Sea Breeze 01 - Breathe

the sand. A simple rectangular in-ground pool stood in the center of the yard, surrounded by guys in swim trunks and girls in bikinis. They were slinging back slime from a shell, and I reminded myself not to grimace when they talked to me and ate those things. Marcus squeezed my hand and pulled me into the party.
    “Marcus, it’s about time you got here. All the shells are almost empty,” called a guy with long brown dreadlocks.
    Marcus smiled down at me and whispered, “I won’t eat any in front of you, I promise.”
    I shook my head. “No, really, it’s fine.”
    He laughed and pulled me over to the group of guys standing with the dreadlock guy. Several people called out to Marcus, and he waved and nodded. My stomach churned with nervousness when I realized the majority of the people here were staring at me.
    “Hey, guys, this is Sadie. Sadie, this is Rock,” he said, indicating a rather large muscular guy with a shaved head, “Preston,” who was what I considered a beach bum, with long blond hair and dark tanned skin, “and Dewayne,” the dreadlock guy, who also happened to have several tattoos and piercings. “We’ve all been friends since second grade.”
    Dwayne flicked the dreadlocks out of his eyes and grinned. “Ever since Rock beat the shit out of Preston and ol’ Marcus here jumped in to take up for him, and then started getting pummeled by Rock until I jumped in, and about that time we all got suspended from school.” The four of them laughed at the memory, and I tried to picture them all as little boys fighting.
    “Our parents were all so proud. They had elementary school delinquents.” Dewayne grinned and tipped back an oyster.
    “Dewayne will reminisce all day if you let him. Don’t act like you enjoy his stories. He won’t stop,” Marcus said, smiling.
    The friendship among these four made me feel warm inside. It wasn’t something I could relate to.
    “So, Sadie, how did ugly-butt Marcus here find a beautiful blind girl?” Rock asked as he flipped a burger.
    I glanced at Marcus to see him smiling at me. “We work together,” I said. “He came to my rescue on my second day there, and my eyesight is twenty/twenty.”
    One of them let out a low whistle, and another laughed wickedly.
    “Marcus is a regular ol’ knight in shining armor, I tell ya,” Dewayne said with a flick of his dreadlocks. Marcus shoved him playfully, and Dewayne burst into laughter.
    “I’m going to take her to meet other people if you three can’t behave.”
    “What did I do?”
    Marcus sent him a mock glare before turning to me. “Are you thirsty?”
    Dewayne reached into a cooler behind him and held out a soda. I took it, thanked him, and listened to the four of them talk about a beach volleyball game going on next weekend between them and a rival team. They would ask me questions or bring me into the conversation occasionally, but mostly they just planned and strategized. I had no idea beach volleyball was such a serious sport.
    A platinum blonde in a hot-pink bikini that barely covered the important stuff, walked up behind Rock, wrapped her arms around his waist, and kissed his neck.
    “Sadie, this is Trisha, Rock’s fiancée, and Trisha, this is Sadie, a friend of mine.”
    Trisha smiled at me and ran her hand over Rock’s head. “If you get bored with this bunch’s conversation, you are welcome to come lay out with me and the girls.”
    “Okay. Thanks.”
    “Are you bored? Want to go in for a swim and cool off?” Marcus asked.
    I wasn’t really sure I wanted to take off my sundress in front of all these people. My hand-me-down red bikini wasn’t nearly as skimpy as the ones the other girls were wearing, and I didn’t fill one out like they did either. I thought of my long skinny legs and compared myself to the curvy, large-chested girls lying out, and I wanted to keep my clothes on. However, I also wanted to make friends and not let Marcus down, so I needed to lay out or swim. Since swimming kept me covered most of the time, I decided it would be the best option. “Swimming sounds good.”
    He grinned and pulled his T-shirt off to reveal a very tanned and muscular chest. I swallowed hard and wished I didn’t have to do this, but I knew I would have to sooner or later. So I slipped the sundress off and laid it beside Marcus’s shirt. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone and wished I could just go jump into the water without having to actually walk calmly over to it