Undertow

Chapter 1:

The salty brine of the mid-atlantic coast stung my eyes as I stepped into a new perspective.  The gull swirled and danced above the oceans waves as the smell of fish and bird shit sank into my nostrils. Of course if you were to ask my financially stable parents they would say this is a perfect spot for a vacation rental and that I should be grateful that I dont live on squalor.  But to be honest. Living in squalor wasnt bad as people made it seem to be. As an recent adoptee onto this family of wealth who was I to complain? Anyone else would piss themselves at the chance to live the life I live but when both your parents adopted you from foster care as a charity case, you begin to question their motives as decent human beings.

After my birth parents suffered a tragic loss of their home they were forced to make the decision to give me up for a better life. I know my story sounds like the classoc cliche sob story but i can assure you its anything but a ruse to get you to feel sorry for me. I had enough misery on my own to try to make other people feel bad for me.

My name is Alovar, my pronouns are he/him and identify as a demi-heteromantic asexual. That info isn't really important but according to political customs ts always good to give yourself a title to make yourself appear important, but as i digress thats not what the story is about.  The real story takes place just beyond the scope of my elusive memories of how I simultaneously lived and died at the same time, and this is how it went.......

The salty brine of the mid-atlantic coast stung my eyes as I stepped into a new perspective.  The gull swirled and danced above the oceans waves as the smell of fish and bird shit sank into my nostrils what more can I say? The humidity mixed with the salty air made me nauseous, if you've ever been To the seafood section at the store and you smell the mixture of raw, deceased sea life that has been sitting on ice for 12 to 14 hours you know exactly what I am talking about,  and if you don't  well be lucky that you don't have to.
The squelching sound mixed with the feeling of sweat forming on the soles of my feet as I moved my toes in my sandals almost made it unbearable to stand both literally and figuratively.  Our family had been planning this vacation for weeks s and once the pandemic hit, instead of helping ither families get the essentials we skipped town like a bunch if vagabonds.  The whole thing really shot down my morale of what the best interest was for the common people.  As my eyes adjusted to the sudden shift in brightness i took a look around to see that our limo driver was waiting to ferry us across the deserted lands.

We loaded the luggage into our vehicle and  i got situated sitting in the back facing my parebts with gut wrenching disgust. Their vibes that they gave  off made me both angry and sad. My father....a well dressed man with a partially shaved head and a goatee that didnt seem to match his facial structure sat with a disposition on his smartphone glancing up at me every so often.

My mother was a slender middle aged woman that looked like she was in her 30s, gaunt woman with way too much botox in her face and breasts, was paler than a vampire with a slight sneer strung across her face. She would look at me then rest her head on my dads shoulder that would grumble something and shift his weight slightly to indicate that he wasnt to be triffled with.

"Can we stop at McDonald's?" I asked hopefully trying to get a reaction from the..

"You're mother and I were invited to a gathering this evening so it wouldn't be best to mingle with unsavory folk" my dad said without even glancing up.

"So what should I wear then?" I asked swirching the topic before I got into over my head.

"I said your mother and I. You won't be attending " he said giving a slight glance. If you want to eat, well, I am sure you will figure something  out. You are old enough to feed yourself . I will leave a few hundred dollars for you when we get to the hotel"