The salty aroma of the rushing waves of the watery Atlantic wrapping around my barely tan toes. Everything was at its calmest, haze drifted over the grey with painted droplets of hazy blue from the hazy blue sky patched with big fluffy clouds. I walk calmly down the shore, a warm southern breeze wavered its way around and in through my silky dirty blonde hair. Everything was as it should be. No worries. No schedule.

My friend and I kick an abandoned beach ball back and forth as we walked down the sandy shore. “What do you wanna do?” My friend Amy asked as she passed the ball to me.
I squinted to look at her, a light yellow glow shining behind her, the wind gently throwing her hair all around. I shrugged, “I have honestly no idea, we could continue to play with this ball.” I suggested, shrugging again. I was never the type of person to come up with a plan. I’m that person that would follow along with the crowd but twist it up a bit where I’m being my own leader.
“Nah! How about we go swimming?!” Amy grinned, tossing the squishy ball aside.
“but I don’t have a swim suit on!” I chuckled a little bit for no reason, partly because I knew she was a better swimmer than me, she likes to show off her skill when she knows I can beat her at pretty much everything else.
Amy just laughed at me rolling her eyes. “Girl! Does it look like I care?! No, doesn’t matter if you have a suit on.” she grabbed my wrist and forced me to follow her into the wide open salty water. Going out as far as we could till our feet could no longer touch the wet murky sand deep below the thin silvery surface. Whenever we would meet we would play in the water until the sun started to set, until the air began to change, until neither of us had run out of ideas to occupy each other.
After a while, Amy and I have decided to race each other because she’s a bit of a competition but me, I just like to go along with the flow. We swam from a piece of seaweed Amy tied to another and we would have to swim to shore and back, the first one to 6 wins, well, wins. We both stood by the piece of seaweed drifting along as far as it could go. “Ready…” she looks at me with full anticipation “...set….Go!” We both took off, swimming as hard as we both could. Amy had no problem though. 1. Amy won.Not so difficult, but, she’s just going easy on me.  Second lap, I was ahead of her but just like a shark coming up on its prey she speeds up to pass me with ease. 2. Amy won. I’m not a swimmer can’t ya tell?!  Third lap, same but it seemed like she was slowing down, only to trick me. 3. Amy won. It was almost as if it was getting tougher for me, but I just got to keep pushing. Fourth lap, was really surprising, energy came back. I was alive again. 4. I won! Hey, would ya look at that! Five and Six, weren’t that much different from the others, the last one was just, Amy being nice and letting me win once.
We got out of the water after I got my exercise for awhile, now it was just time to relax. The sun was starting to set, we walked on a little further finding a spot in the still-warm sand, sitting in silence. The only noise was coming from the waves never put to rest. We sat there taking in everything, the fiery reds, majestic purples, and the warm oranges bleed throughout the slowly fading sky, ending a perfect warm day. “Sierra, I hate the fact that you have to leave tomorrow and who knows when the next time we’ll see each other will be.” Amy huffed from beside me.
“I know. Same. But to me this place or any place that has water is like home to me.” I nod, sighing heavily.
Amy shakes her head. “That may be true in your head but this isn’t your true home. Home is where the heart is.”
I didn’t say anything after that. I glanced back out unto the dark waves and a small sliver of the sun still slightly visible. If I moved here and decided to live here, it wouldn’t be where I find most comfort and where I feel safe, sure that’s where my mind wants to be but not where I feel at home. It’s almost as if the waves were waving to me, home is where the heart lies.