Sea Side

I didn’t see Flynn again until I was sixteen. I had gone to the beach. The vibrant sand had ignited my flesh. It seemed like less of a violent mother compared to our neighbor the Great Sea. Long limbs had accompanied my body; I was no longer a small, awkward girl. But danger had still captivated my soul.

I didn’t go to the beach on a sunny, tourist day. I had decided upon a muggy, dense day. A day when the radiant beach had been reduced to a pebble of darkness. This was the perfect formula to conjure Flynn Corbett.

Digging my feet into the warm sand, I had begun to do what I do best; sit and smoke. I was on my second stick of tobacco when Flynn had appeared. The ritual had worked.

“You aren’t supposed to be smoking here,” he said, removing the rolled paper from my fingers. He was nineteen now, but his beauty had only grown. Like an English Ivy. It twisted and curled, never ending. Flynn’s glow had not ceased.

“I know,” I smiled. His hair was longer now, shaggy. It was the ideal color of coffee. His eyes were honey. Skin of wood.

He had sighed; I was getting past his bark. “Why chose this day? It’s hideous out.”

“Maybe I like ugly things,” I replied, my hands curling around my carton of cigarettes. The ocean was calm, that day. No raging tyrant from home. It was softly splashing against the sand in a slow rhythmic pattern. “I remember you.”

Flynn’s coffee eyebrows had arched in an act of puzzlement. “I’ve never seen you in my entire life.”

“You saved my life. When I was thirteen, I think. I think a lot.” My eyes had lit up, finally I was able to tell the great story of vomit and water.

“Oh…” His expression is washed away by waves to enlightenment. “You’ve grown,” he says, examining my frame, honey eyes wandering a gangly body.

“Can I have my stick back?” I asked, my eyes floating to the rolled paper he was still holding.

“You’re still little, no. You shouldn’t even be smoking,” he said, grabbing the pack from my fingers. His flesh had – for a moment, quick as the waves – brushed against mine. That’s when I first felt the true force of Flynn Corbett.