Day Tripper {Blue Heart for Dylan & Ari}

When was the last time he actually went to the beach to actually swim? By the way he was uncomfortably standing in his swim shorts, it was obviously a long time. But still, he had promised Dylan that he would go to the beach with her and he felt that he had to keep his promise, for some reason. Ari remained quiet as he waited, several feet from the water with his toes wiggling in the sand. He dare not to remove his shirt either, not caring if he got some oddly shaped tan around his biceps. "I wonder where she could be." He quietly mumbled under his breath, glancing around the area once more.

"Take a right here," Dylan mummbled as she walked looking at the directions Ann had given to her. She had to get help twice so far, but she knew she was getting closer with each step. The smell of the salty water had tickled her nose and when she saw the sands she knew she was there. It wasn't until she saw Ari waiting for her that she smiled though; he kept his promise to her. The girl sped up her pace and cupping her hands around her mouth she yelled, "Hey Ari!"

It felt weird, but wearing a swimsuit under a t-shirt and a pair of shorts while she ran up to her friend. It seemed like she hadn't done that in forever. Dylan almost tripped in the sand, bringing back memories when she was small. Those were the good old days, but this time she planned to take pictures so she could fond over her new memories as she got older. Thus earlier she had bought a disposable water-proof camera for the occasion. "Wait long?" she asked Ari, hoping she wasn't too late.

Ari was almost sure that Dylan had forgotten and was going to leave but it wasn't until he heard the call of his name when he turned around to the source of the sound. It was Dylan. Ari smiled, she remembered! "Hey Dylan!" He called back, waving his hand up in the air towards her direction. He turned a little more to face her, "Glad to see you made it." He smiled. He paused for a moment to listen to her question, "Oh, no!" He answered, "Not at all." He stated, placing his hand behind his neck, scratching it lightly.

His eyes drifted up towards the sky, "Looks like we got a good day for the beach, no?"

Dylan's eyes closed as she smiled, "Yeah." The weather was perfect to go to the beach today; not too hot nor not too cold. She was glad it was sunny out, for she worried if a summer storm would come by and ruin their day. She carelessly stuffed her directions in her pocket and streached for a second. "Ah!" It feels good to be at the beach!" she exlcaimed. "There's so much to do here. What do you want to do first?"

Ari let out a laugh, "It's nice to get out every once and a while." He agreed, feeling the sun's rays on his face, letting himself soak in the warmth of the summer heat. But it was not too hot and it was not too cold, which made this the perfect day for their visit. His eyes landed back on the girl, shrugging lightly, "I don't know." He answered almost shy-like, "What do you want to do? Swim? Build a castle?" He suggested. The red head felt like such a newcomer to the beach since he hadn't been there in such a long time for a reason of entertainment and actual use of the sandy shores.

Dylan would have been fine doing whatever Ari wanted to, but now she had to make the difficult decision. Swimming would be fun and they could have a water fight too. Building sand castles was tempting too, then they could look along the shore for shells to decorate it. Both were so tempting to her. Making a sand castle when wet had always been a little more difficult to Dylan than when dry, so she finally picked it. "Let's make a sand castles," she said triumphly after deciding. "That way we can look for shells to decorate it! When we get bored of that or too hot we can take a small swim to change things up."

Waiting for her to make a decision, Ari couldn't help but wiggle his toes in the sand again. It was such a weird feeling between his toes--he enjoyed it a bit. She decided on sand castles, he nodded with a smile. That was something he hadn't done in such a long time and when he had came to the beach as a child, he remember that as being his favorite part of the trip. "Okay!" He grinned, "Let's make a really nice one." He chuckled softly, moving around to find a good spot in the sand. "Close to the water so it could have a moat or farther away?" He questioned, glancing down towards her.

Dylan was delighted that Ari approved of her choice, she would have been upset if he didn't. Something about him reflected how she felt these days for some odd reason, no one ever before had such and influence on her. Maybe that's what it felt like having a best friend, she never knew herself what the feeling of having a best friend was. So far it wasn't so bad, she loved it.

"Yeah," the girl cheered with glee. "Let's make a huge one and decorate it with lots of shells!" She laughed happily at herself, who knew she was still such a child in so many ways? Ari then asked her wheather to have a moat or not. "Ya know, moats just make everything more fun," she stated. "You pick where we build."

He was getting excited as well, just by seeing her excitedness too. "We'll definitely have a lot of shells, don't you worry." He told her with a reassuring smile. Then she left him in charge of finding a spot for the two of them to make the grand castle. He slowed his footing and looked around the shoreline. Maybe near, but not too close that may easily destroy the creation. "Hm." Ari hummed, walking a little further, then finding a spot that was close enough to the water but wouldn't be close enough to be destroyed by the crashing waves just yet. "How about here?" He questioned Dylan, glancing back towards her with his arms crossed over his chest in examination of the area.

Dylan watched Ari intently as he walked around looking for the place where'd they make their castle. After a moment of thinking he asked her about the place he was standing by, so Dylan skipped over and quickly looked at the area. It seemed great to her; not too far, but not really close to the waves that could take all of their work away in a single swipe. Not bad of a choice, she'd probably would have picked a spot like this herself. For a moment she decided to tease him though, she rubbed her chin to make it look like she was pondering about it. "Ummm... I think," she paused for a second then grinned, "it's the perfect spot!"

