I had been surfing ever since I could stand. My life was basically in the water. I would spend more time in the water than on land and to me that was just fine. I grew up with an extremely close family. Me, Allie and Jake were each other’s best-friends. We were triplets. My mother and father both grew up in Hawaii. Here in Hawaii it is a sin not to surf. They had been ranked number one in multiple regional and national level surf competitions. I had been homeschooled my entire life due to the fact that surfing and school didn’t go well together. It was my second day of high-school and I was doing okay. High school isn’t like the movies, it isn’t at all. I had already met a whole bunch of friends but mainly because of the fact that Chad was introducing me to them. Chad has been my best-friend and my go to ever sense the first day I was born. We would go every morning right before the sun would rise to get in quick surf before he went off to school ever since I could remember. Chads friends were now my friends and everywhere Chad went I had to go.   Chad was always the kid that everyone looked up to and always wanted to be like. He was outgoing and the center of attention. He had so much going for him. He had accomplished so many things and he was talented in so many different things. Chad was put into foster care when he was eleven. I ran home to put on my favorite pair of rip curl shorts and my beaded aqua sweater top and rushed out of the door grabbing my backpack and a piece of toast my mom had made me.
“Go make friends! Have a good day at school.” My father had shouted from the kitchen table.
“No promises” trying to catch my breath.
Waiting for the bus to pull around the corner I looked up to Chad standing there stretching. From the little of what I could see there was a scar on his stomach that lead up to the top of his chest.
“Where’d you get that scar from?”
“Oh it is nothing, just a little scrape from surfing.”
I had a hard time believing that it was just nothing because Chad had never gone surfing without me. I gave him a strange look and had kept a close eye on him that day.  After school he came over we caught up on homework and talked to my parents for a couple hours about school because to me and all of my siblings we weren’t used to school at all. It was nothing we had ever done before and we weren’t good at it. We went out for night surf for about four hours and right as Chad was pulling up his wetsuit I glanced at the scar and that is when I knew it couldn’t be just a “scratch” from his surfboard. It was too deep of a scar and I knew even a surfing fin couldn’t do that to someone unless you totally whipped out.
“Are you sure that that’s from your surfboard? Because I know it’s not and I am worried about you. You’ve been acting strange the past couple of days.”
He looked at me and rolled his eyes with the cute laugh that he has always had
“You are so overprotected of me it’s adorable. Yes I am fine; it’s just a scrape from my surfboard. It fell on me when I was taking it out of the shed last night.”
I knew it wasn’t but I was just going to keep bugging about it till he told me the real story. Chad never normally shared his feelings but whenever he was upset and something was wrong I could tell that and we would talk about it. Chad never had anyone he could just rant about how he was feeling and the only person that he would rant and spill everything to was me.
“Ten wipes out and one actual good wave. Today clearly wasn’t the best day for surfing.”  As his voice was shaking trying to catch his breath sense he had just got knocked right off the side of his board.
Wiping out was always scary. You never know how far the wave would take you out or how long it would beat you down so you would try and hold your breath for as long as you possibly could. I don’t ever remember a day not spending it with Chad. He was pure pride and joy. I don’t understand why his parents gave him up. He was what every parent dreamed of having. He was polite and had good manners. Was so smart he was very brilliant and he was friendly funny and outgoing, always a crowd pleaser. His talent with music was going to take him so far in life he is amazing at it but he is just this walking perfection we all look up to so much.
“Do you ever get tired?”
“Tired of what? Like sleeping tired, because yeah don’t we all?” Chad said confused
“No, like tired of being so perfect?” I said
Did I actually just say that to him? I mean he is my bestfriend I tell him everything but I have never told him that before I can’t believe I just said that.
“Are you kidding?”
*Chad laughing*
“I am nowhere close to being perfect. Have you seen me? You know all of my flaws. You know all of my imperfections. My teeth aren’t straight and crystal white. I am not the best surfer, I fall I tumble. I am not the best looking and I am not the smartest.” Chad said in a serious way.
