The sweat was dripping off of Ash’s forehead. His long, droopy bangs hung over his face. “Ahhh! Feel that early-summer heat!” Ash stretched his arms out along the neighbouring headrests, letting his head hang back loosely behind him.
“Can’t believe it’s June already...” Rose commented, looking up from her book.
Although there were cars around them, the traffic was light enough that the loud wind blowing through the windows could substitute for air conditioning.
“Hah?” Ash blurted out, obnoxiously.
“I said I can’t believe it’s June already!” Rose shouted over the wind.
All of Ash’s muscles were completely relaxed. “I love summer.”
"Me too,” Rose added.
“Hah?”
“Me too!” Tired of yelling in the opposite direction, she closed her book and turned back to him, around the spine of her chair. “My family would go on a family trip to Wasaga Beach every summer.”
“I was there a while back, but it wasn’t hot enough to really enjoy the beach yet. I’d be down to swing by again today.”
Traveller finally joined the conversation. “We’re already too far north. We’d have to turn back.”
“So? I thought you two weren’t headed anywhere. What’s the point of travelling without a destination if you’re not free to go wherever you want?”
Traveller had no answer.
He noticed Rose’s eyes in his peripheral, like those of a puppy begging for a treat.
Traveller whipped the car around in one motion, slipping into the next opening in of oncoming traffic.
An excited smile grew on Rose’s face.
“Alright!” Ash exclaimed with a hearty laugh. “Looks like you’ve still got some youthful adventure in you, eh old-timer?”
“Why do you keep calling me old-timer?” This name-calling had persisted since he picked the kid up, and was starting to get on his nerves. “You know I’m only twenty-five, right?”
“Yeah. Old-timer.”
The closer they got to Wasaga Beach, the hotter the sun shone, and the denser the traffic became. Standing still in the heat became unbearable to Traveller. He raised the windows shut and turned on the air conditioning.
“What’re ya doin’?!” Ash yelled out. “You can’t drive to the beach with windows closed! Gotta let that heat in!”
“I’m more of a spring guy.”
Traveller eventually managed to find a spot in an open parking lot. Afraid of what might happen to the bag if he were to leave it unattended, he decided it would be the smart move to carry it with him.
The foot-traffic on the boardwalk was even heavier than the road. Wasaga Beach was home to all kinds of characters: punks, beach bums, stoners, bikers; the list goes on. Traveller protectively clung to the purple straps of the bag.
Rose realized something and, without warning, stopped walking. A few steps later, Traveller and Ash did the same to look back at her. The crowds flowed around the three of them, like waves of a river around stones. “I don’t have my bathing suit.”
“You sure you don’t want my help picking?” Ash called through the wooden doors of the changeroom. The doors had an open space beneath, giving him a view of her feet.
“I’m fine. What about you? Aren’t you going to pick something up for yourself?”
“Spend money on a bathing suit? Ha! I’ve got boxers on already.”
“You’re going to swim in your underwear?”
Something about the way she said underwear made him imagine what she would look like in underwear. He rubbed his chin with a dirty smirk.
“Hello? You still there?”
“Huh?” How long had he been lost in thought..?
Traveller was waiting outside of the shop, pressing the bag against the wall with this back. He wasn’t in the mood to swim and didn’t mind getting a little sand on his jeans, so he had no need for a bathing suit.
All he could do was reminisce. It was just about a year ago now that he drove Violet up here…
They planned the trip for months. It had been a fairly busy summer for the both of them, and it was difficult to find a day where they were both free, so one could imagine his disappointment when he woke up that fateful morning to a rainstorm. He was ready to give up and spend the day at home, but, of course, Violet wouldn’t give up so easily. Practically forcing him out, she managed to convince him to drive them through the rain anyways. She was convinced that the rain was just the universe testing them, to see how badly they really wanted it. And a test it was. The entire drive, his hands remained firm at ten and two and his eyes neurotically scanned what little he could see from the obscured road ahead. Of course, the rain didn’t magically stop as soon when they arrived. Wasaga Beach wasn’t some static eye in the storm, providing them with a bright sunny oasis at the end of the trek; if anything, the rain was even heavier. He had been prepared to turn back or find a motel for them to wait out the storm, but again, Violet continued pushing forward. She ran out of the car, into the hot, summer rain, stripped down to her bikini, and dove right into the waves. He yelled out to her from the sand: “You’re crazy!” She turned back to him, eyes squinting in the heavy rain, and, with a smile, replied loudly over the crashing of the waves: “You’re crazy for letting a little rain ruin your day! What’re you afraid of? Getting wet while you’re out for a swim?”
