Summer Sunsets -open-

They usually made Brianna smile. The warm sand between her toes, the crash of the wake, the warm rays of the setting sun on her face. But today... Felt wrong. Her stomach hurt, she couldn't force her smile, and it was like all the bad feelings she'd brushed aside her whole life were coming back and punching her in the gut for ignoring them. She felt alone, tired, and sad. Was this a normal teenage feeling? Well, then being a teenager sucked, she decided in her head as she played with a seashell she had found on the beach. The usually bubbly girl felt miserable. But no, she wasn't going to go pout to someone, or complain about it to everyone within earshot. She was going to poke at the sand until the icky feelings went away.

And so, deciding that it was useless to lay around and feel sorry for herself, she stomped down to the water, grabbed a bucket-full, dumped it in the sand. And then she set to work building a sandcastle with her furious, sad, depressed feelings. If you can't push them aside, do something productive with them! That was how Brianna decided to feel about these new-found ickies in her mind.

And so anyone walking on the beach, would see the  caramel haired, peasant skirt wearing daughter of Dionysus, furiously and aggressively making a sandcastle of glorious proportions.

Deep purple eyes, the color of wine grapes, turned up and peered through caramel bangs at the boy. Brianna had been doing her best, and was usually much better at these things, so the failure was getting to her. The sixteen year old girl looked down at her sunken sandcastle, her lower lip puckered out in a pout. It was obvious she was on the verge of a breakdown, from the lost look in her eyes. "I know... I'm usually really good... at sandcastles..." She sniffled, rubbing her eyes.

"I try to be a good girl... And make people smile...but they always leave. I can't even go home and see my mortal friends cause my mom had a baby, and I don't want to put my new baby sister in danger..." She sniffled, compacting sand into a tower-shaped bucket. Her head was down, her eyes on the sand. Squishing her toes in the sand, she peeked up at him. "People think I'm dumb and annoying..." Flipping the bucket over, she tapped it until the tower popped out. Peeking over, those deep purple eyes watched him. The wind coming off of the water pulled on her bangs, her long hair braided over one shoulder, flopping as she shifted. Sitting back, she forced herself to smile. No, you can't be sad in front of this person. "It doesn't matter though! So long as I can make people smile."

Blinking, Brianna's smile would slowly fall. It had been a long time that anyone bothered to hug the girl, or tell her to just tell. People don't want to listen, they want you to listen... At least that's what she'd thought. "It's...a long story... Uhm... I grew up in California... My mom had me with Dionysus... He liked my family's wine... We put love into our wines.... My...mom was never one to cling to a love she can't have. She was happy enough to have had the time with my dad she could, she...passed that onto me. Always smile, don't let things hurt your heart when people have to leave. Just keep them there. Well... I've tried. I've tried not to let people leaving hurt my heart. I try to smile and listen and just have fun... but everyone always leaves..." She sniffled, rubbing her eyes. It was weird, telling anyone this. "I wanna be strong...like my mom..."