14 Days

3

I was brutally awakened by an unpleasant shove, but were there such things as pleasant shoves? Didn't know. Didn't care. All I cared about was the current shove.

"What the hell?" I groaned, my head having made painful contact with the seat in front of us. Beau was glowering as per usual.

"Get out," he ordered. Nimble fingers massaged his right shoulder for some reason. "We're here."

"Huh?"

Wide-eyed, I took in our surroundings, discovering that, yeah, we had arrived.

Our hotel was a L shaped building of pastel green siding and white molding. The hotel was two stories high with a small parking lot, a matching office building and an attached indoor pool. The surroundings weren't all that gave way to our arrival though; the scent and the sounds did too.

Dad claimed we were right on the beach. I suspected he was exaggerating. In truth, I thought we were a block away or even a five minute drive, but my ears were not deceiving me. I heard it; the ocean, waves crashing against the sand. Smelled it too, the salty scent of the water that I half expected to be a tad repulsive. Often the ocean was described as a fishy scent and those were never pleasant. This, however, was not unpleasant at all, somehow fresh and exhilarating instead, which may have had to do with the fact that I had never been to the ocean and thus was a little biased in my enthusiasm.

Aunt Zoey and Uncle David were getting the luggage out of the trunk. Both smiled when the door opened, spotting us in the back seat.

"What are you two doing?" she asked, nodding towards the edge of the hotel. There was an obvious break between our residency for the week and the hotel next door. "Get on out there and see the beach."

She didn't have to tell me twice. I practically teleported out of the van. The excitement drove me round the corner, spotting a wooden pier that led from asphalt to tan sand. There were mounds on either side of the walk way coated in green weeds. Beyond that was the sea; a deep, alluring blue against an equally dark sky so one could barely tell where the sea ended and the sky began.

My shoes were haphazardly kicked aside, left on the asphalt with my socks. The thought of a sandbox came to mind, would the beach be similar? I was about to discover.

I bolted off the walk way into warm sand that sunk beneath my feet. The beach was nothing like a sandbox. This sand was almost heavy. I couldn't stop squishing the grainy texture childishly between my toes. I leaned over to touch coarse sand, fingers grazing over pieces of twigs or sea shells mixed within. The lights of the town cast the beach in a warm glow. The full moon hung over small waves dancing across the shore. From left to right, the beach dragged on and on with a long, dark wooden pier nearby. A spray of cool water sprinkled against my cheeks from the ocean air that tasted of cold salt. Footprints littered the shore out to the water that called to me.

I was hesitant at first, imagining every shark movie I ever saw then taking that first step in. White foam and bubbles tickled my feet then my ankles then half way up my calves. Since it was night, that was as far as I went, admiring the translucent water and dark sand beneath, glistening under pale moonlight. It was a little cool so my toes grew cold. Goosebumps broke out across my skin along with slight shivers that didn't have me turning away. The sand sank even further when wet, but I stood among the sea for the first time and realized it was better than I ever imagined.

Click.

Behind me, Beau stood with a camera in hand. The light of the town illuminated his silhouette, a boy among the sand with a night sky backdrop.

"Did you just take a picture of me?" I asked.

"I took a picture of the ocean," he replied. His pant legs had been rolled up nearly to his knees with shoes nowhere in sight, likely left on the asphalt same as mine. The natural sea-breeze brushed the blonde fringe from his eyes, which were admiring the beach similarly to my own.