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I really hate the internet sometimes, especially those stupid lists that’s like “Top Ten Gatorade Flavors of 2017” or other weird shit like that. The only ones that have any value are the ones about animals and I’m really glad Brendon has enough decency to read mostly those since he insists on reading them out loud the whole way to the beach. “Number seven, it is possible to hypnotize a frog by placing it on its back and gently stroking its stomach,” he stated.
The constant interest in his voice stops me from telling him to give it a rest. I mean, yes, I’d prefer to be listening to Abbey Road right now, but if spouting off useless facts makes him happy, I won’t make him stop.“Who felt the need to hypnotize a frog? I mean, it’s a frog, it can’t do much,” I reply, keeping my eyes on the road, more sand appearing in between where the grass ends and the gray pavement begins. The blue of the ocean peeks through the trees as we get closer.“Don’t know, maybe it can jump at people or eat flies in your house. Number eight, slugs have four noses. Wonder what they use it for?” he seemed genuinely curious. Wish I could give him an answer, but I’ve never even seen a slug, unless my reflection counts. Pretty sure I only have one nose though.“No idea. Maybe they should start having drug sniffing slugs, would be cheaper than dogs, definitely not as cute though.” “That would be a bad idea, it would leave slim all over the place. It would be funny to see a slug on a leash though. Okay, number nine, when a male penguin falls in love with a female penguin, he searches the entire beach to find her the perfect pebble to present her. Awww, that’s really cute,” he’s smiling, I can tell from the way his voice rises a bit. I don’t blame him, that is pretty cute, I mean the guy penguin goes through all that trouble just so the other one knows he loves them and like even if all of the penguins do it, it’s special still.“Kinda sounds like promise rings for humans,” I say while pulling into the parking lot of the beach, bringing the car finally to a holt. I turn to face him and he still has that happy-go-lucky grin shining bright. “Yeah, it is kinda like that. C’mon let’s go!” he pushes open the car door and runs around to open the trunk. I follow suit, pulling out the blue cooler. Brendon grabs the large umbrella and throws the backpack full of other stuff onto his back. I look over the remaining contents of my trunk before closing the hatch. “Wait, I forgot something," he opens the door to the back seat and digs around, coming back out with his white framed sunglasses and a short brimmed sun hat. I swear, if he tries to put it on my head, beach trip over.
He runs ahead, kicking up sand behind him. This cooler is way too fucking heavy on the smooth cement, which means the sand is going to be absolutely lovely. I don’t even want to know what Brendon filled this thing up with. “Ryan hurry up!” how the hell is he all the ways down there already? “I’m coming! Go lay down the blanket, I’ll be down in a minute.”
Of course he has to move further down the beach, even though it’s pretty much empty since it’s 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. Okay, just like twenty more feet, then my arms can fall from their sockets and I can yell at him for packing too much shit. Someone needs to make a cooler for the sand cause these wheels aren't even turning at this point, they're just being dragged and making my life harder.Soon enough I’m finally done being a pack maul and arrive at the blanket, I lay down, feeling the not so warm sand shifting underneath me.“Ryan, no! You got sand on the blanket already!”
I look towards my feet and see what he's talking about. I managed to kick up a small mound of sand on the corner of the blanket. I sit up and start brushing it off fully.“It was going to happen eventually, might as well start now.”
He puts up the umbrella as I finish the clean up. I pat the spot on the blanket next to me as he grabs my backpack and kicks off his sandals. He sits down, bag placed in his lap, and begins to dig through the things I packed. He pulls out pretty much everything needed for the beach; towels, two sand buckets and shovels, the smaller bag containing stuff for lunch that didn't need to be kept in the cooler, a small portable Bluetooth speaker, a Frisbee, and finally sunscreen which I know I forgot to pack because I forgot it on purpose. “Good thing I looked over stuff before we left, you forgot the sunscreen.” Of course he would check over everything. I thought i would be in the clear for once, a day in the sun without the hassle. I mean, I know it’s important and stuff, especially since I’m pretty pale, but still. It smells bad and it’s all sticky and a pain to rub in properly. Brendon pops open the lid as I take off my shirt and the wind of course has to blow the smell right into my nose. He leans over and wipes some on my cheeks and forehead.
“It’s cold and it smells bad.”
He nods at me in understanding as he starts to rub it into my face.“I know, but it’s better than being burned up.”
I shrug and just deal with it. He finishes up my face, then begins on his own. A grab the bottle from his lap and squeeze out a bit and start applying it to my chest, arms and shoulders as he removes his own shirt. He helps me with my back and i return the favor after he’s coated his front and arms. Finally, now we’re both covered and ready for the sun that’s slowly raising higher above us and the ocean. Brendon piles everything back into the bag except for the speaker and the buckets. He turns on the speaker and starts blaring one of his playlists. “Okay, we are going to build a beautiful sand castle with a moat and decorate it with shells,” Brendon declares as he hands me a bucket and shovel. There’s no way I could object to the excited smile plastered across his features. “Alright, where should we build?”
