The waves crashed against the shore with a steady, relentless force, their roar filling the silence between the two friends. The salty breeze tangled in their hair, carrying the scent of the ocean and the faint trace of bonfire smoke drifting from somewhere down the beach. Matt walked a few steps ahead, his silhouette outlined by the glow of the moon reflecting off the wet sand. He wasn’t in a hurry, just lost in his own thoughts, though every now and then, he glanced back, making sure Alex was still keeping up. In his hand, he clutched a cold bottle of beer, condensation dripping down his fingers—the same beer he had bought at the last bar before they wandered onto the beach.

This was supposed to be a vacation. A reset. When the band’s tour ended, everyone had the same idea—disappear, vanish off the face of the earth, at least for a while. But for Alex, it wasn’t just about escape. It was about trying to outrun the feeling that everything was falling apart. Again.

His thoughts swirled, a storm inside his head. That same gnawing sense of powerlessness had crept back in, the realization that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fix what was already broken. The relationship he once held onto so tightly had unraveled, thread by thread. Louise had become a stranger. When had it started? Maybe at some airport, in the rushed goodbyes between flights, when they stopped lingering in each other’s arms and instead exchanged quick, distracted kisses. Or maybe in the messages that felt more like transaction updates—brief check-ins, empty words.A distant sound pulled him from his thoughts. Music.

He lifted his head and saw a bonfire flickering in the near distance, shadows dancing in its warm glow. A small crowd had gathered—someone tapping out a rhythm on a pair of bongo drums, another strumming an acoustic guitar, someone else shaking a set of rattles. The music drifted across the beach, raw and unpolished, but full of life. A figure stepped up onto a wooden bench near the fire, her voice began to sing a song.