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It’s a beautifully sunny day at Jackson Beach, and Ellie abhors it.
Don’t get her wrong, she loves Jackson, but she hates the heat. She much prefers it when the air is frigid enough for her to see her breath, and the townsfolk are bundled up in their winter coats and beanies. Were it under her control, Ellie would be at home sitting in front of the fan watching TV.
But as it is, Dina dragged Ellie by her hair to come down to the beach. Not literally, as that would be painful, but Ellie is annoyed anyway.
Ellie pushes the sleeve of her flannel up her shoulder as she waits at the stoplight. The light turns green, and she pushes on the pedal of her bike to send her forward.
Today is a relatively cool day, pushing a cool eighty five degrees. Considering it can reach the hundreds, Ellie is glad that Dina chose today instead of any other day. At least now she has an excuse to be wearing her flannel. It will forever be a weak point— her love of flannels, that is. Fingers crossed that Jesse doesn’t comment on it.
With the beach in sight, Ellie can feel the salt in the air settling onto her skin and hair. She pulls onto the sidewalk, and then down the path that leads to the beach. Rows of cars are parked along the small parking lot set off to the side, and sure enough, Ellie spots Jesse’s olive green truck sitting at the end, with Dina and Jesse hanging off the bed of the truck and chatting idly.
“Hey, guys!” Ellie’s shout carries on the window to the two, and their heads swivel to see Ellie biking towards them.
“Oh, there’s my favorite homosexual!” Dina says, hopping down from the truck. Jesse looks offended.
“I thought I was your favorite homosexual!” Jesse puts his hand on his chest in mock offense, and Dina just flicks his nose before turning to Ellie, who wheels her bike to them. “But yeah, I agree. Hey, El!”
“Hey Jesse, hey Dina,” Ellie greets them individually, before being swept up into the usual customary air-stealing hug that Dina does every single time they see each other. When that’s done and Ellie has to breathe again, she high fives Jesse.
“C’mon, guys, let’s go!” Dina is herding the others like a shepherd, and Ellie is relegated to carrying the beach chairs and umbrella. Jesse is in charge of the cooler, no doubt filled to the brim with beers and other drinks (along with food). It takes a few minutes for them to pick the perfect spot, taking into consideration the winds and the views (and by views, Ellie means the women Dina wants to look at respectfully).
But in the end, they settle for a spot, and Ellie flops onto her chair after helping Jesse set up the umbrella.
“Are we betting on how quick it’ll take for El to get a sunburn?” Jesse asks as he smooths sunscreen over his olive skin. Dina yanks the sunscreen out of his hand.
“Hush, don’t talk about it in front of her!” Dina whisper-shouts, then snickers. “I’ll say twenty minutes.”
“I say this whole heartedly, but fuck you both.” Ellie has her hand on her chest to accentuate her point, but she can’t say they’re wrong. Another reason why Ellie hates the beach and the sun; sunburns. Somehow, no matter how many layers of sunscreen she puts on, Ellie always ends up with burned shoulders and a pink face. It's awful. A curse.
“Cheer up, Ellie! Look around you!” Dina holds her arms out. “Women!”
“And men!” Jesse pipes in. Ellie faces cringes up instinctually. Even Jesse sighs. “Nevermind.”
With a snicker, Ellie leans back in her seat and takes out her notebook. If she can’t be sitting in her room drawing at home, then she can be at the beach doing the same. Besides, Joel encouraged Ellie to go anyway— he had even managed to convince Tommy to let Ellie off the hook with farm work.
So, in honor of Joel, Ellie draws the shore, all the way to the horizon, and even the islands beyond. He’s always liked those kinds of drawings.
For a little while, Jesse goes surfing. Ellie cheers him on, while Dina pretends to hold up scorecards. It’s ridiculous and hysterical, since Jesse isn’t all that great a surfer. Even Ellie thinks she could just a tiny bit better than he could.
As Jesse surfs, Ellie’s attention drifts to a clump of surfers a few dozen feet from Jesse. They’re all packed together, and they seem to be just talking instead of actually surfing. Ellie squints, wishing she had a pair of sunglasses. Everything is so damn bright.
Ellie’s gaze is drawn to some fellow beach-goers. It’s a woman— zipped up tight in a wetsuit— and a younger girl, with raven black hair and her left arm a stump. The older one appears to be teaching the younger, or helping her learn to stand up on a board.
