"It's still just as beautiful as ten years ago..." Myah’s golden eyes were lost in the crashing waves that the sun was beginning to sink into.
Their skin was left warmed and slightly singed by the sun’s giving rays, their feet were snuggled beneath the white, silky sand, and their shoes were carelessly abandoned somewhere along the border of the beach and the forest behind them.
Ryann hummed agreeably, his careless mind wandering aimlessly in a fantasy of a girl who seemed to glow in the setting sun. "Yeah..." he murmured, clueless to whatever she stated.
Myah cast a stealthy sideways glance, taking note of his faraway stare. "I was talking about the ocean, you know." She scolded him with a shoulder nudge, breaking him from his daydream and this halfhearted conversation.
Choking down a blush, he gave her a brave face. "So was I!" he fibbed, his palms beginning to sweat. "What do you think I was talking about?" his lips puckered. Her stare hardened, unwavering despite his front. Ryann hesitated before his eyes trailed up to the sky before settling on the ground, pretending to be interested in the sand instead.
With a shake of her head, Myah’s chuckle was eaten up by a moment of silence with only the lapping breaths of the ocean to fill it. "Do you still have that picture?" Her crystal voice was only an addition to the serene scene rather than a disturbance to the natural peace.
A smile crept up Ryann’s cheeks, knowing exactly what she was asking about. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small photo that naturally stood at an arch rather than flatly. Every corner had been worn down to a dull nub, and there was a single tear whose cruel arm almost reached halfway through the vulnerable photo. The little girl forever immortalized inside the shot smiled gaily at the cameraman, a stuffed doll of a merman in her tiny fisted grasp. The sea twinkled behind her, matching the sparkle of childish naivety in her limitless eyes.
Ryann ran his thumb over the little girl’s smile, savoring the sweetness of the captured moment, before handing the picture to Myah.
From her lips escaped burst of laughter the moment she received the photo. "I was such a chubby five year old!"
"No you weren't! You were... cute..." Ryann confessed, his voice a low murmur.
Myah turned to him with wide eyes before she gave a mischievous smile, reaching into her pocket. Pulling out a photo which was in no better condition than his was, she carded it to him without looking at it, her smile smug. "This was a cute kid." She nodded eagerly, as if what she stated was pure fact.
Red dribbled down the chin of eight-year-old Ryann, staining a tee that had matched the island’s patriotic flag. The captured gaze was of sheer determination, a triple-decker burger standing a fighting chance against the salivating mouth of the child. His grip on both buns hung on by the skin of his nails. The tips of his blond hair that hung around his face had somehow been dipped into the sacrificial blood of the brawling burger. The adult faces in the background smirked at the back of the inexorable child who wouldn’t settle for the kiddie burger someone had brought him. But they had all seemed charmed by his foolhardy attempt.
Ryann’s jaw dropped and his face flushed scarlet up to his ears. He didn’t recognize the photo, and he couldn’t recall that specific day. He couldn’t remind himself of anything that had just happened, his mind sucker punched by the baffling photo.
Myah broke him from his stupefied daze with her most malicious laughter. Snatching the photo, a picture of complete shame frozen forever, she replaced his opened grasp with his photo before forcing her sleeping muscles from the sand to reach for the twilight sky.
He stared at her curiously as she did this, reluctant to leave the warm white sands as eagerly as she seemed to be. He faced the setting sun once more, disheartened at the thought that she had grown bored of the plain sight due to living in the grand Main Land. His consciousness tripped, and his chest quivered as if he had forgotten something. Suddenly, it all came crashing back to him, and he jumped to his feet as if the sands had somehow grown too hot. “Myah. It’s sunset!” he screeched, fear laced in every syllable.
"Yep, sure is." Her response was as cool as the growing icecaps as she gazed at the setting sun.
"I have to get you home! Now!" Ryann’s tone grew urgent, especially at her nonchalant reply.
"Don't worry about it, Ryann. We'll be okay."
"NO!" Ryann cut her off in a frenzy, gripping her hand like Velcro and dragging her away in a sprint. "IF WE DON'T LEAVE NOW THEN YOU WON'T BE HOME UNTIL AFTER SUNSET AND REBECCA WILL THINK WE DID SOMETHING WE DIDN'T!!" he cried, kicking their shoes up from the sand without slowing, dashing into the forest greens.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
