I rolled over in my bed, grabbing my phone off of the nightstand. There were plenty of new notifications, but the one at the top was a message from my dad in a group chat consisting of him, Mr. Sanders, Will, Noah, Evan, and I. "Time to get up kids, we're all going surfing today! Be ready by eight."

My dad enjoyed making group chats way too much. He was probably already outside with all of our boards packed, just waiting for us to wake up. I groaned and got out of bed, opening the door and peering into the hallway.

"River, you're up! I was just departing whether or not we would have to send Evan in to wake you up, we're leaving in fifteen minutes. Go get changed and grab something to eat, the boys will be here in five," my dad instructed, grinning excitedly.

I nodded slowly and turned back around, still blinking to wake up. A light blue bikini was laying on my desk chair, and I threw it on quickly under a dress before heading to the kitchen. Evan looked as exhausted as I felt, sitting at the counter and rubbing his eyes.

"The Sanders are here, time to go kids!" My dad yelled from outside. The old beater minivan sat outside with our boards on the roof. Mr. Sanders was seated in the front, fully dressed and with his sunglasses on, while all of the boys were only in their boardshorts. The minivan meant that six adults had to squeeze in, leaving Will and I with our knees tucked up against our bodies in the back row.

Noah turned around from his seat with a grin, "So nice to see you again River, hope that you've gotten enough winning in on Tour to make this L you're about to take feel better."

"It's too early for this," I groaned, shaking my heads at him and leaning my head up against the wall to sleep.

"She's probably still on Bali time or wherever the heck she last was," Evan supplied. The boys continued to chirp at each other on the ride to one of the better breaks on the island, but Will got increasingly quiet as we got closer to the beach.

After parking, the two dads started to hand out surfboards to everyone. Mr. Sanders beckoned for Will to come up and grab his, but Will looked out at the ocean, clenching his jaw before shaking his head. "I think that I'm just going to watch."

Noah looked at his brother with concern, but didn't make any comments about it.

"Are you sure?" Mr. Sanders asked, still looking hopefully at the board.

"Nah, I'm good." Will glanced at me before looking down at the ground. I could see his right eyelid twitching frequently.

Evan nodded at his best friend, handing me my board before grabbing his own. I followed them through the loose sand out to the beach. My dad dropped the towels down and Will took a seat on one of them, leaning back on his hands to face the ocean. Everyone else started to jog towards the water, and I followed, glancing back at Will once. He forced out a closed-lipped smile which I returned before turning back to the waves.

My dad and Mr. Sanders joking around with Evan and Noah, trading waves and giving each other scores. While the sons were better, they had also learned from their dads. I was pushing my sun bleached hair out of my eyes when I saw my dad get a small amount of air off the lip of the wave, and we all burst out in cheers.

"When did you learn to do that, dad?" Evan asked with disbelief once he had paddled back out.

My dad gave him a wink. "Koa and I might go out and practice sometimes while you boys are away at school..."

"Sheesh, I didn't realize that these family competitions were getting so intense," Noah laughed, glancing at his dad, Koa, who looked rather sheepish.

I laughed along at all of their shenanigans but spent most of my time working on moves to pull out during competitions. Women's surfing had really been shifting in the direction of more airs than previously, and I intended to be on the forefront of the movement. However, that meant that I was ending up with a large amount of salt water up my nose this morning. The boys were giving me a hard time every time I messed up, but I knew that I could beat them in their own competition with only two waves.

However, my knees were eventually getting a little tired of the pounding they were taking from each landing, so I paddled in a few minutes before everyone else. The current had carried me down the beach from where Will was still sitting, so he wasn't nearby when I got out of the water. The downside of me practicing my airs was that it had attracted the attention of some locals.  

An eight year old was standing at the edge of the water with his mother, and she smiled apologetically at me. "Hi, are you River Lancer? My son saw you surfing and would really like an autograph, he's a big fan of yours."

