April 27th

Prologue-ish

Prologue-ish

Many things brought people to ramson beach every year. Breakups, grief, rehabilitation or just the plain old need to relax and let loose. For April O'Brien, she'd come to face a battle.

It wasn't the typical hunt-and-kill kind of battle, it was far from that, actually. The thing is when you're April, you never really stop fighting: with yourself over what you should or shouldn't feel, with your father over what you'd rather do with your life or with everything in general.

At this point, it was almost like nothing would change.

The waves of the ocean crashed against each other, sending white foam racing to the shore like it was being chased. It was quite the sight, especially if you're the kind to make up scenarios in your head. The air was mixed with the smell of salt from the sea and the sunlight made the gold-brown sand sparkle like tiny shiny jewels, distracting everyone from thinking about their problems and just laying focus on their environment instead.

Eighteen year old April and her stepsister, Paige were watching their environment in awe, like everyone, except their lines of sight were more directed on a group of under-thirty males playing volleyball.

"That guy looks just like Shawn freakin' Mendes, I bet all the fish in the sea!" Paige gasped, looking through the pair of  binoculars perched on her nose. Obnoxious? She and April liked to think not, as they'd been passing the goggles back and forth for the last hour. "Okay, maybe not all the fish," she corrected, "but this is a really close semblance."

"Where?" April turned from her bay watch, straining her eyes to follow Paige's line of sight to yet another group of youthful eye candy. "The one in blue or the shirtless one?"

Paige scoffed incredulously. "Shirtless one, dumbass. That one in blue looks like Barney Stinson if he suddenly had brown hair."

April flipped her off and redirected her eyes. It was true, though. Paige had said the right thing for once in her life. "Okay, oh my gosh!"

"I know right?" The blonde squealed. "What do you think his name is?"

April rolled her eyes. "Check his name tag."

"He has a name tag?!" Paige lifted the binoculars back to her eyes. "I can't see it."

"That's because he's not wearing one! How would you expect me to know his name?"

"Go ask him. You're hot."

April smirked at the compliment. "Yeah, but you're blonde. You ask him."

Amanda, their third party-and the unfortunate audience to this shenanigans - scrunched her nose at the both of them. "Are you guys actually kidding me?" She propped herself up to lean on her elbows. "We're here to relax and enjoy ourselves, not watch boys."

"Technically, watching boys can be described both relaxing and enjoying ourselves," Paige objected, as a flock of seagulls landed a few feet away from them.

"You promised you'd behave," Amanda said, waving to discard the trash eating birds. "Sunbathing was the first thing on our vacation itinerary, not comparing guys to celebrities."

April rolled her eyes and leaned over to grab Paige's binoculars. Amanda always had to be such a buzzkill. "We're not even on vacation, if you ask me. What I'm doing is called making the best of our awful situation."

"What makes it awful?" Amanda asked with a thin smile. "The fact that we're here for free or that we have no obligations whatsoever."

"I get that we're lucky and everything," Paige shrugged, agreeing with her. "But we're still not here on our own."