I never knew that Chad was like this. I didn’t actually understand it at all. He was so insecure about who he was and what he does that he doesn’t learn to accept the fact that he is perfect the way that he is. Chad was what everyone looked up to? Why was he so insecure? I know for sure I was not the first one to call him perfect in fact his name is basically perfect. All of the girls in school drool over him and try to get all buddy buddy with me because they know that I am his absolute bestfriend. Chad’s bright blue eyes the color of the sky with  orange and yellow specks in them, his freckles and his tan skin, his blonde curly surfer hair and his perfect smile is what makes me fall in love with him more and more every day. I don’t think he knows this, but he is my soul mate. I know that we are still young and who knows if we do actually even know what love really is, but this, this I am pretty sure is real and true love. This scar was still getting to me and obviously to Chad. I could tell that something was wrong and I wasn’t going to let him not tell me about it. After being in our natural habitat for about three hours he came back to my house for some dinner and family movie night. It was a Friday and on Fridays we always had family nights. He was part of our family, my parents and siblings had all looked to him just as another sibling and to my parents he was like another son to them. But to me, it was different. He was my bestfriend but he always gave me this feeling where I would get butterflies every time I would see him.
My dad had been the reason that my life had been so hard these past couple of years. He was the reason that my life completely went downhill and I blame him for taking everything away from me. My mother, she was my everything. But most importantly for taking away the family and ripping us apart. Sometimes I believe that it was because of me that I caused all of this but I know isn’t and I know it wasn’t something that anyone could control. It wasn’t my fault, he was mentally messed up and no one could change it, not even him. I do believe that I have saved myself though, multiple times and sometimes I question why I have tried so hard to keep going and why I keep pushing when all I want to do is give up because maybe it would be much easier here without me. Zach was the girl of my dreams but I just don’t think she knew that yet and I think I am going to keep it that way. When I am with her family I feel so much joy and so happy and I really do feel like I belong to them because I do, but I get this strange feeling. They aren’t my parents and I am not even related to them. Sometimes it feels like I wasn’t wanted and that scares me because I know my dad never wanted me ever sience he found out that my mother was pregnant with me. My mom was killed in a car crash caused by my father. He was arguing like he always did and she was killed on impact. My mind had gone crazy. Flip after flip after flip I had no idea if this was a nightmare of is this was real life. My eyes got blurry and everything around me turned black and all I could see were white blurs of things and hearing my father yell at my mom over and over again. I was holding onto my ears so tight and I wouldn’t let go. Wake up, wake up. I tried convincing myself to just wakeup and I couldn’t because it was reality. Those words that my father had told my mother were the last words she ever heard before she was gone. Those words should haunt my father for the rest of his life because I for sure will never forgive him. He is always picking fights with me. He is always trying to prove that this car crash wasn’t his fault. He doesn’t feel anything not even sad. One day, I hope he feels the pain that I feel and one day I hope he understands how much this sucks to try and understand why you father doesn’t want you anymore and why he is nothing but a ignorant person who tells his son things a son should never be able or should be able to hear. He will never understand that and for that I will never ever call him a dad because he isn’t. He is a stranger with no heart, no soul and maybe one day, that will haunt him and that will come and turn onto him.
Zach did not know that my mother was killed in a car crash. The only thing that Zach knew was that my mom had died from a free diving experiment with my dad. I don’t k now why I never told Zach the true story. I was scared but also I didn’t like to talk about it. The only reason I hadn’t told Zach about the car crash was because then she would find out about my father being abusive and that will make it so obvious that the scar on my chest was from my father. I had been holding it all in for so long that I didn’t care anymore. Zach was my best friend and she was the only person that I could rant to about my problems. I knew that she would keep it to herself and that she wouldn’t tell anyone. The next morning I got up a little extra early and tried practicing how I was going to tell her the truth about how my mother died. I didn’t know if she was going to handle it well or if she was going to get mad at me. Either way knowing Zach she was always going to be supportive about it. We went out just as the sun was rising. The ocean was calm and there were no waves in the distance, no movement. Just me Zach and the world underneath us. To me surfing was like I was on top of the world because underneath us there were all these creatures and the water was their own world.  Today was going to be the day that I told the truth to Zach about my mother. I had never been this nervous before not even as nervous as when I have to present in front of a class.
