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It’s the middle of the summer. An insanely hot summer. It’s somehow getting to 104 degrees today, that’s what the radio said. Florence did the math and was completely floored at the idea of 40 degrees celsius, still refusing to use fahrenheit on principle. It doesn’t make sense! She argues. Celsius is water. What is fahrenheit? Walter started to go on about how the bigger numbers are more precise, before Freddie said that it was percentage. Like, the percentage of how hot it is. 0 is not hot, 100 is completely hot. That had brought Florence and Walter together to at least agree that fahrenheit is at least not that .
Freddie’s lying on his side, on the floor, working through a puzzle on his favorite chess board. He refuses to travel with it just in case it gets damaged, but he always uses it at home. He sits up, an idea hitting him. “We should go to the beach.”
Florence is hiding in the bit of shade they still have. This is the time of day where they get the most sun through the windows. “The beach?” She would rather stay inside, out of the sun, where she can turn three fans on at once and then have an ice cold bath when even that stops cutting it.
“Yeah, the beach.” Freddie pushes the pieces in front of him over. It stops him from being tempted to keep thinking about it.
“Can’t we just go to a pool? Somewhere closer?” Florence is trying so hard not to whine about the heat.
“We’ll take the subway. There’s a few of them that get us there. It’ll take us, what, half an hour?” Freddie hops up onto his feet before anyone has actually agreed.
Walter puts down the newspaper they’re reading. “I’ll go.”
“Yes! Alright, come on, Florence.”
Florence sighs. “Okay. I’ll go.” She’ll probably have a good time once they’re there anyways.
They’re out within twenty minutes. Freddie’s typically the one who holds them up, gets distracted along the way, insists on taking way too long to get his makeup right, the works. He’s excited about this though, so he’s quick to get ready. He’s wearing swim trunks and a rash guard- both blue- that looks like regular clothes someone would be wearing out today, so he doesn’t wear anything over it. He has sunglasses, not the ones he normally wears but ones that are even bigger. Walter does have more than just their swimwear on, but that’s because they don’t wear a shirt to swim. They also don’t intend to swim much. They’re wearing black, which Florence is baffled by. She has a light purple two piece bathing suit on, the kind with the skirt at the bottom and a top that’s more of a tank top than a bikini top. She has a slightly darker purple cover tied around her waist, and a hat so big and floppy that it just might keep some sun off her.
Walter can’t help but poke fun at Florence for how intent she is on avoiding the sun as much as possible. “What do you expect to happen, you burst into flames?” They joke.
“It’s hot out. How are you going outside in black ?”
“I wasn’t thinking about the color,” They pull at their shirt to display their point. “It’s thin. I’m also not a vampire, for one.”
“Hey,” Florence warns while Freddie laughs at the two from the door, waiting for them to finish so they can all go. “I’m not taking that from someone from Texas.”
Walter is caught off guard, confused and incredibly amused with the conversation. “What?”
Florence doubles down. “You know, how hot it is. We didn’t all grow up in the desert. ” She’s never been there. That’s how she pictures it.
Freddie butts in. “Your problem for growing up in England.”
“How is that my problem? I didn’t have a choice in it. I also didn’t plan on moving here, but here I am!” She’s getting spirited. Not angry, they’re just having fun, but she’s getting into it. Freddie pulls her hat down over her eyes by the brim. “Hey!”
“Sooner we go, sooner you get in the water.” Freddie points out. Florence fixes her hat, her now ruined hair, and tries to grab his sunglasses off of his face in revenge. She keeps trying sporadically throughout the journey to get them, and he stops her every time.
They manage to get to the station just in time for the subway to show up. The time they saved from Freddie getting ready faster than normal canceled out the break for making fun of Florence. Other people are doing the same thing as they are. It’s too hot to be doing anything else today, and it’s 11am, so there’s not many people commuting for work at the moment. Heat has a way of drawing people outside up to a point, and today passes that point easily.
The beach is busy. Obviously it was going to be, but it’s even busier than they had expected. Still, it doesn’t take long for them to find a spot to set up. Florence and Freddie keep their towels in their bags, but Walter spreads theirs out and lays down on it.
“Are you getting in the water?” Freddie asks.
“Later.” Walter pulls sunglasses out of their bag and puts them on. They’re still wearing the black shirt. Florence is sweating just looking at them (But really, she’s just sweating anyways.)
Florence kicks off her sandals. “One of you better be coming in. I’m not going in alone, and I’m not waiting.” It’s busy enough that it would be safe for her to go out alone, but she would still rather not.
Freddie has to try a couple times to get his shoes off. The sand is so hot it hurts to stand on. “Alright, jeez, hold on.” He hops out of both shoes at once, grabs her hat off of her head, and starts to run towards the water.
Once Florence realizes what happened, she takes off after him. “Hey!” She doesn’t catch up until they’re further than waist deep in the water. In a split second she decides that’s an acceptable depth to tackle him.
They both plunge into the water. Florence’s hat goes flying, but it’s so wide that it sits on top of the water. All the better because they wind up doing a lengthy grapple that would look to anyone else like they’re trying to drown each other.
