Your Colorful World vs. My Black and White World

The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky. The warm California air wasn’t too malevolent today. There was even a nice breeze to accompany the extremely pleasant day.

While others were out enjoying the good weathered day, Matthew Sanders was stuck on the beach with one of his best friends, Zachary Baker. Stuck at the beach with your best friend, that doesn’t sound torturous, it sounded quite enjoying in fact. However, you did not know Zacky like Matt knew Zacky.

Ever since Zacky’s return home, his rant to Brian wasn’t just a random outburst. Zacky really did want to find the “right one.” It seemed like a far-fetched idea to Matt that Zacky was so serious about this particular subject. Matt had known Zacky for years and not once had he seen the man settle down and take all the responsibilities for his actions.

So, obviously, Matt was skeptical when Zacky invited him to the beach to aid him in his search for a girl that looked like she wasn’t a slut, a gold digger, and fake; essentially, he wanted to find a girl that looked like a man could bring her home to mom.

Zacky was hoping he would have some luck having another set of eyes looking around too. However, he wasn’t able to find any girl that fit his standards, and his standards were very high indeed. Matt pointed to a few girls. The girls were either too skinny, too blond, too brunette, too short, too tan, or too pale.

Matt groaned. ‘Why is he so picky?’ was the consistent thought that never left his mind.

Matt stared out to the water, seeing a little toddler that couldn’t have been more than three years of age running around, her blond pigtails in a messy fashion. Behind the little girl was a brunette woman who looked in her early twenties; her hair was blown back from the wind, the yellow t-shirt on her small body had spots from when the ocean water attacked her, her faded blue jeans were rolled to her kneecaps.

The woman and the little girl ran up and down the beach, playing a game of tag. The woman knew she could catch the little girl if she wanted to, but she decided to let the girl win as a means to entertain her.

‘She’s perfect!’ Matt thought, smiling greatly. ‘That girl exuberates nothing but potential wife material, exactly what Zacky is looking for.’

He tapped Zacky’s shoulder, continuing his actions even after he caught his attention. “Look at her!” Matt exclaimed, pointing to the girl he had been observing for a few minutes.

He nearly hit Zacky in the face in the process of pulling Zacky out of his seat. Zacky fidgeted, prying himself out of Matt’s iron grip.

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

Rolling his eyes, Matt huffed, “Taking you over to her. You should talk to her. She’s perfect! She’s playing with a kid—which I don’t think is hers—and she’s the girl that looks like your “right one” shit. Let’s go! No, where are you going?”

“No! She’s not it! She isn’t!” Zacky whined, shaking his head.

“Why not? We’ve been here for hours. So help me I am going to find you one girl to talk to today. I don’t care who it is, you’re getting new digits before the sun sets!”

“I don’t care anymore! I’m going home,” Zacky hissed, “and she isn’t it.”

“Is this about this Adeline girl Matt told me about?”

Zacky whipped his head, his eyebrows scrunched in anger. “Who told you about her?” he spat.

“Matt told me you like her,” Matt stated bluntly.

Zacky groaned, tugging the hair on his head. “Of course the two of three Matt’s in my life would come together and go against me!”

“We aren’t…He just told me that you like some girl named Adeline, sorry “Ady” as he called her. He stressed the name Ady a lot.”

“Yeah, well she is Adeline.”

Another smile with a different meaning stretched onto Matt’s face. A sudden racking fear bubbled its way from the pit of Zacky’s stomach to his throat. If his calculations were correct, Matt was going to do something that Zacky would surely regret him doing later on.

Taking a pointless deep breath, Matt opened his mouth, screaming, “ADELINE! ADELINE! OVER HERE!” while flailing one of his hands in the air. The other hand was on the back of Zacky’s shirt who doing a horrific job at running away.

Hearing her name from an alien voice, Adeline stopped running after Stella, remembering to call the young child so she would stop running. Stella returned to Adeline’s side, clasping onto her hand right away.

“What’s wrong Apple?” asked Stella.

“Nothing sweetie,” Adeline reassured her, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “Someone just called my name.”

