Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 17:55:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Sean R <seanr_13@yahoo.ca> Subject: Riding the Waves - 3 Author's Note: I hope you're enjoying the story, I appreciate any feedback. Please write me to seanr_13@yahoo.ca Don't forget to donate to Nifty to keep our wonderful community going. ----- Riding the Waves By: Sean Roberts -- Chapter 3 -- Dylan was running down the street, chased by a wave that caught up quickly. It was as if the water had fingers, and he felt the wet cold touch on his back. He tried to breathe and to open his eyes as the wave took him over, but the sudden loss of air had him paralyzed. This is how he was going to die, at the merciless hands of the water. He woke up in a sweat and felt a sudden burst of anger. Where did Tyler get off treating him this way? He had no expectation of them being friends, but Tyler's open animosity—which rubbed off on everyone else at school—was unfair. Dylan was thankful that he had Ethan, but he was also suddenly suspicious. Why was Ethan being so nice to him? Dylan had to clear his head before school. There was practice that day, so he decided to run instead, following the same route as the previous day. When he passed Tyler's house, he saw a figure turning out of the long driveway. "Morning," Dylan said, running past Tyler. "The fuck?" he heard Tyler say. Tyler caught up to Dylan quickly and took his buds out of his ears. "Are you stalking me?" "Of course not," Dylan said. "Just bad timing. I'll let you run in peace." "Sounds like a plan Lewis," Tyler said. He put his headphones back. Both boys picked up the pace, not leaving each other's sides. They kept running faster to get away from each other, neither willing to slow down. Tyler finally stopped to catch his breath. Dylan took a few moments to notice and jogged back. They had stopped in front of a gated community, separated from the sidewalk by a wall. They were bent over, holding their knees. They stood up straight and looked at each other, neither boy sure what to say. Dylan said it with his fists, grabbing Tyler's shirt and pushing him against the wall. "I know you pushed me, you little bastard," Dylan said. "I could have fucking drowned!" Tyler's eyes lit up with fear for a moment as he was shoved against the wall. He swallowed. "I don't know what you're talking about, Lewis." Tyler did not fight back. He allowed himself to be held against the wall, staring into Dylan's eyes. Dylan finally let him go. "I'm not going anywhere," Dylan said. "So lay off, alright? I'll stay out of your way, but you're going to have to put up with me being on the team." The world became darker. Dylan looked at the sky and saw rain clouds coming in. Tyler continued his silent stare. Dylan swore, and turned around to run back home. -- Dylan did not hold back. He swam at his best during the practice that afternoon. It was a waste of effort to do this in practice, but he had to see if he could swim better than Tyler. He beat (by a significant amount of time) both Tyler Harris and Trevor Lancaster—formerly the two best swimmers on the team. The rain had not let up all day and the school grounds had become muddy. Dylan was walking towards his car when suddenly he felt something pushing him. He fell, hard, into a patch of mud. "What the fuck?" he said. "His knapsack, which he had been carrying on one shoulder, fell beside him. He looked down and saw that his arm of his school blazer had turned brown. Looking up, he saw Trevor and some other members of the team walking by, laughing. Dylan stood up and pulled his bag out of the mud. He walked back towards the school, hoping he had something in his locker to change into. As he turned the corner he saw Tyler, Alice and Lisa coming out of the school together. "What the hell happened to you?" Tyler asked, smiling as if his birthday had come early. Alice looked confused and Lisa looked sympathetic. "I-I fell," Dylan said, trying to keep his voice even. "Why would you do that?" "As much as I'd love to explain physics to you, I need to go in and change," Dylan said, hoping to avoid this latest confrontation. "Do you need help?" Lisa asked. Tyler burst out laughing and Dylan looked mortified. "No!" she said. "That's not what I meant!" Dylan felt like a knife had been plunged into him. He pushed past them into the school. Dylan wrapped a towel around his waist and walked back from the showers into the locker room. Tyler was sitting on one of the benches. Dylan sighed. "What are you doing here, Harris," he said, defeated. "Lisa made me come and check on you." "Yeah, I'm sure." Dylan sat down on the bench and put his face in his hands. "Whatever you want to do or say to me, just get it over with." There was a long silence as Dylan waited. "Seriously, Lewis—I'm just supposed to make sure you have a change of clothes." Dylan looked up at the boy beside him. Tyler lifted his arm and Dylan flinched. Tyler was about to put his hand on Dylan's naked shoulder, but he hesitated. "I'm suspending Lancaster for two weeks," Tyler said. "Smart," Dylan said. "You might as well suspend yourself too, since they're doing this because of you, and that'll take care of the two best swimmers on the team. Who else can we get rid of to make sure we lose the next meet?" "Everybody saw him push you. I have to do something about it." "It was an accident, Harris. And a much less fatal one than getting pushed off a surfboard." Tyler stood up, paced past a couple of the lockers, and then turned around to face Dylan. "Again, Lewis, I have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe if you didn't have a dick in your mouth all the time, you'd be able to hear how ridiculous you sound." Dylan snapped, and stood up quickly, causing his towel to fall to the floor. He reached out and grabbed Tyler's tie. Dylan pushed the boy, hard, against the nearest locker. "You absolute piece of shit!" Dylan cried out as he was shoving Tyler. Tyler's eyes widened, and he flinched as his back and his head hit the locker. Dylan held him there, trembling, wanting to hurt Tyler more. "Y-your towel," Tyler said. Dylan looked down; the tip of his erection was almost touching Tyler's pants. He looked up at Tyler, his face turning even redder. Tyler's hands were free but he was not fighting back. He put his hand on one of Dylan's arms. Dylan flexed his muscle against the