Chapter Text
You heaved, allowing your fingers to relax on the grab handle. Before pulling your arm back completely, white knuckled and sweaty from the horrible drive. Melissa, completely hungover and drunk again, was laughing, her palms gently rested on the steering wheel as she pulled into the small parking lot.
“Santa Monica, baby!” Melissa chirped into her phone, apparently she was on dial with her boyfriend the whole time, something you didn’t pick up before. She nudged the door open before wobbling out of the car, a jean skirt tight around her fat hips.
You shoved your way out of the car, the hot air hitting your face immediately. Causing sweat to form atop your lips, perched and then dripping down your chin. You whipped your face, lifting up your hand to rapidly wave your face like it would do something. “Really hot, isn’t it?” You remarked, raising your voice a bit to try to get your drunken friends attention.
“Course! Hun, if ‘ya don’t mind I’m gonna head up to the pier, I’ll meet you at the beach after. Okay?” Melissa chittered, her red gloss obnoxiously glistening in the sunlight as she started to walk further down the already crowded parking lot to the back.
“Sounds fine, have fun with Linus!” You shouted, waving at her before turning to the other side of the parking lot.
The asphalt burned through your sandals, heating up your feet aggressively like scorching flames cooking you. The smell of salt and sunblock sifted through the air, making you scrunch up from the new sensation and scent. You continued your way down to the beach, holding a large bag wedged between your elbow as you hopped. It was surprisingly difficult to balance when both of your feet begged for rest from the grilling feeling on your heals. You wobbled, flicking your sandals off when you hit the beach, sand creeping in between your toes and shaping around your footsteps.
The warmth was still unpleasant, but it wasn’t as bad as it felt on the concrete. You scratched the back of your head, your hair slightly balmy on your fingertips. The new material made it harder to walk but you still managed to scramble about halfway down the beach to place down your items. Dropping your bag with a heavy thud, you pulled around in the bag, before eventually gripping the umbrella and lifting it out of its container. You smiled at the sudden shade once it expanded, shadows pooling onto your face and body as the heat began to chill into something more comfortable.
You shifted your hand’s position on the pole before plunging it into the sand, twisting it repeatedly to keep it buried. The umbrella, now propped up into the sand, swayed with the sultry wind when it came, but didn’t budge otherwise.
“Tough work,” you sighed playfully to yourself, cringing at your words after realizing you said them outloud. Melissa was one of the only reasons you decided to come to the beach, and you really hoped she’d come back soon. But she was always one for stalling, especially when it came to Linus.
You didn’t really enjoy the pier setting either, you weren’t the most agile when it came to swimming. More of someone who clang to floaties and doggy paddled across swallow pools. You could bear the summery weather, but it was irritating in the same sense. Collecting sand dollars was more in your margin, you did enjoy finding different beach stones, though Melissa was only obsessed with tanning so she would never tag along on your beach walks when you visited.
Sighing and wiping the building sweat on your forehead you looked at the crashing waves in front of you. Luckily, you picked a good spot, of course it wasn’t too full, but it would be an understatement to say it was empty. The foam spilled from the water, sliding its way across the dried sand quickly before getting ripped back by the waves.
A group of kids had also formed closer to the water, playing and splashing each other while they were about knee deep into the ocean. It was a young girl– or boy? You couldn’t tell, they had short brown hair that was perfectly layered, but was drenched and soaking after being headbutted by another person. The kid who ‘pushed’ them looked like an adolescent monster, buckteeth propped out from his upper lip, his skin similar to a lizard's, but yellow. It looked scaly, but you couldn’t confirm it from a distance.
You didn’t have a huge bias against monsters on the surface, but it was still an incredibly unfamiliar feeling to see inhuman creatures wandering free on the streets. The conflict between the two species was getting more difficult as the days passed, segregated laws against monsterkind for ‘safety’, of course you’ve never seen an aggressive monster in person. But you’ve seen plenty of stories and rumours to be somewhat cautious.
Something about it brought a smile to your face, the two bonding with a childlike joy, bringing more hope into your soul. You grinned before frowning at the sudden sensation of sand burning into your ass. You winced standing up and laughing it off. Perhaps it was a good time to get into the water, it didn’t seem ideal to wait forever for Melissa to return.
You took off your shirt, revealing the top of a tightly fastened one piece swimsuit, completely black with white poka-dots. Sliding down your jeans you felt more sun melt into your legs, making you hurry back into the shade.
Just in case, you decided to text Melissa before. Taking out your phone and gently enveloping the back of the case in your hands before tapping at the screen with your moist fingers.
You: I’m going into the water, I’ll send you my location so you can come to me after you're done up there!
(You sent your location to Melissa until the end of the day)
Melissa is typing . . .
Melissa: Sounds good, babe! ‘Ya want a churro or a funnel cake?
You glanced at the message placing your phone onto your knee while you thought, before responding.
You: A churro sounds nice, thanks. Bye!
You plopped your phone into the beach bag before sprinting your way over to the water. The briny air flowing through your hair as you quickly ran over to the beach water. You jumped towards the waves, the surprisingly mild and comfortably lukewarm water hitting your ankles, then your knees as you pushed yourself further into the water.
