The Beauty of Death Vol.1

Breaking up-1

BREAKING UP

by Monica O’RourkeThe sun warmed the backs of their heads. In the chilly air, the sea-green fabric of Kathy’s bikini top rubbed against her n*****s. Mitch stared because he couldn’t help it, not because he wanted to. After all, this was going to be the Big Breakup, although Kathy likely didn’t know it yet. Even her perky t**s weren’t enough to make this onerous mess of a relationship work.

Waves exploded along the shoreline, droplets pelting the mossy rocks like shrapnel. The corroded pier jutted from the ocean like a handful of fractured fingers.

Kathy knelt in the sand and hovered over the blanket. Dark pubic hairs jutted from the edges of her bikini bottom in contrast to the bleached blonde on her head. She leaned back on her heels and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

She peered curiously at Mitch. “What are you thinking?”

He paused for just a second. “How much I want you,” he lied.

She shook her head, her eyes downcast. He flushed red, sure she must have been reading his mind, his mendacity not lost on her. Otherwise, why such a sad look? So suspicious. Unless he was being paranoid…

She smiled as she approached and dragged her tongue across his chest. Her fingers caressed his inner thigh. But then she raised her eyes, indicating their approaching friends, and slowly shook her head.

What the hell? He slapped her hand away, pulled away from her eager mouth and fingers. “Then stop, you dumb b***h,” he muttered. He sprinted across the beach and entered the water. He wiped the back of his hand across his forehead as the sweat dripped from his hair. The cool waves broke on his thighs.

He looked back. Paul and Marni had joined Kathy. His raging hard-on was under control. Mitch left the Bondi-blue water to join the others; they’d skipped Friday afternoon classes in favor of the beach. Classes during senior year were a joke anyway.

“I brought marshmallows,” Marni said, reaching into her pack. She and Paul had brought back sticks and were dangling them over the flames.

“Who cares?” Mitch muttered. He collapsed beside Kathy and wiped his face on a towel. She gently pressed her fist into his shoulder and gave him the look: stop being a jackass.

“What are we gonna do tonight?” Marni asked, snapping her gum, fingers intertwined in Paul’s thick black hair.

Paul laughed. “Waddaya think we’re gonna do tonight?”

They all laughed, except Mitch, who shook his head in disgust at Paul’s crudeness.

“Oh, Paul,” Marni laughed, slapping his arm.

Paul glanced at Mitch. “Lighten up, man.”

“Hey—sand fleas,” Marni said. That’s a real problem on the beach. Ever get sand fleas in your whatsit?” She giggled. “Itches like hell.”

“In my whatsit?” Paul said, laughing.

“Not you, dummy,” Marni said, laughing. “Guys don’t have whatsits…”

“We don’t have what?” Paul asked, leaning into Marni, teasingly flicking his tongue at her. “What is it we don’t have? p*****s?”

She blushed and tucked strands of hair behind her ear.

“Knock it off,” Mitch said, sitting up and then kneeling. “You’re a pig.”

“I’m just joking with her. What’s your problem? Lighten up, man,” Paul said. He stood and hitched up his baggy swim shorts, and sand spilled from the pockets. He wiped his hands across his knees and leaned toward the fire.

Mitch stared down at Paul, fists clenched, the sudden burst of angry heat on his face stinging his eyes. Paul really hadn’t done anything wrong, but it seemed everything annoyed Mitch today. He grabbed Kathy’s wrist and pulled her to her feet before saying anything stupid and pointless to Paul.

Besides, he had business with Kathy that he just couldn’t postpone any longer. He needed privacy. “Let’s go.”

“Wait—why?” She dug her feet into the sand and pulled back, jerking out of his grasp. “I’m staying.”

He waited a moment, catching his breath, and tried to regain his composure. His angry outbursts didn’t make sense, even to him. He knew it was the anticipation of the real reason they were here today, and he wanted to prolong the inevitable. This wouldn’t be easy. He knew that on some level, she had to know why they were here. She was almost as good at manipulating feelings as he was. Tears were usually her weapon of choice.

