Out to Sea

I was 15, maybe 16 and the oldest son of a family friend had taken me under his wing. He had given me a surfboard he didn't use anymore, took me surfing, took me to my first 21 and over punk show( which I felt so cool because I had to sneak into being that I was 14), he basically took me on many adventures because we had similar interests. I, of course, also had a huge crush on him and never wanted him to think what I was doing was wrong or stupid. He was always protective of me and if a boy or guy was looking at me he would stare them down or be like how dare he look at her like that; he was basically my overprotective older brother that I happened to have a crush on and he was none the wiser. In this story I didn't want to invite his disapproval and so I ended up making a complete fool of myself while at the same time ending any chance at romance with the hottest boy I had ever met.

My friend and a few of his friends took me surfing during hurricane swells. He asked if he could borrow the board he gave me for the first part of the day because he just broke his while on a Mexico surfing trip. While he and the other guys were surfing, me and his other female friend decided to go onto the pier and watch. I, of course, had the idea to jump off to add some fun to our waiting. We jumped off and quickly saw the error in that decision as we were first pulled under the pier and had to fight to not smack up against the sharp barnacles all over the pier columns. Once out of that mess without a scratch we were being pulled out to sea while wave upon wave pounded on our faces. Nothing we did whether passive or active moved us closer to shore and I was losing all my energy just trying to stay afloat. I was at the point I was about to give up when two surfers came to help. He had me grab his leg while he paddled to shore. He then got off his board because it was finally shallow enough to stand and he turned around, looked deeply into my eyes and offered his hand. We held hands and stared into each other's eyes quietly and kept sheepishly looking down. I then noticed my friend and his other friends on shore chilling out, oblivious to our plight and without a word or explanation I took off running to them. I didn't want my friend to judge me for liking that guy or go all big brother and threaten him so instead I awkwardly ran away. I was in the middle of telling them all about what happened when the other girl went over to my surfer savior. I found out after that she noticed what had happened and didn't want him to just be left alone so she thanked him and he mentioned that he had seen me previously and liked me, but didn't understand why I ran away. I eventually in life got my bearings around the opposite sex, but not for along time after that encounter.

I went back the next day to see if I could find him and I saw him from the pier surfing. He kept looking up at me and then waved, but just like anybody else would he left it at that since I had so awkwardly and clueless left him ashore the day before.

That was the best romance I never had.