My Universe

23: “Don’t kill me! I’m just hydrating you!”

“Trust nobody, not even yourself,” said from a famous meme that was accurately realistic as she used to just laugh at memes with that template on the internet; now she clearly understood what that meant based on the experience that she was currently having.

Aster was unpredictable and mysterious that Winter could not figure out what was going on in her mind. She always had the same cheeky grin on her face that she was not sure if it was just a friendly smile that she uses to be kind to whoever she was talking or a smile to mask herself plotting something against one; it was obvious that most of the people that talked to her would think the former though, as expected from people who would always become blind to the true colors of a good-looking person.

Like how the brunette could see through her, the raven could not help but overthink about the possibility of Aster taking advantage of that to use it against her for the things that she wants to get from her, which would make her life much more miserable than how it already was. Winter still did not completely know who Aster really was and she knew that she was not supposed to judge a book by its cover though that could not be helped, especially when Aster literally brought her to the beach instead of the university just because she knew that Winter could not find their way back to the university.

What more can Aster do?

“Your face looks like you forgot to lock the door of your dorm room,” Aster suddenly spoke from her right, which stopped her from overthinking about a lot of things connected to the person that she was walking with by the ocean.

“Huh?” she dumbly responded and turned to look at her.

The brunette let out a chuckle as she raised her hand to gently place her thumb on the latter’s nose bridge, which made her flinch surprise but that did not bother her. The both of them stopped on their tracks as Aster softly massaged her nose bridge to her eyebrows and forehead for the frown on Winter’s face to disappear. A pleased smile was plastered on the taller woman’s face as she watched how her action did work in getting rid of the scowl on her face.

“You’ll get wrinkles if you keep frowning, you know.” Aster dropped her hand back to her side once she was done erasing the creases on the latter’s face.

“I know that. You didn’t have to touch my face,” Winter said, almost in a mumble.

The brunette just chuckled before facing the front and starting to walk again while the raven followed her. No matter how deceitful Aster looked in Winter’s point of view, she had no choice but to stick with her and walk along the beach around with her since she was the only person that she knew who could help her go back to the dorm especially since the raven was literally bad at memorizing and following right directions.

Forgetting about the negative possible consequences that the raven could end up to because of the brunette that she was walking with, she turned her eyes to watch the body of water move in a pleasant movement to create waves that made her feel nostalgic memories, which made her heart beginning to ache again at the flashbacks appearing in her mind.

Unlike Tina and Hana who loved going to beaches for the pretty ocean and serene atmosphere while stepping on the sand near the ocean to wet their feet with the water, Winter was different. She never understood what was so fun in dipping their feet on the sand while letting the waves get in contact with their ankles nor did she understood how the beaches had a peaceful atmosphere that some people just want to stay there forever.

Everyone literally walks on the sand at beaches, either with footwear or not, which was why it was an obvious fact that the sand at beaches had different kinds of germs around along with the bacteria in the water; because of this, the raven could not understand why people still loved walking barefoot on the sand even though it was dirty and it would get stuck on their feet and shoes. Aside from the sand that was full of bacteria, Winter never found the atmosphere calm at beaches when it was literally annoying and painful to walk around the sand under the blazing sun.

The only reason why Winter was able to go to beaches was only because Claire loved going to them and she always went to what she wanted even though she disliked beaches. Just when the raven thought that she would not go to that place again after separating from the love of her life, she just had to go to a beach again and suffer because she had no choice but to follow the brunette. Fortunately, the sun was not giving torturing sunlight at that hour so she just only had to focus in taking careful steps for the sand to not get in her shoes.

Speaking of Claire, the raven remembered how she and Claire went to the beach as one of the things that they did together to celebrate their fourth year of being a couple. She loved how everything became pleasingly romantic even though they were walking on sand under the soft sunlight that she disliked. It was just heartbreaking how they ended up having their relationship end a week after that memorable day to the point that she had plenty of dreams about the day of their fourth anniversary.

Winter shut her eyes tightly for a few seconds while gritting her teeth to control the tears that were starting to form around her eyes. It had been more than a week since she had been crying over their breakup and she had already grown exhausted of it. The raven was proud of herself that her ability of holding her tears in from falling was slowly improving when a teardrop had not fallen down her cheek yet.

