I’m supposed to be good at everything, the inner Troian was wailing. I don’t like being not the best at something. But she couldn’t say this out loud, not wanting to sound petty and childish. She simply bit her lip as Keegan stopped speaking, knowing he was trying to comfort her and she swallowed her mild panic about messing up at something. It was just surfing. Letting a medic apply some cream and gauze to her hip, Troian twisted to look at it and gave a sour look to Keegan. “Sexy, right?” She shook her head and plopped down on the towel with her arms crossed over her chest. “I wanted to be the sexy surfing couple! You know, watch you ride the waves and see you all wet and have everybody be jealous of us.”

“It is pretty sexy, yeah. If it scars, it’ll be even sexier,” he said to Troian, winking at her. She already looked amazing in her bikini and now seeing her have a bandage on her hip, Keegan didn’t think any less of her. “Okay, and we’ll get there. I know we will. We’ll keep at it everyday that we’re here and you’ll be a pro in no time. I think we should stay until Wednesday, speaking of. Then we head back to LA for Thanksgiving. What do you think? Coming here for a weekend just isn’t long enough,” he said to Troian. If it weren’t for Thanksgiving, Keegan knew that he’d be trying to convince Troian to stay for at least a week, maybe more. They both loved this place and their time there always seemed so short. “We’ll have to see what else we can do here that won’t get you hurt,” he teased.

Coming back up, Troian was feeling two things - in pain, because she had cut her hip against a rock and embarrassed, because an entire beach had watched her completely flip over her board. Pushing wet strands of hair out of her eyes, Troian winced as the water washed over her open cut and gave a glare that lacked any real anger to Keegan. “Well at least I looked cool, that was humiliating,” she huffed out and shot another well aimed glare to her surfboard as thought it had been its fault. “I’m supposed to be good at surfing!” She let out a soft whine and then winced again. “Can we find a first aid kit? This is stinging like crazy.”

When Keegan realized that Troian managed to hurt herself, he felt worse about the whole thing happening. “I’m sorry,” he said, reaching out to run a hand through her hair gently. “It’s okay, it’s something that takes practice. I mean sure, some people are naturally good at it but...” He trailed off, realizing that wasn’t helping. “Yeah, of course,” he said, spotting a shack that they would be able to get a first aid kit and someone could look at Troian’s cut. Once it was cleaned out and bandaged, Keegan led her to a spot in the sand where they could just relax, laying out their towels. “No more surfing for today, let’s just soak in the sun and chill.”

With her legs straddled around the surfboard, Troian took a few seconds to take in the sight of Keegan. He was definitely a California baby, that was for sure. Just like her, he was at his most comfortable and true self in water. If she had been a mermaid in her past life, he had been the merman of her dreams. Wrinkling her nose at how cheesy this sounded and vowing to keep that tidbit to herself (Keegan would never let her live it down), Troian pulled her damp brown locks over her shoulder and nodded affirmatively. “Yep!” She gave Keegan a thumbs up and clapped her hands around her mouth to give him some wolf whistles as he successfully rode out the wave he had been seeking. “Yeaaah, go Keegs!” She cat called, smiling as she saw him jogging into the shore. Her wave was coming up and she swallowed the slight roll of nerves in her throat before getting up..and promptly wiping out.

Keegan chuckled and blushed slightly when Troian cat called him, shaking his head as he made his way back towards shore. He was standing right where the water would meet the sand and now he was ready to watch Troian take in a wave, hoping she wouldn’t have any difficulty. “Go babe!” He cheered, waiting patiently for her to ride a wave in. She started out okay and suddenly he saw her wipe out, causing him to jog into the water to make sure she was okay. “You alright?” He said once she was above water. “That was some wipe out. If it makes you feel any better, it looked cool,” he said before chuckling.

“Stupid instructor,” Troian mumbled, her lower lip jutting out into a pout but she refused to look over at Keegan. She knew that he knew which woman she was referring to and she didn’t want to see the smirk on his lips. “I don’t want one then, I trust you.” Troian had surfed before meeting Keegan, she just had never done it as much as him but the waves weren’t too rough today. She had a feeling she could manage. Stopping at the place where the surfboards were stored, Troian pulled out a bright red one and tucked it under her arm. Biting her lip, she grinned at Keegan and waved her fingers in the ‘hang ten’ sign. “Let’s go, brah,” she teased him right back and lead the way out into the water. 

Keegan chuckled and nodded when Troian decided on not having an instructor, knowing at this point they would be fine on their own. Even if Keegan knew a little more than Troian, he would be able to help her if she needed it and it would save the risk of getting an instructor that would bother them. Rolling his eyes playfully as she spoke, Keegan took his surfboard into the water and started walking with Troian, enjoying how warm the water felt once they were in it. Once they were about waist high, Keegan got onto his board and started pedaling so they were out deep enough to catch a wave. “Ready for this?” He asked Troian, wondering just how much she wanted to do or how far she wanted to go out. “I’ll take the first wave in and hope I don’t wipe out,” he teased, waiting for a wave to do just that. Keegan made it look easy, riding the wave to the shore and looked back over at Troian and smirked at her.