My Brother's Best Friend

My dear readers. It's been far too long. For that, I apologize. I have learned never to write when it just won't come. (Heh. Little pun there) What's the sense in a lackluster story? As Shawn would say: Fuck that! If the pages don't fly off my hands, then I know I'm going to hate it. And I don't want to show people something I hate. It has to be real. In the moment.

I want to thank someone who put things into perspective for me about my story. I was whinging about it. And he made me see it through the eyes of the people that read my stuff and like it and want more.

I may not always need the fun and solace of Shawn and Feline, "but your fans do". Damn. That really nailed it down for me. 5 days later, we have this. I stayed up for 2 days and completely rewrote the entire chapter, having already written 95 percent. This is honestly my personal favorite so far. So, thank you. You know who you are ;)

(ooooohhhh edgy and mysterious)

Love to you and yours. Hugs n kisses and butt grabs. LV4206

My Brother's Best Friend

(Shawn and Feline)

Part 10b

~Shawn~

There she is, my own little vampiress, giggling with her friend Jess over something they are looking at on the ground. My curiosity can only handle so much, and I get up from my camping chair by the fire and head in their direction.

"It's like a fractal." Feline murmurs, reaching out with gracefully tapered fingers to touch something I can't quite see yet.

"What's a fractal?" Jessie asks as she puts her arm around Feline's shoulders.

"Oh, a fractal is a mathematical shape that's infinitely complex. It's a pattern that repeats forever. So, regardless of how zoomed in, or zoomed out you are, it looks very similar to the whole." Feline smiles over at her friend.

She really is a geek, my girl. I appreciate that so much in her.

"I don't get it." Jess laughs, shaking her head.

"You know how we bought some of that Romanesco broccoli for our dinner tomorrow?" Feline questions, still engrossed in whatever it is her and Jess are inspecting on the forest floor.

"O ya! That is some interesting food, Cat." Jess squeezes my girl's shoulders.

"That's a fractal." Feline nods, matter of fact.

I lean against a tree behind them and listen to their chatter.

"How in the heck do you know this stuff?" Jess asks, seemingly in awe of Feline's knowledge base.

She shrugs, "I dunno. I like to read a lot."

"Ya, you do. You have a lot of books in your shelves." Jess turns and nearly screams, causing Feline to jump out of her skin.

"SHAWN!! You nearly scared us to death!" She shouts, causing several heads to swing around our direction.

I'm chuckling. Jess is shaking her head and smiling. My beautiful dark angel is grinning that grin that I know so well. I hold my arms open, and she flies into them.

"What are you two looking at?" I plant numerous kisses on her forehead as she holds me and presses her face into my chest.

"Plants. Ferns." she sighs.

"Plants?" I ask her as Jess lifts one of my arms and pulls herself in for a hug from us both.

"Feline is teaching me math. Or something." Jess mutters.

My girl just giggles.

"Hey, no stealing my girlfriend, bro." Chad comes up to us. All smiles. And I release Jessie into his capable arms.

"I dunno, she's pretty cute." I wink at my childhood friend.

Chad playfully punches me in the arm.

"Fucker." he grins. "And ya she is!" he softly kisses the top of Jess's head.

We share a laugh as Feline gazes up at me with a smirk. I lift an eyebrow, wordlessly asking her what she means by that, when Ben comes up and snaps a few pictures of us.

"You guys look great together." Ben pounds fists with Chad and I. "Dawn patrol soon." he smiles as we all swivel our gaze over to the horizon where the beautiful full moon is just beginning its descent behind the rolling hills.

"You up for it?" Chad lifts his chin over the ocean and back to me.

I take a big breath in, thinking about surfing at this moment.

"Oh fuck ya I'm in." the idea brings goose flesh all over my skin.

"Hell ya, bro." Chad and I pound fists again.

"You be ok with that, Kitty Cat? I won't leave you long." I squeeze my girl to me.

"'Kay." She rises up on tiptoe and kisses me.

Walking back to the fire, Feline's playlist is pumping out some dark drum n bass, and it's beautiful. Later, I will learn that the song is called "Mothership". And it's by these 2 artists called Ed Rush and Nico.

I throw a couple more logs on the fire and down an entire water bottle in one go, taking my seat next to my girl and my best friend, who's currently in a heavy make out session with Angie.

I feel alive. Really alive, and crazy in love. I think I fell even harder for Feline tonight. How could I not? She's incredible.

