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wetsuits.
    “I promise. Actually, I’d better use your toilet before I get into it.”
    I came out carrying the cold wetsuit over one arm, and saw that Zeke had changed his mind about the old longboard and put a shortboard on the pavement instead.
    He was busy wriggling into his own wetsuit and I saw his baggies crumpled on the pavement, so he was obviously old school and went naked underneath. I quite often did that too. There’s nothing worse than a bikini getting jammed in some unspeakable place underneath a wetsuit and you not being able to move it. I grabbed a beach towel from the van and began the undignified process of squeezing myself into the suit while trying not to flash any passers-by; not an easy task.
    Eventually the suit was over my legs and I was grabbing the neoprene on my hips and tugging it up, while holding on to the towel with my chin and jumping down deeper into the suit. Zeke was trying not to watch this, but I could tell he was amused.
    “Need a hand?” he said.
    I forced my arms into the damp fabric, dropped the towel and turned my back to him. “Yeah. Thank you.”
    He grabbed the zip and I could feel his fingers on my back, giving me goosebumps. He zipped me up slowly so as not to catch any skin and I turned back around to do the same for him, when I noticed a jagged scar running between his shoulder blades up to his neck.
    “What’s with the Jaws scar?” I said.
    “Coral reef tattoo.”
    I zipped him up and was going to ask him more when a car with some crazy heavy-metal tune pumping came tearing down the road. As the car slowed behind me, I realized the track was “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine, and then I saw the blue VW Beetle with a black shark painted on the hood. Daniel. Next to him was his new girlfriend.

Chapter Three
    “Yo, Iris!” Daniel shouted, waving. He dropped his hand and looked at Zeke.
    I walked over to the car, and he turned down the volume of his stereo for the last part of the track, the main sentiment of which was probably his personal anthem.
    “All right, Daniel,” I said, my heart sinking down to the pit of my stomach at the sight of my ex-friend Cass sitting there, all straightened blond hair and red lipstick. Daniel was wearing the gray Vans cap I had bought him on our trip to Bude. Back when he had promised me we’d be together forever.
    “We’re gonna park up and watch the sun go down. It’s supposed to be amazing tonight.” As Daniel said this, he looked slightly apologetic. Cass smirked. Watching the sun go down. Yeah, right. And the rest.
    I turned to Zeke, who looked up and gave me a big smile.
    “Who’s the new kid?”
    “Hardly a kid. He’s a year older than you, Daniel. And taller.”
    “Skinnier though.”
    “More like fitter.”
    Daniel was muscly, not fat, but he had that thick, bull-necked build. He was five foot nine to Zeke’s six foot one. Like most surfers, Daniel was constantly eating, or drinking protein shakes. You could pretty much eat what you wanted when you surfed.
    “New boyfriend?” Cass said, nodding toward Zeke. I ignored her, something I intended to do for the rest of my life.
    I looked at Daniel. “No.”
    “Who is he, then?” Cass asked.
    I spoke to Daniel again.
    “I just met him and we’re going surfing. He’s not my boyfriend.”
    “No wonder,” said Cass. “Premier league, that one. Would you look at the shoulders on him. Good arms too, perfect V torso, fab butt.” Zeke turned toward us. “ Amazing eyes.” Jesus, Cass was annoying. She was worse than boys for perving. I honestly didn’t know how Daniel could stand her.
    Daniel was still eyeballing Zeke with a grim look on his face—not that he had the right to say anything about who I spent time with. Not anymore.
    “I know that dude,” Daniel said.
    “No, you don’t.”
    “Not know him , know him. I mean I, like, recognize him.”
    “So who is he?”
    “Dunno. But I seen him somewhere. I don’t forget