Beach Drabble, Part 2

Beach Drabble, Part 2 (Part 1: http://pastebin.com/XmbhWUzS)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Roiling waves crashed into the sun-bleached shore with a dull roar. The sun beat warmly down on the hot sand and cool waters. A small breeze ruffled the assortment of colorful parasols and carried the cries of seagulls over the beach. Children screamed in merriment and even some adults let their mirth be heard.

“Geez, what a pretty day! I’m so glad we decided to come to the beach. This will be so much fun!” Naomi cried as she stepped out of Natsume’s car. “What do you think, Nat? Ready to build a sandcastle?”

The brunette slowly unfolded herself from the driver’s seat and gratefully accepted the cane Naomi held out to her. “If you’d like to Naomi, sure. Hey, Miki, wanna wake up Suzu? We’re not going to be able to carry all this crap by ourselves.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have packed all this shit then,” the tall girl shot back as she tugged a thick bag free from the trunk. It fell to the ground with a solid thunk. “Seriously, what’s in this?”

Naomi shrugged her shoulders and opened the door to the back seat. A girl with hair the color of the sea flopped halfway out, saved from the ground by her seatbelt. The blonde girl clucked her tongue and softly shook her friend’s shoulder. “Suzu. Wake up now. We’re at the beach! Sandcastle time! Yayyy!”

Suzu stirred and slowly opened her eyes. Squinting against the sun, she unbuckled her seatbelt and slowly exited the car, stretching her arms above her head in the process. She nodded after feeling a satisfying pop and dropped back into her normal slump.

A crash and a string of curses drew her attention to the back of the vehicle.

A very incensed Miki was struggling under the weight of six different bags and a rather large wicker basket. Suzu couldn’t help but admire how her friends long legs flexed below the hem of her sundress. She would kill to have legs like that. She raised her eyes and met a trademark Miki smirk.

“Like what you see? Take a picture, loser. It’ll last longer.”

Suzu straightened and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Yeah, sure. Maybe when your face breaks the camera I can finally get a new one.”

“Is that so? Think you can get a new face when my fist breaks that one?”

“I don’t see why not. You already got the bottom of the barrel, so I’ve got nothing to worry about!”

Miki narrowed her gaze at Suzu and seemed ready to deliver a scathing retort before a thick brown cane chopped the air between them. Natsume stepped in front of Suzu and held her arms up pleadingly. “As much as I would love to report a homicide in the school paper, I’m here to have fun. You two can flirt it up AFTER I’ve fallen asleep while tanning.”

The air remained tense for only a few seconds before the girls devolved into fits of laughter. Miki flashed a big smile to her best friend and hefted the bags in her arms.

“If you’re quite done napping, you wanna help me with this? Pretty sure these weigh nearly as much as you…”
Smiling at the barb, Suzu donned her sunhat, grabbed two of the proffered bags, and the group made their way out to the warm sands.

---

“-so I was like, ‘Ms. Tezuka, what are your motivations for art?’ and she looked at me and said ‘Well, I like snails.’ Umm, what!?” Naomi unleashed a peal of tinkling laughter as she finished her story. The young women had set up in between a family of hefty American tourists and a group of younger girls.

Miki swallowed a bite of onigiri and jumped to her feet. “C’mon, losers! Enough of this sitting around. Let’s go swim!” She began to pull her dress over her head without waiting for a response, drawing the eyes of the Americans. Natsume poked an eye out from under the book on her face.

“I don’t think so, Legs. My arthritis is a bitch today. Naomi, be a dear and hand me a lemonade.”
Miki puffed her cheeks and grabbed Suzu’s arm. “Let’s go, Snoozu. Don’t be boring all day!”

“Mikiii, you know I don’t like being in water,” Suzu groaned, “and plus, Lizzy just made Darcy crawl back to her with his tail between his legs!”

The tanned girl continued trying to pull Suzu up. “Lame. Lame. Laaaaame. Who even cares about some boring old people and their boring romance and their boring lives? Stop being boring!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Miki growled and started to drag Suzu across the sand.

“Ladies, ladies. Come now. Let’s try to show a little bit of class to the tourists, hmm?”

Miki stopped short and squinted up at the two new figures that had snuck up on them during the chaos, and Suzu took the opportunity to scramble back to the safety of her novel.

Natsume was the first to speak. “Class, huh? That’s a funny word to hear coming from you, Enomoto.” Naomi gasped and grabbed Natsume’s hand.

“Nat! Don’t be rude.”