While the attention of the raven was on the ocean, the brunette took a glance on her as she noticed how her gray eyes were glistening with sadness being evident on her face. Though Aster did not know the reason why Winter was feeling blue while staring at the calming waves, she decided to think of a way to cheer her up by quietly moving closer to the ocean for her to dip her hands in the cold water.

“Oh my god!” Winter squealed as she stopped on her tracks and turned to the latter with wide eyes when she suddenly felt a sprinkle of water directed on her.

“Okay, it has been proven that water is indeed wet!” Aster said with a wide grin on her face as she stayed crouching to wash her hands with the waves.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” the raven screamed in exasperation as she trudged toward her.

Being alert, the brunette stood up as she waved her hands in front of her to make her more wet before taking quick steps backward while watching her reaction that was turning angrier. Winter shouted at her in anger as she began to run toward her while waggling her wet hands toward the woman whose eyes that were shiny from dejection earlier were now filled with blazing flames from fury, which made her feel a bit terrified.

“Don’t kill me! I’m just hydrating you!” Aster said without taking the grin off her face as she was still feeling enjoyment along the fear.

“Well, I’m going to completely dehydrate you until you’re completely empty!” Winter shouted as she no longer cared about the sand entering her shoes and just chased after the woman who made her sweatshirt damped.

Glancing at the waves that reached the sand, the raven decided to take revenge as she crouched down to gather some water with her hands before running toward the brunette and throwing it to her. A scoff escaped her lips when some of the liquid hit her and wetted her hoodie that made her feel a sense of satisfaction to get the revenge that she wanted, though she was not contented yet as she crouched to gather some more water in her hands again.

While the raven was scooping some water with her hands, the brunette took the chance to attack as she swung her arm down along the water to splash some water toward her that the raven got her hair wet as well. Winter turned to her with wide eyes in surprise and disbelief as she immediately took her revenge by splashing the water toward the brunette with much more force that caused a powerful wave to come toward the hazel-eyed woman who failed to dodge it.

“Take that, b***h!” Winter yelled with a big smirk of victory on her face.

“Well.” Aster wiped her face before abruptly running toward her and swinging her arm across the wave.

Since their distance was much closer than earlier, the wave that the brunette splashed was more powerful that majority of its amount reached the raven, making her almost completely wet. And of course, Winter would not just let it slide.

Curses were exchanged as the two women ran around the beach while splashing water at each other with none of them having any plans to stop because of their high competitiveness; both of them did not want to lose against the other by being more wet even though they were both already soaked. The sorrow that Winter was feeling earlier was erased in an instant as the only thing that was in her mind was to get her revenge and splash as much as water to Aster, who started the water splashing battle in the first place. None of them was fine in losing.

Even though the raven was completely annoyed at the brunette for making her engage in that kind of battle that she did not even want to be participating in, she was still able to let out laughter along her enemy while they continued to chase each other while wetting each other with the water from the large expanse of sea as the flames that were burning up in Winter were from the desire to win the battle rather than exasperation now. Like little kids, squeals and laughter echoed through the air along the sound of water splashing like they were the only ones at the beach; though it did seem like it since there were only around two people at the beach other than them who were just sleeping under an umbrella on the sand.

Neither of them knew how long they had been splashing water on each other as it actually took a long time until the both of them decided to stop from mutual exhaustion after splashing to each other one last time at the same time to have no winner nor loser in their battle. Aster found a wide red beach blanket somewhere on the same that she assumed belonged to someone who forgot to bring back home as she took it and laid it on the sand for the both of them to sit on, knowing that Winter would prefer sitting on a stranger’s blanket instead of sitting directly on the blanket for some reason.

“Come, sit.” Aster lightly patted the vacant space on the blanket next to her after sitting down.

Winter stared at her and the blanket for a while before walking toward her to sit on the space where she was patting. The both of them sat in silence while listening to the sound of the waves that seemed like music in their ears with nothing much going in their minds. What mattered at that moment was that they were enjoying the serene atmosphere at the beach after having fun together.