～ beach

[ open starter ! ]

The sun beats down on Elio’s back, highlighting the patches of skin uncovered by his tank top like butterfly wings. Right now the heat feels unbearable. He thinks it might be close to suffocating him before he realizes that he’s forgotten to breathe, taking a gulp of air and feeling his lungs expand shakily.

He’s sitting on a bench against the sidewalk with one foot on the ground, the other lifted slightly to keep the pressure off of it. Just minutes ago he’d been playing volleyball with some random beach-goers and now he’s sitting here freaking out over his swollen ankle.

‘It’s probably just a sprain. It’s not a big deal. You’re fine, Elio.’

Elio is trying very hard not to catastrophize what is most likely a minor injury.

He picks up his phone from the bench and wipes away some of the sand on the screen. He should call his coach and let him know- but what if this is it? What if this is the last brick in the wall that stops him from coming back this season?

“,” Elio lets his phone screen blacken and presses his forehead against it, leaning over as if to curl in on himself. “/./”

// shortly after the other rises from the water, she follows suit and fixes her appearance as best as she can despite being soaked in water, eyes directly on a man selling snow cones and going all googly as she mutters to herself:
why must you be so handsome and never say more than "snow cone, ma'am?" to me?

// rises from the waves all sopping wet and trudges through the sand only to flop down on it shortly after, huffing and panting from racing some thalassan back to shore. they were long gone by now.
that kid's way too fast, damn.