touch, and his own eyes widened. He relaxed his grip, unwinding his fists from Tyler's clothes. He took a step backwards and picked up his towel. Tyler turned around and opened Dylan's locker. He took out a pair of trunks and held them out behind him. Tyler took them and slipped them on. "This is all you have," Tyler said, turning around. He picked up Dylan's shirt from the bench and examined it. "This isn't so bad, most of it got on your blazer. Here." He picked up Dylan's towel from the bench and cleaned off the bits of mud. He handed Dylan the shirt. Dylan took it from him, not looking at him or thanking him. He waited until Tyler was gone before he finished getting dressed. -- Dylan woke the next day to a knock on his door accompanied by his mother's voice. She had come back from her exercise class and found him still at home. "Honey?" she said. "Are you not feeling well?" Dylan opened his eyes and looked at his alarm clock. It was eleven in the morning. "Oh fuck," he said, rubbing his eyes. "Dylan!" "Sorry mom. I'm fine. I slept in is all." "Well you must have been tired. Go back to sleep. I'll call the school." "Thanks mom." Dylan put his head back on the pillow and drifted off again. After breakfast, Dylan sat at the desk in his room intending to study, but instead started looking at other schools he could switch into. He got lost in the activity, comparing the schools and trying to think of reasons to tell his parents he needed to change. He was jerked out of his concentration by the sound of the doorbell and his mother's voice calling him again. Dylan came downstairs in his pyjamas, his hair dishevelled. He yawned as he ran a hand through it. He stopped halfway down the stairs when he saw Lisa standing at the door. "Here he is," Maggie said to Lisa. "It was very nice to meet you Lisa, and thank you for bringing over his homework." "You too Mrs. Lewis," she said politely. "How are you feeling Dylan," she said to him, looking down at her shoes. "Umm, I'm ok," Dylan said, confused about her being in his house. "Good. Well, let's see." Lisa took off her backpack, put it on the floor and started to unzip it. "Why don't you come in and do that," Dylan said. He took her to the living room. She gave him her notebook and told him what he had missed in class. "Dylan, I also wanted to tell you about yesterday—I must have sounded like such a bitch. I don't know what's wrong with me. I had just meant to ask if you had something to change into. Because if you didn't I could have found—" "I know. It was really nice of you to ask." "Tyler didn't give you a hard time when he came in to find you did he?" Why would she have asked that way? Dylan was sure that Tyler had told the entire school about Dylan's unfortunate uprising. "Umm, no," Dylan said nervously, looking away. "Oh, good," she said. Dylan looked back at her. She was smiling and had not meant anything. Maybe she really did not know. "Why weren't you in school today?" "I slept in, by accident, that's all. I'll be there tomorrow." "Great," she said. "Well listen, I'd better get home. Maybe we could grab lunch or something?" "Sure, that would be nice," Dylan said. -- Ten minutes into first period, Coach Baker popped his head into class, asking to borrow both boys. They went to his office and were told to have a seat. Coach Baker slammed the door, picked up some paper from his desk and flung it violently at Tyler. He leaned forward with his fists on the desk. "Harris!" he bellowed. "What the hell is this?" He held out a piece of paper. Tyler looked at Dylan, briefly, both confused and scared. He clearly had no idea what was happening. He looked at the paper. "It appears to be my math test, Coach," he said. "You call this a math test? Have you checked your average lately Harris?" "Coach, what's he doing here? Can we talk—" "I'll tell you what he's doing here! Here's his math test!" Dylan looked over at the next piece of paper with a large red A written at the top. Tyler held it away from him, as if it would contaminate him if it got too close to his body. "Harris, if this doesn't turn around immediately, you're off the team. So you, Lewis, are going to make sure that these grades turn around!" "Well fuck me," Dylan said under his breath. "What was that Lewis?" "Nothing Coach." "Lewis, if he's off the team, you're off the team, do you understand me?" "That isn't entirely fair, Coach," Dylan said. "What are you smiling at Harris? The two evenings you don't have practice, you're together studying. Lewis is showing you how to get an A. Got it?" "Yes Coach," Tyler said. "Sure," Dylan said. "Unless you both want off the team. In which case tell me now, so I can start finding replacements." Dylan glanced over at Tyler, almost hoping that he would ask the coach to do just that. Tyler looked stunned. "No Coach," Dylan said. "Neither of us want off the team. I'm more than happy to help him out." Because of the good weather, the school library was rarely used during lunch. Tyler suggested they meet there. Dylan was supposed to have lunch with Lisa, but he sent her a message saying he would have to meet her another time. "Listen Lewis," Tyler said, sitting down next to Dylan. "I can deal with this on my own. If the coach asks, just cover, okay? I don't want to see any more of you than I have to." "Sure," Dylan said. "Uh, Harris," Dylan said. "What is it?" "About what happened a couple days ago—" "Lewis, you told me not to do anything about it, so I didn't. Do you want me to suspend Lancaster or not?" "No, of course not." "Good." Tyler turned around to walk away. "Umm—" "What now Lewis?" "You know, we could study together and not tell anyone." "What the fuck would be the point of that?" "What the fuck is the point of your shitty marks?" "It was one bad test, so mind your own business. Anything else I can do for you Lewis?" Dylan stared at him, seeing the hurt on Tyler's face, imagining the situation in reverse. "No. If he asks, I'll tell Coach we've been working together." "Hmm. Maybe you aren't completely useless after all." Dylan fingered the joint in his knapsack and swore to himself as he remembered that he had practice that evening. Dylan swam at a pace that was sure to keep him behind Tyler and Trevor's times. It was a good day to give Tyler the chance to show why he was captain. Dylan watched the captain move in the water; he had to admit that Tyler was a formidable swimmer.