Here Comes Your Man

Shaun stood in front of his bed, where all his clothes that were previously packed nicely in his suitcase were now laying in a large pile. Admittedly feeling like a girl, he sighed.

He had no idea what to wear.

He was going to take Pyper up on her offer of teaching him how to surf. Despite her weirdness towards the end of the dinner, he decided that he would just brush it off and blame it on something that she had eaten. He was too interested in this girl to just give her up on a sudden mood swing and come on, wasn’t that what girls were known for? He would try again today and if she truly didn’t want to hang with him, he promised himself, for his and her sake, that he would stop trying.

A knock came from the door and Shaun looked to see Dane poking his around the corner.

“Hey dude, me & Louie are gonna hit up the skate park, wanna come?”

“Nah man, I’m cool”

Dane gave him a questioning look. “You have other plans?”

“Uh, yeah, Pyper’s going to give me surfing lessons. I was going to head over as soon as I find my board shorts” He admitted as he nodded towards the pile.

“Oh man, don’t wear board shorts.” Dane said, a look of disgust on his face “I’ll get you one of my surfing suits”

He was running down the hall before Shaun could protest and returned with a pair of shorts in his hand. Shaun eyed them suspiciously as he lifted them up to his waist.

“Oh, hell no man” Shaun said, throwing them back at Dane.

“Dude, come on. They’re not that bad! Their called ‘aqua shorts’, crazy popular over in Australia” Dane said in earnest as he threw the ‘shorter than appropriate’ shorts back at Shaun. “I wear them all the time! And they are a lot easier to surf in then board shorts, I’ll tell ya that”

Shaun still looked skeptical. These shorts were about half the length of his board shorts and showed pretty much all of his ‘manliness’, which was a great sight to be seen of course, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to give everyone that opportunity. “And other people where them too?”

“Oh yeah, you’ll see a lot of guys wearing them. Board shorts are on their way out”

“Fine” Shaun said, not wanting to seem like more of a newbie then necessary.

“Cool. Ok well we’ll see you later, have fun!” Dane said as he walked out the door, leaving Shaun wondering what the hell he was about to do.

15 minutes later and Shaun was standing outside the surf shop where Pyper worked. He was feeling more insecure than ever. He didn’t want to accuse Dane of lying, but as Shaun was walking down the beach to get here, he had gotten too many strange looks and chuckles directed his way for these to be considered normal.

He shrugged. It was too late to do anything about it now, so he might as well go through with it. He opened the door to the store and the wind chimes alerted them of his presence. He scanned the store and couldn’t see anyone but heard a male voice call out from the back
“Be out in a minute!”

Shaun took this chance to look around the store. It was small, but undoubtedly cool. Surfing posters and pictures of pro surfers that have been there lined the walls. Shaun noticed that Pyper seemed to be in a lot of them and he couldn’t help but smile. She was so cool.

He heard a door open a saw a blonde haired man emerge. ‘Sorry about that, how may I help…what the hell are you wearing kid?” Russell laughed as he got a good look at Shaun.

“Um, a surfing suit?” Shaun replied unsurely.

“Of all the crazy things I’ve heard in my life…” He mumbled “A surfing suit?! Your junk will be flying out of that thing every time you hit the water! Pyper, come get a look at this kid!” He exclaimed.

Shaun’s eyes got big and he was about to turn and run straight back to California, when Pyper emerged through the back door, looking as good as ever.

“Yeah Russ?” She questioned before she spotted Shaun. When she did, her eyes immediately fell to his red face, then to his junk, and quickly back to Russell, who chuckled at Pyper’s oreo-sized eyes.

“It’s ok Pyper, I looked too” He laughed, trying to ease the tension but just multiplying it tenfold. Shaun might even have felt a little cocky had he not be so mortified.

Pyper’s cheeks burned as she tried to compose herself and turned back to Shaun, making sure to only look at his face this time.

“Did Dane give you those?” She asked.

Shaun nodded slowly.

“You one of Dane’s friends?” Russell interrupted, to which Shaun nodded again. Russell shook his head and laughed. “Shoulda known; he always wears those stupid things and tries to make them the next big trend, claiming that they’re ‘big in the Australian surfing scene’. Gotta give it to him though, he’s got some balls. But it’s obvious by the swim suit, that you do too” He cracked up at his own joke as Pyper shot him a sharp look. “Fine, I’m going, I’m going” He said as he put his hands up in surrender and walked back to the back room, still laughing on the way.

Shaun just wanted to die and by the looks of it, Pyper felt the same. This was definitely not the smooth, charismatic way he had planned to make his entrance.

Before he had the chance to say anything, Pyper turned to the rack of Volcom board shorts and grabbed a pair that she thought to be Shaun’s size. She had gotten pretty good at guessing people’s sizes over the years and since she had gotten an even closer look than usual at Shaun, she was pretty sure she had this one in the bag.

“Here, put these on. Fitting rooms to your left” She said as she handed him the hanger.

He simply nodded and took her orders. He came out 2 minutes later, dressed much more appropriately and feeling a little more at ease. He found Pyper re-stocking the flip-flops.

