The tide always comes back. But what about the people we
lose to it? Salt.
In Our Veins Chapter 1 The last summer the boat moved like it
had a will of its own, slow and sure of the calm sea, the sails.
Weather by Facebook. Strain gently against.
A soft breeze. Their edges fluttering like the
wings of a resting sea bird beneath.
The surface, the water was clear.
Blue deepening too, black where the shallows gave way.
The endless depths, the coastline of Eden.
Curved like a secret. Kept too long, the headland
watching over them, silent and old.
The water lapped at the. Hole with a.
Sound like. Breathe steady.
Timeless Eden was the kind of town that clung to the edge of.
The world where the streets. Ran narrow between buildings.
Weathered by salt air. And fishing boats outnumbered
cars. The Wharf.
Was the town's heart, its timber bones creaking under the weight
of Nets and stories passed between generations.
The air smelled of fish and wood smoke, and at night Lenter swung
in the. Sea Breeze.
Throwing soft light on faces lined by sun and sea.
It was a place where. Everyone knew everyone where
gossip. Floated as easily.
As the Tide and we're leaving was talked about more often than
it was done, Noah had always been the boy.
Who would leave? And Kai, the one who would stay.
Kai stood at the main sheet, his hands confident on the worn
line. 18 though the sea had made him older in ways no number
could mark. His skin was sun.
Dark shoulders broad. From hauling sails and pulling
Nets. Hair a mess?
Of salt stiff curls that. Framed a face more often serious
than not, his eyes, dark and steady, always watch the wind,
the. Water.
There was nothing hurried about him.
Kai belong to. This place to the boat.
The tide, the sky stretched. Wide over, the sea across.
From him, Noah leaned against the tiller, easy and loose
limbed in the way of someone who never had to try to be seen 18.
Two, but different, Sharper. Lighter, as if part of him was
always halfway out the. Door.
His hair curled at his. Temple where sweat and the sea
spray dampened it, and his eyes, a pale storm Gray, seemed fixed
on the horizon more than the water beneath them.
His mouths quirked into a half smile that made people forgive
him anything. The city already pulled.
At him, even as the wind tugged. At the sail, his voice when he
spoke. Had that mix of excitement that
made Kai ache to. Hear it?
They sailed for hours, saying little.
The day stretched out like a held breath when Kai did glance
at Noah. It was always brief, afraid if
he looked. Too long he'd give himself away,
afraid Noah would see the truth in his eyes, the thing he buried
under years of friendship and silence.
The wind shifted, lifting Kai's hair, bringing the scent of
seaweed and wood smoke from the shore.
He watched Noah in the fading light, a boy he knew better than
himself and the stranger he couldn't hold on to.
The ache settled in his chest like an anger.
Dropped too deep? No wind in the city, Noah.
Said voice low. He didn't look at Kai.
Kai kept. His gaze on the sail.
Not like this. Sea.
Noah's laugh was soft, almost sad.
Yeah, not like. This sea.
A gull cried. Far off they sailed, until the
stars began to prick the sky, the horizon blurring into dark
when at last they turned. For sure neither wanted to be
the 1:00 to. Suggest it.
They pulled the boat. Up beyond the reach of.
The waves the. Sand was cool now.
The heat of. The day fading into night, they
built a fire. With driftwood, the.
Flames crackling low, throwing shadows long and thin.
Kai sat with his arms around his knees, watching the sparks rise
and die. The firelight painted Noah in
golden shadow made him look. Older, they talked.
In low voices of the 1st. Time they sailed this boat.
Alone of nothing that mattered and everything that did.
Their voices wove. Through the sound of the surf,
the night wrapping around them, Noah dropped beside him.
Close enough. That their shoulders brushed.
Close enough that Kai could feel the warmth of him.
The weight of. What was unset?
Big Sky here, Noah murmured. Won't see that in Sydney.
Kai wanted to tell him not to go.
Wanted to. Say it so badly it hurt.
But he didn't. Instead, he nudged Noah's foot
with his own, forced to grin. Don't forget it.
Noah turned to him, eyes dark in the fire light.
Mouse parted like he might speak.
Might. Close the space.
Between them the world held. Its breath.
The night seemed to still around them, as if waiting to.
Noah's hand lifted almost without him knowing, and his
fingers brush Kai's, tentative. At first.
Then lingering just enough to make the moment feel like.
It was theirs, like it had. Always been meant to be.
Kai's eyes didn't move away, locked on Noah's, dark and
steady, as if looking too long could somehow make the night
hold still and keep them there forever.
And then the wind shifted, the fire spat, and Noah looked away.
The moment slipped through Noah's fingers like water.
Morning came, pale and quiet. They pushed.
The boat out one last time. Kai watched Noah at the helm.
Every line of him, every movement.
He tried to memorize it, knowing it wouldn't be enough.
The sea was. Soft beneath them, a mirror to
the empty sky as they came ashore.
Noah. Hesitated.
Then turned and pulled Kai into a hug longer.
Fierce. As if he wanted to leave
something of himself behind, Kai held on just as tightly, burying
his face against Noah's shoulder, feeling the shape of
goodbye and the way they clung to each other.
