Orange Part 1

Driving in a car from upstate New York heading down to a small beach house in Orange County gives one a lot of time to think about things.
Until her I had not given a lot of thought to anything, I was very absent-minded.
But Elena changed it all for me my sophomore year. I just sort of noticed how she talked and how it made me think of things.
I really started to notice her ways in English.
She said something about motifs and how they applied to Shakespeare's Macbeth.
I had no idea what motifs were, or what she was talking about. I asked he later what she was talking about.
At first Elena thought I was making fun of her but then I said,
"No really, what is a motif? What you said sounded interesting but I had no idea what you were saying"
Later that day Elena and I headed down to a coffee shop near the school to talk about Macbeth and all the stuff in it I did not get that she did.
She was so witty and at times very funny.
She was so adorable, I could not get enough of her and her mind.
We started dating a week after that coffee stop and we dated until the end of school when she told me,

"Tom I cannot keep this going.You are so sweet, but I cannot be your teacher anymore. I do not feel like we have an actual relationship, I feel as if this year has just been me teaching everything from Motifs to the Quadratic formula. I do not want to be your tutor forever. I know that is not all I am to you but that is all I feel like now. I cannot do this anymore Tom, so I'm ending it."
Elena could not have better broken my heart then if she had ripped it out and put it in a blender.It was one shitty way for her to greet me after I had just finished my last final.
Now two weeks later I was on my way to Orange county. Just me and my parents spending a stunningly boring and long car ride to go to a long and at times very monotonous vacation.


I must admit I do like our beach house but I was in no mood at the time to be in car with my mother pointing out every single thing that she thought was pretty or interesting. On most car rides I found this quite amusing, but unluckily for me and my mother my mood was soured by my mending heart. I eventually snapped and told my mother to shut up, which did not go over well at all. Feeling defeated by myself and my bad mood I tried to sleep.
I dreamt of Elena. This helped me none. I awoke even more surly than before, but luckily I had also awoken just as we arrived at our beach home.

"Help your mother with the bags Tom." my father said.

"eh, yeah, whatever." I responded half-heartedly.
After I had done my task I slumped on to my bed.

"Tommy your Dad and I are going down to the beach, you want to come?" my Mom called up to me from the kitchen.
I contemplated not responding and pretending to sleep, but a little part of me told me to get up and go to the beach with my parents. I listened to it, slathered on some sunblock, put on a bathing suit, grabbed a towel, gathered my sunglasses and rushed out the door with my parents.
As we went out the door I noticed I left my cell phone by the door and put it in one of the pockets of my bathing suit.


The sound of the waves immediately calmed me down. The sun seemed to ebb away the sorrow I had been harboring in me. The beach was just the cure I needed for the woes of my recent breakup. Its salty spray making Elena a distant memory.

After a half our of lying in the hot sun I jumped into the water. I swam around for a couple of minutes quite enjoying myself until an awful fact dawned on me. MY PHONE WAS STILL IN MY LEFT POCKET. I yelled every expletive I knew as I raised my phone as high out of the water as possible and rushed out of the water. It was quite a display, I think I heard a kid or two running to their parents in fear of my rampage.

"Shit Doreen he's done it AGAIN" my father exclaimed as he smacked himself on the forehead.

"IMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRY" I said. This was half to my parents and half to my phone.

"Don't worry champ, you know we've got insurance on that thing now." My dad sighed.

"Oh, really? I thought you said we couldn't afford it..." I said looking quite confused.

"It was going to be a surprise for your birthday next week Tommy." Mom said as she toweled off my phone.

"Oh, well I'm as relieved as I would have been surprised!" I said while plopping down into the sand. My parents just sort of grumbled. The new phone would be my fifth replacement in three years.
It then hit me that I would be without phone for a few days. This not the worst of all things, but I was already starting to feel withdrawal. My parents did not want me to start griping about my phone so they sent me on what they liked to call one of their 'Social Adventures'.
These started when we first started coming to our beach house. Their only purpose for me to walk down the beach and play with strange kids.
The condition of the Adventures were that I introduce myself to two kids on the beach and bring them back to my parents. This was just fine when I was five, especially because it kept me as an only child from becoming a socially awkward kid. It did not seem so awkward when I was younger. This was before embarrassment even existed in my mind.
Now as an angsty teen it was ever present, so I negotiated with my parents to find one other teenager and walk and talk with them and simply walk by my parents as we walked down the beach.

It took me a while to find a kid who looked my age, 16. Eventually I found a kid who was diving into the surf. I had been searching for about a half hour so I desperately jumped in after him and yelled,

"HI I'M TOM!"

"uh, hi, I'm Rick..." he responded.

"YEAH I KNOW IT'S AWKWARD. I'LL EXPLAIN ON LAND" I yelled once more.

"haha, sure" He said, a smile now on his face.

I explained the whole 'Social Adventure' idea my parents had for me, and why they had reinstated it.

"Yeah that's fine, you seem like a pretty chill dude anyhow, and I was as bored as hell. The waves are hella suckish today." he said while wiping off his blond mop of hair with his towel.
I almost scoffed at his usage of 'chill dude' and 'hella suckish', but I realized that was the Elena part of me speaking, the part I had to forget. I used to talk like that all the time.

So we went on and Rick told me all about his family and growing up with three siblings. I talked about being an only child. We talked about our school's. Rick gave me permission to talk about Elena and how she tore out my heart. He agreed with how I felt on the issue. I enjoyed talking to Rick so much I almost forgot to wave to my parents. I guess it was because unlike most of my guy friends he was very willing to listen. He seemed like he actually cared. This struck me as quite odd for we had just met, but none the less it seemed very genuine.
Rick and I eventually ran out of things to talk about, and we were quite silent for a while.

"You want me to teach you how to surf?" Rick offered, breaking the silence.

"Sure, but I gotta get back before sundown. I know my parents will give me hell if I don't get back before then" I responded.

"That gives us approximately an hour and a half. I can't promise you'll be fully steady by that time, but I can give you all the tools you'll need to figure it out on your own" Rick said smiling at me again like he had when I awkwardly approached him.

"Well I've got about four weeks to learn so I think our time today will be just fine." I said smiling back at Rick. His smiley demeanor was pretty contagious.
My lesson was interesting, for I was falling off my surfboard more than I was standing on it. Rick assured me this was how it was supposed to be when you first started. I was ready to give up until Rick offered to demonstrate as a large wave came in.
The way he ripped across that wave looked effortless. It was very awe inspiring, and it got me heading towards the very next wave after Rick's. He noticed what I was doing and cheered me on. As the wave came in I got up on the board and placed my feet how Rick had shown me to.
I miraculously rode the wave.
Despite all my clumsiness and all that was on my mind, I rode that force of mother nature, and I was flying.
I was free.
If just for a second.
Just in time too because as I came to shore the sun was reaching the horizon forming a blazing orange disc.

"This was really fun Tom, it's nice to find someone down here who is actually worth hanging out with" Rick said while rubbing the top of his head.

"Likewise. Hey do you want to come over for dinner? We're having mahi mahi tonight, it should be pretty good, my dad has a way with fish." I found myself saying. It was odd for I liked hanging out with people, but I had never really been social enough to take the initiative to invite someone over for dinner.

"That sounds really good, but I don't think I can, I promised my family I'd eat dinner with them tonight." Rick responded, "But how about we meet here tomorrow at eleven and have lunch at my house? If we get tired of the sun maybe we can play some Guitar Hero or something."

"Sounds like a plan man!" I said, once again smiling.