He walks away from the blanket a little and looks around, then stick his shovel into the sand,p “Right here!”
I walk over to him and sit down next to the shovel as he hurries off to fill his bucket with water. I run my hands through the sand as I watch him filling the plastic container at the water’s edge, shifting his feet back and forth as he stands on the rocks that washed up on shore. He carefully makes his way back and dumps the water onto a section of sand, the pale tan turning into a light brown.He draws a large circle in the dry sand with his finger, “Okay Ry, would you start the moat, please?”
I nod and start digging out the outline. He starts to fill his bucket with a mixture of the dry and damp sand and packs it down and flips it over onto the middle section of the construction zone. He hits the bucket with his hand then slowly wiggles it off, revealing the almost perfect tower. He beams at his creation then looks over at me.
“Look, babe!”
I smile back at him, scooping out more sand from the moat. “Nice job, Bren.”We continue to work on our respective castle features for a good half hour or so. A comfortable silence from conversation sits among us as the melodies from the speaker harmonize with the crashing of the waves and the occasional squawk of seabirds overhead. Brendon hums along to the song as he packs more sand into his bucket. I finish up packing damp sand around the sides of the moat, then look up at him after I finish. “Moat’s done, what else do you want me to do?”
He looks up and thinks for a second.,“I want you to go lay out lunch while I finish this tower.”
I nod and head back over to the blanket. I pull the snacks out of the backpack, then pop open the cooler and see what’s inside finally. I start to pull things out and find six water bottles, two sandwiches in plastic bags, a reusable takeout container full of fruit, and a shit ton of ice, which I’m assuming is what made it so damn heavy. I set up everything and return four of the water bottles back to the cooler. I glance over to Brendon. He smooths down the top of his newest tower, then jogs over. He sits down next to me and quickly pecks my cheek, then reaches for a sandwich.
“Thanks, Ry.”
I look at him a bit confused, “Why are you thanking me? You packed and made most of the stuff, including all that stupid ice. I just layed it all out.”
He beams back at me and starts to eat, "Well, thank you for setting it out."As we start to finish up eating, Brendon decides he’s done and stands up.
“Since we have to wait like a half hour or whatever before swimming now, let’s finish the castle up.”
I nod as I begin to clean up the garbage. He sits back down and helps me put everything away. Once we’re done, he springs back up and over to our castle. I stroll over to the construction site and watch him smooth out the walls of the castle.
“So, what’s the next step, B?”
He points towards the shoreline and hands me my bucket. “Go find some shells to decorate with.” I accept my bucket and my mission and head to the edge of the crashing waves. I scan the stones under foot as I make my way down the beach. I can’t help but remember the penguin fact about the pebbles. I’m starting to see the difficulty in this task now. All these pebbles look the same pretty much and it’s kinda hard to find shells. By the time i get around 30 feet away from our spot, I have 9 shells and a few decent looking stones, so I start to head back.I still have penguin pebbles on the brain and can’t help but wonder how cool it would be if I found the ‘perfect pebble’ for Brendon. He found the whole concept to be cute and I did, too. The only issue is going to be finding a pebble that's not bland and boring since Brendon most definitely is not either of those. I get back to our area and sit down next to him. I motion the bucket towards him as he continues cleaning up curves and edges. He turns his attention to the bucket and looks inside.
“These are going to look dope on here.”
He starts to examine some of the shells with a smile before putting them back inside.
He looks up at me with soft eyes and grabs his own bucket, “Ryan, would you be a dear and go get some water, please?”
I accept the bucket with an over dramatic sigh and stand again. I walk over to the ocean and squat down, placing the bucket into the water to be collected. I pay little attention as I watch the stones being pushed back and forth by the waves. Among the boring and plain grey and tan rocks, one catches my eye. I rest the now full bucket down into the sand and pick up the pebble. I look it over in my hands and smile. Something about it just seems absolutely perfect. It’s smooth all the way around and oval shaped. It’s grey appearance has undertones of light blue and seemingly sparkles in the sun. I pocket it in my swim shorts and grab the full bucket and head back to castle. Brendon is carefully decorating the finished towers as I sit back down.“Got the water,” I say as he turns to me and smiles.
He dumps the bucket slowly into the moat, then the rest into the dry sand. We continue building and constructing the sand for another thirty minutes or so until Brendon places the final shell on top of the center tower and stands.“It’s finished!” he exclaims as I stand beside him and looking it over with a small smile.“It looks great, Bren. You have an eye for sand design,” I say, putting an arm around his waist.
