Appreciate the Rain

Chapter One

Life is far from perfect. In fact, it is so imperfect that it's seems like someone has to be playing some sort of sick joke on you. There are so many terrible things in life. Murderers, politics, scary stories, and sporks, just to name a few. There are terribly sad things that await us, as well. Things like death, videos of army soldiers coming home to their kids, and that one book that gets you to cry every time you read it. This Earth is made up of entirely terrible things.

Like sharks.

"Elwood," I whine. "What if there are sharks in there? What if they are just waiting down at the bottom of the sea, and when we get in they decide that they are starving?"

Here I am standing on the shore, not willing to go ankle deep, and there he is, up to his waist in salt and seaweed.

He smirks and starts awkwardly clambering out of the water. When he reaches me, he gently takes my hand and whispers. "If we spot a shark, we can punch it in the nose. I've heard that scares them off! And if he seems friendly enough, we can tell him that we really don't want to be eaten, and we only want to make out a little bit."

I can hear his lopsided smile in his words. The words that make me think that the water is safe. The words that make me breathe, take a step, and another, and one more.

Ankle deep.

When I feel the water hit my shin, I spin on my heel to face him. "What's taking you so long?"

His grin stretches from ear to ear while he runs back in the water, catching up to me at a rapid pace.

And soon enough, we seem to have been swallowed up by the vast ocean. Far enough into the water so that we could no longer hear the little kids splashing around, or see the dozens of tourists taking pictures of the birds that eat trash, but close enough to the shore so that no sharks would dare come near us. This is where I hatch my plan. This is where I set it in motion.

I look over at Elwood and see him staring back at me. God, he looked gorgeous in the last of the sunlight. His shaggy blonde hair looked five shades darker than usual, but his bright green eyes still managed to pierce through the shadowy light.

"What is it, princess?" I had forgotten that I was just staring at him. I need to say something before he gets freaked out.

I motion with my pointer finger for him to come closer to me. While he doggy paddles to me, I dip my head underwater and prepare for attack. When I break the surface, and finally reach air, I am ready for him to pull my close, which he does of course.

He grabs my waist and holds me. Leans in.

And I yank back at the last minute, shooting a spray of water directly at him.

Elwood sputters, but regains control quicker than I had expected and dives under the waves. A line of salty water hits me right in the face.

"It is so on!" I scream.

The laughter seems endless and I am soon out of breath. I steal a glance at Elwood and notice that he is too. I silently swim over to him and give him the longest hug I have ever been known to give. He looks down and pecks the tip of my nose, and places his forehead on mine.

We sit there, eyes closed, just breathing.

Only existing.

"I love you so much more than you know, Clementine Rivers," Elwood mumbles at me.

"You sure about that?"

"One hundred and two percent."

I smile to myself.

And it was as if this imperfect world granted me one perfect moment. A perfect moment- besides the fact that there were terrible, horrible, man-eating sharks that were swimming around in the same water that I was treading right now.

Otherwise, perfect.