Submerged #PlanetOrPlastic

Submerged

It was a beautiful day to go swimming.

But Kasti reclined on her beach chair, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on her skin. Admittedly, visiting the beach wasn't the best idea, but it was never a bad one.

Stretching her limbs, Kasti slowly sat up and observed the scene.

The ocean waves were dancing, the sunlight glinting off their cerulean gowns. The waves lapped over the shore after their performance, and seashells peeked out of the sand like uncharted jewels.

Totally picture-worthy, Kasti thought appreciatively.

Then another thought: Hey, who's that?

The blonde watched as a girl wearily walked past her, wearing frumpy clothes. The girl walked closer to the shore with a trashbag in hand.

She looked familiar, but Kasti couldn't imagine why.

Curious, Kasti decided to follow her, stopping as the brunette turned.

"Laura?" Kasti was surprised to see her schoolmate. "What are you doing here?"

"Kasti? I... uh," Laura fumbled for words. "I was..."

Kasti raised a brow. "Modelling for a garbage company?"

Laura's expression hardened, and Kasti regretted her words. "No. I'm trying to help the environment."

"What? The environment's perfectly fine!" Kasti defended. She knew people blabbered about the planet slowly being destroyed, but honestly, she thought they were exaggerating.

Right?

Laura didn't answer.

But now that Kasti was closer to the shore, her eyes swept over the scattered seashells she had admired not too long ago.

They were fragments of garbage, half buried in the soft sand, some even coming in and out with the rolling of the tides.

She looked over to the water, where families were playing and laughing. She watched as a child splashed around with his mother, picking up a plastic bottle that floated by him.

"Jo, throw that away!" The boy's mother snapped, snatching the bottle. "You might get a bacterial infection!" Without turning her head, the mother threw it even farther out to sea.

Kasti gaped. She looked back at Laura, who had resumed picking up the trash in front of her, and placing it inside the trash bag beside her.

And here came the guilt. "Um... Laura?"

She looked at Kasti warily. "...Yes?"

"Can I... help?" Kasti asked. "Maybe then we can finish this quicker."

Laura sounded shocked. "Really?"

Kasti felt peeved at the incredulity in her voice.

"I mean, if you don't want to..." The blonde shrugged, turning to leave.

"No, it's fine!" Laura hurriedly exclaimed. "It's just... not everyone likes spending their weekend by picking up trash on the beach."

Kasti just nodded, spying something else lying a few feet away. The corpse of the starfish made her heat clench. "Do you have another trashbag?"

Laura hastily pulled out another one and some gloves from her pockets.

"My friends were supposed to come," Laura said in answer to Kasti's questioning gaze.

"Oh," the blonde gingerly took them from Laura's outstretched hands, and put on the gloves. "Well... I guess we're friends then."

It was a beautiful day to go swimming. But Kasti felt differently.