Curious, Ellie starts sketching. It’s hard to do with a moving muse, but Ellie manages anyway. If her fingers refuse to sit still, then she can at least work on her anatomy. It’s only some time before the taller woman is picking up two surfboards, a large one and a small one— and heading to the ocean with the smaller girl in tow. A boy with a shaved head and wearing a skin tone bra— no, a chest binder— waves them off.
“Whatcha looking at?” Dina asks, and Ellie blinks. She looks down at her sketchbook, and subtly angles it away from Dina.
“Thought I saw a seal in the ocean,” Ellie replies easily, and Dina perks up.
“Oh, where?”
After a while, Jesse comes back from the ocean, putting his board in the sand and peeling off the top half of his wetsuit. “Dude, there was another surfer out there, this chick, she was insane.”
He shakes off the saltwater in his hair, and Ellie holds up her sketchbook to protect herself from flying droplets.
“Which one?” Dina asks, her curiosity piqued. Jesse turns and points. Ellie follows his finger to see that he’s pointing towards the same, older woman that had been instructing the younger girl. The same one Ellie had been shamelessly drawing earlier.
Ellie’s ears burn, but she has no fucking clue why. She’s not in the sun, so what’s the reason?
“She looks good, but unfortunately, not my type,” Dina says, and she even sounds sad about it.
“You know, you’ve been out for years, and I can’t figure it out. What is your type?” Ellie asks, and Dina’s brow arches.
“You’re my type.”
Jesse groans. “Ugh, guys, not this again . You dated once, it didn’t work. Please , for the love of god, don’t make me third wheel again.”
“Calm down,” Dina says, grabbing a beer from the cooler. She pops it open and throws the cap into a little trash bucket they’ve fashioned from the shopping bag Jesse had used to get the beers. None of them will be caught dead littering. Dina takes a swig. “I tried it, and Ellie wasn’t it.”
It’s a harmless jab, prompting a laugh from Ellie. “Ow, you ass.”
Dina just shrugs with a self satisfied smile on her face. Ellie rolls her eyes and goes back to sketching. If she feels like it, she might take a dip in the ocean later, when the sun is down and the UV index is lower.
The time passes by easily, with conversations and drinks. It’s nice to take a load off every once in a while— between helping out on the farm and attending college as an art major, Ellie cherishes these days where she can just sit and do nothing, even if she does have to do it outside.
As the conversation wanes, Dina taking a nap in the sun to make her already tan skin even more bronze, and Jesse reading his newest novel peacefully, Ellie mindlessly digs her feet in the warm sand and looks out to the blue sea.
The clump of surfers from before have dwindled down to just one— the long-haired taller woman, shredding the waves with ease. Ellie taps the eraser of her pencil on her sketchbook, watching with rapt attention as the surfer comes to shore, surfboard tucked under one arm and her other undoing her hair. It’s long, nearly reaching the base of her spine, and Ellie can’t possibly imagine having that much hair.
Ellie starts sketching again, mindlessly.
When she glances back up, she’s glad she did. Or is she?
The surfer has put her board down, and is gesturing with her hands as she talks to her companions. Ellie can hear her voice from here— a smooth voice with a wise lilt to it. Ellie likes it. Maybe a little too much. But it gets worse (or better) when the surfer reaches behind her back and tugs down the zipper of her wetsuit.
And Ellie, despite having ingested two beers, has a very dry throat, all the sudden.
The surfer slides the wetsuit down her top half, and lets it sit around her hips. It does nothing but unveil mouth-watering abs— hard and defined, sculpted by the fucking gods. Ellie doesn’t find herself to be jealous— she’s perfectly muscular all on her own— but really, she’s just fucking shocked.
How is it even humanly possible for the surfer to be so ripped? Ellie knows that some women are more inclined to muscle building than others, but this just seems plain unfair.
“Yoohoo!” Fingers snap in front of Ellie’s face. Ellie blinks and glares at Dina, who lays on the sand with a smug grin. “Whatcha looking at?”
“Nothing,” Ellie hisses, and kicks some sand in Dina’s direction. The brunette rolls her eyes before sitting up.
“I saw who you were looking at,” Dina says. She gestures. “Go talk to her!”
Before Ellie can say anything, Jesse beats her. “Ellie? Talking to a cute girl on her own? That’s physically impossible, Dina. Ellie could barely talk to you .”
