Part I: The Beach by the River

    The scene seemed almost unreal. With the sunset just so and the light just right, it was as if the whole world was bathed in a soft, soothing, and golden glow. As the sun continued to set, it wasn’t long before the last remaining strands of gold were chased silently beneath the waves by the heavy curtain of the night sky. But, as beautiful as the setting sun was, Annie couldn’t bring herself to enjoy it. Especially not after what had just happened. Closing her eyes as she soaked in the last rays of the day, she couldn’t help but remember him. Even now, if she closed her eyes and her mind, Annie could almost feel his warm embrace pulling her closer just as he had those nights before.

     All was quiet on the small beach by the river. It was one of the few clear nights that the town had had in months, and one could only hear the soft conversations between the wind and the water and the shallow breathing of the two figures sitting by the water’s edge. Spread out on a picnic blanket, Annie and Matthew sat curled in each other’s arms. Their heads so close that it was hard to tell where Annie’s red curls ended and Matthew’s black ones began. While they may have disagreed on many things, the beauty of the sunset was not one of them. In fact, watching the sunset had become a sort of tradition for them. A ritual, if you must. Every evening, when Matthew got home from the city and Annie got off of work, they would both meet up at their quiet spot by the river. Never talking until the sun went down, they would watch the last flickers of the day slowly sink beneath the gentle current of the river. Normally, Annie would revel in this silence. With only the sounds of Matthew’s breath in her ear, she had never felt closer to him than when they watched the sunset together. But, something was different this time. What once brought comfort and warmth before now seemed cold and distant. Like a thorn in her side, the silence loomed over Annie until she wasn’t able to bear it much longer.

    “Matt,” Annie started. “I can talk to you about anything, right?”

Looking over at her, brows drawn together in worry, Matthew slowly nodded his head.

    Taking in a deep breath, everything that Annie had been struggling with in the past few months came spilling out.

    “So I was talking to Karen and she said that you had found somebody else because she saw you with another girl on the beach and I thought, you know at first, that she was lying but then I didn’t know and I remembered how distant you’ve been lately and I just…” Annie sobbed as all of her internalized months of emotion came flowing out.

    “I know, I know, it’s stupid right?” Annie asked as she weakly smiled through her tears. “I mean, you’d never cheat on me, right? And, what does Karen know anyways? There’s a lot of people who look like you and she probably mixed you up right?”

    “Matthew? It’s not true, is it? Karen was wrong right?”

    But Matthew wouldn’t meet her gaze.

    “Come on, Matthew,” she begged as she nudged his shoulder. “Quit playing around, I know you didn’t cheat on me so just say it already.”

    But all was quiet on the beach by the river. Turning so that she couldn’t see his face, Matthew slowly rose to his feet.

    “I can’t lie to you, Annie,” he whispered as he walked away leaving Annie alone and heartbroken on the silent beach.

    All was quiet on the small beach by the river. Walking down the path she’d tread many times before, Annie didn’t make a sound. All was silent as she entered the river fully clothed, as the cool waters slowly washed over her tear stained cheeks. And all was silent as she slowly slipped beneath the waves letting the undertow gradually pull her down, down, down to the river’s bottom. Annie knew that crying out loud was just as useless as crying silently. After all, what use is a plea for help when no one wants to listen?

    As the sun slowly rose over the river, the scene seemed almost unreal. With the sunrise just so and the light just right, it was as if the whole world was bathed in a soft, soothing, and golden glow. The warm light gradually washed over the rough dunes before finally resting on a small red-headed girl curled up in the sand. And all was quiet on the small beach by the river.

Part II: The House by the Sea

    All was quiet in the small house by the sea as the morning light seeped through the windows. A promise of new things to come, the sunrise was always Matthew’s favorite time of the day. In his opinion, feeling the crisp and cool morning air as one greeted the sun was always the best way to wake up. This morning was no exception with beautiful streaks of purples and pinks racing across the sky. Watching the sunlight from his bed, Matthew quietly turned to wake up the girl lying next to him. However, squinting in the darkness, he hesitated for a second before he woke her.  Lying next to him, he thought that he could see Annie’s red curls sprayed across the pillow. But, as the light shifted, the flaming red curls gradually changed back to their normal light brown. Shaking his head, Matthew turned back around. But, as he tried to fall asleep again, Matthew couldn’t get her off of his mind.

     Falling out of love with someone isn’t something that happens all at once. No one suddenly wakes up one day thinking, “Wow, I really hate this person.” No, falling out of love is much slower. They say that the things that make you fall in love with someone are also the things that make you fall out of love. The cute snort in their laugh, once adorable before now is grating to your ears. Their abundance of energy, once intoxicating, now wears you out. What may have seemed funny is now annoying and what was once bravery now is just stupidity. Once the rose-tinted glasses come off, you can start to see someone for who they really are and sometimes, we don’t always like what reality has to show us.

    They met on the beach at sunrise. As Matthew walked down the beach for his morning stroll, he was caught in his thoughts as he always. Wham! All of a sudden, he was lying face down on the ground, a heavy panting sound in his left ear.

    “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry,” exclaimed a girl’s voice. “I tried to get him to stay on his leash but you know how new puppies can be.”

    Blinking, Matthew saw a girl about his age with her hand outstretched. A goofy looking dog was next to her side chewing on his shoe.

    “Hey stop that! Shoes aren’t toys. We’ve been over this, like, a hundred times already.”

    Reaching down to pluck the now soaked shoe out of her dog's mouth, the girl quickly wiped it on her pants before returning it to Matthew.

    “So sorry about my dog. I didn’t know that there were other people who liked to walk on the beach at this time.”

    “Yeah, uh, I guess I didn’t either. I’ve always been the only one out here but, it’s nice to see someone else enjoying it too for a change.”

    “By the way, I uh, I never caught your name.”

    “Oh,” she exclaimed. Smiling as she shook Matthew’s hand, “You can call me Samantha.”

    Eventually, meeting the girl at the beach became a routine for Matthew. Every morning, Matthew would walk to the beach and meet the girl and her dog. Sitting side by side in the sand, they would talk for hours and hours. While the topics of their conversations varied wildly, they never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Before either of them knew it, days started turning into weeks and weeks started turning into months. Like magnets of the same polarity, Annie and Matthew kept repelling each other. Farther and farther apart they drifted until finally, Matthew found his opposite. A girl with which he connected with in no other way that he had before. A girl who he confided everything in and a girl that he fell in love with. A girl with light brown curls and freckles sprayed across her face like mist. A girl living in a small house by the sea.    

    All was quiet on the beach by the river and all was quiet in the house by the sea. Yet though they were miles apart, separated by a rift that they could never cross, the same blazing sun rose over both of them. And as the world started a new day, so did they.