BRIGHT AFTERNOON SUNLIGHT shone down on the golden sand that spread out before me nearly as far as I could see. A few dark clouds crowded the blue sky, remnants of the massive storm that wrecked Malibu a few hours ago. The little cove bore the marks of the heavy wind and rain, small ponds filled with rain water, leaves and branches blown in from the trees above, and swollen waves crashing against the ridged shoreline.
A chilly breeze blew through the area, but the sun tried its hardest to warm up the sand beneath my bare feet. I wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to hold in my warmth before the wind stole it from me. My hair whipped up around me, sending my nervous heart into a race. The storm really freaked me out earlier, but Sage said it would pass sooner or later. She was right, of course. She was always right.
I spun around on my heel, crushing sand underneath my foot, and marched over to the rickety wooden steps that led up to my house, placing my hands on my hips. Sage, decked out in a dark green one-piece, hurried down the steps toward me, holding her glass water bottle in one hand and her phone in the other. Around her neck glinted a silver turtle, and my fingers wrapped around my matching necklace.
"How's the water?" she asked, bumping into me when she made it down the stairs. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders, dragging me toward the shore. Waves crashed against the sand, and I glanced at her with a frown on my face with each step we took forward. "Oh, it looks beautiful out here, Cami!"
"Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly. Her confidence spread through the air like easy waves, but my own fear blocked it from entering my mind. I squeezed myself tighter as I stared out at the angry water, pushing and pulling back and forth, easily able to break my body against the sand. An image appeared in my mind of my water-logged body washing to shore after spending days missing, my parents and Sage searching for me to no avail for the water had taken me to its grave. "The water looks . . . angry to me."
"It's always angry," she said, a scary glint in her hazel eyes. Sage grinned at me as she gently set her water bottle on the ground, making sure not to break the glass. "You just have to know how to tame it."
I figured Sage would immediately rush into the water like she normally did whenever we came down here together, but she unlocked her phone and held it up in the air. She pulled me closer to her, and I saw myself in her camera, a scared, shaking little girl beside a cool and confident woman. My best friend had always been like that; never scared to do anything, always wanting to try something new, no matter what stood in her way. I followed her like a scared, lost puppy. Without her, I would have been left behind.
Sage snapped the photo of the two of us, capturing that moment forever. She sighed happily before dropping her phone to the sand, taking me by my shoulders. She shook me back and forth, and I looked at her with wide eyes. A soft smile curved her lips upward, and her eyes brightened when they took me in. The turtle pendant shone in the sunlight, reminding me of our past -- being friends since kindergarten, agreeing to become marine biologists together when we got older, and saving the sea turtles at Malibu beach.
"Camilla Huang, you don't need to be afraid as long as I'm here," she said gently. My smile was a shaky one, but she could make all my anxiety disappear like footprints on the sand. "As your best friend, I pledge to take care of you for the rest of your life -- or mine." She giggled, shaking her head. I didn't know what was funny, though. "Now, let go of that fear and have fun!"
I shook myself out, trying to get my nerves to leave my body like droplets of rain. Sage started doing it with me, and soon enough, we shook our jitters out and laughed together. For a second there, I didn't think about my fear, about what was stopping me, and just focused on being with my best friend and having fun. It was moments like this that made my life worth living, I knew that.
Sage ran out toward the water, stepping into the semi-warm June water. She let out a scream of happiness, and I had the urge to follow her in. I slipped out of my tank top, glad I put on my bikini before she came out here. As I started to take my jean shorts off, Sage screamed again, the sound echoing around me.
"Sage, calm down!" I said, laughing. I needed to fold my clothes before they blew away in the cold breeze, so I turned my back on her for just a moment. "I'll be there soon! Don't worry!"
As soon as I finished folding my clothes, I turned back toward the waves crashing against the shore, scanning the sparkling blue water. My heart sunk in my chest so quickly that I swore I was about to have a heart attack or something. I couldn't see Sage beyond the tall waves at all. A tremor of worry passed through my body. My feet felt like they were glued to the sand where I stood like I couldn't move a muscle at all. Suddenly, her head popped above the water, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Her honey-brown hair grew darker as the water drenched her whole body, and from where I stood on the shore, I saw a huge, beautiful grin on her face. My heart leaped in my chest at the sight of her having so much fun. Sage was in her element now. This was her happy place, and whenever she was happy, I was happy. I began to make my way toward the raging water to join her. And then she screamed again, one that sounded so haunting, so fearful, her body disappearing beneath the waves.
Time quickened and slowed down at the same time. I sprinted as fast as I could to get into the water, crashing into the waves, and trying to get to my best friend. The waves crashed harder around me as a scream ripped out of my body. The water held me back, using its strong tentacles and arms, holding me gently away from reaching her as she was swept out into the Pacific Ocean. Another scream echoed around the area as I was slammed back by a wave, knocking me off my feet, and soaking me to the bone. I couldn't catch my breath even though the water wasn't forcing its way down my throat, down my lungs, into my soul. As much as I tried, I couldn't get to Sage.
The waves -- the Water -- remembered what happened that day, and so did I. How could I not remember what happened to Sage Navarro? The coroner said that an undertow most likely ripped her feet from beneath her, dragging her beneath the water, and drowning her in a matter of seconds. The community was torn up by the news that she passed away, the girl who spearheaded an office at the Malibu Rescue offices just to save the turtles who inhabited a small part of the beach. She was an upstanding citizen in Malibu County. More than that, she was my best friend.
Her parents never blamed me, but I couldn't help it. I blamed myself for what had happened to her. If only I told her no, that the water was too volatile, too rough, too angry for her to take a swim in the place she loved most. Her family moved away soon after, claiming that they couldn't take it anymore, they couldn't stand seeing the body of water that took their daughter too soon every single day of their lives. I understood more than anyone knew.
I couldn't go back to the cove after that. I couldn't go back to our cove, the one we laughed in and loved in. All I could see was her broken body being swept away by the crashing waves. That image never left my mind, and it would wake me up in the dead of night, me screaming out her name. I couldn't handle it, but I couldn't leave, either. I was forced to live in the place where she died, and in turn, a part of me started decaying that day, a piece that never would return to me again.
The funeral was drenched in rainfall and tears, almost as if the water remembered and knew that I needed a reminder, too. My hair hung down my back in stringy waves, my black dress stuck to my bones, and my sandal-clad feet swam in the small rivers created by the pouring rain. No tears poured down my face, though. I couldn't cry, I wouldn't cry, I shouldn't cry. Not when it was my fault. Not when I could have prevented the worst disaster in my life.
Time passed by me, but I was stuck in that place, in the cove with the cold water that took my best friend away from me.
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Undercurrents (Tyler Gossard)
FanfictionCamilla Huang had been lost in the undercurrents of her life. It had been nearly a year since her world was knocked off kilter, nearly a year since she lost her best friend to the waves. Camilla was left behind in the foamy wreckage, scrambling to m...
