Never in her life had she rushed a wave so hard, there was absolutely no thought process when it came to her and the waves during that ride, which was until she bailed, and bailed out hard. Her board came crashing down after her body had hit the water, for a bit she couldn't even comprehend what had just happened, but she began to kick her way to the surface dumbfounded at what had just happened. After retrieving her board she slowly made her way back to the shore and sat down right where the water met the shore.
"You crashed pretty hard out there babe, something wrong?" Tovah didn't even have to turn around to know who that voice belonged to
"Yeah, so you saw that? How long have you been here JB?"
"Yeah girl I've been here I even saw you when you first got here, you just didn't notice me, you were way to focused on your waves," Jay said as he took a seat right next to her in the sand
Tovah looked around for his board or some reason why he would be at the beach "What are you here for? You don't have your board or anything,"
"Just some shit going on right now, ya know? What had you surfing so hard out there?"
"Same here man, just some shit going on at home,"
For a minute or so they just sat on the sand in silence watching the waves crash in and out. The sun was starting to set but there was literally no breeze so it was actually decently warm out there. As the sat on the sand Tovah felt something sliding down her forehead, and that something would be blood.
"Shit, I knew my board hit me on the way down," she said while bringing her hand up to her head.
Tovah got up and made her way over to her bike, she grabbed the first aid kit out of it and opened it up, she shuffled through the contents of it searching for a cotton ball or even a tissue to clean her head off with. Before she could even close the case in defeat she felt damp fabric bring pressed against her head, Jay had taken his shirt of and soaked it in the ocean to clean her up. Tovah closed her eyes and just let Jay do whatever it is that he was, it was a pleasant change to have someone else fixing her up instead of the other way around.
"Donnie left my mom," he said curtly, his voice cracking half way through the statement
Her eyes shot open at the tone of his voice; Jay's lovely green eyes had the slightest trace of tears resting in them. She gently took the shirt out of his hands and brought him down to sit in the sand, she guided his head to her bare shoulder and began to run her fingers through his sun bleached tresses.
"I don't even fucking know why!" Jay started to speak loudly "He loved her, we all know that he did, they were in fucking love Tovah," with every word Tovah could feel her shoulder getting wetter " You just don't leave the people you fucking love Tovah, you just don't fucking do that," his voice cracked with every word he said
"Jay," Tovah whispered then paused "you know your mom is strong, and you know that you have to be there to back her up, fuck Donnie. If he wants to go, let him,"
She spoke so softly she wouldn't have been surprised if Jay didn't hear her at all; it was hard to know how to act around Jay when he was like this. For as long as she had known Jay she has never seen him cry, and for the second time that day they just sat in silence with one another. Tovah looked down at Jay to see that he had his eyes closed and was drawing blindly in the sand, just making lazy patterns with his fingers. And although the silence was comforting it didn't last for too long, Jay had pinned her on her back as he grinned crazily above her. Tovah smiled lazily back up at him just glad to see he was just feeling the tiniest bit better. Suddenly Jay had placed the tiniest kiss onto Tovah's lips, he pulled way still grinning like an idiot. Tovah looked at him directly in the eyes and gently placed her palm on his cheek and kissed him back just as gently as he had.
"Jay go home, if there was ever a time when Philaine needed you it's now,"
Tovah got up slowly, and Jay followed right behind her but before she even got anywhere near her bike Jay had grabbed her hand and pulled her back in for another kiss. Out of all the kisses Tovah had ever received in her seventeen years of living never had she experienced a kiss as innocent as this one. No tongue was used, they were just sweet, gentle kisses, and from Jay Adams no less, but the funny things is they still left her breathless. That was until Jay took her bottom lip in between his teeth and pulled softly, Tovah let the tiniest moan escape her mouth before Jay pulled back and looked at her.
"So am I still only gonna ever have sex with you in my dreams?" he said mocking her
"We'll see Jay, but it's not gonna happen today, go home," with that being said she pushed him forward towards his skateboard.
Jay winked at Tovah right before he rolled off onto the street back to his house, Tovah just stood there with her curly hair blowing in the wind as she watched him roll slowly down the street. A small smile ghosted upon Tovah lips as she stood there with her back turned from the water, Jay was a fucking mystery on legs, there was no way that you were going to be able to understand him unless you could read his mind. Tovah walked over to grab her board and then hopped on her bike, the sun had set but she wasn't trying to go home anytime soon, Stacy, he was probably still at work, so the Old Venice Noodle Company was her destination. Tovah perched her bike on the front wall of the Old Venice Noodle Company so that if anyone tried to steal her bike, which happened quite often, she would see them. The little bell on top of the door chimed when she pulled open the door do the little restaurant, the first thing she saw was Stacy bussing tables very slowly, totally zoned out.
