Youth!

Hell Of A Beach Day

One day it was so hot I asked Claire if she wanted to head to the beach. By the time she woke up from her nap and gave me the okay to pick her up, it wasn't so early, it was like 6. Of course the sun would still be out and we could go, but the water wasn't going to be warm to the point where we'd want to take a dip. That was fine by me I guess, the beach is a place you can go to without necessarily having to take a swim in the water. You can just go to chill. While on the boardwalk, an interesting situation occurred. At one point I went to use the bathroom and told Claire to wait outside for me. It was only a few minutes, but as soon as I came back, there was some dude talking to her. Who the hell is that? It didn't look like somebody she knew. Instantly, I felt the urge to go over there and tell him to buzz off, despite his physical appearance. Biggest looking dude I've come across? Far from it, but he had some size on him and looked to be in his early 20's at least. For some reason I thought if I just wanted him to disappear he just would, but after a few moments of observing from in front of the bathroom, I realized he wasn't going to. I walked right up to him, pulled her away, and got right in front of his face to his surprise. "She's not interested man, You can dip now." I told him. It sounds bold on paper but my body felt like it was shaking, I was admittedly nervous because the dude looked like he was getting mad, and even clenched his fists at his sides. I had to prepare for a fight, or at least that's what flashed through my head as we stared each other down, and I wondered for a split second if confronting was the smartest move. After a minute of tension, he relaxed his face and unclenched his fists. "Alright bro, you got it." He chuckled, and walked away up the boardwalk. He wasn't going to fight a teenager over some girl, that kind of stuff is frowned upon. Once he left, she looked at me with admiration, as if she was impressed by what I did though it really wasn't much at all. "What?" I asked, in an irritated tone. "Thank you, he was really making me feel uncomfortable." She said. It was funny hearing that, because the opposite seemed true. "Didn't look like it, you were having a whole conversation with him!" I said. She shifted from side to side, looking upset. "That's only because I didn't want to make it weird, it's not like I wanted to talk to him!" She argued. I sighed before face palming. "If you didn't want to talk to him, you could've ignored him or walked away. If a girl comes up to me and starts trying to talk and I don't want to, I would do that." I said, not understanding why girls had to complicate things. "It's different for you because you're a guy. If he was the type, he might've followed me or gotten aggressive. You're not a girl, you wouldn't understand." She said, purposely looking away from me to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, whatever, you liked the attention." I mumbled under my breath.

    We chilled on the sand playing music and eating sandwiches. It felt really nice because there was just enough sun to keep us warm, but there was a cool breeze at the same time to prevent things from getting too hot. Eventually, a group of random people came through with a beach ball, and we played taps with them. Ya know, the game where you toss the ball and keep it up in the air with your hands, head or feet. It was a good time, and Claire even showed off her soccer skills a little. When those people left, we strolled all the way to the west end of the shore because Claire wanted to take a dip and go far out in the water, which I didn't think was a good idea. "I can swim, I've been swimming for years, I'll be fine!" She assured me, as she walked towards the water. I just stood there, hands in my shorts, not fully convinced. "You're not coming in?" She asked. I shook my head no. "I'm cold, and I just want to stay here." I said. As she swam around, it was clear to me that this was indeed a girl who knew how to swim. We were in a spot nobody could really see us from, and she kept swimming further and further out while I chilled on the sand scrolling through youtube. She kept on calling out to me and saying I was missing out and shit like that. After a while, I looked up from my phone wondering where her voice had gone. I saw her, in the water, looking like she was struggling, which confused the hell outta me because she was having fun not too long ago. It looked as if she was flailing her body around in the water instead of swimming, and at that point I got up to see if I could help her out. I was nervous because although I knew how to swim water was not my strongest suit, and it was cold in there. What I saw shortly after though, got my blood pumping enough to jump in the water....

    I felt a rising, boiling anger build up inside of me, I was so pissed. Claire, amidst her panic in the water, started mouthing a name. I could barely make it out because she was losing energy, but I knew who she was calling out for. "Izaya....Izaya.... Help...please..." She managed, desperately trying to get some air. My anger was about to skyrocket through the roof, I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Here I am, this capable, strong, handsome young man right in front of her who had no problem saving her, and here she is calling for some dude 10 hours away at least! He wasn't thinking about her right now, he's probably out with some other girl or living his life, and she's literally calling for him to save her? She never even met the dude in person before! How can you praise someone you've never even met as if he's a god or something, when you have me in front of you?  What was wrong with me? I wondered. Why doesn't she think I can save her? Am I not manly enough? Do I need to put on more muscle? Is it the way I talk, the way I walk? Why doesn't she view me as manly? Am I still just a kid? This anger soon turned into action, which was a verbal outburst towards claire. "Look, Izaya isn't here and he's not gonna help you, get that through your head!" I yelled. "My name is MARCUS! M-A-R-C-U-S, OK? If you mention that Izaya dude again, I'm gonna leave you here!" I continued. She looked at me, in her struggle, and stopped calling out for Izaya. That was all I needed, and it was at that moment that I made my move towards Claire to save her.

    I dove into the water and swam out to where she was. The water was freezing cold and it felt like I was dying but I kept swimming until I reached her. "Just hang on, get on my back like a backpack!" I commanded while struggling in the water. As I told her, Claire wrapped herself on my back and we swam parallel to the current. I stayed calm, because having been caught in something like this before, I knew that panicking wasn't going to do anything. With adrenaline flowing throughout my body, I felt as if I could literally do anything. A giant wave could be seen approaching us at high speed, we were gonna use the push from the wave to get out of this spot and head to the shore. I felt her spitting a ton of water onto my shoulder, and gasping for air. "We're gonna be good, I'm gonna save you!" I said. The wave crashed on us, and at the same exact time I swam like hell in that direction away from the current. I had to give it everything my body had with each stroke of the arm, but I was able to free us from the current and kept on swimming. This was some superhuman shit for real, to this day I don't even know how I did it myself! Eventually we reached the sand, where we collapsed, drenched in saltwater. "Wow," She said, smiling. "That was really impressive." I was gasping for air on the inside but needed to look tough. I whipped my hair and some water sprayed in different directions, my arms were really sore and my calves were burning. The adrenaline was wearing off and I was going back to my normal state. "Ya know, you're a lot stronger than you look. You really saved me, Marcus!" She exclaimed. When did she ever call me by my name? I think this was the first time, and It was pleasing to my ears. I smiled back at her. "It was nothing. You're lucky, because I risked my own life doing this." I told her. For once, she had a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry." She apologized quietly. That was unexpected. "It's okay, just remember that curiosity killed the cat." I said. Which is literally what almost ended up happening.

    We chilled out on the sand for some time, until we somewhat regained energy. We got dressed and got back on the bike, deciding to go straight home before anything else happened.

When I dropped her off in front of her house she was about to go inside before turning back, and running to me to tell me one more thing. But then, she said "never mind" and ran back inside after waving goodbye. That was weird to say the least. I sat on my bike for a couple minutes before turning around and heading home.