Beaches

Its a short story about three best friends reconnecting

She was sweating. Still perfect though. The top down and sitting, smiling with them, Calvin Harris playing on the radio. Her thighs were sticking to the smooth cream leather of the passenger seat. Then her knees stuck as she got up and lifted her hands hoping to feel the wind but only feeling the heat in waves. More sweat started seeping out of her skin making droplets that leaked into her thin tank making the color darker with every shiny bead. Her jean shorts even felt too hot with her bikini bottoms making a layer underneath them. The curly now frizzy brown hair stuck to her neck even though it was a messy bun on the top of her head. She turned up the music to cloud out her thoughts. Her perfect sun shades were slipping down her perfectly pointed and upturned nose. This was the perfect day with her perfect friends in the perfect car and the perfect music. Nothing could be wrong in her perfect life, right?

Her friends laughed as they looked around at the L.A traffic. The air conditioning was on but they were all still sweating from the blaring sun. She looked at them and smiled. They were all the perfect mix, blonde, ginger, and curly brown hair. All three of them looked like they walked right out of an American Eagle advertisement. They were the epitome of what L.A beach girls are. They looked rich but not snobby. They were sporty but girly. They seemed to be genuine people but no one would care about that. One look at them and everyone would fall in love. They knew they were perfect. They had the perfect life with all of the things they desired Looks that would stop a eighteen wheeler are what made them so perfect. It was too bad the traffic wouldn’t part to let them by.

 They were all just waiting to hit the cool beach. Brennan, the curly haired one, was waiting to get there and see what the empty space of the beach had for her. Everything had been messed up. Her parents were getting divorced, them selling the houses, the threatening to take her away from everything that she knew and loved. They didn’t even care that her life was perfect and that nothing could touch her because of the way she looked.

That couldn’t be the only thing that was being messed up either. The red head in the back seat had no idea that her best friend knew everything. Brie was just flipping her hair to one side of her shoulder and wiping the droplets of sweat that developed under her sun shades and ruined her liquid eye makeup. After everything she had done Brennan thought she didn’t even deserve to have the smile on her face. In all fairness, Brie didn’t have the life she seemed to. There were also storm clouds in her own head. They all had these cold clouds. It was a miracle that any of them could smile.

The heat helped them through everything. The sun shine gave them an escape even though the heat beat down on them. They finally got to the beach and when they stepped out of the car their feet were scorched even through their flip flops. Every grain of sand burned their feet and it wasn’t until they reached the water that they were relieved. The water was a free space. Everything they felt disappeared. The clouds were now gone and they forgot about each other. All the girls dipped themselves under the water and began swimming. They had met each other there and this was the only place they could escape the world together.

The blonde, Analeigh, was the first to resurface. Her thick hair was now flat and we down her back and neck. This girl had pink pouty lips, turquoise almond-shaped eyes, and gold skin that was just too amazing to ever come out of a bottle. Her skin glowed against a haltered bikini strap. The strap, tied tight around her neck, was used for stability but even the smallest bit of restriction made her feel suffocated. She also wore cut off jean shorts that were now so heavy and consumed with water that they threatened to drag her down into the open unsafe freedom of the ocean. That’s what she knew freedom to be, unsafe and open. She rather liked that though. Beach living was what she loved about being here. Temporary freedom from another type of freedom entirely. This new ugly freedom was the most restricting thing to her, that and the strap digging into her neck. The blonde looked to the left to see her friends coming up for air. She swore to herself that she would tell them her secrets today.

            When the ginger and curly blond haired mermaids came up they looked at each other. If it was even last week there would have been warm looks and sparkles in their eyes. But the only thing in the red head’s green eyes was envy. Brennan’s, the curly haired, one showed sorrow but also pity and forgiveness in her light brown eyes. She put a smile on her face and said, “This is perfect.” Then she laughed because the acts never dropped. It didn’t used to be like this for them. They used to tell each other everything. No matter what it was them against the world. The ginger, Brie, smiled back and commented, “As perfect as anything with us involved is.” The blonde, Analeigh, laughed to herself. She hadn’t even said a word yet. It had been like that since before the drive. It was possible for her to do that though. Awkwardness didn’t exist to her or any of them really. They were too perfect for that. Besides, she didn’t really want to say anything for fear of what might come out.

