Chapter 1
1006 Words
WE LOVE to play at the seaside, collecting some various shapes and colour of shells, and also watching the shrinking of the sun when at dusk. It was so serene hearing the sounds of the waves and the feel of sands at your heels.
That’s where we end up spending our summer vacation at. It was the last time we spend the summer at our special place, in the beach house.
It was the end of our seven grades in junior year. A lot of things happened during that time. Some of our classmates did the things they usually do, staying in the safety of their room and played video game, some even travel abroad, to their relatives and visiting their grandparents but me and Drew were different, we spend our summer vacation at the beach. Which Drew said he likes the most.
Since Drew’s parents owned a two storeys beach house, we went there and stay for the rest of the summer, bringing a different and new kind of plan on how we are going to waste most of our time. Most of it was Drew’s suggestions, obviously.
His top most pick was snorkeling. We discover snorkeling when we saw it in one of the poster ads on the street. Drew, as being himself, wanted to try it and asked permission from his parents.
I don’t know how we can do that when we don’t even know how to dive or swim, but I concurred and followed him. But to our great disappointment—I merely felt it than Drew — his parents opposed to the idea.
There were still my parents whom we haven’t asked yet, and that’s what exactly he’s thinking. Pulling my hand and dragging me along, to plead my parents to talk his over it but just got disenchanted when the first word they said when they saw us was no, waving the phone to our faces, letting us see the call they had from Drew’s parents.
They said we’re still kids to do that thing. How can sixteen years old still kids to our parents was imponderable to imagine.
We threw in the towel of the ideas of snorkeling, like chucking our favorite cookies in the trash, and waited till we turned eighteen. The inevitable moment we expected finally comes.
“Did you bring my googles?” I asked Drew.
We are on the rocky side of the beach, the part where it’s hidden. Drew says he doesn’t want to do his first time snorkeling in the eye of other people.
He wants to know if he’s not doing it awkwardly since we’re still going to practice on how to dive, he don’t want people to see if he was.
He’s taking off his shirt and jeans while I’m doing the same. Plastering a smirk on his face, he looked at me after he finished undressing. Lifting his arms, my googles on his grip, he waves it in a circular motion.
“Of course," he said.
He’s trying to contain his laughter and I don’t have any idea why. “Here. Come and get it.”
Suddenly, he put it inside his blue fitted shorts, to his bulging crouch. I can feel all the blood go straight to my face.
Throwing his head back, he laughs loudly when he notices my crimson cheeks. I don’t know if Drew’s doing this because he’s just making fun of me or because he enjoys making me uncomfortable, but I know I don’t have the balls to feed his jest. I gather my shirt and jeans, then threw it in his direction.
“Asshole,” I said.
His guffaw echoed throughout the rocks, making the poor seagull scared and flew away.
We’re both looking at the dancing wave of water from the edge of the rock, the deepest blue water shouted danger. It was deep. Drew clutch my hand and looked my way. He’s smiling, but I can sense the terrified emotion he tried to conceal.
“Ready?” he asked. I nodded my head, don’t trust my voice to speak.
“Okay. I will count from one to three and we’ll both jump.”
Again, I nodded my head.
“One.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, filling my lungs for much needed air.
“Two.”
I squeezed Drew’s hand and felt him squeeze back. A different and certain feeling hit me when I felt his strong grip.
“Three.”
Like in cue, we synchronically leapt from the ground and felt the raging air touch my heel. A powerful impact hit my skin, then a cold water swallowed me whole.
Deafening silence surrounds me when my body was completely under water. But the forceful grip Drew did in my hand didn’t loosen up a bit.
WE DID so many things in the past weeks. Exhausting, sure, but it was all worth it. Doing it with Drew was more than enough to dent the weariness.
Making recent memories to relive, doing some things we thought were fun, and visiting most of the local restaurants here wasn’t enough for the entire month of staying here. Sadly, it’s time for us to go home.
Smiling, I looked back at the beach house while it slowly turned small in sight while the car was dragging us away from it—Drew’s dad on the wheel.
I can’t wait to create another memory next summer with the person sitting next to me—as stupid or pathetic as this sounds—I can’t imagine spending my summer without Drew. Hopefully, a new good and felicitous memory.
I pulled my gaze to my right and found him sleeping peacefully. He’s leaning his head on the window. It’s obviously uncomfortable, by the looked of it.
With all the care I can muster, I put his head on my shoulder. With Frank Sinatra’s Days of Wine and Roses on the stereo and the warmth of Drew’s body beside me, it soon enveloped me with darkness.
- Writer
