She Sells Seashells on the Seashore (OPEN)

Star exited Shelley's tailor shop with a brown paper bag full of different colored ribbons. She embraced the defenseless bag to her chest tightly wrinkling up her aunt's scarf, whilst giggling with excitement. The young woman started to walk in the direction of her house when a gust of cold fall wind blew her wavy purple locks around her face, and also the fresh smell of the ocean.

Slowly she turned her head, then her body followed. Star could do nothing but stare, watch as the waves softly crashed up to the shore from the slightly strong breeze. She couldn't remember the last time she was on the beach. "Oh that's right...never." she spoke out loud without her knowing.

"Mother never let me..." she took a step closer but quickly took that step back. "What was I thinking? I can't just..." once again she talked to herself starting a slow stride towards Cream beach. "I won't stay long."

She reached the edge of the sidewalk quickly stopping in her tracks, then looked down at the sand that was only a step away from her. Her body shook, not from the cold but from just knowing that she only needed to take one more step and...she turned around, retreating back to the direction of her home. As the girl walked away from the beach she couldn't help but fight with herself out loud like a crazy person. "What are you doing?! Go back!"

Star shook her head, "No, I can't. I promised mama I would never take one step on the beach, besides, I need to get home to Peanut. Poor thing must be starving." was her excuse. "The tom cat can wait a few minutes, he is a big boy...literally. Also that was the beach in Forget Me Not. This is your town and your life. Live it."

Her feet stop on that, she once again faces the beach. Eyes emotionless, the argument still going on now in her head. The look quickly leaves her cameral face, drops her bag then sprints towards the beach with her light purple hair and striped scarf whipping behind her. Star's mind was buzzing with different kinds of emotions almost as fast as her heart was racing. This time she didn't stop at the sidewalk, instead she stopped right in the middle. Now all she could hear was her harsh breathing and the ocean waves.

Being Gabriel, well a cigarette was hanging in his mouth. He rolled the fine cigarette across his mouth to the left corner of his lips. Today was his day of, so he wore his jeans and a long sleeve tee-shirt. He was thinking on putting on a jacket this fall day, but decided against it. Part of him regretted this decision for even though it was early fall he felt a chill on the beach. "Stupid Waffle Island beach," he muttered to himself as he slightly shivered. "The one back home was perfectly was fine."

He continued to complain silently to himself as he walked to keep warm. Being a doctor he knew that one of the best ways to warm up was to be active, but he wasn't the kind of man to break out into a sudden run. He smoked for Pete's sake--it should be a clear sign that he's smart and stupid with laziness too.

The lashing movement of a scarf dancing in the wind caught his attention. A girl with strangely purple hair. Rubbing his eyes to see if they were messing with him, the fact was true. The young lady's hair was indeed purple.

The look on her face was all to familiar though, and Gabriel thought about turning around and running straight for the hills. People complained to him or told him things that caused him stress all the time, and he hated it. As a doctor he couldn't ignore it though, because then she might get sick from stress and become a bigger annoyance to him. He couldn't let that happen knowing that he could prevent it.

"Hey," he spoke loud enough for her to hear. "If you keep that troubled expression on your face it will stay that way."

As her breathing calmed down a little all she could think of was, how much she actually loved the beach. She felt like she could stay in the same spot for hours. It was like all the worry she felt just disappeared; almost like, it was never even there in the first place. Her hands slowly rose up to her purple and white stripped scarf that loosely hung around her neck. Gripping it lightly she nuzzled her cheeks against it, having it cover her mouth and nose from the chilled air but her eyes stilled locked on the sea. Not even her purple hair that would whip around her face once in awhile couldn't make her look away.

As she looked on, she thought about how her aunt told stories about some fishes that lived in the ocean and the many shells that it would wash on to the shore. She loved when her aunt told her how the shells came in many colors, shapes and sizes. With that thought Star looked down and with luck she saw a bright colorful object buried in the sand. Her thought of picking it up flew away when a male's voice caught her attention.

Her head turned slightly, raised one of her short eyebrows in confusion at the voice behind her. In better judgment she knew that she shouldn't but her right hand let go of her scarf and placed it on her face, slightly covering her nose, mouth and cheek. Star's eye narrowed a bit with her bottom lip puckering out in a pout. She couldn't stop the light blush that slowly rose to her cheeks from embarrassment, then adding injury to insult she spoke out in a childish manner. "No it wont..."