Dina snorts. “Hah! I remember!” She turns to Ellie again. “But seriously, El. You should at least ask her to give you some tips on how to surfboard. You’ve always wanted to learn, and lord knows Jesse isn’t skilled enough to teach you.”
“Hey!”
Ellie manages an awkward laugh, and curses the blush on her face. “I wasn’t looking at her, or anything, she just—”
“Caught your eye?” Dina cuts Ellie off, and the redhead finds no better response than simply flipping Dina off. Dina rolls her eyes, before standing up. With a brush of her hands cleaning her sandy thighs, Dina grabs Ellies hand. “C’mon, I’ll go help you, you useless lesbian.”
Ellie can’t find it in her to protest.
So, Dina yanks Ellie along to the group of people. It’s a mix, with mostly boys and three girls.
“Hey, y’all!” Dina greets cheerfully, easily capturing the attention of the group. How does she do it so easily? Fucking extroverts. “I’m Dina, this is my friend, Ellie!”
Dina’s attention turns to the dirty blonde haired surfer. “And I hate to bother you, but my dear friend Ellie wants to learn how to surf. We were watching you and saw how good you were so… we though, who better to ask for tips?”
The blonde surfer blinks, and Ellie wants so badly to kick Dina’s shin. Not to mention, Ellie has to bite the inside of her cheek in order to remind herself not to stare shamelessly at the surfer’s abs, which look so much better up close.
The blonde looks back to the young boy and girl, who both shrug indifferently. Then, she turns back, and sticks out her hand to Ellie with a smile. “I’m Abby.”
Ellie finds herself oddly breathless as she shakes Abby’s broad hand.
~~~~~
The sun has long since gone down, which has given way to a cool ocean breeze and the ample opportunity to make a bonfire. It only took minutes for Manny and Owen— some of Abby’s friends— to find wood with Jesse and a few matches before a fire was made.
Ellie wonders how Dina and Jesse are so good at conversing with other people. Even Yara and Lev, the young girl and boy respectively, are cracking jokes with Dina about the others.
She burrows herself further into her flannel, grateful that her skin isn’t horribly burned. Had Dina not been so straightforward and blunt, Ellie would’ve escaped having red shoulders from being in the water.
But then again, Ellie wouldn’t have gotten to talk to Abby. Abby, the wide-shouldered woman sitting across from Ellie at the bonfire, teaching Lev how to roast a marshmallow perfectly.
Ellie glances down to her sketchbook, and flips through the previous pages that she’s filled with drawings of the entire day. There’s a drawing of the seagull that nearly stole Jesse’s hat, and a bust drawing of Dina snoozing in the sun. Then… the majority is an embarrassing amount of Abby. Whether it be her face— there’s proof of several attempts of trying to perfect that jawline with all of the eraser marks— or something else, Ellie’s dedicated quite a few pages to the woman she’s only known for half a day.
So what if Ellie’s spent a little too much time trying to draw someone she doesn’t even know that well? Nobody ever sees the drawings in her sketchbook. Abby certainly won’t.
“Hey, stranger.”
Ellie slams her sketchbook shut on instinct, jumping at the voice. She looks up to see Abby peering at her with a raised brow and two marshmallow-tipped rods. Slowly, Abby holds one out to Ellie.
“Thought you could use a sugar rush,” Abby says, a hint of a smile on her cheeks.
“Thanks,” Ellie says quietly, taking the marshmallow roaster into her hand. She shifts closer to the fire, now sitting in the sand. And unlike Ellie expects, Abby sits down next to Ellie, their shoulders nearly brushing against each other. Ellie clears her throat. “And thanks for helping me learn how to surf, too.”
Abby smiles. They had only spent a short thirty minutes in the water before Ellie had called it quits— she’d been thrashed about by the waves, and even Abby was quick to admit that the waves were a bit much for a mere beginner. They talked briefly in the water, mostly about correct position in the water, how to paddle, all of that stuff.
Nothing personal, though. And quite frankly, as Ellie steals a glance at Abby’s face and the soft curve of her nose, Ellie wants to know more.
“Here on vacation?” Ellie decides to ask. A safe thing to talk about, right?
“No, I just moved here, actually,” Abby responds, turning her marshmallow so it roasts evenly. She gestures her arm to her friends. “We all did. Needed a new place to be, so we found a house away from the main parts of town for cheap. We’re busy with reconstruction.”
