Knitting was up first and quickly discarded as you couldn’t figure out how to properly loop the soft purplish yarn you bought a few months back, or where to pull it through despite all of the long, monotone YouTube tutorials you tried watching. Then there was painting, which didn’t work well at all. You were attempting to paint a nice sunset that faded from orange to pink, then to purple, and a deserted island, but all you ended up with was a blotchy looking abomination that looked very abstract, and a huge, colorful mess. You decided that painting was not for you. Eventually, you made your way to your computer to play games, settling on playing Minecraft to pass the time. However as you watched your little character get shot to death by an arrow fired from a skeleton for about the fifteenth time, you could tell you were still bored, and now a bit irritated on how accurate the enemy’s aim was. As you sat there in your leathery computer chair, staring blankly at the slightly red-tinted death screen that read “You died! (Username) was shot by Skeleton,” you got an idea. You could text your two best friends and see if they were up to hang out for today. It was a bit last minute, but it was worth a shot since they both didn’t live too far away from you and likely weren't doing anything either. You hopped on your guys’ favorite messaging site, Discord, and sent them both a ping that read simply, “Hey, do you guys want to hang out?” They both responded immediately, as you expected, and they both agreed, questioning what they could do together. You thought up a few ideas, like going to the movies or going shopping, but one friend said they had just gone to the movies the day before so they didn’t want to do it again, and your other friend admitted they were not a fan of shopping. After suggesting a few other miscellaneous ideas, you and your friends settled on the perfect plan; going to the beach. You all lived close to the ocean, and all of you had skateboards, so you agreed to coast along the surprisingly smooth sidewalk near the beach for a while, and watch the sunset there. As you jumped up and got ready, you couldn’t possibly be more excited, energy fizzling through your veins like electricity.

As you left your house, you did a quick check to make sure you had the things you needed. Phone? Check. Keys? Check. Cash? Check. Skateboard? Check. Confident you had everything, you left your old, boring tan house, locking the door behind you as you stepped outside into the warm air. You pocketed your jingling keys, turning and walking down the path from your door to the top of your driveway. You set your board down, stepping down on the tail to pop the board up and hold it there as you did one last final run-through of your belongings. After that brief pause, you hopped on your board, letting yourself roll down the driveway for momentum as you cruised on the hard, black asphalt of the empty culdesac you lived on. The day was beautiful, it was pleasantly warm, with little fluffy clouds rolling lazily across the sky in no hurry at all. After about five minutes, you arrived at one of your first friend’s houses, stopping and texting them that you were there. About a minute of you texting them, they popped out of their house, waving at you from the doorway as they stepped out with their board. They ran down the driveway, greeting you and asking how you were before hopping on their board. The two of you left, absentmindedly pushing off the ground periodically to keep up the two of your speeds, chatting along the way. Before you knew it, you had arrived at your other friend's house, texting them as well to notify them of your presence. Before long they were outside, shouting farewell to their parents as they shut the door behind them, walking down their driveway. The three of you greeted one another with wide smiles before taking off to the beach.

The beach was always one of your favorite places to go to as a kid, and it still was to this day. The salty spray of the water, the warm sand between your toes, and the not-so-distant screech of seagulls brought the whole experience together with a nice big bow on top. Many memories were made there for you, so you were glad you could add another memory with your friends. The three of you coasted along the sidewalk, cracking stupid jokes and laughing as you talked with one another. Your conversation topics varied, from experiences you each had, to different video games, to food, you all got along well. Eventually, you spotted a vendor selling ice-cold popsicles and ice cream, and you brought it up to your friends, offering to buy them something. After a plethora of “Are you sure?”s and “I can pay for it.”s, you got their orders, and bought what they each wanted. One of your friends wanted a pineapple popsicle, the other one wanted a Fudgesicle, and you yourself got one of those Drumsticks. You gave the icy treats to your friends, and you guys continued rolling smoothly down the sidewalk as the sun started to slowly dip down, just barely grazing the horizon.

You guys eventually made your way down to the soft, sandy beach littered with shells of different shapes, sizes, and colors. Your Drumstick ice cream was long gone, and so was your friends’ pineapple popsicle, reduced to just a wooden stick that hung lazily out of their mouth. Your other friend was still working on their Fudgesicle, however, they were nearly done, only having a little hunk of chocolate ice near the middle of their stick. You and your friends put your boards propped up against a nearby wall so the sand wouldn’t get in the wheels and affect their smooth rolling in any way, and made your way to the water. You had made sure to wear shorts that day, so you simply stepped into the water, gasping at how cold it felt. One of your friends laughed at your surprised gasp, so you simply splashed at them for revenge, since the water was at your disposal. This action leads to them splashing you back, eventually spiraling down to a splashing fight between the three of you, laughing the entire time. After you guys calmed down and stopped splashing, you made your way to the beach, where one of your friends suggested making a sandcastle. You all agreed happily, each splitting off to do tasks to help further build the sandcastle. You were in charge of making the moat, and a line leading out to the sea so water could fill the said moat. So you got to work, digging a small ring around where one of your friends was making the castle itself. It wasn’t very deep, but you planned to make the moat deeper so it could hold more water. After a while, you had made great progress, finishing the moat and now starting to work on the trench out to the water. The castle was also looking stellar, little shells and pieces of seaweed adorned on the outside of it for decoration, and your friends had even found a small crab to be its resident, which they named Dave. Dave the crab was gingerly placed on the top of the castle, and crowned ‘King’ by the three of you. All was great until a particularly large wave struck, rushing forward and immediately filling up your trench that stood zero chance against it. You all gasped and shouted in surprise as the wave immediately took out the castle, and you managed to catch a glimpse of Dave the crab scurrying off to safety. As the wave retreated, the three of you mourned you're, now wasted, hard work before moving on rather quickly further up the beach and away from the water. As you guys settled down, you chatted for a little, watching as the sun slowly sank beyond the horizon, colors exploding out from the sky with bright hues of orange, red, pink, purple, and yellow. This is how you imagined the painting you did earlier was supposed to turn out, but with a laugh, you brushed it aside. This day was truly great, one of the best times you have had in a while, and with a smile on your face, you remembered that July was not over yet.