My Classified Life

Chapter Thirty-Six: It's Time For A Change

 I felt my feet dig into the damp sand beneath me, getting grains stuck in between my toes. Just another reason why I don't like beaches. Sand gets everywhere.

There in Australia, is was winter time in August, the weather was cool in Sydney, mid sixties expected all week. It was my kind of weather, I despise heat, which contributes to why I loathe beaches and their cursed burning sand. I would rather freeze, curled in a blanket and shivering with a blizzard raging outside, than burn in the sun. But just like in England, I had to find a place to hide in Australia. Which was why I sat on the infuriating sand, watching the waves break in Cockle Bay off the coast of Sydney.

Truth be told, I was bored. The local library scene had not attracted my interest, I should probably be thankful that we moved to a English-speaking country, but I couldn't help but be tired of reading after a solid week of it. I hadn't managed to find the new undiscovered Harry Potter series or anything else that was impossible to put down for more than a bathroom and food break.

I'd been wandering around Sydney since 9:00 that morning, it was nearly noon, but my stomach didn't seem to be hungry. I laid there, eyes squinting against the sun for a moment before getting up off the ground and moving on. Beaches weren't bad for about ten minutes, then the trouble just wasn't worth it.

I walked north and followed signs explaining about a Aquarium that was not far away. I didn't know what to do with myself these days, so why not?

Fish mesmerized me. All the different colors, patterns, and breeds, it was almost unbelievable. And if you ever traveled to an aquarium that had a rare fish, it was oh so memorable. I remember once when I was in the Mid-West, (reasons are Classified) and there was a small, donation-funded aquarium just off the road that I hid in for a short time. Inside it smelled like fresh, clean, water, with a slight hint of fish. They had a huge tank where they kept one lone fish, easy to find because it was isolated. The large fish was a bass, albino and completely white. Just the sight of his perfect, white, and sleek body slipping through the tank was spellbinding.

There is something magical about little moments like those, some things that we will never forget. Whether it's a cake eating contest we had at our fourteenth birthday party to the time your best friend bought a four foot painting from Goodwill for two dollars, we each remember some of the silliest moments in our lives. Some of the most insignificant moments are the ones we will never forget. And then there are the greatest memories we have that we strive to never forget, the ones we still laugh about with our friends and we bring them up sporadically, never wanting to forget them.

As I walked along a broken sidewalk, I thought about my own memories. Each of them only funny to the person with whom they were with. A smile crept onto my face just at the thought of all the fun times and unexplainable memories Christina and I shared with only each other, they outnumbered the minnows that swam in the pools of seawater. It wasn't long before my memories trailed to the last month or two, back to the boy that penetrated my every thought and binded himself to my life. He made me smile so much my face hurt afterwards, he knew exactly what to say to make me blush, and he knew how to make me feel like the most beautiful girl the world.

With my foot, I kicked a stone and watched it bounce and spring around until becoming one with the grass, hiding from me so I wouldn't continue to release my bottled-up anger on it.

With me, everything was wrong and nothing was right ever since I saw Dylan last. This whole time, I'd been convincing myself that he was a jerk, a filthy jerk face that I didn't care about anymore. I had grown so good at lying, I even believed my own lies.

My entire mind was a muddle, my feet taking me places before I even realized what I was doing. I had already ventured inside the aquarium after sliding money to the worker at the entrance, and was slightly separated from a group of tourists listening to a woman go on and on about penguins. My ears slowly attuned themselves to her lecture on where penguins come from.