I'll miss you, Noah said. His voice.
Rough with everything, he couldn't say outright.
No grand promises, no looking back, only knowing the knowledge
that they had entered a wide uncertainty of adulthood. 10
years passed. Kai stayed in Eden, as steady as
the tides he knew by. Heart he helped.
With the family business mending Nets, running the shop, front of
the Wharf, fixing engines when they coughed to a shop.
But always, always. He found his way back.
To the sea. The boat became his quiet.
Refuge the sail. His steady companion there had
been company now and then. Casual.
Brief. But nothing that settled into.
Shape of love. Kite didn't mind, or told
himself he didn't. He had the wind, the salt, the
white sky, and most days that was enough.
The years moved. Quite around him, seasons
turned, tides rose and fell. He loved Eden, the way the sea
met the sky, the way the wind filled his lungs.
Love, he figured. Was something for other people,
or maybe for another lifetime? What he had was the boat, the
ocean. And the memory of summer that.
Refused to fade. Noah had started strong.
He. Excelled in his classes, driven
by that hunger for success everyone had always seen in him.
Internship came easy and at. First it.
Seemed like everything he had left Eden for was within.
Reach he was. The boy bound for something
bigger and for a while. He believed it.
Too. But life doesn't always give you
what you think it will. The shine dulled faster than he.
Expected the. City had taken Noah in and worn
him down. His days blurred.
Between meetings and late nights, staring at the glow of a
screen that never gave back what the sea once did.
The salt of. Eden had long since washed from
his skin, but in the quiet moments alone in a small
apartment that overlooked nothing but glass and concrete.
He could still taste it. After another relationship ended
as. Quickly as it.
Began a month's. That was all.
It had lasted, just like the one before it, and the one before
that, but the quiet at night left too much space for the
memories of a boy on a boat. A summer that had felt like.
It would last. Forever.
And then the work dried up, the market turned, the company
downsized, and Noah once the golden.
Boy was. Handed his notice with a
handshake and hollow words about talent and timing and walked out
into a city. That felt colder.
Than he remembered four months as he tried applications,
interviews, all leading nowhere. The saving thinned.
The apartment felt smaller. The idea of going back to Eden
shifted from impossible to inevitable, as much as he wanted
to see it. To.
See the sea and sky and maybe Kai.
He feared it, too. About how far he had fallen, but
there was nothing left to hold him where he was.
The tide was pulling him home. Noah dressed carefully the
morning he left. His best shirt?
Pressed and clean the one suit. Jacket that still felt.
Like him, the drive was long hours of empty highways and
scattered towns. But as he crested.
The last rise. Eden unfolded before him, the
coast stretching wide, the sea glittering beneath.
Cliffs that held. The town like a secret Noah.
Parked the car by the Wharf. Engine ticking as it cooled in
the night. Air, he sat.
For a moment, fingers loose on the steering wheel, listening to
the sound of the sea. When he stepped out, the salt
hit him first. The street lights along the war
have cast long broken reflections on the water.
A gull called once, somewhere unseen.
He turned slowly, taking it in further down near the end of the
Wharf. Two kids laughed as they chased.
Each other along the rail, shadows flickering at the
lamplight. As he got.
Back in and started down toward the water the houses came into.
A view low. And weathered.
Eden breezed him in again, as if it had been watching, knowing
he'd come back eventually. Kai said at the bar that
evening, the low hum of conversations and clink of
glasses filling the space around him.
A few friends crowded nearby, laughing, swapping.
Stories of the day's. Catch and the usual town gossip.
The door creaked open. And the men stepped inside,
wiping the sea air. From his face.
Smirking like he. Held a secret.
Guess who I saw rolling back into town?
He said. Loud enough for the table to
hush. Noah driving like he owned the
place in some fancy. Car all.
Polished up I. Felt the words hit.
Like a shift in the tone, his glass paused halfway to his.
Lips. He didn't look up, didn't speak,
but inside everything tilted. Like the world.
Had changed into a single breath.
Noah stood at the water's edge, the sea stretching dark and
endless before him, the moonlight caught in the ripple.
Of the tide. What now?
He thought of the stories he'd have to tell, how he.
Frame it all so no one would. See the truth?
That he hadn't come home because he wanted to and because he run
out of anywhere. Else to go, he rehearsed the.
Lines in his head, polished and hollow, but even as he tried to.
Shape the words. They felt thin.
He stared at the. Horizon at the line where dark
water met darker sky and wondered.
If he could. Still become the man he once
tried so. Hard to be.
The man people here remembered. The man he promised himself he'd
become. The wind tugged at his.
Jacket. The tide moved.
Below, steady as breath. Indifferent to him.
And his figures? And then his phone buzzed in his
pocket. He froze.
He. Didn't need to look at the
screen to know. The weight of it settled before
his eyes. Found the words.
Welcome home. Thank you for listening to
Chapter 1 of Salt in Our Veins. If the sea of this.
Story stirred something. In you share.
It in the comments. We love to hear what stayed with
you. Don't forget to like, subscribe
and join us for the next chapter as the tide brings Kai and Noah.
Face to face. Again until then.
May the sea. Be kind and the stories.
Stay with you.