Chasing Forever Down (Great White Surf Saga, #1) [Wattpad Featured Story] | ✔

Chapter 6: Strickland's Boating

"Colby Taylor doesn't get out much," Emily says. "When he does, we just pretend not to notice him."

I wonder how often that is. Does he stroll down The Strip like a local? Do the tourists stare and take pictures and chase him down for autographs? Even if he wasn't a local celebrity, I don't know how people could pretend not to notice him. He has an aura about him that shines brighter than the California sun.

 "And all the outsiders ask about him," Emily continues. "Doesn't matter if they're from a town over or the east coast. Anyone who doesn't live in the cove asks about Colby Taylor. And you can guess what the locals do."

"Laugh," Linzi says, slinging her hair over her shoulder. "They freaking laugh and make us look like idiots."

She folds her arms over her chest and shakes her head.

Emily laughs, and her drawn-on heart scrunches up in the corner of her eye.

"Think of it this way," Emily says, leaning against a small table behind her. She bumps into a stack of booklets and reorganizes them as she speaks. "Colby Taylor is the like hottest night club around, minus the strippers and STDs. Obviously everyone wants to get in, but you can't get in the door because of..."

Linzi and I stand silently, watching the words Sebastian's Shadow twist back and forth as Emily moves. She looks back at us, waiting for us to finish her sentence.

"The bouncers," Emily says, like people compare surfers to night clubs in conversation all the time. "He has four of them, and no one has ever gotten through. A few have tried, but all have failed."

She picks up one of her Enchanters. His head and arms are white and red striped, and he's dressed in all black, like a ninja. She smiles at him and continues talking, more to the doll than us.

 "The first two aren't so bad, the nice guy and the player," she says. "But no one has ever made it past the party boy. He's a little crazy anyway."

Linzi looks around the booth and leans against the wooden railing.

"What about the fourth one?" she asks

"Jerkoff mechanic," Emily says. "You'll never make it to him, but be glad. Even Colby Taylor isn't worth having to deal with that guy. At least that's what I've heard. I've never had the pleasure of dealing with him myself."

She may be from the cove, but there's a lot she doesn't know. She doesn't know how Colby talks about his forever and looks at the stars and rocks out to cover bands. She only knows the west coast surfer side of him. I'll deal with the jerkoff mechanic. It'll be worth it.

But even with this new information, I feel like we haven't moved forward since we left Night Owl.

"Okay, so these four guys," I say to Emily. "Where do we find them?"

Emily places her ninja-dressed doll back onto her table. She stares at him momentarily, like she's having a great debate in her own mind as to whether she's doing the right thing by letting me in on the Crescent Cove secret and she's hoping he'll give her a sign to let her know it's okay.

"Strickland's Boating," she says, finally looking up and past me. The red sunset bounces off her brown eyes in a starved vampire kind of way. "Ask for Reed. No, don't. He'll be working. It's two shops down."

Linzi inhales a squeak of excitement, and I grab her arm to keep her from running down to The Strip until she finds this Reed guy.

"Hold on," I say. I pull her away, hoping Emily won't hear. "Look, if what's she's saying is legit, I'm doing the talking. Your approach hasn't worked so far, and we cannot blow this."