Feeling Tidal

Four

For the first three nights so far of living here, I'd been taking Ace for night walks. Out of all other waking hours, it's by far the quietest time with close to nobody else around.

Except the one boy who sits atop the cement wall separating the houses and road from the beach.

"Be quiet and sit," I whisper yelled to Ace while his collar loudly jiggled as I tried putting it on him.

Most people would assume the darkness of a house is much scarier when deep in the forest, houses miles apart from each other. For me it was scarier here, with houses close enough you had keep the curtains drawn in order to avoid neighbors seeing into your room.

Quietly, I pulled the glass slider door open and let Ace onto the gated in front porch. It wasn't really all that dark out here, with all the streetlights and cars passing by.

I unlatched the squeaky, cheap plastic gate and nearly rolled down the stairs from Ace pulling on the leash. Because he still hasn't sniffed everything around the fake green turf grass yet, he'd been irritatingly awful on the leash— which he wasn't used to. Back in Vermont he had a huge area of forest and real grass to explore.

"Ace sit, now." I angrily scolded him.

Immediately I felt bad because he was just being a dog, in this new unfamiliar place. Taking a deep breath I stepped on the end of his leash while putting in an earphone and playing shuffle.

I would leave if only I could find a reason,
I'm mean because I grew up in New England,
I got dream but I can't make myself believe in them,

Ironic. The song called homesick by an artist who grew up only twenty minutes from my hometown. The irony made me humorlessly laugh to myself.

Keeping Ace right by my side, I held his leash shortened while looking both ways across the street.

No headlights,
No taillights,

Still with his leash shortened I began walking us both across the four lanes of road, jogging across the last one.

The end of summer mugginess stuck pieces of my hair to my face. And curse me for bringing a hair tie. A breeze coming from the ocean only added to it. All I knew is it would be a shorter walk than the nights before.

I looked over the cement wall and saw dark blobs of what must've been people. They looked to be just laying on a towel staring up at what stars existed in the light polluted sky. I wondered if it was possible they loved South Carolina in the way I loved Vermont.

Hard to imagine, and honestly I'd feel bad if they thought this was nice.

The tugging of Ace's leash- or lack of it, pulled me from thought as I noticed he was staring up at the cement wall. Each night, in the same spot, the same boy sat up there just looking out at the ocean with a camera around his neck.

Usually he payed no mind to us walking by, but I guess Ace's panting from tiring himself out by pulling caught his attention. Once the boy turned his head to look, Ace began wagging his tail and jumped up to press his front paws on the cement. I pulled him down, telling him to stay close and keep walking.

"What's this guys name?" the boy said in almost a laugh.

Really unexpecting him to say anything, I hesitated, "What?"

Instead of just simply, you know, repeating himself, he turned all the way around and slid off the cement wall.

"I asked what the dogs name was," he smiled at Ace. "Can I pet em'?"

"Sure," I shrugged, "and it's Ace."

The boy crouched down to Ace's level, scratching behind his ears. Clearly by the wagging of his tail, I could tell Ace liked the boy. "I'm Ethan by the way," he looked up as the curls on his forehead were pushed back by the wind.

"Mena," I replied, folding my lips into the classic white people face.

"Where are you guys from?" he stood up, adjusting the camera on his neck.

"Up north, Vermont."

At this point I really just wanted to turn back around and get back to the house. It was close to midnight which was not the time to make friends.

"Why'd you move here," he made a face of surprise.

Great question

"Trust me I'd like to know why too,"

We both laughed. He seemed like a nice guy, but it was me who didn't feel like making any actual friends here. Once my senior year is done, I plan on going back to Vermont for college and eventually, moving back.

"If you want me to show you around some cool places let me know, I've lived here since I was three." a seemingly permanent slight smile lingered on his face. "I live right over there," he pointed to a house which was only three houses from mine.

"Where'd you live before that?" I asked with my eyebrows scrunched, trying to pretend like I was fan of small talk.

"Mexico," he said in a Spanish accent, smiling widely now.

"And you said I moved far," I muttered, looking down to Ace as he sniffed around. "Well, I'm gonna head back now."

"See ya around Mena, and I especially hope to see you around," he said patting the top of Ace's head before saluting a goodbye and walking the opposite way of Ace and I.

I gave a friendly smile before turning to walk back. Painful to admit, but he wasn't what I expected South Carolinian boys to be like. He seemed nice, respectful, and not like a cocky surfer boy who romances every girl he sees.

Maybe it would be better if he was like that. Because those types of guys were Mena repellents.