"Yo Stace! At that pace you're never gonna get outta here," Tovah teased as she made her way to sit at one of the empty tables
Stacy smiled "And no matter how late I stay I'm still not getting overtime," he sat down in front of her placing his elbows on the table with his rag that he used to clean tables over his shoulder "What brings you to ye Old Venice Noodle?"
Tovah wrinkled up her nose in laughter "Nothing really, just bored, I just got done surfing and I really didn't feel like going home,"
Stacy gave her a look; a look she knew all too well, he knew something else was up "So you are your mom are fighting again?" She didn't even have to answer him she just looked down and started inspecting her fingers as if they were the most interesting things in the world "What happened this time? She brought up the pageants didn't she? Just don't let her get to you Tov, fuck pageants, you're a fucking radical surfer,"
Tovah looked up at Stacy and smiled "Yeah dude I know, it's just that I wish she understood how much it meant to me, surfing is my passion, not beauty pageants, I just want her to see how happy it makes me,"
"She will one day Tovah, and if she doesn't then it's not for you to worry about, she's the one that's missing out, not you," with that Stacy got up and started to clean the rest of the empty tables. "Hey Tov, I gotta go back and wash dishes you can leave if you want, or you can just chill here until I'm done, it's whatever you wanna do,"
"Stace you know I love washin' dishes, it's time to get elbow deep in suds bro," Tovah said as she got up from her seat and began to head into the back of the restaurant
They both stood there washing dishes talking about absolutely nothing important, occasionally making fun of each other and throwing bubbles in each other's face.
"So Stace, you and Kathy Alva huh?" Tovah said while flicking some bubbles off of her fingers onto his face, his face began to turn pink in color as he began to scrub the dishes harder. "Oh c'mon Stacy, tell me! What's up with you guys, because apparently at bicknell hill you guys were getting real cozy, but that's just what I heard," she said with a sly smile on her face
"Shut up Tovah," Stacy mumbled as he continued to scrub away at the dew plates that were left in the large sink. Tovah threw her head back as she let out a loud roar of laughter, while she was wiping the few tears left behind from laughter Stacy wrung out a sopping wet towel right over her head.
"Peralta you are fucking history dude!" Tovah quickly slipped behind Stacy and kicked him in the pressure point right in between his knee so his knee buckled and he feel onto the wet ground
Both seventeen year-olds laughed loudly inside the kitchen of the Venice Noodle they were surprised no one heard them. After Stace got off the ground they finished the dishes and head out front to their bikes, luckily Tovah's bike was still there, as well as her board. The two of them peddled down the fluorescent-lit streets together until it was time for them to part ways.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning, right?" Stacy asked
"As if I would miss I chance to surf Peralta, see you bright and early sunshine,"
Once Tovah arrived at her house she put the bike away, and headed inside with her board in hand hoping that her mom wasn't in the main room of the house. She slowly crept inside with her eyes closed because maybe if she couldn't see her mom, her mom couldn't see her. Once she closed the door she slowly opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that her mom wasn't sitting on the couch. As she made her way to her room she heard her mom talking and she couldn't have been on the phone because the only phone is in the kitchen, so after placing her board in her room she silently stepped down the hallway until she reached her mom's room. The door was cracked just a bit and Tovah saw her mom sitting on the bed look through old photo albums, and she knew exactly which one that was, the pageant album.
"My little Tovah used to be so pretty, so elegant, I wish I could bring that little girl back, my beautiful little girl," MaryAnne said to herself not knowing that Tovah was outside of the door listening "She really could have been something, we could have left this shit-hole of a town, she would have never met those friends of hers and everything would be so much better. God she really wasa beautiful girl, but things change, don't they?"
Tovah made her way back to her room not wanting to hear anything else her mother had to say about her, or her friends. She slowly pushed her door closed so it clicked shut silently, dragging her feet across the shag carpeting she made her way over to the mirror that hung on her wall. Staring at herself, she noticed that her eyes had watered up a bit; she swiftly wiped them away this was not something she was going to let herself cry about. She inspected herself in the mirror: mid-length curly brown hair, that had some blonde in it because of the surf and the sun, it fell down to her mid back in frizzy ringlets. Brown eyes, quite a bit of freckles across her nose and a few on her cheeks, pretty fucking tan from all the surfing. Then she reached her mid section, alright she wasn't a stick like every other girl, but she certainty wasn't fat, she was a healthy looking girl, and she could sure out eat you, and she kept fit from surfing. She didn't even care to criticize her chest she was a proud 34 C, and would knock out anyone who said anything about it. But I guess in comparison to her five foot nine, Latin queen of a Mother anyone could look frumpy. Tovah didn't let herself dwell on it, as long as she was happy with herself it didn't matter what her mom thought or anyone else for that matter. So with that Tovah showered and changed for bed getting ready for tomorrow mornings swell and whatever else came with it.