Four people stood still in the middle of the beach, their toes buried deeply in the sand, eyes dried from the wind. A pasty white ball idling inside a woman's hands, her eyes squinting at the boy facing her.
"Come on, Jean..." The man beside the boy murmured under his breath, he was sweaty and shirtless. Slowly, the woman lifted the ball — nobody flinched. In a blink of an eye, it was floating in the air and smacked by the woman's slender hand.
"Hit it, Ted!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs, his brown neck decorated with surging veins. Ted redirected his anger on hitting the ball rather than responding. Without hesitation, he passed the ball to Evelyn — a distracted look was on her face, he thought she might fail to serve. But to no one's surprise, the girl was an expert at performing an underhand serve.
"Hit it, Bob." Ted stepped back from the net, giving larger space for Bobby to work with. Jean placed her hands on her hips, "he's not gonna make it." And bingo! Bobby failed to hit the ball, resulting in them losing the first round of the game in a mere one minute.
"Aw, come on!" Bobby groaned for everyone to hear, he bent forward, placing both hands on his kneecaps. "Loser!" Jean taunted the other team as Ted went to retrieve the ball. "We'll let you serve. See if it changes anything." A smirk pasted on her face as she was challenging them. "Oh, yeah. Just you wait." Bobby snickered as he seized the ball from Ted's hands.
Bobby refocused his eyes on his opponent, who also happened to be his girlfriend, Evelyn. "Es-tu prêt?" He repositioned his footing in the sand, squatting down a notch. "I'm ready." Evelyn nodded her head, with a weak smile on her face. One could not simply act like they're in the best state of mind when they are not.
"Try and hit this!" Bobby's eyes grew dark, a mischievous smirk seemed to make itself at home on his face. Evelyn patiently waited for the man to strike, but then he took a few steps back. Bobby backed up until he was reaching the line on the sand.
"Shoot already!" Jean shouted. "God, what's he doing?" She mumbled to her teammate. "Only he knows." Evelyn denied the anxiety trying to kick in, she remained calm and collected. That is until Bobby threw the ball so high, it almost reached the sky. "Holy shit." Ted looked up at the ball, a hand above his eyes to shield them from the sunlight.
"Umph!" Audibly grunting, Bobby leaped from his position and floated in the air for what seemed to be several seconds. He was about to smack the ball in the air, and Evelyn's final thought was: well, je suis est fucked. "Wait, no—" Midway through her hearable sentence, Evelyn was put to a halt by an intense impact against her face.
"Shit! Eve, are you alright?!" The voice rang through Evelyn's head, she felt the cold and soft surface on her back. Her hands clenched the sand underneath her. She'd fallen backward by the harsh smack on the face from Bobby's direction. "You moron!" Jean threatened to hit them with her hand. Quickly, she helped to get Evelyn on her feet. Bobby and Ted crouched under the net to get a closer look at the victim.
"You okay?" With a voice as soft as a feather, Jean asked as she stroked Evelyn's back. "Oh, God. I don't know." Evelyn threw her head back, there were grains of sand in her brunette hair. "How did that happen?" Ted glanced over to Bobby, insinuating a thing or two, but the man shrugged off without much care.
"You're okay, you're okay— Jesus, is that blood?!" Jean instantly twirled the girl by the shoulders to face her, she carefully examined Evelyn's nose to see blood streaming down a nostril. "God damn it," Bobby muttered in shock, his hand scratching the back of his neck. "Come on, we need to put ice on that." Jean draped Evelyn's arm around her neck, and secure the girl by the waist. Ted stepped in to grab Evelyn's other arm and did the same thing.
Bobby was left behind to his own demise. His lack of reaction to the whole situation didn't sit right with everybody else. And why the face out of all the places? He stared into the sea horizon, his striking blue eyes wide opened, he stepped closer to the waves.
Once he was soaked in the blue, his feet were fused to the ground like he had a sea anchor tied around his ankle, he was oddly confident. Then saltwater rose around his torso, bringing his ephemeral determination to reach the brink of the ocean to its end. His weight was consumed by the coarse water, he was swooped off his limbs and slowly drifted away from the bay.
"He definitely did it out of spite," Jean said, pacing around the living room mindlessly. "What? No, he did not," Evelyn replied defensively as she held an ice pack to her nose, stifling a sneeze. "I mean, it did seem like he did it intentionally but I don't know." Ted plopped on a couch, sitting closely to Evelyn. "It's stopped, anyway. Nothing to worry about." Evelyn put aside the ice, wiping the spot underneath her nose.
A low creaking noise could be heard coming from the entrance, the three darted their visions to the door. Momentarily later, a man saturated with water through his clothes and hair stepped into the house. Liquid dripping from the edges of his shorts, creating a spot around him. His feet coated with sand, visage turning pale than his usual tan, he's been through an unknown catastrophe. Something had happened, something that's something, everybody could see it. The skin around his neck creased as he turned his attention to the French girl who's been calling his name.
Snap, snapping. Evelyn snapped her fingers in front of Bobby's face. One would say he'd been spellbound by a water creature, but a doctor would say he's gradually drifting toward insanity. His somewhat blondish hair cascaded above his brows, water still streaming on his forehead and down to his throat.