That was a good day.
Ash followed Rose out of the store, ogling what skin had been revealed by her new, bright red bikini and the matching red towel that hung around her shoulders. “Let’s find a spot,” she said with a smile.
It was a minor miracle that there was even any leftover space on the sand big enough for them.
“Straighten out that corner,” Rose instructed, pointing to the folded corner of the towel by Traveller’s feet.
“Sure.”
As he bent down to do so, his knees cracked audibly. He let out a groan.
He could almost hear Ash’s cocky, mocking smirk.
“I’m not old!”
Even Rose let out a giggle after that.
“Alright,” Traveller stood, once again tightly gripping the strap of the backpack. “I’m going to the washroom.”
“You gonna take your tampons with you?” Ash asked, pointing to the bag.
“We can watch the bag,” Rose said.
Traveller trusted Rose, but…
After Severn, he had told Ash that he could travel with them, but he still didn’t feel he could trust the kid yet.
But, then again, it didn’t really make sense for him to travel with someone that he didn’t trust...
That meant he had two options: kick Ash out of the group, or start trusting him…
He cautiously lowered the bag onto the towel and backed away, keeping watch of Ash.
Ash raised his arms, annoyed by Traveller’s parental, judgmental eyes. “You gonna go to the bathroom, or piss on the sand?!”
Traveller finally released his tight, mental grip on Ash, and turned, making his way towards the distant washroom.
The bag laid on the center of the towel with Rose and Ash on opposite ends. Ash had his knees up, observing the surroundings with idle contentment. Rose laid back, opening the same mechanic book she had been reading in the car.
“C'mon!” Ash exclaimed. “You really came to the beach to read?”
Rose made a noise with her mouth, both acknowledging Ash’s statement, and brushing it off at the same time.
Ash poked at the hardcover of the book. She managed to ignore the first few taps, but as it repeated, she became tenser and tenser.
“What?” Rose finally snapped, peering over the book at him.
“Let’s go for a swim!” he said, excitedly.
She put the book down. She wouldn’t get any reading done with him around.
“Let’s wait until he gets back,” she said. “We need to watch the bag, remember?”
Ash shook his head. “Man, you just do anything people tell you to, don’t you?”
“Not anything.”
Ash laid back, laying his skull onto both of his palms.
“So? Shoot me, I like to avoid conflict. Usually if you just do what people ask, things go smoothly. I’m not some free-spirited drifter like you.”
“You are now, aren’t you?”
“Just because I’m travelling around, I’m just supposed to do whatever I want? Just stop caring about being a good person?”
“You never had a rebellious phase, did you?”
She shook her head, a little red in the face. “I wouldn't even know how to be rebellious...”
Ash’s eyes were shut now. His youthful face glowed under the direct sunlight. “Just do something rebellious.”
“Like what? Just leave the bag here?”
“Or… you could just take it and run.”
Rose was lost for words. The best she could manage was a sharp exhale from deep within her throat—a vocal exclamation mark.
Ash chuckled through his shut eyes. “Relax, I’m kidding.”
She stressfully laid her head back next to his. “Don’t joke about that.”
“I’ve got an idea. How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Good enough.” Ash pointed back to the shops that lined the boardwalk. “There’s a liquor store behind these buildings. They get busy easily, so they don’t bother wasting time checking I.D.”
“You want me to buy alcohol?” She said this with the kind of innocence that would make anyone second guess she was the same girl who’d built up the kill-count she had in recent days.
“And then we’re going to both drink out here. In public.” He smirked, mimicking the sound of a ghost. “Oooooooh!”
“Why don’t you just do it if it’s that easy?”
“I already have—and I’m a year younger than you. Besides, I’m not the one with something to prove.”
Her anxiety was spiking now. Through panicked breaths, she managed to pump herself up to her feet. “Alright then.”
Ash cheered her on through his genuinely excited smile. “Oh! She’s gonna do it!”
She held her breath and nodded sternly, forcing her nervous legs towards the liquor store.
Ash had been right. She got in and out of the liquor store without even a second glance.
She neurotically held the brown paper bags (which contained the first sugary coolers that caught her attention) to her torso.
She felt strangely proud of herself. Although she had broken plenty of rules since she met Traveller, those had all been in self-defense—a necessity for survival. This had been the first time she’d willingly broken a law for its own sake.
That pride completely vanished when she returned to their towel, only to find that Ash and the bag were gone.
Traveller returned right after her, to the familiar image of Rose standing, silent and dumbfounded, where Ash and his property should have been.
“Again?”
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