The Sea in our Veins
running free in the world

The next day, Virgil and Michael stood outside Bob’s burgers, waiting to be seated. The plan was to grab a quick lunch before heading back to the beach. Normally, Bob’s burgers was a big tourist spot and therefore was too expensive for Virgil but Michael’s dad had gotten them both a discount. Michael and Virgil got their seats right by the beach and ordered their food before sitting in their seats, both of them looking at the ocean but for different reasons.

“Why wouldn’t you come in the water with me?” Michael asked, “We don’t even have to go too far.”

“I’m not doing it,” Virgil said.

“You keep acting like the water is physically paining you every time you go into it.” Michael replied.

Just then, their food arrived, cutting off the conversation. Virgil devoured his food as fast as he could before watching Michael slowly and carefully eat his burger. Michael noticed his gaze and looked up. “You literally just had one of the largest burgers on the menu. How are you still hungry?” he asked.

“I just am,” Virgil replied.

“Fine,” Michael sighed. He cut his burger in half and put half of it on Virgil’s plate along with the majority of the fries. Virgil devoured them just as fast, and the boys soon got up to pay. When they got to the cash register, they found Bob talking with a waitress.

When Bob noticed them, he stopped talking and punched in their order. It took Virgil a moment to replace his wallet, a moment that Bob took as an opportunity to complain about the customers he had been receiving lately. He complained about the tips that people had been leaving before mentioning a guy who had come yesterday and then refused to pay. He had ordered almost everything off of the menu except for the hot dogs for some reason, ate only a small portion of it and then just left. When confronted about not paying, he seemed confused but refused to pay before disappearing. Bob went on and on about the guy and didn’t seem like he would stop.

Virgil finally found his wallet after frantically tearing through his bag, wanting to rescue Michael from the awkward conversation, which had moved on to Bob complaining about his life and marriage. The two paid and headed towards the beach. Virgil quickly claimed his spot in the middle of the empty beach and set down his stuff. Michael set down his stuff next to Virgil’s and stripped off his shirt before walking into the ocean. Virgil lay back, ready for a nap from the craziness that was last night. Vigil hadn’t managed to sleep last night with the amount of junk food and candy he had eaten.

Virgil heard a thud beside him, interrupting his nap time. He opened his eyes and saw the guy from yesterday set down a different chair next to him, ignoring the rest of the beach. This time, he had a book, but it seemed more like a prop than something the guy actually intended to read. Strange guy sat down on the chair and Virgil watched him for a little bit, but strange guy seemed content to ignore him and pretended to read his book which he was holding upside down.

“Is that a good book?” Virgil couldn’t resist asked.

Strange guy looked up confused, “What?” he asked, acting like had had just been immersed in his book and hadn’t been paying attention.

“I asked if that was a good book,” Virgil said.

“It could be better,” strange guy said straight faced.

Virgil had to try hard to conceal his laughter, “How was Bob’s burgers?” he asked.

“For some strange reason, they demanded payment for their services. The food was so salty and sweet and had a weird taste. I don’t know how you people can bring yourselves to eat that junk.” strange guy said.

“For your information, Bob serves excellent food.” Virgil replied.

“The sticks were oozing water,” strange guy continued as if Virgil hadn’t said anything, “And the mounds of colorful food that they gave me that came with the sticks kept falling apart. Also, they never explained what the different silver instruments were for. They tasted so horrible.”

Virgil stared at strange man. Half of his sentence didn’t even make sense and the parts that made sense made Virgil look at strange man funny. “You aren’t supposed to squeeze fries and burgers normally do fall apart,” Virgil replied.

“What about the silver instruments?” strange man asked.

“Do you not know what cutlery is?” Virgil asked confused.

They were interrupted by two buff-looking, sunglass wearing teens who marched up to them. One of them was taller than the other but they both looked like they had spent most of their life just working out.

When strange man saw them, his face lit up, “Ivan, Jack, how have you been?” he excitedly exclaimed, “You were gone for months.”