When they reemerge, breathless and smiling, Florence picks up her hat, wrings it out, and puts it on her head. She’s already feeling better for being in the cold water. “That’ll teach you.”
Freddie, despite being the one who just got attacked, is pleased that she managed to get him back. It’d be no fun messing with her if she didn’t get him back. “Like I’m gonna learn from a little violence. I’d do it on purpose.”
“Yeah?” Florence challenges, still trying to catch her breath. They stare at each other. Somethings up here. Something’s wrong. Different. She can’t figure it out. Then, “Oh no.”
“Oh no?”
“Your sunglasses.”
Freddie goes to grab his sunglasses and winds up running into nothing but his face. His sunglasses are gone. “Oh, shit.” He looks around himself and can’t immediately find them. “Shit- Florence! Help me find them!”
“Why won’t you dive down and look for them yourself?” She doesn’t mind helping, but she’s not going to get salt water in her eyes if he’s not going to join in.
“My contacts ?” He acts like she should know these things. Not her fault for having 20/20 vision. “I can’t get them wet. What, do you want me to get germs in my eyes and go blind? Is that it?”
“Obviously not. Just let them go. They’re probably already too far gone.”
Freddie looks around frantically, hoping to find them. “No- they’re here somewhere! Come on!”
“You have others.” She reassures him. She takes off her hat and offers it to him. “Do you want my hat? It should keep the sun out of your eyes.”
“No. You’re the one all obsessed with the sun.”
“One, uncalled for. Two, it’s my fault. Take it.”
Freddie takes the hat and puts it on. It doesn’t suit him. “...Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it. I love you, by the way.”
That makes Freddie relax. It really isn’t a big deal. It’s not like they were expensive or anything, they weren’t even a pair he was particularly fond of, but it’s the idea that they’re down there somewhere. The two float, swim around a bit, chat about nothing, and Freddie keeps dragging his feet just in case. They’re long gone, but you never know. The hat does help. He doesn’t admit it.
They’ve been enjoying the water for nearly an hour when Freddie decides Walter is going to come in whether they like it or not. What’s the point of coming to the beach if not to swim? Sand sucks. “Hold on.” He tells Florence, no more context given.
“Come right back.”
“I will.” He trudges out of the water. He grabs a fistful of the wet, packed down sand where the water ends on his way. He packs it down even more, making it into a solid ball in his hands. He adds more sand. It’s huge. Florence is watching him from out in the water, filling more and more with dread by the moment. This can only go poorly. At least it’ll be funny.
Freddie walks up to Walter. They’re asleep. Freddie figured they’d be. He takes the ball of wet sand and drops it on their face.
Walter jolts awake, then reflexively sits up and starts to try and spit out the sand in their mouth. “What the hell was that for?!” They shout at Freddie, who has a positively evil grin.
“C’mon. In the water.” Freddie motions out.
Walter sits there, trying to think of some kind of insult or threat but so filled with anger that they can’t come up with anything. They shake sand out of their hair. There’s still so much left. Now they have to go in the water to rinse it out. “Okay.” They agree, annoyed that Freddie is getting his way after that. They take their shirt and shoes off and follows him out.
“He got you?” Florence asks Walter when the two get out to join her.
Walter dunks their head under the water, stays under for ten seconds, and comes back up. “Yeah.” They glare at him. He ignores it.
“I can’t agree with it, but-”
“It was funny.” Freddie interjects. “And now we’re all having fun together.”
“Where did your sunglasses go?” Walter asks. Freddie looks like he’s just had a terrible crime committed in front of him. Florence shakes her head to tell them to stop talking about it. They let it go.
They stay in for hours. They only get out when they have to eat or drink something, other than that they’re in until the sun starts to get to that spot where it isn’t setting yet, but it’s just low enough to shine right into your eyes.
They’re sitting close to shore, letting the gentle waves roll into them, going up to their chests when an especially tall one comes. Walter gave Freddie their sunglasses somewhere along the way, which meant Florence got her hat back. She’s been reapplying sunscreen obsessively, and Freddie did it whenever she did, more to be a part of the whole thing than anything since his arms are covered anyways. Walter put sunscreen on the first time but not after that. It’s going to bite them in the ass, for sure, but that’s a problem for later. The three wouldn’t have stayed this long any other day, but the heat made them make an exception.
“It’s getting dark.” Walter says. “We should get going.”
Florence sighs. “I guess so.” She leans against them and closes her eyes. They hold hands. “A little longer, though.” They kiss her on the top of the head and she cuddles in closer.
Freddie is sitting across from them, sun and waves to his back. “Aww.” He pokes fun at them. “You two are the cutest.”
Walter offers a hand to Freddie which, when taken, they use to pull him over, and all three wind up in a little pile.
And they stay for another hour. Chatting, laughing about nothing in particular, only leaving when the sun
really
starts to set and they realize that without the sun, the water is too cold to stay in. It’s dark by the time they get home. They don’t bother showering to wash the salt out of their hair, too tired. They don’t get very far at all after getting home before crashing in bed together. It’s still too hot outside. They don’t care.