“You know, if you really didn't want to come, we could've gone somewhere else.” Jason wanted to laugh and punch the back of one of the cars seats in front of him at the same time.

They found a spot in the beachside parking lot about ten minutes ago and his two companions hadn't moved since as if they were in the front row of a horror movie screening in cinema. The sun bathed all the people crowded on the sand and glinted off various accessories as well as the water. Heatwaves rippled above the cars parked all around them.

“I'll get the ticket.” Sinastar finally opened the car door on his side.

The screams of excited children, the chatter of happy adults, and the drone of splashing waves rushed in through the new entrance and Satara flinched away from the noise as if it belonged to a hive of enraged bees.

“We're here now,” she said as she took a deep breath. “I'll get the chairs.”

She pushed the passenger side door open and shielded her eyes with her arm as she exited the car. She walked around it to open the boot. Jason shook his head and got out to help her.

Why did I think this would work?

***

“Seriously, guys, we really didn't have to come here,” he called from the cool embrace of the water.

“It's fine, Jayce.” replied Satara from their beach shelter, cupping her hands around her mouth. She wore black linen trousers and a grey cotton T-shirt. A black cap had replaced the hood that usually cradled her head. “You just have fun with Sin.”

“Sin's coming in?” I didn't come here to have fun with Sin.

Satara's cousin nodded and tied his hair up into a bun. He stretched out his shoulders in turn as he walked towards the water, dressed in a loose black vest and capri shorts, and paused at the water's edge to stretch out his thighs, balancing perfectly on each leg.

“I hope you don't mind, Jason?” he said with a smile entirely too roguish for his innocent question.

“Of course I mind.” Jason grinned back at him. “I was looking forward to drowning Tara.”

“Then she made a wise choice.” He waded into the water slowly until he reached the seventeen year old and rubbed salt water onto the rest of his skin.

“She probably knows. That's why she won't come.” Jason scowled and floated back until he had enough water around him to bounce higher. He made a funnel with his hands around his mouth and yelled across the waves. “Oi! Tara! If you don't come here, I'm gonna bring the ocean to you!”

He gestured at his wet body in response to Sinastar's quizzical glance. Tara crossed her legs beneath her and pretended to meditate.

“Who meditates at a beach?” he huffed.

“It's actually quite therapeutic,” said Sinastar, walking in a little deeper. “When it's less busy, of course. You should try it.”

“You two really are – Oi!” Jason gasped as Sinastar splashed a handful of water at him and retaliated with his own. “Wanna fight?”

The older guy lowered his eyelids in a challenge. “Do you?”

***

Pretty sure that's not what water fights are supposed to look like but what do I know?

Jason's screams somehow managed to reach her through the cloud of human buzzing, hot air, and an awful mixture of smells that ranged from ice cream to seaweed. Sinastar had him in a headlock and was pulling him through the water in a circle. They were too far out for her to see his expression clearly but he was probably smiling.

Weird. Never would've thought he'd be the sadistic type. Satara flicked something that might have been a tiny crab out of their sun shelter and shuffled back further into its shade. Maybe we had a bad influence on him.

They were only at the beach because she hadn't felt like going anywhere else when Sinastar asked them to suggest day trip ideas. Now the thought of a quiet walk through a random forest sounded great albeit too belated to reverse the consequences of Jason's zeal.

Why would you want to come here on a day like this? Even meditation hadn't been enough to block out the laughter and squeals, the stares of children and adults alike as they walked past, the cheap flowery and spicy scent of mingled deodorants, and the menacing sunshine that lurked behind her like a passionately deranged stalker. Is the water the only way to escape it all?

She buried Sinastar's sunglasses discreetly beneath the edge of their shelter and hid their slippers beneath their towels at the back of it before inching out into the sunlight. It stung her skin despite the sunscreen Sinastar insisted they all use prior to leaving both their home and his car. She picked her way across the sand faster, avoiding people and sharp debris without distinction. By the time she reached the water, there was so much sand between her toes she almost ran into the cleansing waves.

“Tara!” exclaimed Jason as he reached out to her from Sinastar's gentle grip. “Save meeee!”

“Save yourself.” She pulled him towards her by the wrist and shuddered even as she welcomed the chill of the water and the distance it granted her from everything else. “I hid our stuff.”

Sinastar let him go and looked away from their shelter, squinting at her instead. “Well done.”

“Now what?” she asked, backing up until her feet rested comfortably on the seabed whilst she kept as much of her body underwater.

“Now we get revenge on Sin –” Jason turned to where the other man had been with an evil grin. “– the heck? Where'd he go?”

Sinastar splashed him from where he was treading water and then swam in a half circle in front of them, gliding through the ocean like a hot knife through butter.

“That little fish.” Jason pushed her shoulder and swam after her cousin, pausing only to say. “Race ya!”

Satara followed him, hastily stretching out her deltoids and quadriceps before she swam away from everything she didn't like.

And towards some of the things she did.