Charlie tilted his head backwards to try and catch the sun rays beaming down at him from above. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards when he felt his dark locks burning with heat. A cool breeze lifted the edges of his shirt and brushed some stray kernels of sand over his bare legs and chest. Somewhere in front of him at a distance that the boy was unable to judge the waves lolled against the wetter sand in an enjoyable pattern. A few gulls chirped from above with their low, guttural caws as they searched for any food. But there was only one sole occupant on that beach that morning as the sun had only peaked out to fully greet the world a mere half hour ago.
Peace was glazing this moment like the perfect donut from Tim Horton’s. Charlie rolled his toes in the sand, enjoying how they slipped off his skin almost as easily as water. He’d have been happy to just lay there for the rest of his life, with the shrieking birds as his only companions.
Sitting there underneath the protection of the cloudless sky was purely pleasurable to Charlie who liked nothing more than the smell of water infiltrating his nostrils and the feel of sweat trickling down his torso.
His head fell backwards gently, extending his neck to the mercy of nature. One simple sweat dropped slipped in the crevice by his esophagus and down to his collarbone where it lingered a while before moving on to travel down past that tanned nipple and furthermore to his belly button.
Paradise.
Suddenly, the gulls were not the only voices making their presence known. With his eyes closed, Charlie couldn’t quite discern where or who the voices were coming from, but they were definitely there. Coming from the far out corner of the beach where most people made their entrance were two voices belonging to two males that he was starting to recognize. The first voice was booming, shouting out in a low voice that made your bones reverberate from the after shock. It barricaded off the few trees surrounding the area and bounced back to Charlie before silencing itself out over the waves. The one that joined in on the first’s mayhem was lighter but not lacking in power. Holding a sultry tone as it chuckled at whatever its friend had said. Like the sand sucking his fingers in, or like honey to a fire fly, it drew you in to its husky tones and didn’t let you go until you relaxed into its arms.
A pair of padded lips suddenly took the place of the sweat drop that had already evaporated into the day. It moved gently and with care so as to not injure the sun bathing boy, though little pieces of pleasure had never turned him away either. They moved up his jaw line and finally settled at the corner of his plump lips before pulling away.
“You’re up early again,” that second voice greeted him in a throaty whisper.
“I wanted to see the sun rise,” Charlie answered, finally opening his eyes to be met with Riley’s grinning face.
A loud thump on his other side announced the settlement of the owner to the first voice. His biceps flexed out as he stretched over the once daydreaming boy’s lap. Glittering blue irises stared up at him, squinting slightly to avoid the glare of the sun but never downplaying that cheeky smile plumping up the dimples in his cheeks. Peter. Always full of energy and never with a frown on his face. He was as predictable as the gulls circling over them in the cloudless sky.
And then there was Riley… The polar opposite of their good friend stretching out in his sun bath was the boy leaning dangerously close to Charlie’s ear. His emotions were always concealed in a vacuum sealed bag and only came out at the appropriate times. In a way he was much more intimidating than the bulky beast below them because he was as unpredictable as the weather that could send the sea into turmoil at any given second. When in the proper mood, though, he was like the perfect teddy bear that no kid had ever been able to have.