Without another word, Mitch grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. No one tried to stop him.

Kathy allowed him to drag her along and struggled to match his long strides. Eventually they walked side by side along the packed, moist sand a few feet from the breaking waves.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kathy asked quietly. She pulled herself out of Mitch’s grasp and pretended to brush invisible lint off her arms, her bikini.

Mitch brooded for a moment. “We have to talk.”

Kathy laughed, but he saw her flinch. It had been a slight movement, evanescent, but he’d caught it. She swallowed hard. “No we don’t.” She licked her chapped lips and took off ahead of him. “Catch me!”

He didn’t bother. She raced a few feet before glancing back, and when she realized he wasn’t in pursuit, she slowed down.

Suddenly he realized he was always disappointing her. As annoying as she was in this relationship, she wasn’t the hurtful one, the one who caused the pain. What a rude awakening that was for him. Still…when did a day at the beach get so damned serious? He tried to push the thoughts out of his mind and focused instead on the hot girl a few feet away. He pushed away thoughts of gentlemanly behavior and zoomed in on her a*s.

They climbed a low dune. When they reached the other side, he swiveled and kissed her roughly, his tongue probing her mouth.

She seemed startled by his sudden movement and took a small step back.

But she never refused him. He often wondered why, knowing his brutish behavior often crossed lines of decency. Still she did what he wanted. Always. Made him wonder what her home life was like, but he never wondered for too long.

We have to talk. Wasn’t that hint enough? She had to know what that meant. She’d had many boyfriends before him—surely she’d said or heard those words many times before.

He pulled her close and lifted the thin fabric of her bikini top, exposing the small breast. He licked the rock-hard tip, and she moaned and ran her fingers through his hair.

She knew what he liked, and she felt good to him, familiar, safe, someone he enjoyed being around, but she wasn’t someone he imagined a future with. Their relationship felt destined to be short-lived. It seemed she did what he wanted in an effort to keep him, though she had to know that was fruitless. He wondered what it would take, ultimately. He wondered how to do this without devastating her. He wasn’t an animal; he had feelings. Sort of.

He reached around and unfastened the hook on her bikini top, her pale skin illuminated in the diminishing sunlight as she stepped out of the bottom piece.

He admired her body for a moment, caressing and sucking her breasts, and gently rubbed the triangle of pubic hair between her legs.

She pulled his swim trunks down, and he stepped out of them.

They collapsed against the dune, listening to the waves shatter on the rocky beach. He felt guilty about the impending breakup, but not enough to stop f*****g her. He’d brought her to this deserted strip of beach for privacy. Bringing Marni and Paul hadn’t been Mitch’s idea, it had been Kathy’s. She always managed to ruin everything, and now she was even managing to screw up their breakup. He was sure she’d brought them as backup, perhaps expecting them to prevent Mitch from dumping her.

Still, s*x always made up for her stupid mistakes.

“You’re hurting me,” she said, pushing at his chest. She reached between her legs, and her fingers adjusted his c**k. He was just about finished anyway.

“Too rough, Mitch,” she whined, wiping carefully at her thighs. “Like sandpaper.”

This wasn’t his fault; it was the goddamned beach. “You’re too sensitive.”

“No, stupid—too much sand. Not even a towel.”

He’d pressed her into a dune, and the sand trickled down her shoulders and cascaded across their sweaty bodies. Now he collapsed against her as he came, breathing hard on her shoulder. Grains of sand left a light coating on his damp skin, jumped into his nose and eyes.

She frowned and folded her arms across her n***d chest. “That hurt.”

He didn’t know what else to say. “Let’s head back. We’re losing light.”

“No we’re not. It’s still early.” She hopped around a bit and spread her legs. “That really hurt!” She patted her crotch, wiped away sand, even folded back her vaginal lips and tried to wipe them clean.