"Are you alright?" Evelyn reached for the man's face, she gently placed her palm on his cheek. Feeling the slight warmth on it, she furrowed her brows, and replaced it onto his forehead. "You're catching a fever." Evelyn backed away, she glanced at Jean, asking for her input. But all Jean gave was a shrug.
"Come on, let's clean you up." Evelyn turned around, heading to the stairs, but Bobby stood at the doorway, not moving an inch. Not a single muscle was moving inside his body. "Bobby?" The girl returned to the man. She gripped onto his wrist and forced him to walk forward.
They eventually made it to his room upstairs, took more than five minutes just to get there — it was like a slow-motion movie scene. "Sit down. I'll get you fresh clothes." Evelyn was reluctant to take her eyes off of him, but she had to look for dry clothing inside his closet.
The silence in the room was deafening, they were accompanied by the low humming of the fan on the lowest speed, and outside, pine trees rustled as the twilight breeze blew through them.
Evelyn picked out a white shirt, "are jeans alright?" she laid her hand on top of Levi's jeans. No response. She emitted a long exhale before bringing the clothes to Bobby. "Blue jeans, white shirt." Evelyn idled in her tracks. "Put it on, I'm gonna go get some aspirin for you." Knowing that there will be no words from Bobby, the girl briskly walked out of the room.
Bobby gazed outside his window, the sun was setting on the sea horizon. He kept thinking about how much superior the sun was; being able to see the end of every sea every single day. Soon, the beam of sunlight hits his face, a golden tint draped on his skin. In his head, he was thinking. But on the outside, he seemed like a man who's lost everything.
"Bobby..." Evelyn sighed in frustration when she saw the neatly folded clothes on the bed was left untouched. "You're leaving a spot on the sheet." She grabbed the man off the bed, and ripped the bed sheet from the mattress before letting him sit back.
"Here's aspirin." Evelyn handed him the pill and a glass of water. Bobby tentatively took them. "Thanks." He had his eyes on the floor, but at least he talked, that's always a good sign. "Now, will you change?" Evelyn placed the glass on a desk. She sympathized with the man, but she needed explanations.
"I miss them." Bobby's luminous eyes were still captivated by the yellow orb that was slowly descending from the sky. "Joe, Kathleen." His lips stiffened as he uttered their names. "You." Bobby breathed in. He grabbed Evelyn's forearm, his tender words and touch presented goosebumps throughout her tenuous body. "I'm still here." Evelyn sat on the plain mattress. Her eyes locked on Bobby, while he had emptiness behind his.
"It's funny, you know? I never truly got over their deaths and as a result, I numbed it— and when it doesn't work, I hurt people." His teeth biting his bottom lip, Bobby suppressed the urge to cry — though it was the safest place to do so.
"I hurt you. I followed where my mind goes." He had no courage to look Evelyn in the eyes — to tell the truth, and nothing but the whole truth. "No, you didn't cause me any pain, Bobby." Evelyn shook her head, chest expanding more than shrinking for she needs to be sensible. "I did, Eve." Bobby solely nodded. "I hurt you a lot, and often times, they're intentional." He confessed, he had hoped for this moment to never arrive, but it happened exactly the way he imagined.
"They're not intentional. You're only saying that because you're drained— paralyzed." Evelyn lifted her hand, and laid it on Bobby's drying hair, stroking the sand out. "Whenever I feel enervated, I think of a quote my mother always says— being a fool sometimes does not make one a fool all the time." She chuckled softly, she fixed her gaze on the lacquered wood floor.
"I'm a fool when I'm around you. Like a jester; trying to please the king, gain his attention." And when the sun had dived into the ocean, the room dimmed, leaving the two in the dark. "But being a clown, I could never please you." Bobby let tears downpour, it was dark and dim, Evelyn couldn't see. "I forced you to love me, anyway. Remember how I coerced you into saying you love me?" The man quickly stood up and took his sandy shirt off. He walked to the door to get the light.
"You did not force me." Bobby froze in his place, with his back facing Evelyn, he did not hide the pain on his face. "I've loved you since the first time I laid my eyes on you." Evelyn gets off the mattress to face Bobby on her feet. "You gave me the final push— the final push that I needed." The nerves around Evelyn's eyes sore when tears started welling up.
"And I've said this before, but I will say it again," The girl took a step forward and another one, slowly approaching the wounded man. "I'll love you 'til my dying day..." "Fuck." "...even if you broke my heart." And it's broken. Much faster than I thought.
"Nobody's gonna get out of this unharmed, undamaged, we know that." Tenderly, Evelyn placed both her hands on Bobby's bare shoulders. The warmth of Evelyn, the affection, traveled from her heart to Bobby's through her hands. "But at least," Her hands slid down Bobby's back, the light and feathery touch of her fingertips sent chills down his spines. Evelyn encircled her delicate arms around his waist. "At least I have you not only in my heart, but my embrace." Evelyn rested her head on his body, she closed her eyes while tightening the grips on him.
In that eventful serene moment, there was nothing else that could be said. There was only love and peace, everything that humans have always dreamed of. Everything that they had been desiring. The man veered around to face her, the instance of his hands cupping her face and slamming his mouth against hers was dramatically beautiful. Perhaps it was love and peace for the girl, but the man's heart was scorching in his chest.
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PS: Well, that was a hell of a chapter. Anyway, hi, I'm back! I'm gonna try and keep updating as often as possible. And... do comment what you think about this something that's something chapter lol.