They all dove under the water and swam back to the shore. Brennan wondered when the levy would break and all of it would come out. Her and her two perfect friends sat on the beach. They didn’t bother with towels just the sand under them was enough. Brennan fidgeted with her silver thumb ring that she forgot was there. They were in such a rush to get to the water, to be free, that she forgot about everything else.

“How are you?” she asked Analeigh.

“Great. Perfect actually,” the blonde replied, “What about you?”

“Perfect as always.”

“And you?” Analeigh asked Brie.

“Perfect,” she whispered.

“What are we doing?” Analeigh blurted out.

“What do you mean?” Brennan asked her friend.

“Do any of us actually believe each other? What happened to us? We were so important to each other that we could read each other’s minds,” she complained.

“I know,” Brie said, “There’s so much you guys don’t know.” Tears started to fall from her perfect eyes.

“Same here.” Analeigh agreed.

“Same here,” Brennan repeated.

Analeigh told them about her parents leaving her. “Remember that party at my parents’ house for Fourth of July?” Analeigh asked. They both nodded their heads, “That was the last time I’ve seen my parents.”

“Where have they been all this time?” Brennan asked.

“I don’t know. Somewhere in Europe maybe? I refused to leave with them. Then they just said okay and left. What kind of parents leave their child and move across the world? Normal parents would have dragged me out kicking and screaming. They just gave in and said okay. They didn’t want me to go with them. They prefer it this way.”

“So they just pay for the house and stuff and don’t even talk to you?” Brie inquired.

“I get an email every now and then. But it's just them telling me how they are and asking about school. They might as well send a message every month saying ‘We’re having so much fun without you!’” She scoffed at that then just pulled her knees into her chest. A couple tears came down and one sniffle but she wiped them away with her sweatshirt. She placed her head on her knees facing the sunset and trying to keep her tears under control.

“It's okay. We can do this together. My parents have the nerve to be getting a f*****g divorce.” Brennan said angrily. Brie gasped for some odd reason and Analeigh looked up and stared intently at Brennan. “I have a feeling you already know about this Brie.” Brennan looked at one of her two best friends and gave her the worst glare in the world. It was one of those glares that basically said ‘you’re dead to me’. Brie looked down and didn’t answer. “I know you f*****g know!” Brennan yelled at her and stood up quickly.

“Why would she know, Brennan?” Analeigh asked trying to calm her and control the situation.

“Tell her why you know.” Brie stayed quiet and didn’t even look up at her friends. “Not going to say it?  Okay, I will. Brie decided she wanted to be a s**t and w***e around with my brother every chance she can get. My f*****g brother.” Brie still hadn’t looked up. “Oh my God. If you’re going to be a big s**t you might as well wear it proudly and actually admit it.”

“Brennan, calm down. We have been friends for almost ten years. We’re practically sisters. Don’t yell at her like that.” Analeigh said stepping in front of where Brie was sitting and staring at the ground.

“The fact that we are ‘sisters’ made it even more gross. You guys grew up with my brother around. That usually means brothers are off limits. But the little s**t doesn’t understand that.” Brennan breathed and finger combed back her hair. “Okay maybe some of that was not needed but I have been going through too much s**t without dealing with this too.” Brennan started to cry as well then just sat down and crossed her legs.

Brie finally spoke up, “You think this has been easy for me? I’ve had to lie to one of my best friends! I hated hiding it from you. But like you said, brothers are usually off limits. We were just both in really weird places. He had found out about the divorce about two months ago.”

“Wait, what?” Brennan asked, “You’ve known about this longer than me? You decided to not tell me.”

“He told me not to tell so I didn’t.” Brennan scoffed at her reply.

