Breathing Blue | OBX | Sarah Cameron

paradise on earth-intro/prologue

"Welcome to the OBX kid. You're gonna love it." My aunt said as we pulled up outside of her house. It was a two-story, four-bedroom home with a well-furnished kitchen and plenty of potted plants. There was a garage through a door on the left with the blue BMW she'd picked me up in and a black range rover. It was safe to say my aunt and uncle were doing well for themselves. I'd just moved from The Gold Coast back in Australia, and the only thing I would miss was the scenery and the surfing.

I'd been living with my father for three years after my mother left him to start a new family. She still called but usually only once or twice every three months, and I was closer to her than my father. He'd been in and out of rehab throughout the majority of my childhood so he didn't contribute too much to helping raise me, and ever since he stopped using he'd just been miserable, so I couldn't blame her too much for leaving. I just wish she would've taken me with her. As soon as my aunt had invited me to stay with them he couldn't have been more eager to get me out of the house so he could be by himself, and frankly, I didn't mind where I was as long as there was a beach and good waves.

"Go explore Allie, see if you can find anyone to make friends with, the majority of us are fairly friendly so you shouldn't struggle. I'll put your bags in your room and I'll show you around when you get back. Now go get out there while it's still daylight." My uncle said to me and I nodded and put my bags down before leaving the house and shutting the door behind me. It was no secret the island was split in half,  figure eight and the cut, it was purely just a difference in social classes, the "rich" and the "poor" so to speak. The house was quite near the border meaning I could see the difference between the two sides, but overall the whole island was beautiful.

I headed over in the direction of a beach bar I'd seen when we were driving through, it was only a couple of minutes away. When I got there it was mostly just teenagers, maybe a few guys in their 20s. "Hey," I said walking up to a boy with dirty blonde hair who was standing with what I assumed to be his friends. 

"Oh hey, I don't think I've seen you around before. I'm Rafe." He said smiling.

"Yeah, I just moved here, literally today," I told him.

"Oh no way, are you liking it so far?" He asked, sounding actually interested in me, which did not happen all that often.

"Yeah it's a really nice island, I'm staying with my aunt and uncle in the house up that way." I pointed to where it was, you could actually see it from where we were it was that close.

"Oh yeah! The Stevens' right?"

"Yeah, that's us," I said smiling brightly at him.

"So can I get your name or is that more of a third meeting type question." He joked.

"I'm Allie," I said chuckling lightly.

"So where'd you come from then Allie. You're an Aussie I presume?"

"Yeah, the accent sorta gives it away huh? I'm from The Gold Coast."

"Cool, I've been there with my family, nice place, good people, awesome scenery."

"Yeah the beach is the best part though, the waves are the best."

"I wouldn't speak too soon, the OBX is pretty sweet."

"I don't doubt that for a second," I said as a blonde girl walked over to us with a guy I presumed to be her boyfriend considering the fact they were holding hands.

"Hey, who's this?" She asked Rafe.

"This is Allie, she just moved here from The Gold Coast, remember we went two summers ago."

"Yeah, I remember, it was a nice place, great scenery." She said.

I let out a slight giggle presuming they were siblings based on looks and personality. "Yeah it's cool, it was a nice place to grow up."

"I'm Sarah by the way." She said reaching to shake my hand. I shook it as she introduced the guy behind her. "This is Topper, my boyfriend." I nodded hello to him and he gave me a friendly smile back.

"I should probably get going or they'll wonder where I am," I told them gesturing back to the direction of my house.

"There's a party down on the beach tonight, you should come," Rafe said.

"I'll try and make it," I said and they all smiled, making me believe they all actually wanted me there and weren't just trying to be nice.

"Great, see you at 8 then, it won't be hard to find, everyone's gonna be there." He said. I nodded and waved goodbye to them as I headed back to the house. I walked back fairly slowly just taking in the surroundings, the island just seemed to get better and better. And it hadn't been hard to meet people which I was grateful for considering it is usually hard to make friends in new places, from my limited experiences like clubs and things when I was younger. Despite that, I had mainly just been friends with most people, I'd never really had a proper best friend though. I never connected with anyone to that point and by the later years of school, people had basically found their friends and stayed with them. There was rarely any drama in my town, people just vibed with who they vibed with and that was that. It just never seemed to happen for me.

It took me about 5 minutes to walk back at the pace I was going and I opened the door to find my aunt making dinner and my uncle with a beer in his hand. I was already liking this much more than back at home with my father who used alcohol as a coping mechanism for his lack of drugs, and lack of wife.

"Hey guys, I have returned, hope you didn't miss me too much," I said sarcastically.

"More than you could've imagined, did you make any friends on your adventures?" My aunt asked.

"Actually yes, I got invited to a party tonight. I was wondering if I could go? It's fine if not I can stay home and help clean or something." I said.

"Why, do you think the house is dirty?" She questioned.

"No, no nothing like that, I just don't want you to think I'm taking you letting me stay with you for granted."

"I'm teasing, of course you can go, make some more friends while you're there." She said. "Dinner will be ready in 10. Your room is upstairs and to the left, the one with the door open."

I thanked her and headed up the stairs. It was big with a lot of doors but sure enough, like she said there was one door open. I walked into the room to find my bags on the floor. The room was way bigger than my one at home and it had an ensuite. It was a big change compared to my old house with two bedrooms, a kitchen/lounge and one bathroom. I loved it. I started unpacking until dinner was ready and I went downstairs to find a plate of lasagna on the table and my aunt and uncle sat waiting for me. This was the first proper family meal I'd had in years and it felt good. Way better than greasy chips every other night and it was great to have actual company for once in my life. Surely it could only get better from here. I hadn't even been to the beach yet.

We spent the next 45 minutes just eating and chatting about how I'd been after not seeing them for however long it had been. I hadn't spoken to them in ages yet I still felt like I'd been with them forever. It just felt right.