music playing in headphones
"-arlie, Charlie!" his mom yells politely. Charlie takes off his head phones and continues to stare out the window. "I mean seriously, you asked me to move schools to an island and now that we're here you've done nothing but zone out. Look sweetie if you're still sad about Rylan going missing I'm sure he'll turn back up, you two are inseparable, stuck together like glue." his mom says comfortingly.
Charlie quickly glances at his mother "Right." he says quickly and short breathed in a depressing tone. Charlie turns to look outside again, the water shimmers and glistens because of the sun. Corsica is a beautiful island full of mountains, green life, and water. After living in a city his entire life this is exactly what Charlie was looking for, an opportunity to create new hobbies.
"We still have a couple minutes left until we're at Josie's farm okay?" Charlie nods to his moms question before putting his headphones back on and turning the music up.
A couple minutes later Charlie and his mom arrive at her friend Josie's farm. Charlie's mom takes a small breath before opening the car door and signaling Charlie to get out as well. As they both exit the car Josie opens her house door and runs down the stairs as quickly as she can. "Josie~ it's so great to see you after all these years" Charlie's mom says greeting her "Still keeping up with the farm I see~"
Josie laughs and places her hands on her hips "Well someone has to keep this Island running, and it seems like I'm gonna be doing this until im dead and gone. Or until this fool becomes old enough to take over the family business" she says as she looks back to her son. Her son was tall, his skin was slightly tan and he had slightly long and wavy brown hair. You could tell he spent a lot of time on the water because of how dry his skin is. Despite that he had this sort of natural glow to him, it wasn't just the sweat from working the farm, it was something else. Her son's name was "Isaac" Josie yells "Come over here and greet the Allards".
Isaac rushes over to the group wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans. His muscles were defined and his veins were pulsing clearly. "Hey Mrs. Allard" he says, greeting her. He extends his hand to Charlie looking him in the eyes "And you must be Charlie right? My mom was really excited when she heard you were coming to the island" Charlie nods and extends his arm to shake Charlie's hand. "Woah, nice grip, do you workout or something?" Isaac says impressed.
"Isaac honey why don't you show Charlie around the farm while me and Ava catch up, why don't you start by giving him a house tour, make him feel comfortable." Josie says smiling. Isaac nods in agreement and grabs Charlie's hand to walk towards the house.
Inside the house Isaac shows Charlie the living room. As Isaac walks around explaining their decorations laughing, Charlie bends over to look at a photo. "A family portrait?"
Isaac pauses for a moment. "That's right, me, my sister, dad, and mom" he says moving over to Charlie.
"You're all dressed in suits, a little bit professional for farm workers don't you think?" Charlie looks at Isaac. Isaac had an unreadable expression on his face, it was almost sad. He seemed bothered in a way.
"Who says farmers can't be professional huh?" he says laughing awkwardly while moving away from the photo. "Besides, it's not like I had any say in what we got to wear. Why don't we check out my room? If you're tired from the travel you can take a nap on my bed."
"I'll pass on the nap, respectfully" Charlie says following Isaac upstairs. Isaacs room was covered in pictures of the ocean. Fish, ocean facts, even cool pictures showing ocean depth.
"Liking the theme?" He says turning to Charlie.
"Yeah, you can almost tell how obsessed you are with the ocean" Charlie says sarcastically
"What, you're saying you've never been interested in the ocean before. That all the mysteries down there don't spark something even a tiny bit" Isaac flops on his bed and leans back.
"It did once. I used to want to be an oceanographer." Charlie says, staring at one of Isaac's posters.
"What changed?" Isaac asks with a questioned face
"My inspiration left me…" The mood suddenly shifted. The sun drifted behind the clouds and the bugs outside all stopped making noise. "What about you, you must have big plans with an obsession like this." Charlie says sitting next to Isaac on his bed.
"Actually…the ocean is just a hobby of mine" Isaac says giggling "I would like to open a pastry shop. I love baking and since we have so many materials from the farm to make desserts and pastries, I quickly became obsessed with making sweets and breads." Isaac grows a smile on his face. Isaacs smile quickly faded. "The only issue is my parents are so content with me taking over the farm. I just want to do something I love for once, you know? But I guess it's a little ironic, to love the sea but be forced to stay on land. Such a cruel punishment for a guy as handsome as me" Isaac finishes in a goofy tone.
In a sense, Charlie knew exactly what Isaac was talking about despite his nature to brush off the topic with a joke. He could relate to the expectations of a forced future that you don't even see for yourself. "Who cares what they think?" Charlie blurts out abruptly. Isaacs head snaps to Charlie in confusion. "Screw what they think, they can tell you what to do, plan things for you, but at the end of the day it's you and your mind that makes the choice, not theirs." Charlie stares longingly into the wall of posters "holding on to other people's expectations of you is like wearing the same clothes all your life, eventually you outgrow them and they rip, and what then? You're left naked with no clothes and disappointed people."
