Sweater Guy and Cubicle Girl

The Beach

We were getting ready for our trip to the beach to set the lobster free. We invited Conrad to come with. Corey said he doesn't get a lot of sun. He spends all day inside. I was getting ready and Corey was packing lots of snacks for mostly Conrad. We got in the car and picked him up on the way.

"I love the beach so much. I used to go all the time." I told him Corey. "Do you like the beach a lot too?"

"Eh I've only been a couple times when I was little, we used to go to Anapa. I made a sandcastle once but Connie destroyed it because it was 'puny and pathetic' so that was fun." He said sarcastically.

"Hm well maybe we'll build a better one today." We talked about beach things for the rest of the ride, it was nice and Conrad was so quiet I almost forgot he was in the back.

When we got to the beach we set up towels and an umbrella. First thing on the agenda was to set our lobster free. Corey snipped the rubber bands off and handed it to me. For some reason he wanted me to let it go. We all headed to the water but Corey only came up until the water met the sand. Me and Conrad let the lobster go together, each of us wishing it luck in its newfound freedom. When it was gone we headed back to the shore. The water had came up a little too far on the sand and was so close to touching Corey but he ran away fearfully. I just wrote it off as the water was just a little too cold for him.

We all sat down on the towels in the shade and started to build a sandcastle. Corey and I were really into our castle building while Conrad busied himself getting into the snacks. A few minutes later Conrad came over saying "Hey, Corey look." I turned around and this little boy had a SEAGULL in his hands. "I caught it."

"WOW! COOL!" Exclaimed Corey, stumbling to get up from the sand.

"What?? Conrad put that down! What if it's got diseases?" I asked.

"He took my snacks!" Was his reason for capturing a live bird. I could only sigh. Eventually he let it go.

Conrad and I went into the water and had fun in the waves. Corey never came in though, he only sat on the shore playing with the sand. I wondered what was wrong and why he wouldn't come in. 'Was the water too cold? Was he too self conscious to take his shirt off? Was he scared of getting a sunburn and preferred to stay in the shade?' I thought to myself. I came out of the water and went over to him. "Hey Corey why don't you come in the water with us? It isn't too cold and it's pretty calm today."

"Haha! He's not going he can't swim and he's scared of the water!" said Conrad, he had followed me out and I didn't realize.

"Aww you're scared?" I asked feeling sorry for him.

He nodded.

"But come on it isn't so bad, why don't you just put your feet in? I'll come with you." I tried to convince him.

"...no...I don't think so..." He said.

"Will you at least think about it?" I asked, trying to reason with him.

"If you buy us ice cream." He said.

I laughed and agreed. We all went to the ice cream shop on the pier. It was there that I learned that Corey's favorite ice cream was cotton candy and strawberry with marshmallow fluff and rainbow sprinkles. And it was also here that he scolded me for only having one scoop of plain vanilla. During all the commotion I spotted my friend, Katherine. Kathy was a very attractive tall thin red head.

"OMAGOSH KATHY!!"

"OMAGOSH ELLA!!"

We screamed at each other. It startled Corey and Conrad. "Kathy this is my roommate, Corey, and his little brother, Conrad." I introduced them.

"Hi you guys!" She said, cheerfully.

Corey said hi and Conrad just waved. I talked for a while with Kathy and we got all caught up, and Corey and her soon became friends. I told her about Corey's problem and she said she wanted to come back down to the beach with us to encourage him.

We were all standing by the shore cheering for Corey to step into the water. He hesitantly stepped in a little, realizing it wasn't so bad. He giggled a bit at it. We encouraged him to go further and further until we were just about knee-deep. He started to splash around with Conrad and have some fun.

We all had fun in the water for a while until it started to get a bit dark. Corey said trying the ocean in the daytime was one thing, but the ocean at night was a complete other, much more scary, thing. So we started to head back. Suddenly, Corey stopped. "ELLA LOOK!" He was holding a little seashell he had found. "It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen! We gotta keep it!"

Honestly it was just an average seashell but his enthusiasm was adorable so I said "Go ahead Corey, why don't you find a few others before it gets too dark?" Corey went off to find some and came back a few minutes later with his hands and pockets full. He came and sat on the towels with us and we watched the beautiful big sunset on the beach.