Our Own Earth

A Beginning at A Beach

Barry laid there, still asleep. It was morning, and the sun shined. He heard a slight snore, so he assumed his father was still asleep on the couch next to him. He hated hearing his father snore, it always woke him up. Barry has always been a light sleeper.
"St- stop." He stuttered, pushing his hands out to grip the blanket. However, there was no blanket, and more importantly there was no floor beneath him. He was on sand. He opened his eyes and looked up. He felt the sand a little bit to see if it was real, it seemed pretty real to him. He could still hear the snoring. He looked around, he was on a beach. He saw water making their graceful waves to the shore. Then he turned his head to look behind him, to see where the snoring was coming from. There was a woman beside him, she was the one that was snoring.
"Oh, you did it this time, Barry." He said to himself. "You got drunk and took a woman to the beach." He sat up, and looked around one more time to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"Oh crap, no. You're so stupid!" He said to himself, he got up. He didn't know what to do so he started pacing. All he could think about was learning what he did last night, and where he was. There were no hotel's in sight, so they were far from the public. He kicked the sand and pushed his hair back with his fingers.

"What are you doing? Why am I here?" The woman said. she was awake now and looked confused, but maybe she could help him. He looked at her strangely.

"I- nothing, mind telling me where we are?" He said, he was a little be mad. He didn't now what was happening, and more importantly he didn't know what had happened.

"Excuse me, You think I know? I was going to ask you the same thing." The girl sat up. She had her phone and earbuds, Barry ran to her and took her phone.
"Hey! What the hell!" She stood up and tried to swipe her phone back, but he dodged it without even looking. He started walking to get away from this girl's swings for her phone, as he searched for service. There was none.

   Finally he gave up and the girl snatched her phone back.
"What the hell is wrong with you, stealing my phone like that." She looked mad, and he just looked at her. He was so confused, and so was she. He tried to search for words to say, but he didn't even know that. It was funny, the one time he couldn't think of something smart to say to a girl.

"What's your name?" He managed to say, he wanted to see if she knew anything about last night.

"Iris, you?" Iris calmed down, and looked at him. She wasn't the only one confused, so was he.

"Barry. Do you know what happened last night? Or were you to drunk to remember too." He looked at her phone and earbuds, it apparently involved music. He looked up at her face and before he knew it she had slapped him.

"You think that I was drunk?" She said, she looked mad again. "I've never had a drink in my life. And I never will, shame on you to think that." Barry held his face. He was also getting mad, how dare this girl just slap him for nothing?

"I'm trying to help you." He rubbed his face, but then shook it off. He didn't want her to know, but that actually hurt.

"Well, I don't need your help. I can find my way back by myself." Iris gave Barry a glare, and she began walking.

What is wrong with this woman. Barry thought, "how do you know which way you're going?" He yelled, but she just kept on walking.

"Fine, how about I go this way and you go that way." She pointed the other way. The opposite of her. He stood there for a moment thinking. Then he ran to catch up to her.

"It's not smart to split up, you don't know where we are, and neither do I. It's better if we stick together." Barry said smiling. He was trying to make it better, if he was going to spend time with this woman he might as well have her fall for him.

"Ugh, whatever." She rolled her eyes, and continued walking. Barry stopped for a second to register what she just did. She just rolled her eyes at him, after he smiled at her. No girl has ever done that, they have always smiled back, or at least looked at him. But she didn't even bother to look up, she just kept walking and rolled her eyes.

Oh, this is a tough one. Barry began walking again and ran a little to catch up.

——

Iris walked quietly, thinking of how she was just in her bed, and then just appeared at the beach the next morning. Whatever happened she didn't like it, and she especially didn't like this 'Barry' character. Whoever he was, he just made it worse. She hasn't seen him a day in her life, who was he? And why was he thinking she was drunk? And snatching her phone, that was low. Wherever she was it didn't look familiar, there was water on her right and a big jungle on her left. She's never seen trees that big, most likely because she lived in a big city.

"So, you don't remember anything?" Barry asked, she could tell he has been thinking about it for a while now. She sighed in annoyance.

"No, okay? The last thing I remember is falling asleep in my own bed." She looked at the sand below her feet.

"Was anyone with you?" He asked, why would he ask that? What is he trying to get to? She turned to face him and stopped.

"Why do you care?" She looked serious, she hated to be questioned about things like that, it made her uncomfortable.

"I- I don't. I just was seeing maybe he would remember something." He shrugged and put his hand in his pockets and kept walking. "But it's ok to be single, I understand." The words made Iris clutch her fists together. He was trying to annoy her, she could tell. She started walking to catch up with him.

"How do you know I don't have a boyfriend? For all you know I could have tons." She realized what she said but didn't take it back. He chuckled.

"I bet you do." He smiled. "I mean, not 'tons' of boyfriends, of course." He looked at her and then looked down at the ground and began walking again. She had a confused look in her face. What did he just do? Did he seriously try to hit on her while they were stranded?

    As they were walking, 30 minutes went past. 30 minutes turned to an hour, and they were still walking with nothing in sight. Iris' feet were starting to hurt, she had no shoes on. Barry did, he fell asleep on the ground at his dad's so he didn't feel the need to take off his shoes. But his were also hurting.

"Can we stop here and like rest or something?" Iris complained, turning to a Clump of rocks and walking to it to sit down.

"Oh, come on. We're probably really close." Barry said. He also wanted to stop but didn't want to start another argument with this difficult woman.

"Well, I'm not moving another foot, until we rest." She persisted, she began to climb on the big clump of rocks, but then Barry interrupted her.

"Wait no! Don't do that, it's not sturdy." He reached his hands out in a stop motion.

"How do you know?" She snapped.

"Because it's not. Step back." He demanded as he walked up to her. She did what he said. He kicked the rock that she was about to use for leverage, and the whole clump of rocks fell. Iris gasped when it happened. She almost stepped on that rock, and she could've trapped an arm or leg under a rock if it wasn't for him.

"Oh my god" she was in shock. And Barry smiled at the fact that he was right.

"Yes, now can we keep moving?" He waved for her to follow him, he didn't want to leave her alone in the wild like this. She slouched down as if doing something she didn't want to, and followed him.