Beyond the Sea Read Online Free Page B

losing sleep over the loss of her. He had liked her, and enjoyed having someone to spend extra time with but wasn’t heartbroken from the breakup. Instead he was embarrassed.
    Embarrassed that he wasn’t enough for her. That she felt the need to cheat. Of course, his best friend Connor assured him it wasn’t his fault, and, given Janet’s history of cheating, it was only a matter of time.
    He held the board vertically in front of him and opened the door.
    “Don’t even think about bringing that dirty thing in the house!” Sue Anderson, Peter’s mother, barked, looking up from a stack of papers.
    Peter sighed. Hello to you too , he thought, and set the board on the porch.
    “Peter! Look what we found!” his little sister, Ava, beckoned excitedly. Her twin, Adam, dumped a bucket of sandy shells on the white living room carpet. Mom would have an aneurysm if I did something like that, he thought to himself. “Look! This one has a hole in it,” Ava said proudly, holding up a pink scallop shaped shell. “I’m going to make it into a necklace!”
    “It’ll look pretty on you!” Peter said, ruffling her hair.
    “What were you doing with Janet?” Sue asked, narrowing her eyes and setting down her pen.
“She gave me a ride home,” Peter said flatly, knowing an interrogation was unavoidable.
    “I thought you two broke up.”
    “We did.” Peter hadn’t told anyone besides Connor of the circumstances of the breakup.
    “You shouldn’t gallivant around town with her then.”
    Annoyed, Peter spun to face his mother. “I wasn’t gallivanting. She offered to drive me home. We can still be friends.”
    “What will the neighbors think, you coming home with a girl at this hour?”
    “This hour? The sun hasn’t fully set yet! And I didn’t come home with anyone.” Annoyed, he shook his head and walked up to his room.

    *

    At half past one, Peter clicked ‘print’. Rubbing his eyes, he grabbed his backpack and hastily shoved the completed essay inside and collapsed into bed. The mere four and half hours of sleep flew by. After hitting the snooze button on his alarm three times, Peter lazily threw back the covers.
    “Don’t forget, your father has a meeting after work today. Please go directly to the elementary school to pick up the twins,” Sue reminded, giving Peter a stern look.
    “I won’t forget.” Peter grabbed his lunch and headed out the door.
    Monday came and went just like any other day. He ignored the smug smiles from Janet, awkwardly turned down an invite to see a movie with a freshman girl he didn’t even know, and used picking up his siblings as an excuse to get out of drinking with Connor after school. A storm was coming in; he wanted to go out on the waves tonight.
    As soon as his mother came home from the hospital where she worked as a part time CNA, he was off, his black Mustang convertible speeding toward the water. Despite the threat of wind and rain, the beach was more crowded than Peter expected. As he walked nearer to The Ridge, the number of swimmers dwindled. True, the water was studded with sharp, jagged rocks, but The Ridge seemed to come alive in the darkness and nobody, not even Peter, liked to be near it.
    The clouds thickened and the sun set. It was almost pitch black by the time Peter called it quits for the night. The beach was deserted now. Peter stopped, closing his eyes and enjoying the lonely calm. A high pitched chortle startled him. It seemed to come from the water. He spun around.
    Nothing. He could see nothing other than the jumping shadows of boulders and trees. The waves suddenly seemed too loud, masking any and all noise. Peter felt vulnerable. He tucked the surfboard under his arm and hightailed it to the parking lot.
    In the security of the artificial light, Peter felt silly and stupid for feeling the unexpected panic. He couldn’t get the laugh out of his head. It sounded feminine, and was oddly alluring for coming from the shadows.   Several cars were still