0 0 | s h e l l s i d e b a y
I SAT IN THE SAND, a thick blanket of humidity and warmth wrapped around my body. The sound of waves blended with the flicker of fire on the beach – a sound that called to me, tugging me out to sea like the foam that lined the shores.
Around me, laughter echoed, ripping through the night sky. Stars gleamed down on us, illuminating our tanned, slick skin, red in some areas. We were burnt from our long day lazing in the sun and peppered with sand and salt.
Sky leaned against me, her dark hair thick and unruly, sticking to my skin. Our last night together before she left for Cambodia – the country her family was from. She clung to me, like she didn't want to leave, even as she grinned and laughed.
On my other side, Austin had an arm around my shoulder as he joked with the others.
My skin burned where he touched. Every scrape of skin against skin, the flutter of hair against my cheek – it all released an eruption of butterflies in my stomach. Every laugh that rolled from his tongue reverberated through his chest, sending a shiver through me.
I had the overwhelming urge to run my fingers through his tangle of brown waves. The urge to pull him closer to me, no matter how suffocating the heat already was. But I didn't. This was our last night we'd all be together like this.
We'd never have this moment again, and I intended to cherish it.
This was what summer was about in Shellside Bay. A group of friends, talking drunkenly in the buzz of the heat.
Soon, Connor and River would probably go for a midnight surf.
Austin and Sky would join them eventually and drag me with them.
My friends were like the foam drifting over the water, continuously tugged out to sea, but always returning to the shore.
I dreamed of something more.
Shellside Bay was tiny. Sky called it homey. River called it peaceful. Austin called it perfect.
I called it suffocating.
While my friends were sea foam, caught between the waves of the ocean and the warmth of the shore, I was a name, scribbled hastily into the sand.
Waves bit at me, dragging me out into the water. But unlike my friends, I had no intention to return.
YOU ARE READING
Isla
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