There’s a vague sense of recognition in Ellie’s mind. “Are you guys the one who took over the house that was in foreclosure on Reed Lane?”
Abby’s eyebrows jut upward in surprise. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
Ellie pulls her marshmallow away so it doesn’t catch into flames. “I live on Miller Ranch with my Uncle Tommy, his wife, and my dad Joel.”
“I think my dad knew yours,” Abby says, and Ellie nearly drops her marshmallow stick. Abby laughs. “Not in a bad way, more like. I think they were old business associates, before my dad… before my dad died.”
“Oh.” Ellie’s brow furrows. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Abby shakes her head. “It happened a long time ago. I’m over it.”
Ellie draws away her marshmallow, a perfect golden brown, and makes to grab the hershey’s chocolate, but Abby slaps her hand away. Ellie looks at her incredulously, but Abby reaches into the pocket of her shorts and produces Reese’s peanut butter cups.
“You’re not allergic, are you?” Abby asks, and Ellie shakes her head no. “Good. Because regular chocolate sucks. ”
Ellie stays mute as Abby takes Ellie’s marshmallow between graham crackers, then shoves a piece of peanut butter cup between it. Abby holds it out to Ellie with a hint of a devious smile on her face, and Ellie takes the s’more in her hands. She takes a tentative bite, and an explosion of chocolatey peanut buttery marshmallow flavor hits her tongue like a bulldozer.
Her shock must be obvious to Abby, who merely grins and takes a bite of her own s’more.
“Holy shit, dude,” Ellie whispers, a hand over her mouth so she doesn’t look like a complete slob. Abby is cackling with laughter, leaning back in the sand and holding her s’more up high in victory. Ellie, as she munches on her delicious s’more, turns her focus to the setting sun.
It paints everyone in golden hues, and Ellie is grateful she gets to live here, at Jackson Beach, because she gets to experience this gorgeous sunset every single night. Ellie glances over to Abby, and she seems just as enraptured with the ball of fire illuminating the sky in shades of gold.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Ellie asks quietly, and Abby just nods with a smile on her face.
Abby glances sideward. “Not the most beautiful thing I’ve seen tonight.”
Ellie’s face burns up faster than a marshmallow to a fire, and she tucks her head between her propped up legs as Abby chuckles lightly. OKay, so Ellie isn’t completely oblivious; Abby was flirting, right? Right?
From across the bonfire, to Ellie’s left, Dina shoots her an unimpressed look that clearly screams make a move, bitch! Ellie is tempted to flip Dina off, but not in the presence of children. Though, Ellie’s heard them cuss a few times.
As the conversation evolves into something Ellie doesn’t really care about, she grabs her sketchbook again. Abby is focused on a debate with Manny about the best beer brands, the latter going off on an endless tangent about the brewing process. It gives Ellie the perfect opportunity to simply lean back and doodle the lines of Abby’s shoulder blades and the muscles that line her back.
Ellie had gotten over the shock of Abby’s abs fairly quickly (not), but she still gets whiplash every time Abby moves , and the cascade of rippling muscles that follows. It’s almost annoying, Ellie would say, if it didn’t give her such a good view.
“Nice drawings.”
Ellie jolts.
Abby is peering at her sketchbook with curiosity, and her face morphs into something Ellie can’t read. “Is that me?”
Ellie swallows. Well, fuck. “Yeah, it is.”
“Can I see?” Abby asks softly, as if she knows that Ellie’s sketchbook is a precious thing to her. Sighing, Ellie forks over the sketchbook, and Abby props it up in her lap to flip through the pages. Nobody seems to notice them, too busy in their own riveting conversations to see that Ellie has just given a part of herself for Abby to see.
“These are gorgeous.” Abby is talking about the drawings of herself, and Ellie can’t help but snort.
“Way to flatter yourself,” Ellie says, but Abby elbows her.
“I’m serious, El.” Say my name again. “These are amazing. And I’m not just saying that because it’s me— by the way, that’s so cool.”
“Thank you,” Ellie says, and Dina is looking at her with a very suspicious gaze.
Abby closes the sketchbook, and hands it back to Ellie with a soft grin. “Thank you for showing me.”
Ellie scratches the back of her neck, somewhat awkwardly before she tucks her sketchbook into her bag. How does she respond to that? How does she even say anything when her mind is a jumble of Abby’s gorgeous and Hnnngh I’m gay. Abby looks at Ellie for a few more seconds, a dimple on her cheek showing in the bonfire, before she turns to engage in another conversation.
