As the bright, Florida sun shone down on Mae Price, she slowly leaned back in her chair and sighed to herself. To avoid funny-looking tan lines, she removed her sunglasses as she tilted her head up towards the sun and smoothed back the stray hairs that managed to fall out of her ponytail. Mae had been on vacation with her parents for only two days now, and all she had been doing was sitting on the back porch, letting the hot sun beat down on her all day, while her parents had been going down to the beach that was only steps away from the porch where she was sure that her butt would be planted on for the rest of the summer.

She didn’t think going down to the beach by herself, or with her parents, would be any fun considering she wouldn’t have anyone to talk to about teenage things, like boys, or music, or how happy she was about school being done with for the summer. She was from Ohio, and her friends in Ohio weren’t able to come on vacation with her due to already planned vacations with their families or their boyfriends, leaving Mae with nobody to accompany her on this three month long vacation at Daytona Beach. This was the reason she hated being an only child; she was always alone… always. When she was younger she had no one to play with, no one to ride the school bus or walk to school with, and when she started getting old enough to be out on her own on family vacations she had no one.

“Mae,” a gentle voice said, breaking Mae away from her thoughts. She sat up and turned around to see her mom, LeeAnn, standing in the doorway.

“Yes?” Mae replied as she put a hand up to her eyes to block the sun.

“Are you hungry for dinner? It’s ready.”

Mae slowly rose out of the chair she had been roasting in for the past two hours and after she threw her t-shirt and shorts back on, she headed inside the rental house to see her dad, Tom, at the kitchen table with an assortment of food already on his plate. He looked at his only child and smiled at her. “You look like you’ve gotten some sun.”

“I better have,” Mae mumbled as she slopped some mashed potatoes onto her plate. “I’ve just been sitting outside for two days.”

“Why is that?” LeeAnn asked her daughter as she set down three glasses of water, before taking her seat at the table. “You haven’t even been down to the ocean yet.”

“And that’s mainly the point of having an oceanfront house,” Tom added. “To be close to the beach.”

“I have no one to go with, that’s all,” Mae replied as she set a piece of chicken on her plate, making sure it didn’t touch her green beans or potatoes; she couldn’t stand when her foods touched. “And not to sound rude, but going with your parents to the beach doesn’t sound that pleasant.”

“Well, you’re going to be here for three months, so why not—” her dad started, before Mae cut him off.

“Before you suggest for me to make some friends,” she started as she held up her hand to stop her dad. “Think of how awkward it would be if I just randomly approached a group of people and asked to sit with them… no one does that anymore, Dad. And you should know that I’m not the kind of girl to just approach a group of people.”

“Maybe you should try it,” he offered. “All they can do is say no.”

“And then talk about how a weird, lonely girl at the beach asked to hang out with them for the rest of the summer.”

“They wouldn’t do that,” LeeAnn chuckled.

“Oh, they would,” Mae responded after swallowing a bite of her chicken. “Trust me.”

+

Once dinner was over, Mae took her plate over to the sink and rinsed it off before placing it into the dishwasher. She helped her mom clean up the kitchen table, and after all of the silverware and plates were in the dishwasher, Mae headed back outside for the third time that day. She plopped down in the chair that she dubbed hers for the summer and sighed to herself as she looked out across the beach. The sun was starting to go down, but that wasn’t stopping some people from swimming in the water or lying on the sand with their friends and family. She watched as little kids tossed a Frisbee around and built poorly structured sand castles and she smiled to herself, and after sitting in the chair for a few minutes she finally stood up.

“Maybe I’ll just go down there for a little bit,” she muttered to herself as she started down the porch stairs toward the golden sand and clear, blue water. She looked around as if to check if anyone noticed that she was by herself, and when she realized that people probably didn’t even care if she was by herself or with 10 people she sat down on the cool sand and started to watch the waves.

She closed her eyes for a few minutes as the air started to get cooler and as the wind started to blow through her hair and she sighed to herself. She actually thought it was kind of nice to sit on the beach by herself as night approached, instead of isolating herself from everyone by spending all day on the porch while everyone else around her had a blast by the ocean.

+

As Mae opened her eyes a while later, she noticed that she was one of the only people left on the beach; she hadn’t realized how chilly the air had gotten or how dark the sky became, and she had no idea that she had zoned out long enough to not realize what had been going on. She leaned back with her arms behind her and looked to her right to see a girl around her age walking down the beach while texting on her phone, and surprisingly she looked just about as bored as Mae had been a few hours before. The girl sighed to herself as she slid her phone into the back pocket of her shorts before glancing around the beach, and then making eye contact with Mae. Oddly enough, she smiled at Mae as if she knew her. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Mae replied, smiling politely even if the situation at hand was slightly awkward. The girl had dark skin, hair, and eyes and Mae noticed a hint of an English accent.

“Are you just by yourself?” the girl asked, her words laced with an accent that Mae secretly always wanted.

“Sadly,” Mae replied to the girl as she looked out across the ocean.

“Me too,” the girl sighed. “Mind if I sit? This is our first day of vacation and everyone in that house is already driving me completely insane.”

“Go for it,” Mae chuckled as she nodded toward the sand as if there was an open chair next to her. “I’m Mae.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said happily. “I’m Doniya.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Mae said, before the two girls fell silent, making the situation even more awkward than it was 30 seconds ago.

“Where are you from?” Doniya asked Mae curiously. She turned slightly so she could see Mae better and she crossed her legs in front of her. “I’m from England and I’m visiting for the summer with my parents, my sisters, brother, and some of his friends.”

Mae looked at Doniya. “I’m from Ohio, and my parents and I usually come here for vacation in the summer.”

“That sounds so nice,” Doniya sighed. “I would love to come here all the time; it’s so pretty. We went to Orlando before but never on the coast.”

Mae nodded, before she and Doniya went in more depth about their families and about themselves, hoping it would make things less awkward so neither of them would have to be completely alone for the summer. As the sky started to get darker and the two girls started to become tired and chilly from the slight decrease in temperature, they decided to call it a night.

“I’ll text you tomorrow so we can do something?” Doniya suggested as she slid her phone back into her pocket after adding Mae’s number. “I need a girl friend to do girl things with this summer.”

“That sounds good,” Mae said with a smile as she stood up and brushed the sand off of her legs and shorts. “Because I do too.”

“Great!” Doniya grinned. “See you tomorrow!”

Mae said goodbye to Doniya before she turned on her heel and started to head back towards the house so she could shower and go to bed. Even if Doniya wouldn’t become one of Mae’s best friends, it was nice to know that someone was going to be there for her to hang out with; it was also nice that Doniya was outgoing, unlike Mae, because if she wasn’t then Mae would still be a complete loner this summer, and thanks to her she wasn’t so bummed out about the rest of this summer.

She now only hoped for it to keep getting better.