You began to paddle yourself deeper into the ocean until your feet stopped hitting the sand beneath you. You dipped your hair into the water, allowing yourself to float like a starfish atop the water to avoid exhaustion or tiredness. The waves were pretty calm and the relief hit you like a train. Your limbs were submerged in the cooling and bitter water, rocking you back and forth in a continuous cycle of movement. You pulled your body upwards, in the process you got water in your mouth. You gagged, spitting it out, the piquant taste stale in your mouth as you groaned.
The urge to brush your tongue with your hands, to try to get the salty taste out of your taste buds was strong, but you knew it would only make it worse. “Disgusting,” you mumbled, shaking your arms as you got a feeling of goosebumps.
Then screaming, you tilted your head and turned over to the beach. You saw Melissa, hugged onto Linus’s arm, yelling for you with a churro waving in her hand. You wondered how long you must have been swimming for once you saw her there. You cheekily smiled, waving back before you started to swim back.
The distance felt longer than it took to get out there in the first place, the water feeling thicker, like dense pudding, more than what it was supposed to be. You pushed your way to the sand but felt no change in your position. The water was hard to navigate and you felt yourself begin to heave and gasp in panic. A wave of tiredness washed over you, slapping chains on your limbs as your body felt heavier than it had ever felt before. It was getting harder to breathe, your chest was rapidly rising up and down as you splashed in the water.
The feeling swallowed you whole, making your eyelids flutter shut for a couple seconds before you waved your hands around to try to keep yourself above the surface. Panic consumed you, your cortisol spiked and adrenalin ran throughout your system, but no matter the strength your body provided you, the beach kept getting farther and your body kept misfunctioning your signals.
The conclusion snapped to you, you were drowning, you couldn’t swim anymore, in frantic respirations you began to scream for help, your voice muffled by the water beginning to slip inside.
“MELISSA! PLEAS–” You yowled, before getting cut off by a wave crashing into your back, you flipped and tumbled underwater, your eyes shut tight to avoid salt water threatening to seep inside of your sockets.
You freaked out more, bubbles slipping your mouth as you tried to claw your way above the surface, your lips pressed tight together, but begged for air as they slipped open. You inhaled a large gulp of water, the liquid pushing itself into your lungs, you wanted to cough, but there was no way to expel the water surrounding you on all sides.
You felt your consciousness start to slip as you sunk further until you hit the sand on the bottom, a feeling of peace began to come over you as your vision blurred and eventually went black.
Consciousness regained, marked at 1:34 PM
You moaned, coughing up a mix of sand and salt water. You felt your hands grasp the ground around you as you sat up in shock. You felt yourself break out into a cold sweat as you fell apart, you were about to run– get up, question what happened before a dense hand dropped on your elbow. You snapped your hand to face the person and it was a– skeleton? You flinched back, dumfounded that it was a monster and not Melissa.
“hi bud, i get it, you’re probably thinkin’, water you doing?” The skeleton chuckled, his pupils two glowing pricks of lights in his empty sockets. He had a swim-shirt with a picture of a skeleton’s ribs on the front, and those Hawaiian flower shorts. “kinda fetched you, gotchu out’a the water,” he winked, offering out a towel which you snagged and wrapped around yourself in a second.
“Where’s Melissa? You know the–fuck–really tanned one?” You inquired, your eyes nervous to meet his, so instead you faced your head to the sand.
“dunno, she ran to get help, gave me this to hold tho.” He wiggled a churro out of his pocket and lazily took a bite out of it. Chewing it? Somehow, despite his lack of lips and digestion system, the thought freaked you out more so you just focused on the present.
“And she’s not back yet?” You quizzed, your eyes looking over to the churro as your jaw dropped. “I think that was mine too.”
He shrugged, plopping the half eaten churro back into your hands, before licking his teeth on that permanent smile placed onto his face.
“she was cryin’ all over that one dude, really beats me. also, names sans, nice to sea ‘ya,” Sans chimed, yawning loudly before reaching his hand out for you to shake.
“Thanks for– helping? Sorry I’m stumped right now,” you smiled, gingerly placing your hand into his, but the feeling of something wet and slimy on your hands made you rip yourself back.
It was a long piece of seaweed, falling off of your hand as you shook it off and it plopped onto the sand. “sorry, forgot the woopie-cushion, that one wasn’t even on purpose,” Sans jested, rubbing the back of his skull.
“also real quick favor, if ‘ya don’t mind?” Sans spoke, snapping you out of your disgusted thoughts of the feeling of the plant on your palm.
“Sure, yeah, it’s fine.” You agreed, taking out your phone and spamming Melissa with dozens of messages, your fingers bounced across the screen, you ignored the throbbing headache you got from seeing the blue light.
You: Melissa?!!
You: Where are you!!??
You: I’m awake at the beach right now!!!
No response came, you had a feeling it would happen but you wanted to reject the thought to stay hopeful of her return. You slammed your phone back into the sand in frustration before looking up at Sans.
“yeah, uh ‘m friends were worried ‘bout ‘ya, swimming like a dead fish, do you mind checkin’ with them real quick. ‘specially my brother, he's a big empath ‘n stuff.” Sans politely asked, grinning awkwardly at his words as he moved his hand on the sand.