He finds her sitting, trying to skip rocks into a tumultuous sea.

They crash into the surf, punching holes in the water. She doesn't seem to care that the rocks she's flicking aren't the right size, or weight, or that at this time of day, the tide is never calm enough to send those pebbles gliding across its surface. The heavy rocks shift and roll beneath his feet, and go cascading down into the sea. They hit the water with a heavy thud and she turns around at the noise.

Their eyes meet. It feels like his throat is closing as they stay there looking at each other. Then she turns back around and throws another rock.

"How... listen, I'm so-"

"Go away."

"Tessa, I heard about your mom-,"

She skips a rock at him when he says "mom".

Luckily the jacket is thick but it still hurts when the stone hits his arm. He sucks in a breath and balls his hands in his jacket, while she turns back to face the sea. The wind blew and he proceeds to shuffle down the tumultuous, rocky beach. When he gets to her side, she still doesn't look at him, but her hand pauses on top of a rock. Her fingers are raw and curled around a rock and trembling.

"Please come inside, it's f***ing cold out here."

"I'm staying."

He sighs. God damn it, he knows she shouldn't be alone. He sits down next to her, sending a cascade of rocks tumbling down. The wind buffets them, his eyes water, and it feels like a thousand tiny needles prickling at his cheeks. It was so sharp he felt like it dried out his lungs, hollowed his insides: the chill had arrived, although the snow had yet to fall.

She palms a stone and squeezes it in her hand.

"I don't want you here."

"We're worried about you."

"Bull****. You made it quite clear you didn't care." His step falters.

She turns her head and fixes him with an attempt at a scathing glare, but her eyes are shining with tears. She compensates by c***ing her head to the side and saying coolly, "Why are you here again?"

Her barb stings and sinks in and anger crashes over him. He was here for her. He's f***ing trying right now, and- god- he was here because her family was his family. And so he struggles to find a quick retort but none come to mind. He flushes, blames it on the wind and picks up a rock and hurls it into the sea. This is what he hated.

"F*** you." He whispers eventually, and stares angrily into the dark, foaming water. A tense silence falls between them, and they sit silently. Then, rocks tumble down the steep beach as she scoots herself closer and she rests her head on his shoulder. He feels her weight and her shivers through his jacket, and misses her warmth. She sniffles softly, "That's all you can think of?"

A silence elapse between them, filled by the wind and the waves and unspoken disappointment.  He reached his hand out of his pocket and picked up a small, smooth rock. He turned it over in his hand and tossed it up in the air. He doesn't quite catch it and it hits her knee. She snickers slightly and hands another rock to him.
"You do know these aren't the right type of rocks for skipping, right?" He asks her.

She shoves him into him with her shoulder and says, "It doesn't matter." Its slightly more lighthearted, but then she adds bitterly. "I can never do anything right, anyway."

The air is sharp, clear, and icy and it gusts towards them. She doesn't curl into his side to shield from its harshness.  They just sit there, buffeted by the wind and cold and thoughts. Perhaps it was might have been a comfort to be together again, but it was bitter all the same.

He threw rock at the water, and a small crater opened up in the waves.