Dusty and the Beach.

The wonderful part of being financially taken care of by someone else meant that Dusty did not have worry about having to work around a schedule to take vacations and holidays. In fact the only thing that stood between her and having a holiday was her own personal feelings on taking time off away from her housework and chores.

The war she waged against filth was never ending.

Which meant it was usually her housemates that mentioned that they wanted to take a group holiday rather than Dusty. By now, the two of them knew that with enough time to sufficiently pack, and get the flat in order, Dusty would not protest the entire holiday. 

Unfortunately for Dusty, the holiday that her housemates wanted to take was a beach trip. The two of them had got caught up in the beach fad going around; she might not be a huge social media user but she still lurked and had a few feeds to scroll through. They wanted to take pictures by the beach and enjoy the sea. They wanted to take Dusty with them and go the beach to take pictures in the unfiltered sea water and expose their skin to the beach sand.

She might have protested louder than usual to the trip, but since it was two against one, Dusty ended up relenting to the whims of the other two. It had taken a week of conniving arguments and letting her take over the planning AND the packing to get her to agree to come; there was never any thought to not invite Dusty, they always did things together or not at all.

It hadn't taken Dusty long to pack, if anything getting the rental vehicle took longer because of how many questions she ended up asking about the history of the car they were giving her. They were planning on camping out in the car to save money and she wanted to make sure the car was up to safety standards for that and just for her driving on the road. 

Her housemates left her to it, focusing on packing their own bags for the trip after having gone to buy new swimsuits together earlier in the day.

Dusty had methodically packed everything into car while making sure she could see out every window from the driver's seat because blind spots were not something to take lightly. 

She had even written out a list to make sure she remembered (ha, as if she would forget) to pack the essentials for a 2 day beach trip.  She made sure that they had: a cooler full of healthy snacks and lots of water, towels and blankets,  3 hats and an umbrella, Dusty's 15 LBS medical emergency  kit, and enough room for each of their single bags.

"The car's pack, we're leaving in 5 minutes--" Dusty shouts from the front door, keeping her eye on car as if she hadn't triple checked she had locked the doors with her hand shaking the keys impatiently.

She didn't need to do much other than give the warning, because getting the other two into the car was easy; they knew better to test Dusty's patience when it came to leaving on time. They had collectively agreed to listen to the artsy news radio station rather than fight over their different music tastes because as the driver, Dusty wouldn't have tolerated anything loud and fast paced.

"Buckle up, make sure you're not going to choke yourself with the seat belt and get comfortable. We are not stopping until we get to the beach."

The drive itself was moderately nice with Dusty fully absorbed in getting them to the beach in once piece, eyeing up the other drivers aggressively as if all of them would suddenly decided to merge into her lane at the same time.

The closer they got the beach with the sea and the sand taking up more of the horizon rather than civilization, the more the twitch in Dusty's eyebrow grew. Even though the beach was busy, and full of large gatherings already, Dusty was able to find plenty of choice places to park the car close enough to edge where the dirt turned into sand.

"Sand," she mutters underneath her breath, already envisioning how she would probably be cleaning out the sand from this trip from the carpet floor for awhile once they got back.

Dusty gives herself a minute of undisturbed time to glare at the sand before climbing out of the car to shake her housemates awake. Before the two of them could wander too far from the car, she shoves things into their hands to take to the beach.

"Remember-- put the beach towel down first before you set up everything else. I don't want sand getting on me."

Even though she was the smallest one, Dusty was strong enough to carry both her med-kit and cooler down to the beach without any help. Choosing this time to trail behind the other two, because she did not care where they set up, as long as she could curl up underneath her large light blocking hat and the umbrella.

It also gave her the opportunity to watch out for suspicious looking characters.

By the time the other two found a good spot to lay out their large beach towel, Dusty had grown impatient again. She had already had to glare down a couple of strangers from trying to approach them and just feeling the way her sandals sunk into the sand was causing her to stress out. 

It was the reason she commandeered finishing the set up instead of waiting for the other two to make the first move.  Dusty, aggressively and thoroughly, tied her large hat to her head before just as aggressively spraying down her housemates with her strongest waterproof lightblock, and waved them off.

"Go take your pictures, go swim-- I'll be fine here. "

As much as she hated the sand herself, she could already tell the other two were enjoying themselves, and even though she could rant for hours about the potential dangers, she wanted them to have fun.

They may have planned to go as a group but they weren't forced to spend all of the time together; she knew the limitations of how pushy she could get before it became overbearing.

Dusty did better when she was the designated driver, the one looking out for others. There was no 'letting go' for her, and the other two knew it.

The understanding went both ways after all--

Even though she did not go with them, she made sure to keep both of her housemates within eyesight as she set up the umbrella. She also made sure to keep their more important possessions, like their bags, within arms reach at all times, in case the suspicious characters got too close to Dusty's piece of the beach.

Dusty watched the two of them take turns posing and taking pictures at the edge of water, splashing and kicking each other. She couldn't hear the laughter, but she could see how wide their smiles were.

"DON'T GET YOUR PHONES WET--," Dusty shouts at them loud enough to draw stares but she ignores them, focusing on taking care of the people she loves. She gets a set of happy waves back in return and continues her little tirade quietly, and to herself.

"Just because the case says waterproof doesn't mean it's accurate, they could be lying."

Keeping track of time wasn't really important right now, and even though Dusty was busy with her vigilant watch, she did enjoy the soft breeze, and strangely enough, the smell of the salty sea.

"Ugh-- I'm getting sweaty, I need a drink."

She drags herself over to the cooler to dig into it, looking for the special sea salt peach lemonade drinks she packed for herself.

The moment she had her first sip of a cold drink, she finally felt the knot in her stomach let up and the tense energy in her neck lessen. It left her slow blinking at her housemates as she took a couple more sips of her drink.

They had moved onto wading fully into the water, not far enough to cause her alarm but enough that they were clearly sitting down and enjoying the waves lapping at their necks. It didn't long for her to finish the drink, licking at her lips to enjoy the lingering taste of it.

"I need to buy more of theses when I get back-- strangely enough the saltiness brings up the peach taste."