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You are sitting on the beach; the sand is coarse beneath your toes and your fingers. The salt air is thick in your nostrils, you breath in deep, getting the air deep into your lungs. Your eyes are closed; your eyelids work hard to block the sunlight. For some reason, your expensive Ray Ban sunglasses are perched on top of your head, rather than perched on your nose, do nothing to block the sun.
The rays beat down on you, warming your skin. There is a warm breeze whipping your dark chocolate curls around your face, but you don’t mind. Normally it would annoy you, but today is special. It’s not a day for whining. Today is special because it’s the last day you have with the boy who is sitting by your side. That’s the thing about summer love; it only lasts a few months. It has to come to an end. Summer love isn’t made to last.
Slowly, you open your eyes again. Your boyfriend is by your side. A black, professional looking camera hangs from his neck. He smiles at you and you smile back. His short, blonde hair moving only slightly in the breeze, tiny grains of sand stick to his ocean damp skin. The tiny flecks of sand don’t seem to be bothering him at all. It shouldn’t be so funny but you chuckle at it anyway. You reach over and brush it off for him. You both laugh softly and turn back to the sparkling water. He lifts the camera, the shutter sounds, and he snaps a picture of the shimmering water.
He then turns and snaps a picture of you, capturing your smile, so he can keep it forever. Your heart aches at the thought. You won’t have forever together, forever was only the summer. A summer spent tangled in each other. A summer spent drowning in crystal blue eyes, getting lost in a pearly smile. A summer spent pressed into backseats, lips and hands exploring the plains of each other’s body.
The sun is beginning to set on the horizon; it seems to cast an orange glow over everything. It looks as if it’s sinking into the ocean, like its drowning. You take a deep breath, filling your lungs with the damp sea air again, and stand up.
You glance down at your boyfriend, and then look out at the sparkling silver ocean again. The water looks dangerous; it looks like it holds more stories then you can count. Yet somehow, the water still looks inviting. So you walk down the sand slowly, letting each grain of sand rub against the bottom of your feet. It’s as if you can feel every individual grain as it shifts beneath your weight.
Now you stand at the water’s edge, watching the shimmering water roll up against the shoreline. Cautiously, you dip your toes into the water, testing the temperature. It’s colder than you expected and a shiver runs down your spine. You take another step, letting the water lap at your toes and curl around your ankles. You shiver again and jump backwards, stumbling a little. There are goose bumps pricking at your skin.
Behind you, your boyfriend laughs. What is he thinking right now? You’re not really sure. Is he laughing with you or at you? You hope that he’s laughing with you. The shutter on the camera sounds again. The moment is captured forever on film. The picture probably looks ridiculous, with your arms flailing a little with sand and water flinging everywhere.
You wish he wouldn’t take so many pictures. It’s just going to make it harder for both of you. You know when he gets them developed that he’ll pin them up on his bedroom walls. His walls are already plastered with hundreds of pictures, all pictures he’s taken. There are landscapes and city streets, young lovers and broken hearts. Your wide smile is going to join the collage, another young lover and another broken heart. This one will be different though, the only broken heart that ever belonged to the boy with the camera.
The water is cold and you turn away from the ocean, instead you focus back on your boyfriend. With a sad smile you walk back towards him. Once you’re close to him, he gets to his feet and you wrap your arms around him, holding him tight for a moment. You’re careful not to bump the expensive camera.
When the embrace ends, he gently pecks your lips, the kiss feels like good-bye. You take his hand and he leads back towards the car. You want to spend the last few hours you have with him memorizing his body, committing it to memory. It will make good bye harder, make it hurt more but you both need this. You need to have each, to cling to each other, before you can let each other go.
In the afterglow, you both cry and make promises to see each other to again. To call, to write, but you both know it won’t happen. You’ll get busy with your lives, he’s going to university in a few weeks and you’ve got one year of college left. You both have other friends. You’ll forget to write, to call. But you know you won’t forget him, that he won’t forget him.
You wonder if you’ll have next summer together, if you’ll meet him again. Maybe if you see him again, you’ll get to keep him. To love him forever, but right now, forever has to wait. After all that, that’s the nature of forever, it’s always there, always waiting, always changing. You know you’ll have your forever, someday.