It's summer. It's the middle of January, in the hottest part of the day. I'm driving home from the beach. My hair is crunchy and matted. A weird sheen of salt water, sweat and sunscreen coats my skin, a perpetually sticky lacquer that never dries.

Swinging my car into the driveway, I push it into park and wrench up the hand break. The backs of my thighs burn as they rip away from the car seat, the coarse fabric irritating my already sunburnt skin. In a hurry to unlock the door, I drop my keys and have to bend over to grab them; bags and towels and clothes are haphazardly draped over me like I'm some kind of pack mule.

I'm through the door, but there's still that awkward shuffle down the hall to my bedroom before I can drop my shit and head to the bathroom. My temples throb with pain.

In the bathroom I peel off my lukewarm bathers, still damp and clinging to my skin. Hidden pockets of sand fall to the floor. I step under the showerhead and gasp.

Crisp, cool, clean water rushes over me. I feel the grime of the day slip from my skin—I watch it swirl down the drain. The tangles in my hair loosen as I let the knots of my mind slowly unravel.

I should not care if they saw the rolls of my stomach as I bent for my towel. If they spotted the thin line of blonde hairs on my shin that I missed with the razor. Noted the peeling skin on my shoulder blades as my friend applied sunscreen to my back. Glimpsed the slight shaving rash on my bikini line, how the ties of my bather bottoms dug into my hips, the pimple on my chin, my split ends, the scar on my side.

I try and let the thrum of the water hitting the shower floor drown out the insecurities that stifle me. The fresh water soothes my heated skin, but not the redness in my cheeks.

 

‘Beach Body' by Asha Burnett, published in Ourselves: 100 Micro Memoirs, Night Parrot Press, 2024

 

Asha Burnett is an emerging writer, recently achieving First Class Honours in ECU's Bachelor of Arts Honours program for her creative writing research. Appearing in Writing WA's the little journal, and Night Parrot Press' Three Can Keep A Secret and Ourselves: 100 Micro Memoirs, Asha enjoys exploring life's little moments.