Young Writers Society

Adela could still smell the salty tang of the sea from the main street, but the sound of bustling people and purring engines drowned out any sound of it. There were few places in Solar Cove that were immune to the smell of sand and salt, and it reassured Adela as she waited for Todd to arrive. Taking a sip from her customary after-school milkshake, she pretended that she wasn’t nervous. All day, as the anticipation became streaked with apprehension rather than her initial excitement, she had questioned the wisdom of asking Todd to meet her so soon. She had spent the entire day distracted, and now, with only five minutes until Todd was meant to arrive, she desperately wished that she had enough time to run down to the beach. Even the simple act of dipping her fingers in the water would be enough of a comfort.

She didn’t know why she was so on edge, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt the butterflies in her stomach, and the scent of the sea became less like a soothing influence and more like a cruel tease.

She wanted this to work. She hoped that their conversation this morning hadn’t just been a fluke, and that she would get to know him better. She peered down the street, trying to spy Todd’s dark blond curls amidst the crowd. For some mysterious reason, four o’clock tended to be peak hour in Solar Cove, and it seemed to Adela as though half the town’s population was out in force.

“I’m not late, am I?” Adela turned her head to see Todd standing beside her. His hands were in his pockets and he wore the same slouch as when he had first appeared on the beach. He shifted his weight and said, “I got roped into a family fishing trip.”

“Right on time,” Adela replied, “Any luck?”

“With the fishing?” Todd laughed. “God, no.”

“Too bad.”

There was a quick lull in the conversation, during which Adela noticed Todd’s mouth twitch in uncertainty, before he said, “I see what you mean about this place being hard to miss.” He looked up at the building they stood in front of. Offensively eighties and impossibly garish, Arthur’s Fish n’ Chips stood out like a sore thumb from the rest of Solar Cove’s quaint weatherboard shops. It was unpretentious in all its ugliness, and Adela, for reasons even she was sure of, was intensely fond of it.

“Everyone hates it. They’ve been trying to get it pulled down for years.” she said neutrally, but ran a hand along one of the salmon-coloured columns.

“Well, it is a bit pink.” Todd frowned. “And that isn’t such a great shade of green. But you like it, don’t you?”

“How’d you know?” Now it was Adela’s turn to frown, and she drew back without realising it, grazing her elbow on the window frame. She felt a soft sting, but it was nothing compared to the surprise Todd’s statement had produced.

“It’s obvious that you do.”

“Yeah, well, I guess.” She shrugged and tried to hide her expression by taking a long sip of her drink. His perceptiveness had unnerved her, and made her wonder whether her emotions were written so clearly across her face that they could be read by an almost-stranger.

“And now I’ve made you feel awkward.” Todd sighed, “I didn’t mean to make it sound, I don’t know, creepy.”

Adela let out a slow exhale, and said, “No, it’s fine, really. Fancy going to the beach?”

“Sure,” Todd replied. As they crossed the road, his eyes drifted toward her school bag. “Would you like me to take that?”

“I’m fine thanks,” she said, quietly taken aback by his chivalry, “It’s not heavy. School’s pretty quiet at the moment.”

“Ah. I guess that’s the good thing about this trip, getting out of school,” Todd said, then glanced at Adela and smiled shyly. “One of them, anyway.”

“What do- oh.” Adela bit her lip as she realised what he meant. “Oh.”

Adela had no idea how to react to this. What am I supposed to say? she thought desperately, I should probably say something.

She could feel her cheeks turning pink, so she bit her lip and admitted, “I have no idea how to respond to that.”

Todd rubbed his shoulder against his ear then nodded. “Sorry. I guess it was a bit…”

He trailed off, and looked as though he regretted his words. His voice had gone soft, and Adela noticed a timbre to it that was different to his usual gentle but hesitant way of speaking. He’s as nervous as you are, Adela realised suddenly.

“It’s not that it isn’t appreciated though,” Adela added, punching him lightly on the shoulder. Todd smiled in response, then shook his head and chuckled.

“Oh, boy,” he said, “That’ll teach me to flirt.”

“Nah, it wasn’t that bad. I’m just an awkward recipient.”