“It’s nice to see you all too! I’m glad that you all took advantage of the delightful weather,” the girl with hair the color of dark honey said. Saki gently pushed off of the taller albino girl next to her and took a few shaky steps towards the older girls before plopping down onto Miki’s towel. “Room for two more?”

Miki flashed a quick grin and balanced her stump on her hip. “Hey, Saki! Good to see you. We’ve got all the room in the world if you can convince Suzu to hit the waves. Rika, help me out, will ya?”

Rika jerked slightly at being addressed, and answered Miki’s vibrant smile with a small one of her own. The two tall girls began to advance on a cowering Suzu before Natsume’s authoritative voice cut through the air.

“No, Enomoto. I’m sorry. We most certainly do not have room for a slut and her handmaid.”

Naomi and Rika both gasped. Suzu narrowed her eyes at the brunette.

Saki’s bubbly laugh rang out. “Goodness, Ooe. Your words do hurt me so. Slut? Really? So I enjoy sex. I hardly see anything wrong with that.”

Natsume sat up. “Oh, nothing wr-“

“Natsume, stop,” Suzu interjected. “So she likes sex and she’s good at getting it. Oh no! What are you going to tell her next? That she dresses well? Get over yourself. It’s her life and her body. She can do what she wants.”
Silence.

Suzu angrily got to her feet and started towards the water. “Let’s go, Miki, Rika. I want to go splash in the waves or whatever it is you do at the beach.”

Miki smiled and nodded. “Sure, kid. Let’s get you wet.”

---

Natsume stared at Saki.

Saki stared at Natsume.

Naomi decided that she had had enough, so she decided to solve the problem the only way she knew how. By talking.
“Soooo, Enomoto! How did you and Katayama end up at the beach today?”

Saki turned a vibrant smile onto Naomi. “Please, Inoue. Call me Saki. Life is too short to be so terribly formal, don’t you think? I decided that Rika needed a day out. She spends so much time in her room these days.”

“Ah, I see,” Naomi says while nodding sagely, “She’s only a second-year, right? I guess that kinda makes you like her big sister, huh? Cuuuute! Oh! And call me Naomi, then. And this is Natsume. Nat, say hello. Don’t be rude.”

Natsume snorted and laid back down. “I think not. I’ve got no business with Enomoto and she has no business with me. I’m pulling a Suzuki. Wake me if anything happens.”

Saki sighed and raised a shaking hand to brush her hair back. “You know, Ooe, we don’t need to be enemies. I have no issue with you. You are the source of every bit of the animosity in our relationship.”

“What relationship, Enomoto? Let me sleep.”

“As you wish. Naomi, there is a wonderful little ice cream stand just down the beach. Would you like to join me?”
Naomi let out an excited squeal and jumped to her feet. Saki gave a small giggle and held her hands out to the taller girl. “Help me up, please. These legs aren’t what they used to be.” With a heave, Naomi grabbed Saki and helped her up.

“Oh, Saki! Your cane. Here, let me help you. There we go! Onwards to ice cream!”

Natsume wasn’t sure exactly what she was feeling as she listened to the other girls’ fading footsteps, but she told herself firmly that it wasn’t jealousy.

---

“No, that’s not it at all,” Suzu ranted as she hit the volleyball a little harder than necessary. “I’m just saying that there is absolutely no reason to judge Saki for her sexual history.”

The three girls were knee-deep in the clear water and were tossing a volleyball back and forth.

Rika volleyed the ball into the air and knocked it towards Miki. “I would be the f-first to defend Saki-senpai, but she does have a rather, erm, d-diverse history.”

“So? What does that have to do with anything?”

Miki expertly deflected the ball and knocked it high over the water in Suzu’s direction. “You know how people are about the whole third-wave crap, Snoozles. Saki is fin as a barrel of monkeys with waterguns, but I don’t get the whole ‘throwing your body around to feel liberated’ bit.”

“Miki Miura! There is nothing liberating about ‘throwing your body around’. There is also nothing liberating about saving yourself or whatever. The liberation comes from the ability to CHOOSE. I am disappointed in you. You should- blugh!”

Suzu jumped and missed the volleyball, ending up with a face full of sea water for her efforts. Miki and Rika exchanged glances and began to laugh at their poor friend. Their laughter slowly turned to alarm when the seconds began to stretch without Suzu popping back up.

Miki immediately made a beeline towards where Suzu had gone under with an uncharacteristic look of concern. Her features softened as a pale green head of hair popped out of the ocean with a splutter.