He turns to me and grins and gently kisses me. I kiss back until he pulls away. He grabs my free hand and starts pulling me towards the ocean. I let him drag me to the rocks before he breaks away from my loose grip and runs into the water, his feet making small splashes as he excitedly goes deeper. “Watch out. There could be broken glass or something," I say as I follow him much more cautiously. He smiles and keeps going deeper into the water until it’s up to his shoulders while standing.“Don’t worry, Ry. I’m not planning on stepping on anything and if I do I’ll let you know so you can kiss it better.” I just roll my eyes and try not to laugh. “No one plans to step on glass,” I state, assuming it’s obvious. He gives me a small shrug in return.“I’m sure someone has like, a pain kink and like steps on glass, then like, totally creams themselves," he says then silently laughs at his own joke. I can’t help but laugh at his explanation. Brendon points at the horizon and looks surprised. “Ry, what’s that?” I glance in the direction, but only see blue skies with a few wispy clouds.
Before I can say that I see nothing, I’m being splashed in the face. I look towards him and see him flashing a mischievous grin before he splashes me again.
I grin, “It’s so on now.”
I splash him back and laugh as he tries to swim away. I chase after him, each of us splashing the other. We venture back and forth from the deeper to shallower areas, Brendon diving down for a few minutes then popping back up for surprise attacks. We keep playing and splashing until I see Brendon seemingly falls backwards, hitting the water with a loud splash. I watch the spot where he went down, he stays under for a few seconds before he reemerges at the surface, spitting out salt water and rubbing his eyes with a pained pout. I swim over and gently place my hands on his arms, looking over his upper body.“Bren, what’s wrong?” I ask calmly, concern still evident in my tone. He looks at me with the sad little pout still there and takes deep breaths, still recovering from taking in water unexpectedly. “I slipped or something, then fell back and now my ankle is like, hurting, but I think hitting the water scared me more than anything, but I wanna go back to the blanket," he gives pleading eyes as if I would say no.“Of course we can. Do you think you can walk on it?” I watch as he looks down at the water, presumably putting pressure on his foot. He bites his lip then looks up at me again.“Don’t wanna, it hurts. Help me, please?” I nod then figure the best way to do this would be a piggy back ride. I turn around, back to him and lower myself so he can climb on. “Which ankle is it, B?” I ask as I gently bring my hands up to support his upper thighs, him wrapping his arms around my neck.“Left one,” he says as we make our way towards the shore. We reach the blanket and I gently set him down then retrieve the towels from the bag. I place one over his shoulders that he holds close around himself and shivers slightly. I get out a bag from one of the recently consumed sandwiches and fill it with ice from the cooler. I then help him move so he’s completely on the blanket before grabbing my shirt and using it to hold the ice in place on his ankle. I grab my own towel and place it over my shoulders before sitting closely beside the still shivering Brendon.He leans closely against me, then bites his lip as he crawls into my lap and curls up a bit. I look down at him and brush the wet hair off his forehead before taking my towel and beginning to dry his hair. “I’m sorry I ruined the rest of the day by being a klutz,” he says in a soft tone.
I pull the towel away from his head and hug his waist. “You didn’t ruin the rest of the day, Bren. It’s no one’s fault that you slipped,” I try reassuring him. He just continues to look down with sad eyes.“I promise, you didn’t ruin anything. I was getting tired of swimming anyways, so it’s no big deal. We can just relax and talk and watch the waves. I mean, just having you around makes anything enjoyable,” I say, then kiss his forehead. He gives a soft smile and leans into my chest more.I decide that maybe now would be as good a time as ever to give him the pebble as a way to help cheer him up.
"Remember earlier in the car, the whole penguins thing, how the one gives the other a pebble to show like, affections and stuff?”
I see him nod then look up at me with a confused look, “Why do you ask?”I slip a hand off his waist and into my pocket and grab the pebble. I present it to him, my palm open. He smiles wide and takes the pebble and observes it. He holds it in his hand then hugs me tight.
“Sometimes I swear you’re a hopeless romantic," he laughs softly.I hug back and smile, looking him in the eyes, “Only for you.”
I gently kiss him then pull away and take the hand that the stone is in.
“We compared it to a promise ring earlier, so this can be our promise. Special this way, you know?
“ He just rolls his eyes and grins, “You’re such a dork. A caring and handsome dork, but a dork nonetheless.” I poke his side playfully, then lay flat on my back, Brendon following on the way down. He readjusts and lays on my chest. I wrap my arms around his waist once more. He yawns before declaring it nap time. Before I know it, he’s passed out and sleeping soundly. I watch him with drooping eyes until following suit and drifting to sleep, the soft wind and waves crashing as a lullaby.