They reached the coarse-surfaced stone wall that ran like a line on paper along the shoreline. Adela hopped up and dangled her legs over the edge, and was soon joined by Todd, who gauged the drop down to the sand uneasily.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna jump,” he said, looking back up to Adela in concern, “Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Not if you do it right.” Adela pushed herself off the wall, and landed in the soft sand. There was a path down to the beach that they could have taken, but Adela loved the exhilarating breathlessness that accompanied the few seconds between jumping and landing. No thoughts – just sensation. And it wasn’t a long drop, really. Even when she stood up against it, the wall was barely as tall as Adela, and the sand dunes were so soft that they absorbed the impact anyway. “You’ll be fine. If you trip, just commando roll out of it.”

Todd raised an eyebrow, but leapt from the wall. He stumbled slightly, skidding down the slope, but he didn’t fall. Adela was about to congratulate him when her attention was drawn away by a call of ‘hey Adela’. She looked across the sand to see where it come from, her question answered when a boy who was walking past waved. His face was familiar but not instantly recognisable, and as Adela responded with a greeting of her own, she tried to place him.

When she managed to identify the identity of the boy who had greeted her, she let out a breath of laughter in surprise and puzzlement. She turned back to Todd, who returned her gaze with a quizzical expression of his own.

“Who was that?” he queried.

“That,” Adela replied, casting a bemused look at the subject in question, who was now some distance down the beach, “was Connor Michaels.”

“Oh.” Todd nodded. “And what did he do to earn a full name introduction?”

Adela started to make her way down the sand dune, skidding slightly as the sand gave way. “Nothing,” she said pointedly, then softened her tone. “I kind of had a crush on him in primary school. I’m surprised he knows who I am. It’s not like we’ve spoken since then. ”

“Ah.”

“Don’t ah me. I’d practically forgotten about him. Don’t think I’ve actually thought about him in something like five years. Has it really been that long? That makes me feel old, it being so long ago. Five years. Wow.”

“I get that feeling. More and more, it feels like.” Todd’s voice was wistful, and he didn’t look at Adela as he spoke, instead, his eyes followed the crashing waves.

Adela let the silence hang between them, looking at Todd, but listening to the waves, trying to hear some kind of clue that would tell her what to say. The soft breeze meant that there was a small swell, meaning the water was perfect for swimming but useless for surfing. Despite the distinct chill in the early October air the sun shone brightly, casting the water a brilliant shade of blue. These were the days she used to live for; the days when she would convince her dad to bring her down to the beach, no matter how cold the water was, before she had found her own stretch of sand on the other side of the cliffs. She rubbed the graze on her elbow, wondering when exactly she had gone from the carefree little girl splashing in the waves to the person she was now.

“I don’t want to grow up,” she said honestly. It felt daringly honest, saying that simple sentence, even though she’d laughingly said those exact words before, as a joke, whenever she was forced to think about uni courses, or getting a job, or anything, really, about her future. But when she said it to Todd, it felt like a confession. She wasn’t sure what had compelled her to utter those six words, but she didn’t regret doing so, even though, in a way, it felt as though she was laying bare a small part of her soul. She was never this open, not even with her friends. It was madness, but it didn’t feel like it.

“I wish always to be a little boy, and to have fun.” Todd looked back to Adela, with a melancholy smile. Her expression must have betrayed her confusion, because he clarified, “You know, from Peter Pan.”

“Never actually seen it.”

“Really?” Todd exclaimed, “Peter Pan was practically my childhood. The original book, that is. You have no idea how much I wished I was one of the lost boys. Anyway, since Neverland’s not really an option, let’s just pretend.”

“Pretend what?” Adela asked sceptically.

“That we aren’t growing up.” A grin was spreading across Todd’s face, and he had the mannerisms of someone possessed by an idea. “What did you do, whenever you used to go to the beach as a kid?”

“Um, go swimming, boogie board, build sandcastles…”

“Great.”

“But,” Adela said uncertainly, “do-“

“Trust me,” Todd said jovially, but with an under tone of seriousness and sincerity to his voice, “Let’s just pretend that we can just have fun, without the whole teen angst and pressure. And I can get to know you.”

Adela nodded. “Okay.”

“Great.” With a flicker of hesitation, he extended a hand towards Adela, and she took it, trying to ignore the rush of energy the contact made her feel. “Let’s build a sandcastle.”