“Gah! That is vile!”

Miki closed the gap between them with strong, long-legged strides and swept Suzu up in a two-armed bearhug. Suzu rebelled against the crushing force but swiftly gave up when the athlete only squeezed her harder.

“You almost had me worried there, Snoozu. We thought you’d taken a trip to dreamland. Let’s get you up to the sand before you actually fall asleep on us. Rika! Grab the ball.”

The albino underclassman nodded and moved to acquiesce. Suzu finally broke free of Miki’s grip and brushed a clump of wet hair away from her mouth. She offered a guilty smile before grabbing Miki’s hand.

“Yeah, let’s go. I’ve had enough of this dumb old ocean anyway.”

---

“-but then Nat said ‘I don’t like cats!’ but the waiter had already brought the garlic! The look on his face was priceless!” Naomi and Saki burst into laughter as the former finished her story. The two girls had become fast friends after they discovered just how similar they really were. They had the same favorite color (both enjoyed periwinkle), favorite dessert (both loved éclairs with white frosting), and favorite ice cream flavors (they had both bought a double scoop of fudge ripple with extra sprinkles). Both loved to laugh, and thoroughly enjoyed the subtle nuances of the art of gossip.

Saki adjusted the cane in the crook of her arm and leaned heavily onto her new friend. “Geez, Naomi. How did you end up friends with a stuffy person like Ooe? Like, you’re so fun, and she’s, well…not.”

Naomi huffed and licked some melted dessert from the side of her cone.

“Nat’s just a little serious. You really shouldn’t hold it against her. She’s really pretty awesome when she cuts loose!”

“When she cuts loose, huh?” Saki mused as she twirled her tongue over her ice cream. “Well then, perhaps we can make that happen. I’ve got some buddies with a beach house not too far from here. They’re throwing a party tonight. You in?”

“Hmph. Sounds fun. Let’s ask everyone else! Oh, that reminds me, so one time…”

The two girls moved on back down the beach, lost in the joys of gossip.

---

“Oh no! Raise the drawbridge! The dragon approaches! Ahhh!! It’s too late! Aiieeee!”

The anguished cries of the soldiers filled the air as Miki stomped all over Suzu’s hastily assembled sandcastle. Grains of sand flew through the air as the tall girl gave a fierce kick, sending the battlements flying. Suzu gave another mock cry of terror before collapsing into a fit of giggles with Rika. Miki struck a pose over the remains of the once-proud castle.

“You know, I make a damn good Godzilla. Whaddaya think?”

Suzu looked up at her tan friend with a sly grin. “I don’t know, Miki… Aren’t you a little big around the middle for that?”

“Gasp! You think so? Oh nooooo!” Miki cried as she grabbed her toned stomach and fell backwards next to the laughing Natsume.

“Geez, Legs. If you’re pudgy then I’m downright obese!”

The girls shared another round of laughter before Rika jumped to her feet.

“S-Saki! You’re back!”

Saki smiled at her white-haired friend and pushed off of Naomi. “Well, you all look like you’re having fun. Excellent. Naomi, want to ask?”

“About wha- Oh! Hey guys! Let’s go to a party tonight!”

Miki’s face stretched in a grin at the same time Suzu’s face fell into a grimace.

“Hell yeah! That sounds fun. Let’s go! Where’s it at?”

Saki leaned onto Rika and twirled her cane. “I have some friends nearby with a beach house. They said I could bring a couple people.” The honey-haired girl turned to Natsume and Suzu. “You’re all invited, of course. Even you, Ooe.”
“Thanks, but no thanks, Enomoto. We’re fine.”

Naomi gave an exaggerated groan and flopped over her friends lap. “But Naaaattt! We never do aaaaanyyyything fun these days. Puhleeeaseee??” She punctuated her complaints with puppy eyes. Natsume’s eyes softened.

“Ugh, fine. If that’s what you want, Naomi,” Natsume said, drawing a pleased squeal from the girl in her lap. Suzu reached up and scratched her scalp.

“I don’t know, girls. A party? Can’t we just go home and read or something?”

Miki blew a raspberry and slung an arm around the green-eyed girl’s shoulders. “Laaaame. Don’t be such a snooze, Snoozu. Let’s have some fun. Do it for me?”

The sleepy girl snorted, but nodded after a moment’s hesitation. Saki smiled.

“Excellent. I’ll see you tonight, then. Ta ta!”

With a flourish, Saki and Rika turned and left, leaving the group to discuss their plans.