Page 10 of Passing the Red Line
“For the rest of summer, no more thoughts of Kalen the cheater,” I say to myself as I drive down the coastal highway.
Before taking the job with the Knights I had planned on spending the entire summer in California working as a freelance photographer for one of the soccer teams that the state has to offer.
The job started about three weeks ago and I’m loving being under the California sun.
There’s something calming about hearing the waves of the ocean crashing against land.
In all the traveling that I’ve done throughout my adult life that one sound has always found a way to ground me and make me stop and think about the directions I wanted things to go. It’s not a sound that I hear very often so when I do have it in my vicinity, I try to take it in as much as I possibly can.
As someone who grew up in Minnesota, with the closest thing we had to an actual beach was a lake, I never understood why people loved the beaches that the west coast had to offer so much. Now I do.
Days like today make me so damn happy that I chose to become a photographer. I can travel anywhere, whenever I want and get to explore the beauty that the world has to offer.
The photo session I had today with the soccer team ended a lot earlier than I thought it would, so I decided to spend the rest of my day by the beach and relax as much as I can. Take in as much sun as I can because Chicago has brutal winters and I got to keep my tan up as much as I possibly can.
A pale and pasty Eliana is not a happy Eliana.
After grabbing some sushi and bubble tea from one of my favorite places just off Highway One, I drove down the coast for a few miles until I found a beach that wasn’t as packed as the ones by the boardwalk or seascapes were.
I’ve been waiting for a day like today since I landed in San Francisco. Thankfully I planned ahead and went to the store as soon as I got here and bought all the beach essentials that I needed to keep in the trunk of my rental. I even got a little cooler that I fill up every morning with food and drinks. I wanted to keep things handy just in case the craziness hit me, and I wanted to hear the waves crash.
Today, I’m thanking myself for thinking ahead.
I drove for a good thirty minutes before I found the perfect beach hidden by a residential area. Grabbing my stuff from the trunk, I make my way down to the shore and settle myself close to an old lighthouse.
The second that I slide off my shorts and the ass hits the chair, I start to relax.
The beach is almost deserted, with only a few people along the length of the shore, the sun is out and shining perfectly and the sound and smell of the ocean take me to a happy place. A place where I don’t have to think about work, my ex or even the text messages from my dad that are waiting to be answered.
Just me, the sun, the waves and the sand between my toes. Pure serenity.
Well at least for about twenty minutes it is because my sweet serenity is quickly ruined when music starts to blare from somewhere close by.
Everything was so damn peaceful with the occasional word being spoken by a stranger walking by or dog barking while they were playing catch. I was able to handle those sounds. I was able to handle mild interruptions.
What I can’t handle is nineties rap filling my calmness and getting louder by the minute.
Don’t get me wrong, I love nineties rap, but not when I’m trying to have a calming afternoon to myself.
Shaking my head, I reach for my bag, the one that still has the sushi that I picked up and start looking for my noise canceling headphones. I nearly take everything out and come up empty.
I know I put them in here this morning, I even used them at the soccer field.
A sigh escapes my lips. I must have either left them at the field or left them in the car. I could go check but I’m way too comfortable to walk all the way back to the car right now. Great.
Just ignore it.
Right. Just ignore it. I can do that. I can totally pretend that there isn’t any music blaring and just close my eyes and continue to take in the sun.
I try to repeat the whole just ignore it mantra as I close my eyes and lean my head back and try to concentrate solely on the waves.
I try but fail when the music gets even louder.
“Seriously? What the actual fuck?” I say, my eyes popping open and looking around the beach to find the culprit. Whoever it is, they’re going to get a good kick in the ass.
I look around for a good minute and try to find whoever it is that has an industrial size speaker, but I come up empty. There’s nobody closed by.
The closest person to me is about a hundred feet away and they are walking in the opposite direction with their dog. There is a group of kids way down on the other side by the water, but the music is definitely not coming from their direction.
