Who's Fault?

Chapter One

Do you ever just sit around and listen to the sounds all around you?

That's what I was doing. I was sitting at the local beach, just after a rainstorm had passed over. Water was dripping from the roof of the shelter I was sitting under onto the concrete. The birds were chirping away and coming out of hiding since the rain had ceased. There were two young boys, probably still in middle school, trying to fish from the small dock. A family was taking pictures and laughing as the sun started to peak out from the clouds. Music from an outdoor restaurant was playing and cars were driving through puddles looking for parking spots behind me. I just sat, listened, and watched the changes in the sky and boats go by as I sat thinking.

It was 5:30. My last class ended about three and a half hours ago. I guess you could say that I didn't want to go home yet. I was enjoying my surroundings; I usually was never able to do things like this. I was always keeping myself busy and rarely liked doing anything that seemed like nothing and was relaxing or calming like this. I usually found it difficult to keep my mind quiet when I tried, but for some reason this time was different. The sun was slowly setting, and I plugged my headphones into my phone, putting on some soft indie music in attempt to get myself to focus on the sky. It was starting to regain its blue color and the horizon was turning orange as the sun began to set.

Today was a good day. I wasn't looking forward to the decline in my mood the moment I entered my house; it happened that way every day. No matter how my day went at school, the moment I got upstairs my mood instantly plummeted. It was something I couldn't make sense of, no less explain the reasoning.

The longer I sat and watched, the more people gathered around. Under the shelters, on the swings that were cemented in the ground and on benches that were most likely still wet from the earlier rain. The boys who were fishing were excited about a fish they had caught. They came over to the shelter to show those of us sitting there; something about it being the kind of fish that attaches itself to sharks and cleans the algae and whatnot off it, I think...? After some uninterested compliments from a few people, they went off to continue what they were doing.

Sighing, disappointment surged through me, noticing the clouds were in the way of a beautifully colored sunset that night. I got lost in my thoughts waiting for the sky to darken. It would have been the perfect day if it hadn't been for a certain someone not minding his business and ignoring the general rule concerning one's personal space. Other than that, it was great! My classes didn't seem to drag too much, my friends unknowingly helped keep my thoughts in check, and overall it was a better day than any other this month and probably the best day I'd have for a while.

I didn't set my expectations too high. Ever.

A man walked up to the short wall that separated the ground from the water—weird beach, I know. He had a toy model car with him, and he set it on the wall. He had two short flashlights that stood on the wall, illuminating the car. I watched him as he pulled out his phone and began to take pictures of the car in front of the sunset. Every few seconds he would adjust the lights to get the perfect lighting. As I watched, I wondered what the story or meaning was behind him doing this. My thoughts ran wild on different scenarios of experiences he could have gone through or stories he could be telling by taking these pictures of this car. I tried to reign them in, assuming I was going a little too far. For all I knew, he could have just really liked that car and wanted pictures of it in front of a sunset. He was there for fifteen minutes before he packed up and left. Not bothering to stay to see the last few minutes of the sunset.

Looking at my phone and realizing the time, 7 p.m., I figured I should get going. I hadn't started my homework yet and if I wanted any chance of the next day being as good as this day was, I was going to have to get a good night's sleep. Taking a deep breath, I got up and made my way to my car. I hated that I had to leave. It was that moment that I decided that at one point in my life, I was going to live on or near the water.