Marie's POV
“There’s a bunch of nuts in here!” cries my younger sister, eating her trail mix and vigorously digging her hands in and avoiding the nuts.
“In the bag or in the room?” I say, rolling my eyes and laughing. I mean trail mix is at least 50% nuts, right?
“I hate nuts!” she whines.
“You’re not the only one.” I mumble. My sister is pretty much a crazy cat lady, exceptshe likes dogs. We are so different,if we didn’t look so much like our mom I'd swear she was adopted. Mom has dark curls and full lips, much like us. I got my father’s humor and my sister got his shortness, lucky for me.
“Well, I am going to go for a run. Have fun not eating your nuts!” I say, leaving my sister grumbling on the green couch.
I run upstairs to my room and close the door. Quickly, I pull on a blue sports bra, a loosewhite tank top, and black runningshorts. Unfortunately, getting dressed without leaving my room “tore up from the floor up” required some sort of unfathomable super power that I simply wasn’t born with.
Leaving my trashed room, I run back downstairs, nearly tripping on the ghastly stair carpet thing that my dad brought home from his trip toIndia, and dart out the door into the unforgiving sun.
“MOM! I’M GOING FOR A RUN ON THE BEACH!” I shout. I hardly hear her response before I’m in running mode. When I run, I feel like I’m flying. It’s the best feeling, really.
The best thing about my house was that it’s down the street from the beach. I love the beach more than my sister. Wait, that’s a lie. I love the beach AND chocolate more than my sister. My parents insist I’m joking, but I can’t be sure about that attimes.
The burning sunis starting to actually bake me aliveas I make my way to the beach. I like running right on the shore line where the sand isn’t so loose. The beach is not too crowed despite it being a great beach day during summer vacation. I stretch and tighten my rainbow shoelaces. God, I was already sweating and I haven’t even started running.I tighten my ponytail and start running along the shore towards thepier.
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Darren's POV
"Doug! DOUG! No! Bad boy! Stop! Dude! No no no no! Doug! AHH!" and with that my golden retriever pulled free of his leashand bounded down the beach, leaving me on the floorwith a mouthful of sand. What's a guy gotta do to get a well behaved dog around here, huh? I quickly get up and run after Doug.
"DOUG!"I yell, seeing him run toward a figure in the distance. I pick up my speed, hoping he won't go into the water, I DO NOT want to wash that sandy ball of fur. Oh crap. Doug is barking at someone now, don't jump on them. I hear a scream and a splashing sound. Believe you me, I haul ass at this point.
By the time I get to him, there's a furious girl in the water and Doug splashing happilyaround her with a goofy look on his face.Her lip is bleeding and she's soaked. Crap.
What the hell was that!? One moment I’m running along the shore, and the next I’m soaked, sandy and bloody. The giant golden retriever that body-slammed me into the water was splashing around me, obviously wanting to play. The fall had caused me to bite my lip really hard. The sandy water wasn’t helping. Ugh. I eyed the dog in distain.
“Oh my god! I am so sorry! Did my dog do that?” I heard someone say. I turned and saw a guy covered in sand jogging up to the hot mess that was me.
“That’s your dog? I thought it was some kind of sea monster attacking me. How is he THAT big?” I grumbled in annoyance gaining a laugh from the stranger. I tried getting up but the monster came over, sat on my lap and licked my face. Obviously he wasn’t getting off me anytime soon.
“Doug! Get off her right now!” the guy commanded, but it’s all in vain. The giant dog stays on my lap and only acknowledges his master with a bark and shake of his wet tail.
“Looks like he has taken a liking to you.” The guy laughs. At this point I was on my back being licked by the monster. I giggle and try to shove him off me. He wasn’t too bad, he just weighs a ton.
“Come on, off before you break my legs!” I laugh in relief as the dog relents and splashes into the water next to me. My shorts are pulled up to reveal fading red scratches from the beast. Ouch. The stranger comes over to me and offers me his hand. He’s tall and rather handsome. He looks my age and sort of familiar. I take his hand and I’m back on my feet.
“Thanks” I say gratefully stepping out of the water.
My thin white tank is see-through now and clings awkwardly to my body. The stranger is now in the water, tripping over himself to get a hold of the dog. I take this chance to take off my tank and squeeze the water out of it. In this weather, it’d be dry within a couple mins. I sit down and press the shirt to my bloody lips.
“I’m awfully sorry about your clothes and your lip. Are you okay?” he says, giving up on the dog and sitting down next to me. His face is really worried like I’m going to drop dead because of his crazy ass dog.
“Yeah I’m fine; I sort of bit my lip on the way down.” I reply trying to assure him. I take off my running shoes and dig my feet into the wet sand.
“Well, I’m Darren Williams and THAT” gesturing to the dog, “is Doug, my giant golden fur ball.” He says lovingly. I giggle at Doug who is barking at a poor seagull.
“Darren and Doug? I like the sound of that. I’m Marie Sunshine Korinthos.” I say shaking his outstretched hand.
“Oh wow, That’s a beautiful name.” He smiles. I blushed and look down.
“Thank you, my parents wanted to name me Flower Sunshine Sea, but my aunt managed to persuaded them to just Marie Sunshine. They are like hippies except they shower and don’t do drugs.” I explained.
“You sound glad.” He commented, laughing a bit at the eccentrics of my parents.
I studied him, trying to place were I had seen him before. His hair is a thick chocolate brown and his eyes were a deep green, my favorite color. He had a bit of a bookish look to him, adding to the intelligent gleam in his eye. His eyebrow lifted into a questioning look and I realized I was staring at him for a while now. I laughed and dropped my gaze.
“Sorry I spaced out, Hey, you seem familiar. Have I seen you around before?”
“Uh I don’t believe so? Maybe around town. I just moved here a couple weeks ago fromNew York.”
“Really? That’s awesome! I’ve always wanted to visit. It’s across country, why the big move toCalifornia? ” I ask intrigued.
“That’s a short story, that I’ll tell you ONLY if you let me treat you to the best ice cream on the beach” Darren replies which a cheeky grin. “I mean, my dog did almost kill you.”
I agree with a laugh and get up to put my dry shirt back on, but it’s all bloody. Shit, sports bra it is. My skin was drying and I’m starting to feel itchy with all the sand around me. I guess I wasn’t going to finish my run.