“Because your best friend ranks lower than your f**k buddy on the scale of loyalty,” she commented than began to listen again.

“I was just an open ear. For once in my life, nothing was wrong. I was actually perfect. I wore the right clothes, went to the right parties, owned the right car, had the right house, and had the right personality. Things were going so perfect for me I think I was just trying to screw it up.”

“That is a really lousy excuse.” Brennan said flatly. Analeigh let them hash out this on their own. She had intervened that one time but it was something that they needed to handle on their own.

“It’s not an excuse. There is no excuse for what I did.”

“You're damn right there isn’t.”

“But it happen and now my entire life is fucked up from here on.” Brie said then looked at her friends with her own tears clouding her eyes.

“What do you mean? All you have to do is stop sleeping with him.” Analeigh said.

“It’s not that simple. There are other lives to worry about.”

“Who’s life?  D****t, stop beating around the bush Brie.” Brennan said still with a tone of anger in her voice.

“Well we are going to have a little Brie in seven months.” She told them. She looked sad and happy at the same time. Brennan looked like she wanted to hurt her best friend.

“SO you trapped my brother?!”

“Yes, because I got pregnant on purpose.” Brie said sarcastically. Anger did not look like anything close to perfect on her face.

“There is a way to fix all of this. You could go take care of it and then we can try to get some normalcy in our lives. Brennan you never even told me which parent you are leaving with.” Analeigh said. She was basically the mediator and devil’s advocate.

“I refused to leave. Brandon, you know my 22-year old brother that has knocked up my 16- year old friend, he is staying with me in the house. I didn’t want to leave you guys. I couldn’t imagine it. The other reason was because my dad was moving to Alabama and my mom was moving to like Oregon or Washington or some other insignificant state.” Each of them gave a half-hearted laugh.

“I’m not getting rid of my baby. My parents will probably disown me and Brennan your family will want nothing to do with me because I would be the girl that ruined their son’s life. But I’m still going to have this baby.” Brennan was about to speak but Analeigh beat her to it.

“Brie, I’m sorry but you are thinking with your heart and not your head. You can’t have this baby. You know that. I know you want to but you can’t. So what me and Brennan are going to do is take you to a clinic and let you get your life back. You can’t argue with logic. I promise that things will get better. It might hurt for a while but when you’re ready it will happen again.” Brennan reached for her friend and hugged her.

“I’m helping you because I need you guys right now. But, I'm still pissed at you. I don’t know if I can trust you again but I will always be there for you,” Brennan told her. In the hug, their salty cheeks were pressed against each other’s and both could feel their own clumpy wet eyelashes. Analeigh looked at them affectionately but didn’t join the hug.

“Hey,” Analeigh said, “Do you guys remember when we first learned how to swim?”

“Yeah,” Brennan replied, “A week after all three of us were already trying to jump in the ocean.” They all laughed.

“Yeah our parents actually worried about us then.”

“Well yeah because we actually might have died.”

“That didn’t keep us from trying to escape.” Brie said and smiled.

“What about the time we planned to escape to Australia?” Brennan said.

“Oh my god, I remember that. We all packed up our suitcases and stole our passports. We even bought the tickets.”

“Yeah it would have all been perfect if we weren’t twelve years old,” Analeigh joked. They guffawed until their sides hurt and they were struggling to get air.

“I just remember us all sitting at the check in with our suitcases when Brie’s nanny came to get us,” Brennan said in between short breaths.

“She was really upset. My parents called her at six in the morning! They hadn’t even gotten out of bed to come get us.” They smiled at each other again just for seeing the memory in their heads.

“What about the time…”

They sat on the beach for a long time, far long after it was dark. The moon lit up as they all told their stories. All the secrets, tears, and anger spilled into little lakes on the coarse sand. They sat there holding each other for a long time. They wished they could be free as the ocean but stay the same like the sun and how it came up on the horizon the same every morning.

Author's Note

this is the first thing I am posting on here. I just want people to be completely honest when reviewing my work. I just want to know if I'm a good writer.