Isaac stared at Charlie before looking down at the ground. He could tell that Charlie related to his situation. In a way Charlie's words made him worry about his future and what he really wanted out of it. At the same time, his words made him feel warm and comforted. A couple seconds into the silence Isaacs phone rings.
"Hello!" he says ecstatically. You can hear loud music in the background and people talking. "Shoot I completely forgot that it was today. Yeah… yeah… we'll be right over…yes "we". Okay later" Isaac hands up the phone and turns to Charlie
"Who was that?" Charlie says finally getting comfortable on the bed.
"My girlfriend-" he says, stuffing his phone in his pocket and standing up. "There's a small party with my friends happening at one of their lake houses and I told her that we were on our way".
"I'm coming too?" Charlie says, pointing to himself.
"Yes, did you think I wasn't going to introduce you to the best friend group on this island?" he says, letting out a small scoff while changing into a hoodie. "Come on let's go, Clara might kill me if I take any longer." Isaac quickly opens the door and he and Charlie run downstairs. "Mom, we're going to Mathias' I'll take Charlie home after" he says exiting the house. Both the moms look at each other and shrug while watching tv and drinking tea on the couch. Charlie gets on Isaac's motorcycle and they both leave for the party.
At the party, Charlie and Isaac walk into the room, everyone gets up to greet them "The big farmer boy is here!!! '' one of his friends exclaimed. "What took you so long huh? Getting gas doesn't take 20 minutes Isaac '' he says, wrapping his arm around him. The friend notices Charlie and steps away to get a better look. "And who is this?".
"Everyone!" Isaac says getting everyone's attention. "This is Charlie, he's new to the island so show him some love, okay?" One by one everyone started to walk over to greet Charlie. Even though there were only around 5 or 6 people at the party, Isaac could tell that Charlie was still a little overwhelmed. "Hey, Charlie. Why don't we grab some drinks, yeah? Loosen up before the fun really begins" he says, dragging Charlie to the mountain of beers.
While Charlie and Isaac were grabbing drinks two women walked up "Finally, would it kill you to greet me before grabbing a drink?" one of them says moving very close to Isaac.
"No, but it would kill me if I didn't make sure my guest isn't comfortable." Isaac says, raising his eyebrows and looking past her. The girl turns around as Isaac peaks from the left of her, smiling awkwardly.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry" she says quickly backing off of Isaac.
"No worries, um you must be Clara" Charlie says, extending his hand.
"I am, nice to know Isaac still loves me enough to talk about me." Isaac rolls his eyes and shakes his head jokingly.
Charlie laughed awkwardly and put the can up to his mouth. While Clara and Isaac were getting back into their flirtatious mood Charlie and the other girl who was with Clara made eye contact. Charlie leans further against the counter and the girl walks away to go sit on the couch with Mathias and one other friend.. Charlie wonders who she was but mostly ignores her presence, Afterall she is Isaacs friend so it won't be any trouble to just ask who she is.
When the party comes to an end Isaac passes Charlie his helmet and puts on his. "How was the party? Did you like everyone?" he says, locking the straps.
Charlie stared into the glass of the helmet before putting it on. "It was nice. They didn't seem like criminals so I guess everyone was alright." Isaac smiled and nodded happily at Charlie's words before hopping on the motorcycle and driving off.
When dropping off Charlie Isaac flips up the glass on his helmet to speak to Charlie who is taking off his. "I'm really glad you got to meet everyone, seriously" Isaac had an expression like he had been hoping for this opportunity. The chance to meet someone new. He'd been living his whole life on this island and he knows everyone and vice versa.
"Of course" Charlie says, giving back the helmet. Charlie waits for Isaac to leave before entering his house. Walking upstairs and entering his room, he flops on his bed sighing. He looks at his wall of photos. One of which is a photo of two little boys in the aquarium smiling ear to ear. Charlie takes another sigh before turning off his light and going to bed.
The next day Charlie is walking through the halls of his new school. The school is small so he has no trouble finding his class. He stands outside the door frame looking at the people inside the class. There seems to be a conversation going that has everyone's attention. "Oh hey look, another boy for you to scam out of his money" says Mathias sitting in the corner of the room. Everyone looks in Charlie's direction. The girl Mathias was talking to looked at his direction last. It was the same girl from the party.
She joyously skipped over to him and locked arms with him "Hey, you're from Mathias' party right? Isaacs new friend." Charlie nods, weirded out by her behavior. "Well my name is Raya, you probably already knew that because you probably already follow me on Instagram" she tugs his arm and leads him to the front of the class. She pulls out a chair and tells him to sit. "Over there is Etien, he seems hardcore but he's a major push over, tell him what to do and he'll happily do it."
"Woah woah are we doing introductions?" Isaac asks walking up with Clara.
"This is Isaac…whom you already know…" Raya says rolling her eyes
"Hey, nice to formally meet you Charlie," he says, shaking hands with Charlie.
"And this!" Raya says standing up and wrapping Clara in her arms "is the most adorable, cutest best friend anyone could have"
Clara smiles and knocks her head lightly on Raya's head "come on Raya that's a terrible way to introduce me" Clara and Raya bicker with each other back and forth.