“ADELINE!” the same unfamiliar voice screamed.

Finally, Adeline’s eyes found the man who apparently knew of her. She was staring at a very tall man with tattoos littering his muscular upper body. He was also holding back a friend of his. That friend of his was Zacky.

Stella pulled Adeline’s hand, dragging her towards the two men. Stella’s logic was that if that man knew her Apple and was calling her name out in public, they had to be friends or at least knew each other.

It took some time for Zacky to realize what Matt just did. His eyes bulged out of their sockets. He slapped Matt’s hand away. “You didn’t!” groaned Zacky.

“I did,” grinned Matt.

“Oh hi Adeline! I’m Matt,” Matt introduced as Adeline and the girl walked up to them.

“Another Matt. Do you mind if I give you a nickname?” asked Adeline, giving him a shy smile.

Zacky frowned. On his encounter with her, she didn’t dare speak a word to him. When she first met Johnny and Jimmy, she also wasn’t able to utter a word to them. It took the both of them some exertion to get the girl to squeak one word.

If Ady was so shy, then why was she able to string a whole sentence together for Matt? Zacky came to the conclusion that when she met Johnny, Jimmy, and even himself, it was always by surprise. She hadn’t expected to meet them. With Matt, though, it was completely different. She was able to approach him, and compose herself. That was the only reason why the shyness never appeared. At least that was what Zacky was going to believe.

“Sure!” Matt smiled, showing his dimples.

Stella pulled on Adeline’s hand violently. Adeline bent down to her height. “Yes baby?” she cooed.

“I have the perfect nickname for him! We can call him Macaroni!” Stella screamed, jumping up and down in spot at her sudden spark of genius.

Matt let go of Zacky’s shirt and knelt down to Stella’s height. She was a very adorable girl. Her hair was of course blond as Matt had noticed before, but her eyes were hazel. Her eyes reminded him of his own irises.

He smiled at her, finding her too adorable. “If you want to call me Macaroni then that’s what I’m going to be called from now on.”

“Okay Macaroni!” she beamed, touching Matt’s cheek with her little hand. She was so precious, Matt couldn’t help but to smile back and ruffle her hair. He asked Adeline if he could play in the sand with Stella, expertly leaving Zacky and Adeline alone to talk.

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Zacky stated, breaking the silence.

“I don’t,” she laughed, sitting down on the large beach towel. “Stella is my aunt’s daughter. I’m taking care of her for the day.”

“Oh okay,” he replied softly, sitting down on the towel next to her. “Why aren’t you wearing a bathing suit?” he dared to ask while playing with a loose thread from the towel.

“I don’t see the need for it. You’re only wearing them to show off your body and I have nothing to show off.”

Zacky stared blankly at her while she was staring out towards the water. “But you do…” Immediately, he wished he hadn’t said that.

“That’s nice of you, but I really don’t. I don’t mind anyways.” She then gave him a smile, a genuine one that showed his statement didn’t affect her.

A bit later, Matt walked towards them with a sleeping Stella in his arms. Adeline stood up and carried Stella. They gave each other friendly smiles.

“She told me she was tired and fell asleep right in the middle of our sand castle,” Matt explained.

“I can imagine! She hasn’t taken a nap today and we’ve been out here since 10 am. Thank you for playing with her for awhile,” Adeline said.

“It’s no problem.”

“Thank you Matt. I’ll see you later Zacky,” Adeline called over her shoulder.

Zacky lay back against the towel with his elbows supporting his weight. He watched as Matt’s eyes lingered too long on his Ady. His eyes narrowed significantly. Matt sat down on the towel just as Zacky was about to make a snaky remark about where the man’s eyes should be.

“Stop being jealous,” Matt exhaled, not having to look at his best friend.

That comment caught Zacky off guard and he stupidly replied with, “Huh?”

Matt chuckled. “I can feel your eyes tearing my head off. Chill. I don’t like her. She’s nice and that’s about it. So stop it already. I’m not going to steal her you idiot.”

“Oh, uh…yeah,” he spluttered, his eyes cast down.