Feel The Sun On Your Face, and the Sand In Your Toes

“River! Get up! Gosh, you’re so lazy!!”

I grunt and roll over. “Shut up Riley!!! Can’t you be like a normal sister?!?” I put the pillow over my head to drown out her nagging. I start to hear heavy stomping up the stairs. Within a few seconds my sister barges into my room and pulls the sheets off of me. “What the heck?!? I’m in my boxers!!!”

She rolls her eyes. “River, we’re twins, it’s not that big of deal. Mom wants us to go down to the beach and try to meet new people.” I grab my covers and pull them back on me.

“Tell her, I don’t want too, nor do I have too.” She yanks them off me again. I give up on trying to be warm. I get up and go into my bathroom.

“She said that you have to go and that not going isn't an option so you might as well change into your trunks and let’s go.”

“Riley.” I look myself in the mirror. I look at all the bruises all over my body. I start to pale when I see the one at the hollow my neck. It was purple and blue and it hurt like heck. “I can’t.” I whispered.

“River, you’ll be fine. I’ll be with you the whole time.” Riley puts her hand up against the door.

“Promise?” I didn’t care if I was acting like a little kid; I needed my sister with me. “I promise. Love you. Now hurry so that way we won’t have to be out there that long. ‘Cause I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be out there any longer than you do. I rather sleep.”

I throw ice cold water on my face. “Of all places we had to move, we had to move to Malibu, California.” I take a towel and dry my face.

“Yeah, now all the girls will hit on you ‘cause your skin gets all ‘perfectly tan’.” I hear the sarcasm in her voice.

I come out of the bathroom in a pair of shorts. “Ha-ha. Hey, can I borrow your makeup?” Riley looks at me like I'm insane. “It’s to cover up the bruises.” I faded on the last word. A look of pain crosses her face. We looked so much alike it was scary. Of course we were twins but she was like the girl version of me and I was the boy version of her. We both had dark hair and green eyes. Well today they were green. They changed colors all of the time. We were ethnically mixed. Mom’s white and dad‘s black. And to be honest, it gave us both a better understanding of how things used to be and we loved being half-and-half all the more.

“It’ll get Better River. I promise. Just stay out of trouble.”

I throw up my arms. “Do you think I want trouble?!? All of the things that have happened, and all the things that I have been through, I didn’t want. I never wanted any of this to happen.” I feel my face start to become hot. Riley crosses the room within a couple of steps and pulls me in for hug. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not your fault. C’mon let’s go have fun.” She smiles and pulls me out the door and we head to the beach.