“Chad what’s wrong?”
“Well…. Um…. So…” I said stumbling trying to find the right words”
“Spit it out” Zach said in an angry tone
“There is something that I have been meaning to tell you.”
“Well what’s that?”
All of the sudden there was this big rip tide. Pulling us in and dragging us back out. We lost all control and I could steer myself to the other side. The wave kept beating me down and I couldn’t get up. My surfing leash got tangled and my feet were starting to be useless to help me. This is bad this is really bad I kept telling myself. The wave went up and I went under. My mind went spinning and the only thing that I was trying to focus on was my breathing. When I was under that wave it felt like forever. I was being twisted and turned and yanked every which way from my leash. Nature became the only thing that was controlling me. I was moving my arms everywhere trying to find Zach. There was no Zach. All the sudden I started getting these flashbacks. I kept hearing my dad’s voice yelling at my mom right before we crashed. I saw the first time I was rising my first wave, I saw Zach’s beach blonde hair and bright blue eyes smiling right at me and then all of the sudden I saw this bright light.  In that moment my life had just stopped. I took my last breath in the place that I called my second home, the ocean. I took my last breath doing what I loved to and doing it with the only person that understood me and was always there for me.  This was going to crush Chad if she woke up or if she makes it out alive and who knows when someone will come to find us.
I woke up in the hosptial bed to the clock ticking away. No one was beside me. Just me in this hospitlal bed freezing and confused all alone. When I was little the only memory I had was my dad yelling at me telling me to give up because I wasn't worth it. I have came so far and I still kept going. His words never stopped me from giving up. Surfing the title waves, dinner with her family, eairly morniong surfs before school, going on runs with her at twelve at night because she knew I was upset and wasn't okay.
"Hello is this Robert Fransics? Father of Chad Fransics?"
*It went quite and Robert didn't know how to respond.*
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"Your son was found this morning nearly dead, surfing Mavericks and is under bad conditions."
"Sorry I think you have the wrong person, my son doesn't surf."
My dad didn't even know me. He didnt know anything about me because he never took the chnce to show that he cared. He was abusive and minipulating. I wasn't going to let him try and get to me, I wasn't going to try and have a conversation with him becasue if he never tried, why would I try?
"May we talk to the wife of Chad then?"
"His mothers dead." Chad's father said angry and almsot yelling into the phone
*Phone goes silent*
          It hit me, I really did have no one. Without Zach I was no one. Without her I didn't have a family and if I did why was no one here to tell me what was going on and why I was laying in this hospital bed. I just wanted to see Zach one last time, to go on a run with her one last time. To go on a morning surf one last time and replay the first day of school one last time. Just to have one more family dinner with her and her family.
"How are you feeling" said a calming voice from next to me
"Confused, why am I here, in this hospital bed with neddles all over me? Where is Zach." I said starting to get angry
"You are fine, just get some rest."
"Tell me what happened to me." I started bursting out crying.
“You were caught in a riptide while you were surfing. Now get some rest, you will be needing it.”

*Nurse walked out quiteliy.*

“Did you call Chad’s parents? Try to find any family members to contact? He has no one in that room he is all alone.” The nurse told the doctor

“I contacted his father, he said we had the wrong number and that his son did not surf. When I asked for his mother he said that she had passed away.”

“Maybe Zach’s parents know contaact numbes for Chad. After all they were the ones who saved his lilfe. If it weren’t for them he wouldn’t be here.”
That morning, I had recived a call from the hospital. Zach had awoken and was asking for her parents. They rushed out their door and made their way to the hospital running through the red lights. They didn’t slow down for anyhting. Zach had been in a coma for over four day and so had Chad.
“Chad is that you? Are you okay? What did you have to tell me that was so important but so hard for you to say out on our surf before this happenend?”
*I heard a voice that sounded just like Zach’s*
“What do you mean? Before this happened?”
“Remeber we were out in the water and we got caught in a wave. My parents saved us they got us out. It’s okay now.”
        I could not comprheand what had happened.