Dylan made a face at his suggestion, which changed his expression into one of confusion. Was it not a good spot? Was she going to criticize him on a spot he thought suitable? He went to speak, as if argue about the goodness that was the spot, but when couldn't help but laugh as she finished with her approval. "Good good." He grinned, "Lets get start then." He smiled, dropping down into the sand and scooping up plenty of it with his hands into a big pile. "If you want, you can start to look for seashells while I do this, unless you rather wait." He offered another suggestion for the girl to decide.

Ari had fallen for her joke and when he realized he started to laugh and so did she. He must have been relieved when she said it was a great spot for building the castle, for a second there she had thought he was going to defend the spot he picked. "Okay," she said as Ari dropped down to the ground to build the base of the castle. She thought about his idea of her going to look for shells while he got started on the castle; it wasn't a bad idea at all, but she was tempted to wait. "I can wait," she said still thinking about it somewhat. When she said it though it seemed to make her feel stronger about the choice she wanted to take. "It's not fun looking or working by yourself afterall."

Ari listened to her decision and he nodded firmly with a weak smile, "Cool." He replied, piling up more sand. "That way we'll find really good shells. Together." He spoke, looking towards her for a moment, then dropping his head back down to the sand pile. "How big do you want to make this thing?" He questioned, marking areas where he feel would be good to stop, width-wise. "Or rather, how tall do you want it to be?" He questioned. Man, did he feel like a little child again--building sand castles with his best friend. It was great, really it was.

Dylan giggled naturally when Ari said, 'Cool.' She just felt happy that he didn't mind her sitting by him helping him make the castle, together. That was the purpose of coming to the beach, wasn't it? Doing fun things together. The sand castle was coming along smoothly so far, Ari had already had marked the width and the base and was working on the height. "It should be huge," Dylan said excitedly while making gesture of how big it should be, which was about the size of Ari sitting down. She knew that it would be nearly immpossible to make it that big, but she wanted to make it as big as possible.

Ari smiled as the sound of her giggle reached his ear, he nodded at her statement, "Then huge, it shall be." He told her, "Or at least as big as I can get it without it falling apart." He chuckled, starting to build the castle vertically now. Sure, it was going to fall apart a little bit but it didn't matter to him--he could always pick up the little pieces and fix it again. "I wonder what the size the largest sand castle ever made was." He quietly mumbled to himself as he continued building upward.

Dylan's eyes steadly watched Ari build the sand castle vertically. Everyonce in awhile small bits of sand trinkled off the castle, but those where quickly fixed by Ari. To the girl it looked like Ari had done this before many times, afterall he did make the castle with more ease than she ever did. For a second Dylan almost didn't hear Ari's quiet mummble, but she heard it good enough to respond. "I dunno," she said honestly. "It must have taken a lot of weeks or days to make it though."

Ari only spared a moment to glance over to Dylan with a tiny nod, “It must have.” He agreed. “It was probably grand, wouldn’t you think?” He questioned her, still building upwards on their little castle. “But our’s will be great, perhaps even better.” He chuckled softly, “Better than any king would have dreamed.” He spoke, speaking more to himself than to the girl next to him.

Dylan nodded to his question, the castle was probably grand and someone who could afford the time must have built it. It was difficult imagining it, but she gave up when he said that their castle would be better. She smiled gently and quietly said, "Yeah..." Dylan could practically imagine what their castle would look like. It'd be the perfect castle, not too small or not too big. Just perfect. She could day dream all day about it.

Ari continuously dug his slender fingers into the sandy beach, building up on the already made castle. Out of habit, his tongue peeked out of the corner of his mouth, obviously determined to make, possibly, the best sand castle ever. His eyes glanced over to Dylan, who seemed to be thinking, “What are you thinking about?” He asked her, finally building up on a large enough base. He should have to carefully make every pillar and tower perfect, like he imagined in the back of his mind. He could see it already—it would look fantastic.

For a second Dylan almost didn't hear Ari since she was so focused on her pleasant daydream. "Huh," she said blinking in bewilderment as she came back to reality. Dylan couldn't help but giggle at her state of mind, "Just thinking about how it will look like when it's done." She watched him build off the base of the castle now, his fingers carefully putting each grain of sand in its place. "You're good at making a castle," she stated honestly with a smile.

Ari grinned, “It’s going to look real good.” He laughed—thinking back on his adventures as a child when he would take a trip every now and then to the beach with his two siblings. Him and Stan would always make these big castles while little Annie would be frolicking in the water, calling out for the boys to come play with her in the water. But the castles were always so big--he was determined to make it even bigger than before. “Oh, thanks.” He chuckled, continuously working. Sooner or later, he made this big ol’ sand castle which was definitely large in scale and he grinned triumphantly, “Well, what do you think?” He asked, moving over next to her, “Should we add shells to it?”

The castle was perfect, one-hundred percent wonderful to Dylan. It was huge compared to the little sand mounds Dylan could build--she never had been good at building things, whether it was a tree house or a sand castle. Yet, despite her lack of talent she loved to build castles in the sand as a little girl. "It looks great Ari," Dylan said. She thought it'd look great without shells or with them, but adding the shells had always been her favorite part of building the castle. She excitedly nodded yes while giggling, "Of coarse!"