Her and Jess seem to be getting so close. It's so good to see. Chad took a liking to the tall, leggy blonde right away. She's not hard on the eyes, that's for sure. The contrast between her and Feline was like night and day. If Jess was a sun goddess then for sure my girl would be the moon empress. One tall, athletic, blonde haired and tan. And the other so petite and curvaceous, pale, and raven haired. Jess and her make a perfect ying and yang. I wonder if that's how she and I look. Or maybe that's the mushrooms talking.

There's so much laughter, and smiles and jokes going around the fire. Jess sparks another round of joints, and Chris hauls over a cooler of beer and starts handing them out.

All of us are busting a nut to get out into the soup as we watch the first hints of sunrise begin to peek over the ocean horizon.

It's going to be cold, for sure. I'm glad I brought my shorty spring suit. I hope the others brought theirs.

Our quiver of boards is standing proud in the sand, just waiting to make the drop. I start to feel myself getting antsy, that pre surf itch, except this time enhanced by psychedelics, heightening the anticipation.

I gaze over my board, a Simon Anderson DSV thruster. Pat and Feline got it for me for my birthday last year. DSV's aren't cheap. It's a beast and almost as tall as I am.

Pat's board is a Sharp Eye Inferno 72. It's a slick ass quiver if I've ever seen one. Completely black. I bet it has Feline's seal of approval. He's been sponsored by them for a while and gets a couple new rides every season.

Several of our group emerge from tents wearing wetties and start warming up. I glance over at my best friend.

And then Nathan lets out a loud howl, startling us all but, we know exactly what that means and the rest of us follow suit: throwing back our heads and welcoming the sun as it breaks over the golden rolling hills of the California landscape and lights up the ocean in bright pink and orange hues.

Dawn Patrol.

"It's fucking spitting barrels out there!" Pat grins, and I have to agree. The conditions are so perfect! No one could have asked for better.

Standing on the beach, holding Feline's delicate little hand and my board, I'm suited up and more than ready.

The sun is incredible. Feline's giant straw sunhat casts a cool shadow across my legs as she tilts her head towards me for a kiss.

"You're so sexy." she whispers against my lips. "Be careful, ok?"

Her adorable expression of concern is heart-wrenching.

"I got this." I nod down at her. But do I? Do I have this? I am still very much feeling the rise and fall of mushrooms racing through my body and across my vision in small patterns over my girl's pale skin and dark pink lips. It's beautiful.

She purses her lips and nods back.

"I know you do. You've done this thousands of times. It's muscle memory now, right?" she asks.

She's totally right. I can trust my body. It knows what to do. Her simple words are so poignant that I almost feel like I've discovered electricity. A eureka moment, a moment that dissolves all fear in an instant.

I push my board at Pat as I take Feline in my arms and lift her into a bear hug.

"Fuck, you're the best! You know that?" I whisper in her ear. Planting a soft kiss at her temple, I place her on the ground.

She's giggling and blushing adorably.

"For what?" she asks innocently.

"You don't know what you just gave me." I smile, excitement like pin pricks all over my skin.

~Feline~

Shawn turns to my brother and grasps his board. Together they pound fists, he blows me a kiss, and then he's running with the others to paddle out to the area of surf known as the line-up. And I'm left wondering what I just gave my lover.

"Boys..." Jess sighs after Chad as she watches him jog down to the ocean.

"Ya." I whisper. "Beautiful boys."

Jess laughs, and we are joined by the rest of the girls.

"I'm going to be that good one day." Angie states as she takes my left hand, Jess already holding my right.

"I know you are." I tell her. "Absolutely."

Pat's been teaching Angie for a few weeks now. He told me that he hasn't seen someone pick up surfing so fast before, especially a girl. She's a natural. Only her inexperience has her rooted to the beach with the rest of us. Pat doesn't want her to get hurt.

We stroll down to the ocean, intent on watching a bunch of crazy motherfuckers high off their asses attempt to ride these waves. I'll admit. I'm a bit scared for Shawn, Pat, and the others. But I wasn't about to put any doubt in their minds. No way!

In an hour I'll probably be too hot to wear my bat onsie, but for now I take a seat on the cooler Jess's sisters hauled down with us.

I watch the guys in their element. High-fiving each other, paddling about. Getting their sea legs, as it were. I smile at that last thought.

