Isla

The salty air hung thick with humidity, wrapping around you like a warm blanket. You sat on the sand, the sound of crashing waves a constant rhythm beneath the distant laughter of your friends.

It was your last night together before Sky left for Cambodia, and the usual summer ease of Shellside Bay felt tinged with melancholy. Austin sat beside you, his arm around your shoulder, sending familiar shivers down your spine. The heat, the sand, the sound of their voices – this was your summer, your life, and yet, you yearned for something more.

You were tired of the routine, of feeling like a name scribbled in the sand, constantly pulled by the waves but with no intention to return to the predictable shore. Shellside Bay, for all its beauty, felt suffocating. You dreamed of seeing the world, a dream that felt distant as you sat there, surrounded by the comfort and constraint of everything you knew.