Attention

10

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Part 1

After the long four hours spent in the car, we finally made it to our destination. Not gonna lie, I was more nervous than I have ever been in my life. I was desperately praying she would be there.

"Okay, so the GPS says we're ten minutes away from the beach." I say to Carter.

He nods in silence and I could tell this was really starting to get to him. It has been three years since he's seen his mom and if we do find her this would be his first time seeing her in a long time, I couldn't imagine the emotions he would be feeling in that moment.

I stare at him for a while before I ask, "Are you okay?"

He glances over at me, confusion plastered on his face. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I mean, we are about to--"

He cuts me off. "I said I'm fine."

My eyebrows scrunch at his snappy attitude. "Alright then." I mumble, turning my head to look out the window instead of at him.

I hear him sigh. "Ava, I'm sorry, I guess I am a little tense."

I turn to look him and see him glance at me, giving me a slight smile when we make eye contact. I shake my head. "It's fine, I know you're tense."

He repeatedly taps his finger on the steering wheel. "Yeah, and really nervous." he mumbles.

He drives down the road towards the beach and I look down at the GPS and see that we have three minutes left. He drives on until we pull into the parking lot of the beach.

"You have reached your destination."

He puts the car in park and I turn off the GPS. We both sit in silence, neither of us making a move to get out the car. I notice that we are the only car parked in the parking lot.

I breathe in. "Ready to get out?"

"Just another minute." he says, quietly.

We stay in the car for another minute and Carter lets out a breath. "Okay, let's go."

I nod, firmly and open my door, stepping out into the cold air. I close the door and cross my arms trying to get as much warmth as I can. I walk to the front of Carter's car, looking into the distance at the beach.

Carter stands next to me and I look up at him. "So, what do we do now?"

He points to the left side of the beach. "I'll check this side of the beach," and then he points to the right side. "and you can check that side, okay?"

I nod. "Okay."

I breathe in and then start to walk in the opposite direction of him.

"Wait!" I hear Carter call out to me.

I turn around to see him jogging back towards me. When he catches up, I ask, "What's up?"

He digs into his pocket and takes out the picture of his mother. He holds it out towards me. "Take this, so you know what she looks like."

I take it and smile at him gratefully. "Thank you."

He nods with a smile and then walks off in the opposite direction. I watch him walk off and then look down at the picture he gave me. She was a beautiful woman and she looked happy in this photo. Her smile showed it.

I sigh and walk to the side of the beach I'm supposed to be checking. So far from what I could see, the beach was empty. Now that we were really here at the beach, I feel like it was all starting to become real for him. I hated that he was going through this and I know that it was taking a huge emotional toll on him.

I don't know why I was expecting this to be easy. Because it definitely wasn't.

I walk down the beach and there's still no sight of her or anyone for that matter. The sun was starting to set and it was getting a lot colder than when we arrived.

Thirty minutes pass and I make it to the end of the beach with no luck of finding his mom. My eyes begin to water because I didn't find her but I can't be sad now because maybe Carter did. But wouldn't he have called me and told me to come back if he did? Oh no.

I end up walking back to the middle of the beach where Carter and I split off and he's already there. By himself.

He's sitting down in the sand and looking out into the ocean. I sit next to him, putting the picture of his mom inside of my jacket pocket, looking at him cautiously. "We should go inside the car, it's getting really cold."

He looks over at me and I can see his eyes are glossy. "No luck?"

I shake my head, sadly. "No, I'm sorry."

He breathes in and just looks back out into the ocean. A breeze passes us causing me to shiver so, I look at Carter with a worried look on my face. "Carter, we really should get in the car."

He reaches into his jacket pocket and hands me the keys. "You can go in the car. I just want to stay here for a second, I wanna be alone."

My heart aches at what I caused. We didn't find his mom, she wasn't here and he has completely given up. I take the keys from his hand. "No, come on, Carter, it's freezing out here. Come with me." I beg.

"Ava, please, I just want to be alone." he says, his voice cracking.

His somber attitude had come over him completely and I didn't know how to fix it. I sit there for a moment before I whisper, "I'm sorry."

He looks down at the sand. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

I look away, wishing that were true. I should have listened to Carter the first time. Maybe she didn't want to be found and that's why she's not here. She could have left to another state, for all we know.

I begin to stand up from my spot next to him and make my way to the car. I was gonna give him his time alone because I understand. I would want to be alone too. Maybe his time alone will make him better. Even though, I wanted to sit there and comfort him, I know it was better for him to be left alone when he wanted.

I make it to his car and get inside, starting it up so I could have some heat. I lean my head back against the seat in a grim state, still in shock that we were out here for an hour and didn't find her. I watch him on the beach from my distance and he's still in the same position from when I left him there. I didn't know how he was standing this cold weather.

But I guess his pain was stronger than the winds were.

A/N:

Did you think he would find his mom? :((

Song: Natureboy-Sunsets