We're all silent, waiting to see who's going to head out first. Pat would call this a lull. The long silent moment between waves breaking, the moment before you paddled like hell out to where it's jacking, out past the impact zone.

The waves were heavy. They seemed larger than life. I know it's the mushrooms, but I can feel my heartbeat kick up a notch as I glance from them to the guys and back again. I gulp audibly. Jess puts an arm around me and rubs my back.

~Shawn~

We paddle out, duck diving under the breaking waves. The sky is lit up in colors like sherbet. Bright oranges, reds, pinks, and yellows, dazzling our senses.

We're all in the line-up, bobbing up and down, giving each other kudos just for being out here as fucked up as we all were. We're waiting for who knows what. I glance around at my friends. The men I grew up with, I can picture their young faces when we were kids, and chuckle to myself. The grins my brothers wear are childlike and fiendish. I shake my head and concentrate on the surf ahead of me.

Conditions for surfing require one to really understand the ocean. Surfers read the waves. Every day is different. Every wave is different.

There's really only 4 things that decide the quality and general shape of a wave. The swell, the wind, the tides, and the contours and shape of the ocean floor. This is known as the bathymetry.

The larger the distance between waves, also known as the interval or period, is measured in seconds. Anything below 8 seconds is abysmal. The best conditions lay anywhere over 10. Intervals over 15 seconds is the promised land. The jackpot. The pièce de résistance. Legendary waves.

Wind is what's going to effect the texture of the water. Wind that is light, blowing offshore into the waves from the beach, is what's desired, not the opposite.

Tides influence the depth of the water at the surf spot. As they change, the waves are going to break in a different place depending on the contours of the sea floor. Some places will only have good waves at specific spots and specific tides, while others will have good waves at any point during the tides. This area is one of the latter.

The bathymetry of the sea floor is probably the most important part of understanding where and when to surf, as this is what gives the waves their shape. It decides the power and shape of the wave above. Sea floors with a steep angle guarantee a powerful wave, that is characterized by a tubular shape. A flatter slope to the sea floor makes for softer waves, with more sloping and breaking in deeper water.

As surfers, we want the swell line to run along the edge of a sandbank, hitting the shallow water at an angle. This is what is going to make the wave peel. Most likely named that as it looks like the curl of an orange when you peel the skin back.

A wave that arrives parallel to shallow water is called a close out. These are impossible to surf as there is nowhere to go.

This place has met and exceeded the four conditions needed for good surfing. It's a magical spot, to be sure. I don't know how Ben found it. And it seems to be a place few know about. Conditions like this would have every surfer from miles around staking claim. What a hidden gem!

As I'm watching the waves, reading the swells, I begin to count the seconds of the intervals between them.

12, 13, 14, 15, 16...

"Fuck it." I mutter. "I'm going in." I heft onto my board and paddle out, making for the pocket, just ahead of where the waves break, towards the face.

Pat laughs. "Feeling brave?" he directs over to Chad.

"Fuckin' A right." he mutters and moves close to Pat, bumping Nate's board with his on his way past.

"Watch it, Dickdragger." Nate chides.

"Hey, not my fault you're a kook." Chad laughs.

"A fuckin' kook, ya? I'll show you kook!" Nate throws back at Chad and starts a paddle battle out past the whitewater.

The wind is whipping offshore, perfect for clean wave faces, and I'm already about to pop up and drop in on my first wave!

I remember Feline's words. "It's all muscle memory now, right?" and feel my body twisting before I even had the thought to do so.

I pull in to the heavy wave and am immediately transported into greenroom. The juxtaposition of the swell and now being in the barrel almost has me grubbing before I catch myself and commit to this giant beast of a wave.

When you're surfing, you don't have time to think on the best days. Never mind being encumbered by a psychedelic substance. I feel like I've never before been able to really appreciate the waves that I ride until now. It's like time has slowed to a stand still, and I'm looking all around me at once, in a hollow of beautiful water that should be green but instead was lit up in purple, red and oranges. The color of sunrises. It's absolutely beautiful, and profound in a way that I hadn't anticipated. Awe-inspiring.

I'm fast approaching the lip. And this barrel wants to lock me in like no one's business. I reach out and touch the glassy surface of the inside of the barrel and laugh. Goddamn, this is incredible!

It's a race now, who is going to win, this wave or I, and I really have no intention of wiping out.

