Beach Tracks

Gauge- A Guy of Few Words

Gauge side eyes the bowl of Tide Pods that Wendy had brought earlier and Breeze tossed to the side, onto the beach, while everyone else discussed what to do about the Ghost of dead Cage. Gauge didn't have very much input on the situation. After all, he and Cage had been best friends and seeing Cage's ghost was kind of normal for him. Shortly after the accident, Cage's ghost came to him and told him to take his bike. It needed repairs, and even though Gauge was no expert on repairing anything, he had worked on a few cars before. Then, at the hospital, Cage had willed him to fight for his life after Hurricane Wendy made the party shelter collapse on him. Gauge vaguely hears Ariella say something about a seance, but he couldn't help think of Breeze. Before she came into her life, no one understood him and his dad, Uncle B was always on his case to "use more words" and "do something else besides tinker on that bike." He had hated seeing her runaway on the beach, especially because he could only see her from behind. He had hoped to see her running to him and in slow motion, like that old show about lifeguards that ran on the beach. Maybe he would suggest that to her next time he saw. Gauge couldn't help but wonder what she's doing now?

    Breeze ugly cries as she runs along the beach, back to Aunt Vanessa's beach house. It was fair! Why did everyone have to show up and ruin her date with Gauge and why did he have to watch Wendy dance? As she runs, her feet gets caught up in the sand and she trips and fall, making her cry louder.

    "I don't understand why," she wines, continuing to blubber. As she looks up, the beach house is right in front of her. Breeze slinks back to her feet and drags herself to the front door. She tries to wipe her face, just incase Aunt Vanessa is sitting in living room again, reading one of her adult erotica books. Breeze takes a deep breath, having stopped crying and opens the front door.

    "Oh my God, Breeze," Aunt Vanessa exclaims, having just walked out of the kitchen, wearing nothing but lingerie and holding a can of whipped cream, "honey, I didn't expect you home this early because you had a date with Gauge."

"Why would you even bring that up?" Breeze asks, as she begins to cry.

"Did something happen on your date?" Aunt Vanessa asks, moving closer to her.

"Oh, my God," Breeze squeals, now going back into full hysterics, "nobody understands me!"

"Is everything okay?" Aunt Vanessa asks, putting hand out, then quickly jerking it back, realizing it was the one holding the whipped cream.

"No, it's not, just leave me alone!" Breeze cries and turns around and runs away.

"Breeze, honey, come back," Aunt Vanessa runs to the door.

"I'm ready for dessert," Uncle B calls from the top of the stairs, wearing only a string bikini.

Breeze runs eve further up the beach, her cries wailing into the night as the waves crash against the store. As she runs, she comes upon a peer. It didn't look as good as THE peer, but she didn't care. She ran around to the entrance and ran on it. Tonight had been the worst night of her life and maybe, just maybe she'd run and fling herself off of the end of it. No one would care. Gauge would be too busy watching Wendy, Ariella too busy with Cash and Aunt Vanessa is so evil that she'd be happy if Breeze just disappeared forever.

Breeze runs down the peer, bawling, not paying attention to what's ahead of her, only her feet on the ground. She sniffles a she runs and collides with someone. Both of them fall onto the wooden ground.

"I . . . I . . ." Breeze cries and then looks up to see that she ran into Cage.

"Breeze?" he questions her, looking at her face with it's puffed up eyes and runny makeup.

"Uh-huh," she nods, still sniffling.

"Breeze what's wrong?" he stands up, offering her hand to help her up, which she accepts.