All the meanwhile, Dina swoops over and grabs Ellie by the collar of her flannel. “I need to talk to you.”
“Ow!” Ellie slaps Dina’s hand away, getting the vice grip off. Once they’re a few dozen feet or so from the group, Dina whirls on Ellie.
“You need to make a move before the end of the night.”
“What?” Ellie freezes.
Dina rolls her eyes. “Don’t play stupid, Williams. I’ve seen the googoo eyes you two have been making at each other since you fucking met . And! You showed her your sketchbook! You stabbed me when I tried to!”
“I didn’t stab you!”
“You stabbed me with a fork, and that’s that,” Dina retorts, pointing with her finger to Ellie before poking her in the arm. “Seriously, El. Abby’s interested. Make a move.”
“H-how do you know that? She could just be super nice!”
Dina gapes, then shakes her head with dismay. “God, you’re fucking useless. Fine. I’ll help you.”
“No, Dina, you already helped me once today—” And there Dina goes, taking off her shirt before sprinting to the ocean.
“Last one in the ocean is a rotten egg!” Dina shouts, prompting Manny to launch himself and follow Dina. Ellie sighs, running a hand over her face as Owen and Jesse rush to join her. Mel declines, due to her pregnancy, and stays behind. Yara goes as well, with the promise to be safe. Lev continues to roast marshmallows.
Abby is in front of Ellie, grinning mischievously. “C’mon, loser!”
“No thank you,” Ellie says, and Abby rolls her eyes.
Abby doesn’t say much else, other than pulling off Ellie’s flannel quicker than Ellie can react and throwing Ellie over her shoulder as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Abby jogs to the shoreline, laughing as Ellie shrieks.
“Put me down!”
Abby, much to Ellie’s dismay, does not put her down and continues to run headlong into the ocean, until Ellie can feel herself being thrown in the salty water. By the time she resurfaces, Abby is already swimming away.
Ellie chases her, ducking underneath the waves as they come. Ellie might be naturally quick, but Abby is a lightning bolt in the water, paddling with broad palms to push her far. Ellie swims as fast as she can to catch up.
Ellie doesn’t even realize how far out they are until she looks back. Lev and Mel are merely specks on the beach, and the fire is no bigger than her nail.
But it’s peaceful.
The moon bounces off the water, casting a reflective silver glow that shines onto Abby’s face as the bigger woman stares up in the sky, mystified by all the stares she can see.
Ellie points up, tracing with her finger. “There’s Orion, right there.”
Abby smiles, and Ellie feels breathless again. “I’ve never been able to see the stars so clearly. I used to live in Seattle— used to work at the aquarium there, and every time I ended my shift for work, I would go to the docks and try and count all the constellations I could find.”
“Didn’t find much?” Ellie asks, already knowing that pollution likely muddled any chance of seeing the stars as clearly as they’re seen here. Abby nods, and she turns to look at Ellie, swimming closer. Ellie clears her throat. “There’s a stargazing spot, in my barn. We have a skylight.”
“You’ll have to take me there sometime,” Abby says, tilting her head to the side. Then quietly, she adds, “If everybody else in Jackson is like you, I think I’ll like living here.”
“I’m one of a kind,” Ellie replies, cracking a smile. “Nobody else like me.”
“That’s a shame.” Abby comes closer, and now they’re face to face. “But I think I’ll stick around anyway.”
“What for?”
“A cute woman I met today,” Abby says, the moon shining in her dark, earthen eyes. She swallows, now appearing nervous, all the sudden. “I think I want to kiss her.”
“So why don’t you?” Ellie whispers back, her voice a ghost to the wind.
Abby leans forward, and Ellie leans in to meet her halfway, their lips coming together softly. Abby tastes faintly of peanut butter and salt, and Ellie finds she enjoys it far too much than she should. Their bodies are nearly pressed together, sharing whatever body warmth they have in the crisp, chill ocean.
They pull away briefly, only to meet again. Abby laughs as she kisses Ellie, and it leaves a profound effect on the redhead; her heart is beating so hard in her chest she thinks Abby can feel it.
Maybe Abby does, maybe Abby doesn’t. All Ellie knows is that she wants to see that radiant smile on Abby’s face again.