Cityside Beach

The rolling waves broke against my denim covered legs as I felt the weight of salt-water soaked jeans tug with each step I took. The colossal noise of those surrounding me was deafening; Children screaming, adults yelling, teens laughing, birds singing, and the never ending sound of a well tourist-attracting, populated city bustling in the background. The sun burned hot against my skin, already abused by the unrelenting attack of the summer's UV rays, and bright against my eyes, even if they were shaded and guarded by thick rimmed shadowed glasses.  The sweat trickled from my uncomfortably warm scalp and down the length of my neck, only to be sucked into the white cotton button down like all the others. It was even more uncomfortable than the jeans I wore soaking in the ocean's water as the waves tumbled through and around my legs.

It was hot. Unbearably hot at this equally unbearable beach. My blood pulsed beneath the surface of my sticky moist skin as I trudged deeper into the water, cold despite the outside heat. I could manage to escape, some if not most, of the heat that had previous encased my legs with each step I took into the ocean. I was left unsatisfied with the amount of cold against my skin. A scowl crossed my lips into a verbal curse against the undaunted heat that drenched my body more than the tumbling waves, pushing against me.

I wanted to escape. I had built up an unhealthy desire to escape from that cruel gaze of the sun that shined like the burning star it was. My eyes, weakly defending the malicious rays of the sun with the facial accessory of shadowed lenses, forcibly turned their narrowed gaze back to the path I had chosen as my route of escape.

It was endless. Almost as endless as the burning hot sensation of the sun that prickled against my skin. There were no markers, no guides, nor any well defined paths for me to follow. Just an endless darkening sea of blue and green, with tumbling and rolling waves making their way towards me. It was far more peaceful than the path behind me, leading to the publicized chaos. I turned to look at the mess I was content to leave behind in order to attain my own sense of physical and mental peace.

It was unhealthy. So unhealthy, it had irked me to no end to even look at. It was worse when I stood amongst it. The noise, the bustle, it was all so...infuriating to be apart of, to simply spectate. I couldn't stand it. Involuntarily,  my lips curled into an upturned snarl, sounding more feral than any noise a normal human being could muster together. But it had not surprised me, as it should have. Those who allowed the sun to destroy the surface of their body, allowed their children to run, scream, and near drown themselves into the oceans shallow waters, allowed their peers and strangers to act in such irresponsible behavior was simply revolting and something I had no desire to be apart of. Foul thoughts clouded my head as I peered at the horrendous display before me that had played out day, after day, after day, as I was forced to this wretched coast. I could not stand it any longer.

I turned and took a step forward, my body succumbed to the depths of the ocean's waves.