Her movements looked absurd. “What do you want me to say?” he yelled. “It wasn’t my fault!” Now he was being blamed for sand? For the beach? Now he remembered why he so desperately wanted to dump her. She was a selfish i***t. s*x wasn’t worth this, no matter how good.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Let’s go.”

“I need to jump in first.” She pointed at the ocean and pouted. “I want to wash this sand out.”

“When we get back.” He handed her bikini to her.

“I just want—”

“Let’s go.”

She dressed quickly while he stepped into his trunks. They walked back in silence, her a few feet ahead, searching for oddly colored shells in the gray sand of the shallow tide.

When they reached the blanket, Paul and Marni were gone. The fire had died down to a few smoldering sticks. Mitch poked it with a twig, hoping to get it going again.

He cupped his hands over his eyes and scanned the beach. “Just goddamned great,” he said, exhaling dramatically.

Kathy sat at his feet and took over trying to revive the fire.

“They have some f*****g nerve,” he whined, “taking off like that.”

She shrugged, looking toward the road. “Car’s still there.”

“Damned straight the car’s still there. He’d be a cripple if he took off without us.”

“So what’s the problem, babe?”

“Problem? It’s rude, that’s the problem. They’re off screwing in a bush somewhere and I want to get going. I’m hungry.”

“Me too.” She reached across the blanket and snatched Marni’s bag of marshmallows. They were coated in sand. “Oh, yuck,” she said, trying to dust one off.

He rolled his eyes and faced the ocean. The beach seemed smaller, but it was high tide—the beach was smaller. He squatted beside a dune. The sides cascaded down in a series of tiny avalanches.

A few moments later he joined Kathy on the blanket. Nearly twilight. In the diminishing daylight, the stars became more visible and peppered the sky like scattered grains of sand. They huddled near the fire and watched the ocean.

“You think something happened to them?” she asked.

“Who knows. Maybe they fell asleep somewhere.” He rose to his feet, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted for Paul and Marni.

The only reply was from the ocean, its roaring crash resonating over the sand, a fine salty mist clinging to the air like a heavy and cloying perfume.

“You think maybe they drowned?”

“I don’t know,” he snapped, falling back to the blanket, puffing into his cupped hand. He looked at her incredulously. “Both of them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Marni was drowning and Paul tried to save her and—”

“You’re being dramatic. s**t like that doesn’t happen.”

“Maybe we should call the police. We can come back.”

He nodded, but there was no cell reception out here. “Where’s the nearest pay phone, do you think?”

“I didn’t see one around here. We passed a Citgo station a few miles back. Or maybe once we drive, we’ll get a signal on our phones.”

“Okay, good idea. Let’s go.” He stood. “Pack up. I’ll start the car.”

“Don’t leave me alone here, Mitch!”

He shook her off his arm. “Don’t be stupid, Kat.” He smacked the sand off his a*s. “Why are you acting like an i***t? There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

She got up quickly from the blanket. “We should leave everything here. In case they come back.”

He nodded, and reached into Paul’s sneaker to grab the keys. He headed toward the car parked some thirty yards away, Kathy trailing closely.

He opened the driver’s side door and was immediately concerned when he didn’t hear the familiar buzzing. He pulled the door open, and the interior remained dark. He stuffed the key into the ignition and tried to start it. Nothing happened. No clicking, no attempts by the engine to turn over.

He turned sharply toward Kathy, who was sitting shotgun. “When you came out to the car earlier, what did you do?”

“Do?”

“Do, do! When you came out earlier, were you playing with your makeup in the mirror? What were you doing?”

“Nothing!”

“Did you turn on the dome light?”

She didn’t want to answer. “Dome light?”

He pointed at the ceiling. “The switch is on, yet we have no light. How can that possibly be?” He peered into her face. “Did you turn anything on when you came out to the car?” His mouth was a lipless tight line, and his jaw muscles worked furiously.