The first time I saw Aizsnt, he was chasing seagulls along the shoreline, laughing like a child without a care in the world. I remember thinking how strange it was to see someone my age so completely uninhibited, so free. Most eighteen-year-olds I knew were too concerned with looking cool to ever let themselves go like that.
I was sitting on my usual spot on the beach, sketch pad in hand, trying to capture the way the waves caught the late afternoon light. This stretch of coast had been my sanctuary since my family moved here last summer, but I’d never seen him before.
As if sensing my gaze, he turned and caught me watching. Instead of looking away embarrassed, he smiled and waved, then started walking toward me. My heart did a little flip in my chest.
“You’re missing the best part,” he said, dropping down beside me in the sand.
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to my sketch. “The ocean’s nice and all, but the sky right now – that’s where the real show is.”
I looked up, really looked, and caught my breath. He was right. The clouds were painted in impossible shades of pink and gold, like something from a dream.
“I’m Aizsnt,” he said, still looking at the sky.
“Iah,” I replied softly.
“That’s different. I like it.” He turned to face me, and I noticed his eyes were the exact color of the sea behind him. “So, Iah, do you come here often to ignore beautiful sunsets?”
I laughed despite myself. “Actually, I come here every day. This is the first time I’ve seen you, though.”
“Just moved here last week. Dad got transferred to the marine research center.” He picked up a handful of sand, letting it slip through his fingers. “I thought I’d hate it, leaving all my friends behind, but…” He gestured at the vast ocean before us. “How can anyone hate this?”
Over the next few weeks, we fell into an easy routine. Every afternoon, I’d find him waiting at my spot, sometimes with shells he’d collected, other times with stories about the marine life he’d observed while helping at his father’s lab. He made me see the beach differently – not just as a place of solitude, but as a living, breathing ecosystem full of wonders.
One evening, as we walked along the water’s edge, he grabbed my hand suddenly. “Look!” he whispered, pointing to where a group of tiny sea turtles were making their way to the ocean.
We stood there, hands still clasped, watching the little creatures navigate their way home. When the last one disappeared into the waves, he turned to me, but didn’t let go of my hand.
“You know what’s funny?” he said, his voice soft. “I used to think the ocean was the most fascinating thing in the world. But lately, I find myself watching you instead.”
My heart thundered in my chest. “Is that so?”
“You get this look when you’re drawing – like you’re seeing something no one else can see. It makes me wonder what the world looks like through your eyes.”
“Would you like to know?” I asked, surprising myself with my boldness.
He nodded, and I led him back to my spot, pulling out my sketchbook. Inside were dozens of drawings – of him. Him chasing seagulls, him examining tide pools, him laughing at the stars.
“Iah…” he breathed, carefully turning the pages.
“Through my eyes, you’re the most fascinating thing in the world too.”
He looked up at me then, and in that moment, everything shifted. The constant sound of the waves, the salty air, the setting sun – it all faded away until there was just us, just this moment.
When he kissed me, it felt like coming home to a place I’d never been before. Like finding an answer to a question I hadn’t known I was asking.
Now, a year later, we still meet at the same spot every day. Sometimes we talk for hours, sometimes we sit in comfortable silence, watching the waves and drawing together (he’s terrible at it, but he tries). The beach is no longer just my sanctuary – it’s ours, the place where two lost souls found each other among the endless grains of sand and possibilities.
And every now and then, when the light hits just right, I still catch him chasing seagulls, that same uninhibited joy on his face. Only now, I’m running right beside him, both of us laughing into the wind, both of us completely, wonderfully free.