Suddenly, I am spat out over the lip, I thought I ran out of time, but my body reacts for me. I kick out, going over the back of the wave and sailing through the air, my board now behind me. I feel the tug of the leash on my ankle and perform a perfect swan dive into the water.

Surfacing, I let out a triumphant yell. All my friends paddle over to me and offer kudos.

"THAT WAS A FUCKING RIDE!" Ben shouts, pounding fists with me.

"Off the hook!" Pat pounds me on the back, his eyes crinkling at the edges with his wide smile. "What the fuck even was that dude?"

"That, my dear Patrick, was a perfect tube ride." I sigh, looking over my shoulder at the curling waves.

"Jesus man! We were all wondering if you were gonna make it. From our vantage point, you were locked in." Chad shouts as Nate, Nic and Chris nod in unison.

"Fuck that!" I laugh, straddling my board as waves curl up and under us, trying in vain to push us closer to shore.

"Fucking green room on the first drop." Jon smiles at me, his dark brown eyes so familiar. He's always smiling, that one.

Benny threw up his hands and went and got his camera gear.

"This shit is legendary. I need to record it for posterity." he announces on his return, giant cameras in expensive waterproof housing attached to his torso. A go pro attached to a helmet, he hastily ensures is buckled on, tight.

From then on, it's an all out heat. Which one of us could oust the one on top?

We chase each other down the line-up, the eight of us. Maybe it's our heightened senses, but we are all in excellent form today. And Ben was right, the double ups were abundant.

I watch my boyhood companions perform some absolutely stellar maneuvers:

Pat did a double front flip, and then a rodeo flip! Fucker is better than I am now! The pupil becomes the master.

Jon performs a turtle roll and then a frontside wraparound! Chris is a big fan of the frontside snap and he's an expert in them. Nate expertly performs several 360s. Nic, not to be outdone by his brother, performs a series of rapid fin releases in quick succession. Chad performs a switch stance front flip like a damn master, followed by several kickflips.

And there's Ben recording everything and being completely happy with that. We were having the time of our lives.

The sun is starting to get pretty high, I've repeated my first drop in two more times for Ben's camera, each better than the one preceding it. Exuberant joy. A pure, absolute gnarly surf session! Greenroom like I swear I've never experienced. I decide this will be my last drop. I miss my baby and want to make sure she's ok.

I'm in the line-up, and I'm up next.

I'm reading the waves, hoping for one last good one before I head back to beach. And then I see the beginning of something so promising that I'm paddling my ass off to get ahead of it!

I manage to get into the wave, and on popping up, I start to see the wall of the wave start to bend. I'm trying my best to time my position so that I will be in the deepest part of the wave the whole way, known as the pit. Ben is trying to keep pace with me and failing. I hope I have given him enough room and time to catch this all on footage.

I'm freight training as fast as I can possibly go, just to get into the barrel! I'm getting onto my toe edge, trying to drive my board into the face of this wave as hard as I can. Literally digging my toes into the wax I had applied earlier.

Everything is happening way, way faster because of the energy, speed, and the size of the wave. Everything is compounded. It's then that I am struck with the realization that I am riding the largest wave I may have ever ridden in my life. The swell is at least fifty feet at its frothy peak. I don't allow fear to ruin this. I am king of the fucking ocean. Poseidon ain't got nothing on me!

I can hear Ben hooting:

"GET IT SHAWN!"

And I am! I am pitted, beyond pitted! I'm riding in the center of this wave, and Ben is getting all of this wicked footage. Footage I'm going to show my kids one day. Legendary!

The way time slows down when you are in the barrel of a wave is nothing short of magical. Most rides only last 10 seconds or so. Yet I feel I've been coasting in the barrel, just inside the shoulders, for an eternity. The wave is so huge, my ride is going well past 20 seconds.

I can make out small fish, seaweed, and other ocean debris. I lay my hand flat against the smooth curl of the inside of the barrel and felt like I was touching glass. I slice into it with my fingers and laugh in pure joy!

All good things must come to an end. And I want to end this ride with something epic, something I've never tried on such a large piece of ocean. Approaching the lip, the wave spits me out in an incredible spray. It's now or never.

I perform a kick flip, and after landing it, I decide on a 540! I'm spinning through the air and I actually manage to land on my board for an instant before I skid off, back flipping over the peak of this giant swell as it crashes into the whitewater, narrowly missing me.