Noah and Zoe were always together since they were 4. They would go stargazing and to all the county fairs with each other. But what they loved to do the most was paddle board out in the Pacific Ocean. They had even found a little cove just for them, to their best knowledge no one else knew about it.
One cloudy day after Zoe had just turned 14, they went there together.
Zoe tugged her board and paddle out of the sand where she had left it the day before. “Race you!” she yelled to Noah who was still in the treeline. “Hurry up, or you’ll lose again!”
“Okay, I’m here,” Noah chimed as he stumbled onto the sand with his board and paddle propped over his head. “Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” Zoe whispered deviously in reply.
They raced across the beach, the sand was silk beneath Zoe’s feet. The two of them crashed into the water at nearly the same time. Then they both hopped onto their boards and started to paddle.
“I won,” Noah remarked.
“Ha, in your dreams,” Zoe snapped back.
“Nah it’s true, Riptide,” he laid down on his board.
“Why do you call me that?”
“Because you rip through the tides on that board of yours,” he joked sarcastically.
“Sure,” she groaned. Zoe fell back on her board just as Noah had. “What if we got a bunch of boards, tied them together and lived out here? I mean, it’s just so peaceful.”
“You’d miss the beach too much,” Noah scoffed as it started to sprinkle. “The rain does sound quite pretty though.”
“I could stay here forever,”  Zoe moaned as she listened to the pitter-patter of the rain.
They stayed on their boards with their eyes closed, listening to the sound of the water, slowly drifting, away from the shore, as the rain steadily got harder.
The waves were crashing but they didn’t care, they were unknowingly drifting off. The storm was getting worse, but with their arrogance they ignored it.
The rain started was pouring down now and the waves knocked Noah off his board. He swam up to the surface and looked for the shore but it wasn’t to be found.
“Zoe we need to get back!” Noah shouted over the thundering and splashes of waves.
“I know, but where are you! I can’t see through the rain!” Zoe yelled back.
“I’ll find you!”
“Aaaah!” Zoe cried as a tremendous wave swept her off her board and the rain fell even harder.
Noah held tight to his board, “Zoe! Zoe!” he called out. Tears streamed down his face as he knew his best friend was gone.
Zoe had tried fighting against the treacherous waves, but she quickly got sucked under and couldn’t fight anymore. Noah will come and save me, Zoe thought, he’ll save me. She watched as her last breath escaped her mouth to the surface.
Because of her drowning, people found out about Noah's and her secret cove. Her body was never found, but she has been there hiding at the bottom of the ocean for thousands of years, and whenever a little kid would go near her she would become furious and pull them down with her. She was mad at them for having fun while she was forced to watch, and she was mad at Noah for not trying to save her. She never forgave him.
Every year until his death Noah would go out to where she had drowned to tell her what he had been doing, and every year he told her that he was sorry for telling people about their special cove. But, he could never bring himself to call her by her name, so he called her Riptide.