The waves licked her feet. Adult voices faded into the background as the girl drank in the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, and the seagulls cawing for the last time. Tears ran down her chubby cheeks, her blonde curls clung to her face.
"Sally?" She turned to look at James her very best friend. "Are you crying?"
Sally swiped the tears from her eyes. "No! Only babies cry!"
James' chocolate eyes darkened. "Oh. Okay..."
The corners of her lips turned up, a mischievous glint lite her eyes as she flung her arms around his neck. But he kept his hands behind his back. Sally's brows furrowed as she dropped her arms and stepped back. "I'm sorry James please don't be mad at me."
A giggle bubbled out of him. "I'm not mad! I have a present for you!" He brought a white conch shell from behind his back. It seemed to swallow up his hands. The shell was smooth until you reached the bumpy back. At one end it spiraled toward, the center jutting out a little. "They say you can hear the ocean if you press it to your ear." He rubbed his foot in the sand. "I thought that way you can always remember the ocean... and me," his voice trailed off at the end, and pink creeped to his cheeks.
Warmth spread through Sally's body, this was the nicest present anyone in her whole seven years of life has ever given her. She placed her hands on his cheeks. "Thank you." Butterflies knocked against her stomach. Sally pressed her lips against his. It tasted salty like the ocean. The shell fell from James' hands and landed on her toes. Sally jerked away. The moment broken. "Ow! " she scowled at him.
His eyes widened. "Sorry!" He stuttered.
A laugh burst out of her and he stood there in a daze as she bent down and picked up the shell. She brushed off the sand and pressed the shell against her ear. Her eyes fluttered close. Straining her ears she could faintly her a similar echo coming from the shell as the body of water behind her. In a few moment she knew she'd have to leave this place. A new tear leaked out of the corner of her eye. James wiped it away with his thumb and a breath flowed from her. Sorrow ate at her belly.
"I love you," she whispered.
They stared at each other, silence clung to the air. The wind howled, and grains of sand stuck to their clothes and hair.
"Sally! James!" Sally's mother called from a top of the hill. "Time to go!"
She stepped forward to walk up the hill pausing only for a moment. Hoping. James ' hand darted out to grasp hers. Hand in hand they walked up the hill, Sally holding her shell close.
"I love you too. " he said breaking their silence. She squeezed his hand in response.