“We found a lead on Rafael, your highness, but it turned out into a dud,” the taller one said.

“When we heard you were here, we thought we would check in on you.” the shorter one said.

“I’m surprised that you’re even here. I didn’t think that you would ever agree to taking a break.” the taller one asked.

“What have you done so far, your highness?” the shorter one said.

Strange man glanced at Virgil before he said, “You don’t have to be so serious Ivan. I’ve tried a bit of food. It tasted all horrible.”

“Bob’s burgers aren’t horrible,” Virgil burst into the conversation, “You just have no taste.”

Strange guy chuckled, oblivious as Ivan and Jack loomed over Virgil, “I definitely have taste,” strange guy said, chuckling.

“Then prove it,” Virgil shot back.

Strange guy opened his mouth and proudly displayed his tongue, “See,” he said, “I have taste.”

“What the child means,” the taller one, Jack said, “Is that he thinks that you don’t like anything good.”

“Oh…” strange guy said, “Well I do like good things, such as the beach, the ocean, sunrises-”

“Most of those things are disgusting,” Virgil interrupted, “So you haven’t really proved to me that you have taste.”

“Then let me prove to you that I have taste,” strange guy replied.

“That’s not something you can just prove to someone,” Virgil said, “And I already know that you don’t so there’s no point in trying to prove it to me.”

“Then give me a tour of the town and during the tour I’ll prove it to you somehow,”

“Did you just force me to give you a tour? No thank you. Someone else can give you a tour.”

“Please child,” Jack begged, jumping onto the idea of a tour. Ivan also looked like he wanted a tour, either that or he really had to go to the bathroom.

“I’m not a child,” Virgil said angrily as he got up, “My name is Virgil, and the deal is that you buy me ice cream and I give you a tour.”

“Sure,” Ivan replied.

“And I don’t mean stealing,” Virgil said.

Jack pulled out a thick wad of cash, “Don’t worry,” he said before hesitating, “Why? Would you like to steal it?”

“I don’t think I’d do very well running with ice cream but I definitely have some ideas on the stealing part.” Virgil said, a smirk on his face.

Jack, Ivan, Virgil and strange guy, whose name turned out to be Wesley terrorized the town. They started off in the library for some reason but got kicked out when they couldn’t control their laughter. Then they went around the town, trying to cause as much mischief as possible. They got kicked out of multiple places for being too loud but didn’t care as they just went back to the beach. Wesley managed to convince Virgil to build a sand castle with him while the other two start to throw sand at each other. It ended up turning into an all out wrestling match with the four of them accidentally knocking down the pitiful sand castle that Wesley and Virgil made. Finally, when all of the teens were out of energy, they collapsed on the sand, breathing hard.

“Want to go for a swim?” Wesley asked the others.

“No thank you,” Virgil replied.

“Why not?” Wesley asked, “It’ll be fun.”

Virgil hesitated before saying, “I actually can’t swim” he said.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“I should probably get going,” Virgil said, “My friend is probably going to be wondering where I am.”

With that, he stood up and started walking back towards his stuff. He didn’t notice, Wesley, Ivan and Jack watching him go.

When Virgil made it back to his stuff, he found Michael. “Where were you?” Michael asked.

“I found some people to hang out with.” Virgil said. “Why? Were you worried about me?”

“I wasn’t worried about you.” Michael replied quietly. “I just wanted to make sure that you’ve been having a good week so far.”

“Don’t worry about me having fun,” Virgil said, “Just because I’m not in the ocean swimming with sharks doesn’t mean that I’m not having fun.”

“This beach never has had any sharks nor ever will have sharks.” Michael replied.

“You never know,” Virgil replied, “I’m just trying to avoid a potential sharknado.”

“There is no such thing as sharknados,” Michael replied, exasperated.

Virgil got a sly look in his eyes. “That’s because no one has ever witnessed one,” Virgil replied as the two started walking back to the house, bickering about the plausibility of the sharknado.