“Hey” He said, alerting her of his presence. She turned around to face him. “Thanks for these, I’m going to kill Dane when I see him”

Pyper laughed, “It’s all good. You’re not the first he’s tried to pull this on, though you are the first to actually wear them” She smiled as his cheeks flushed. “What were you here for anyways?”

“Oh, well, uh” Shaun stammered, the embarrassment coming back “I was just wondering if the offer for the surfing lessons was still good?”

“Oh” Pyper exclaimed. Though she hadn't necessarily forgotten about the offer, she hadn’t really planned on it either. But as she looked around the store and couldn’t come up with a good excuse not to, she gave in “Sure, let’s go”

Shaun smiled. Maybe this day would be getting better after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ugh!” Shaun let out a frustrated groan as he resurfaced from the water for what seemed like the millionth time in the past hour. Pyper let out a little giggle from where she was sitting, perfectly balanced, on her board a few feet away from him.

“Oh, you shut up” Shaun grumbled, just making her laugh more as he tried to climb onto his board, looking like an unhappy wet cat. “Maybe I just need to stick to land”

“Now that’s not the attitude of a two time Olympic gold medalist, now is it?” Pyper teased, though she was somewhat serious.

Shaun just smiled. ‘So she does know who I am’ He thought.

He wasn’t really surprised, most people did, but this was the first time that it had been brought up between the two of them and he didn’t really know how to respond. Would it be a pro or a con in her eyes? Would it affect how she treated him now that it was out in the open? Shaun wasn’t trying to sound conceited, it was just a fact these days. He decided to play it casual.

“First off, I’m at least strapped to the board in snowboarding, not this leash around your ankle shit” He joked, “And secondly, there aren’t man-eating monsters behind the half-pipe wall waiting to eat me”

“Ohhh" Pyper said in mock sympathy “Is that what this poor performance is about? The sharks? I wouldn’t worry about them if I were you; there are a lot more likely ways to die out here, like rip currents or drowning, or, especially in your case, death by embarrassment”

Shaun used his foot to splash water at her, but then lost his balance and fell of the board again.

“I HAVE GOT to stop doing that!”

Pyper tried her best to suppress her giggle but he was just too cute.

Wait, what? She thought, surprised by her own self-conscious and immediately started to put up a fight with it. He’s not that cute, it’s just funny that he fell off the board. I would laugh if any one did that…

“Ok well, will you just give it one more go? Then we’ll stop, I promise” She asked, really hoping that he would. This was something she loved and she had no doubt Shaun would love it to…once he got the hang of it.

Shaun looked at the girl in front of him and knew that he didn’t stand a chance.

“Sure”

“Yay!” She laughed and threw her hands up, the momentum causing her to fall off of her board. When she resurfaced Shaun was practically crying from laughing so hard.

“Oh man, that was totally worth my future humiliation” He said, trying to catch his breath. Pyper’s cheeks burned red but she couldn’t help but laugh with him.
Once she got back on her board, she looked back at him.

“Ready?”

He winced.

“How about you show me how it’s done and I’ll watch intently from here, so, you know, I can really get a good example” He said, trying the classic technique of getting your teacher to show you how it’s done so you can A) waste time until class is out and B)rest for a moment. Plus, he would not mind the view.

Pyper laughed. “Even though I see right through your scheme, I’ll oblige anyways, because I really want to catch that wave” She admitted as she pointed to what could very well be the perfect wave rising in the distance.

Before Shaun could reply, she started paddling out to get into position. As the wave got closer she braced for it and jumped onto her board right as it was starting to peak. She got pulled into the current and started to cut into it perfectly as Shaun just sat and watched her in awe.

She rode the wave out its duration and when she was done she paddled back out towards him.

“That was awesome!” He praised as soon as she was within hearing distance. “I mean, you were amazing! Like one second you were just chillin there and BAM you’re flying through the wave!”

Pyper laughed. “Why thank you, you were a great audience”

“Ok so what am I supposed to do again?” Shaun asked energetically, a newfound enthusiasm in his voice causing Pyper to smile.

“Ok, first you’re gonna…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I can’t believe I did it!” Shaun exclaimed as they walked onto the sand “You’re the best teacher ever!” He wrapped his arms around her in a hug, surprising both of them, and he quickly released her.

Pyper smiled “Well you were a great student. I can’t believe we were out there all day” She said as she watched the sky start to change colors as the sun slowly set.
Shaun looked at the now closed surf shop, a feeling of guilt building in his stomach.

“You won’t get in trouble for being out all day, will you?”

Pyper thought for a second. To be honest, she had never stayed out all day with a ‘student’ , so this was new territory for her. Though she was sure Russell wouldn’t care. “I’m not sure really” She admitted “I’ve never done this”

This gave Shaun a little glimpse of hope; a glimpse that he was going to take advantage of.

“So if you’re done, would you wanna go out to eat or something? I definitely owe you” He said, trying to make it sound more casual.

Pyper paused, causing Shaun’s innards to squirm.

“Sure”

Shaun let out the breath that he hadn’t known he was holding and smiled at Pyper, a smile that she returned.
Maybe he actually did have a shot…