make things go back to the way they used to be. But I couldn't lie to her. She's a sweet girl who deserves to be treated honestly.

So that was that, I guess. Well, we had five months of mostly good times together so at least we can say we gave it a good shot. And it ended amicably, always a bonus. She didn't even give me the ol' "let's be friends" trip, which sorta made me both relieved and bummed for some reason. She took off after giving me a sketchy hug goodbye and at first I went to my room, put on a record and moped around for a bit just drawing and stuff. But after an hour that got boring so I went out and skated in front of my house for a while and then I got ready to go out for the evening. There was no question of my skipping Red Dog's party. I knew Camille wouldn't be there 'cause Dogtown's never been her scene. And hey, maybe I'd meet a new girl who could take my mind off the breakup.

As it turned out, there was a girl there, but she wasn't new new; I already knew her from Geometry class at the college. I barely even noticed her the first few weeks because I always came in late (when I came at all) and had my mind on catching up to the lecture. Plus things were ok with Camille then so it wasn't like I was going around scoping new girls all the time. But this girl in Geometry – her name's Jess by the way, but privately I call her Jessica like the Allman Brothers song – she finally broke the ice and talked to me one day before class about music and where she was from and stuff. She came across like a real person, not stuck up or anything, just really relatable and easy to talk to, y'know? And ok, she's really fine, too. Not the usual type I go for, so don't give me that knowing look. She's pretty tall; the top of her head comes up almost to my eyebrows. She has real dark reddish-brown hair that's probably six inches longer than mine. It's funny, I always dug girls with hair past the shoulders but both my girlfriends wore theirs shorter. Anyway, Jess' eyes are light gray and they look good with her hair. And she's paler than most 'cause she's from the East Coast near Philadelphia. Not exactly a sun-drenched paradise. A lot of people look unhealthy without a tan but for some reason it works with her. The other weekend she was at one of our pool sessions and I overheard a girl she was sitting with tell her to get some sun so she'd blend in with the locals better. I wanted to yell "DON'T DO IT!" but had a feeling that wouldn't go over very well. Heh.

So after we talked that first time I started thinking of her more, but not during the times I was hanging with Camille, I swear. That definitely had nothing to do with the breakup. We would have stopped seeing each other whether Jess existed or not. No, I only thought of Jess on rare occasions like when I was walking into the building for class, or when I couldn't get to sleep some nights. Really. And when I was heading over to Red Dog's party hoping to maybe meet a girl she wasn't on my mind then either. I honestly had no idea then that she was invited or even hanging out with Zephyr people, even though she was at that pool session. You know how it is, I'm friends with those guys and we skate and surf together all the time, but I don't live for Dogtown 24 hours a day like most of them do. Again, anyway. Finally got to the party around 10pm after stopping off at Ralph's for some Bud. Not ten minutes later while I was sitting out on the porch with Red Dog and TA watching Red Dog's little brother Mike wailing on his friend, Jess suddenly ran outside from the house and took off down the sidewalk. I didn't know it was her at first because she was moving fast and I couldn't get a good look at her face, but then it clicked and I realized who she was. The other guys just shrugged and laughed but something about the way she was running told me to put down my beer and go after her. It took over half a block to catch up to her and then she almost decked me before she realized who I was. But before we could have a good laugh about it, she kinda fainted. That's when I knew she was wasted and there was no way I could just ditch her and go back to the party. Yeah, yeah, I know - Sir Stacy and the Drunken Damsel in Distress. But can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't have done the same thing? Yep, that's what I thought.

Ok, I managed to convince her to let me take her home, which wasn't that far from Red Dog's but I kinda took the scenic route down Centinela in the hope that she might be up for a late-night dinner at the Rose Diner. She was, and that made me relieved 'cause frankly I didn't want to drop her off at home bombed and have her mom blame me for getting her in that state. And ok, fine, I also wanted to talk to her more although to be honest at that point she wasn't good for serious conversation. I was almost worried for a short time there that she had taken some serious downers or something, but she told me over dinner that she'd only had beer and maryjane. No great shakes, then.

After we ate she started to feel better and get more talkative so I got the excellent idea to take her up to Vista Point but – again, I swear – I didn't have any intentions of jumping her or anything. It just seemed like a logical place to go and continue our conversation, plus I love bringing people up there to see the lights of LA. It's the perfect place. My dad is friends with the guy who owns that land up there so I'm cool to hang up there any time. May he never develop it. So we got up there and sat on the hood of the car, just looking and talking for a little while. And then – I'm not quite sure how it happened, I think she made some suggestive comment and I had the presence of mind to act on it – we started kissing. And maybe it was because she was still kinda wasted but God, she was an unreal kisser. Better than both my former girlfriends put together, in fact. Man, that makeout session was so hot, I swear. I didn't want it to end. At one point we ended up in the back of my car, but we still just kissed and caressed each other some. I got pretty turned on at that point but I don't think she could tell because I was trying hard to avoid any contact below the waist. I mean, c'mon, I hardly know her and anyway, I didn't want her to think I'm a rebounding fool. But if we had touched like that in any way…oh god, I don't even wanna think about it.

Unfortunately the fun had to end since she had a 1am curfew. Man, I hate curfews. So glad I don't have one anymore. And yet my mom won't leave me alone with a girl in the house, go figure. Anyway, I got her home by 1:05. She assured me that her mom wasn't strict enough to be pissed off. I snaked one more good kiss off her before she said goodnight and jumped out of the car. Just as she got to the front door I remembered to ask her for her number. Had to yell across the lawn to her to bring her back and probably woke up half the neighborhood, but it was worth it. Now her number is pinned to the corkboard here in my room and I'm looking at it, wondering if I should call her and when. Jeez, didn't I just break up with a girl because I couldn't spend enough time with her? Well hell, it's not like I'm going to propose to Jessica or anything. Maybe we could try some casual dating and see how it goes from there. But she's gonna have to be cool with the skating and the surfing 'cause I'll never give that up for a girl. Sorry to sound so cold, but it's true. Even if I never get sponsored I'll never quit. It's going to be a huge part of my life until I get too old and creaky to stand on a board.

But yeah, Jess seems to know the score already. Maybe I'll give her a call after I finish listening to this Hendrix album. I just hope she's as interested in me as I am in her. Guess there's only one way to find out…