The small boy hid halfway behind her leg, but smiled shyly when I waved at him. "I would love to," I answered, reaching for the paper and pen that she had in her hand. "What's your name, bud?"

"Andrew," he answered, stepping out from behind his mother. "You're my favorite surfer, right after Julian on the men's tour."

I laughed a little at that and handed him the paper back. "Well, thank you, it's nice knowing that I have someone back home rooting for me."

He and his mother thanked me and the boy practically skipped off, but as soon as I turned to walk back down the beach I saw even more people gathering in their place. I didn't think that I was that famous on the island, but I was probably easy enough to recognize for the beach-going crowd. A few young girls held out their own surfing apparel for autographs, and I took my time talking to them. At this point, a crowd was beginning to gather as people who didn't even know me wandered over to see what the commotion was about. I knew that this was part of my job and important to the sport, so I continued to take photos with the families that appeared.

A group of three teenage boys had just appeared. Judging from one's varsity soccer bag they probably were only a year or two below me at the local high school. That being said, I didn't recognize them because I had never actually gone to school.

"Hey, could we get a picture with you? You looked really good out there in the water," one of them asked, holding up a phone. I nodded and took the phone, snapping a quick selfie and trying to contain my laughter as I noticed them flexing their perfectly tanned muscles in the background.

"Thanks so much, we appreciate it. I'm Tanner and these are my friends, we just wanted to let you know that we're having a party on the North Shore tonight if you want to come.

The words to politely decline were on the tip of my tongue when I felt a hand slip around my bare waist. "Hey, babe, you know that you do have a right to your own privacy right? It's completely acceptable for you to end this any time you want to, you've been here for over an hour. No pressure though," Will said lowly in my ear, facing away from the crowd.

"Is this guy bothering you?" Tanner asked aggressively before I could answer Will.

"Actually, this is my boyfriend and you are the one bothering me," I replied sharply.

"You could do a lot better than some guy who looks like Frankenstein or straight out of a war movie," one of the friends butted in, clearly too proud of his own muscled appearance. Will stiffened next to me. He still hadn't regained all of the muscle that he had lost after the accident, and was therefore slightly skinnier than the younger boys. His farmer's tan from baseball also hadn't evened out yet, which probably left the kids incorrectly thinking that they were better looking than him.

I wrapped my free arm around Will, rubbing his back lightly and fixing a glare on the highschoolers. "I don't think that I could ever do better," I shot at the boys before addressing the rest of the crowd, "Thank you all for saying hello, I have to get back to my friends and family, but I appreciate the support. Have a great rest of your day."

Will and I turned around after that, trekking back to our stuff. "Do you want me to carry your board?" He asked, holding out the hand that wasn't around my waist.

"Only if you want to, I'm fine though."

"I got it, it will be good for me," he answered, reaching over to grab the board and position it under his arm. We walked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "I'm sorry about the scars. I've tried using a cream the doctor recommended but it hasn't seemed to help much," he said, looking down at the sand.

He caught me off guard for the second time in twenty-four hours, but this reason surprised me more. I didn't realize that he was still insecure about that stuff, mostly because I didn't think about it at all.

"Well, if we're being honest here, I wouldn't mind if they never went away," I said with a small smile. My finger traced a long white scar that ran up his stomach, running over his abs. "They're kinda hot if you ask me."

Will's face transformed to laughter, and he shoved me away from him. "Shut up, Riv."

I grinned back at him, not bothering to hide my own laughter. "I'm serious, it's like I got the bad boy vibe but with a good guy, that's the perfect arrangement if you ask me."

"So glad that I could arrange that for you," he laughed, stepping closer to me again.

I turned to face him, tracing another scar that ran over his collarbone before looking up to his eyes. "Will, there is no one that I could love more than you, and I love you just the way that you are," I said softly, tiptoeing to kiss him.

"That's disgusting!" Evan's voice echoed to us from down the beach.