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“Finally. Some quiet.”
Sunny sighed. It had been a long day. Kel wanted to try surfing. Kel almost got a concussion ‘surfing’. Aubrey and Kim disappeared about five minutes after they got to the beach, leaving Sunny and Basil to babysit The Hooligans, who proceeded to trick Angel into letting them bury him in the sand [they made what would’ve otherwise been a mermaid tail into a giant penis], and then Vance ate all the food before Lunch, ‘the Maverick’ had been slapped twice by two different girls, and Charlene found a crab and attempted to give it to Vance, who promptly screamed and tried to run but slipped in the sand and ended up falling on his face-first into the giant sand penis.
Hero and Mari had finally shown up, three hours late, and Basil had gone off to look for seaweed whilst Kel and Sunny had run off to look for, well, ‘cool stuff’, as Kel put it. Because beaches always had ‘cool stuff’.
“Dude, can I have one of your shoes?”
“What?” Sunny glanced at Kel, confused. “Why?”
“My feet hurt.” Kel was hopping on the rock, switching feet every few jumps.
He sighed. “You should’ve thought about that before we came out here.” Sunny smirked, though he was a little worried about Kel and his feet. “Now you just have to suffer.”
Kel attempted to pout, but instead only ended up making himself look like a stoner, which ended with Sunny laughing at him and falling off the rock. He landed in the water, and came up sputtering. Snatching his flip flops out of the water, he climbed back up onto the rock and shook the sand from them, slipping them back onto his feet as Kel called out.
“Sunny! Sunny look! I found a cool thing!”
He made his way over to Kel, almost slipping a second time on a patch of…mossy? Was it mossy? Well, it was green and slippery and spread in patches across the rock. “What did you find?”
Kel was bent over a weirdly deep puddle. Or–no, that was a tidepool, wasn’t it? It was full of colorful plants and all sorts of small sea creatures. A crab sat in the corner. A brown, partially translucent shrimp skittered across the sand-spread floor. Three small, gray fish swam repeatedly in circles around inside it.
“Isn’t it cool?!”
“Yes Kel. It’s pretty neat.” He squatted over the little puddle, trying to get a closer look. Wait a second.
“Um…Kel?”
Kel was silent. He was staring at his hand, one of the fingers outstretched and stuck about an inch deep in a sea anemone’s tentacles. His finger was turning red.
“...KEL?!”
Sunny grabbed Kel’s arm and yanked it out of the tide pool. Was he stupid [probably]?! Kel was staring at his finger. It was colored similarly to that of a fresh burn.
“MARIIIIIIIIIII!! HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP?!?!?!?!”
Kel started whimpering like a kicked puppy. Sunny felt guilty even though it was Kel’s fault for being fucking stupid. He heard splashing from the other side of the rock, and Aubrey and Kim appeared, looking confused. Aubrey rushed towards the two of them whilst Kim stared at Sunny with a look of pure disappointment.
“What did you do?! What happened?”
“Kel put his finger in the sea anemone.”
Aubrey glanced back and forth between Sunny and Kel. Her, now annoyed, gaze settled on Kel, and Sunny readied himself to defend, though he wasn’t sure how he could justify Kel’s actions.
“Kel?” He stared up at Aubrey, bottom lip trembling like a toddler’s. “Are you fucking stupid?”
There was a moment's silence where the four of them stared at Kel, who, despite being the biggest one there, looked like an absolute child. Eventually, Aubrey broke eye contact to glare at Sunny, who instinctively shrunk under her gaze.
“They’re like…jellyfish, right?”
Sunny hesitated. “...I think so…? Wh–”
“Great!” Aubrey clapped her hands sarcastically. “Just pee on Kel’s finger, then.”
There was another drawn-out silence. Kim stepped towards Aubrey, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Um…Aubrey? Isn’t that just a myth–?”
Aubrey whipped around, opening her mouth to correct Kim, when she spotted Basil. “BASIL!”
Basil, who was knee deep in the water about 100 feet away, jumped at the sudden shriek. “Uh! Yes, Aubrey?”
“COME HERE.” Aubrey had both hands on her hips in a commanding pose. Sunny attempted to hug Kel as he started sobbing. Dumbass might’ve deserved it for being stupid, but still.
“W–what’s up?” Basil scrambled onto the rock, almost losing grip and falling back into the water twice. “U-uh…wh–what’s wrong with Kel?”
“Does pee fix a jellyfish sting?”
He stared at Aubrey, dumbfounded. “...Uh…n–no? Tha–That’s vinegar.”
“What the fuck is ‘cider vinegar’?!” Aubrey smirked. “I bet you’re just making that up so you can look smart.”
“Wh–what?! No, Aubrey…it…um…urine just makes it worse.” He shifted awkwardly. “It’s science.”
“That’s bullshit! Sunny, just pee on Kel’s finger.”
“But I don’t–”
“Aubrey, Basil’s right, it’ll only make things worse.” Kim glared at Aubrey, annoyed. Aubrey sighed.
“Then how about we go get Hero and Mari? How does that sound?!”
“That's probably the best option, hon–er, sorry.” Basil grinned, saluting Aubrey, jumping off the rock and sprinting off towards the umbrella that marked their spot.
Sunny could see the outline of a few people gathered around it, followed by two separating from the group and running towards the rock. It was mere seconds before Mari and Hero were standing in front of them, Hero holding a bottle of vinegar and Mari desperately trying not to laugh. Hero stared at Kel, unscrewing the lid off the bottle.
“You’re lucky I anticipated this.” Hero approached Kel, holding the bottle in a threatening manner.
Kel just stared up at him, pouting as Hero poured a little bit of the vinegar on Kel’s finger, then, with a look of confusion, dumped the whole bottle over it. Sunny leapt up and away from the stench that was beginning to spread as the vinegar dripped down the lower half on Kel’s leg and onto the rock. He looked relieved.
“I don’t think it’s working.” Hero held the bottle up to his face, looking into it with one eye, as if he was going to discover something that way. Mari walked up behind him.
Aubrey huffed back to the rest of the group, Kim following her, laughing hysterically.
“It’s not going to just disappear, silly!” She took the bottle from Hero, patting Kel on the head as she did so. “Though, this is probably our signal to start packing up.” She snickered. “We’ll stop by Gino’s on the way back, okay?”
Hero started to get excited, then froze, remembering that he was standing in front of his brother and his brother’s boyfriend. “Great. Let’s go.” He…well, he soccer-mom speedwalked back to the umbrella and started gathering things.
Mari giggled, turning away from the two of them to follow him.
Sunny turned to Kel, smirking. “So, smartass, why’d you do that?”
“I dunno...it just looked so soft…” He sniffed. “I forgot they sting.”
He sighed. “I doubt you knew they stung in the first place.” Slowly, he got to his feet, holding a hand out towards Kel, who took it, using it to help him stand up. “You better be thankful.” Sunny took off his shoes and handed them to Kel, who suddenly perked up.
“Thanks!”
They barely fit, but Kel seemed happy enough. And to Sunny, well, goddamn it his feet hurt–that was worth it.