Isaac leans in while they are talking "I didn't know you were coming to this school, if i did i would have made sure everyone behaved a little bit better" he says awkwardly laughing.
Charlie shakes his head "no worries it's fine. Not everyone here needs to know of me" Isaac smirks and rubs Charlie's head messing up his hair. The teacher walks in moments after and everyone goes back to their seats.
"Welcome back everyone to shithole round two" the teacher says. Celebratory noises quickly fill the classroom as everyone is hyped to be with their friend in school. "Alright alright sit back down. Of course, you can't have a new school year without having new students. Charlie Allard could you come up and introduce yourself please.
Charlie looks around the room in confusion before standing up and walking to the front of the classroom. "Hello, I'm Charlie. I'm 17, I like football and I have no plans after graduating." He says. The teacher looks at him with a questioned face.
"Why is that?" The teacher asks.
"Because it's a waste of time to plan out your life. Even if it's something you love, planning on it so early in life gives you too much time to fall out of love with it. Time can heal wounds but it can also be devastating to the people who are ignorant to it. So…I do what I want in the moment, there's no better place to be than the present." Charlie says with a neutral face.
"Wow" the teacher says "how insightful. I expect each and every one of you to think about Charlie's words today." he sticks out his arm in the direction of where Charlie was sitting "you may be seated now." class continues and once the lesson is over everyone leaves the class.
At the end of the day Charlie walks out of the building in a hurry. He winds up walking past a table of Clara, Isaac and one other friend. "Hey Charlie" Isaac yells "come hang out with us today it'll be fun I promise."
Charlie looks everyone in the eyes ``sorry I've-" he gets a notification on his phone and looks at it. It's a message from an unknown number "I've actually got plans today, sorry guys" he says walking away and putting his hood up. Everyone looks at each other.
"What the fuck, we go out of out way to be friend with him and he blows us off" Clara says rolling her eyes. Etien tells her to knock it off and stop being mean while Isaac fixes his hair by running his fingers through it.
At home Charlie quickly enters the house and looks back at the text message he received when leaving the school. Breathing heavy he quickly throws down his backpack to the side of the door and runs upstairs to his room. Rummaging through his drawers and closet he slowly starts to panic "Where is it, where IS IT?"
He starts throwing clothes around before putting his hands on his head. "FUCK!". His heavy breathing slowly turned into hyperventilation. Charlie's eyes quickly widen as he drops down to the floor and pulls out a shoe box from under his bed. He takes a deep breath before opening it.
On Isaacs farm, he, Clara, and Etien were all hanging out by the water. Clara and Isaac were cuddling on one side of the large couch while the friend was sitting on the other. "I still can't believe the audacity of Charlie" Clara says while shaking her head "I mean we go out of our way and he brushes us off like nothing".
"Maybe he had something important to do?" says Etien
"What could a person who's on an entirely new island, knows absolutely no one, and replies in 3 words or less, have to do Etien?" Clara replies.
"Let's just drop it," Isaac says, rubbing Clara's shoulder. "We can invite him next time" Isaac looks at Etien and Clara with a smile.
"I don't think he's a good guy, Isaac, he seems so off and shady, like he's hiding something." Clara says clutching the drink in her hand tighter.
"Come on Clara, he's not bad, I know it. He just needed to get warmed up, besides I was actually thinking of inviting him to football practice." Isaac says, looking at Etien.
"Hey, heyyy that could be a good idea, he'll get to know everyone a lot faster that way" Etien says nodding at the idea.
"Whatever, I'm going to go grab another drink" Clara says, drinking the rest of her drink and then getting up.
After Clara leaves Isaac sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. Etien moves closer to Isaac on the massive lounge couch. "Is everything alright bro? You and Clara seem to be stressed lately." Etien says expressing his worries.
"Yeah," Isaac responds, "we're alright, I think." Isaac looks at Etien and then down to the ground. "It's just that, lately we haven't been on the same page about anything. She doesn't want me to leave the Island and I want to go out and explore, she wants to go to college and I don't, and now she doesn't like Charlie and I do. It's like no matter what we just have the opposite opinion and it's driving me insane."
"You know you'll have to confront her about this at some point bro. Since you two have been together she's always been the one calling the shots, it's alright for you to do something for yourself Isaac." Etien says, looking directly at Isaac who's still looking at the ground.
"I know, I just wish it was easier to get her to understand that." A silence fell between the two. For a moment there was a relaxing moment of just listening to the waves crash. Isaac springs his head back up, flipping his hair and looking at Etien. "But hey, just because we're having issues doesn't mean you can swoop in and take her, '' Isaac says jokingly.
"Nonsense" Etien rolls his eyes blushing while putting his drink to his mouth.
"Please you've been fawning over her since we got together, since you're my best mate I'll allow it but if you're going to steal her you better be creative" Isaac says intimidatingly to Etien.
Etien rolls his eyes again and leans back to look up at the sky "Whatever"