Santa Monica State Beach in Los Angeles County is more than a recurring coastal setting: the novel uses it to bring Shelby Anderson Barnum’s past and present into contact. In childhood, the sand holds a scene of family closeness; years later, the water offers a brief release from isolation but also becomes physically dangerous. When Shelby returns with Jungkook Jeon, the beach is part of a journey toward shared calm. Its significance lies in these changing associations, not in any single visit.

Setting and Early Family Memory

The beach first appears in a flashback set in Los Angeles, California, a few years earlier. Six-year-old Shelby runs across the sand and falls headfirst. Sara Barnum hurries to lift and comfort her, checking that her daughter is all right; the child’s innocent smile reassures her. Connor Barnum joins Sara and puts his arms around her waist. Their attention turns to a house that has been abandoned for years, while Shelby, wanting her father’s attention, reaches up to him. He lifts her onto his shoulders, where she plays with his long hair, making little braids. The scene places the family together at the beach, even as the deserted house gives their shared attention a focus that the child does not yet understand.

This early visit establishes the beach as a setting for family memory rather than simply scenery. The moment is made concrete through gestures of care: Sara checks Shelby after her fall, and Connor answers her reaching arms by carrying her. The abandoned house remains unexplained in the scene, but its presence distinguishes the landscape from a purely carefree childhood backdrop. The beach holds both the family’s physical closeness and an image of a neglected place that draws the parents’ gaze.

Solitude, Surfing, and Risk

Years later, the beach offers a sharply different scene. Shelby comes alone and in tears, carrying her father’s old surfboard. At this point, her friends have sided with Madison Jefferson; teachers have tried to help without success, and the school principal has been bribed by Madison’s mother, who invests heavily in the school. Shelby is isolated by the betrayal and the failure of the adults around her to change it. Sitting on the sand and watching the horizon, she cannot settle her thoughts or decide what to do.

She eventually paddles out. Surfing reconnects her to something her father taught her when she was young: as she rides the waves, an unbidden smile appears, and for a moment she feels happy and entirely in her element. The relief is real but fragile. A larger wave knocks her underwater before she can take a full breath; after struggling with the rough ocean for several minutes, she reaches the surface. She swims back to shore coughing and lies on the sand, watching the sky change toward sunset. The sequence gives the water a double force: it briefly restores pleasure and bodily confidence, then turns that same immersion into a threat. The beach provides no solution to Shelby’s isolation, but surfing offers a temporary interval in which pain does not occupy all her attention.

Return with Jungkook

During a later trip to Los Angeles, Santa Monica State Beach becomes the first destination Shelby proposes when Jungkook asks her to show him the best places in the city. On the flight, his hand, a kiss, and his quiet reassurance help steady her anxiety; the beach is thus anticipated as part of a journey the couple is making together. At the beach, Jungkook says that he loves coming there, and Shelby smiles that she had expected him to take to it quickly.

He also remembers their first visit after arriving: Shelby had her skateboard and Jungkook rode a bicycle. They spent the afternoon moving along the path and went to Pacific Park that evening, where the attractions made the outing memorable for both of them. For Jungkook, the experience carries particular weight. He has not felt such joy and serenity for years, and, during the trip, nightmares and painful memories no longer take hold of him; he begins sleeping through the night. The location is therefore linked not only to Shelby’s earlier memories but to a present in which companionship and ordinary recreation make room for rest.

Memory, Encounter, and Meaning

The beach setting also frames an unexpected encounter with Madison. Shelby greets her with a light wave, although disgust and distress rise within her. The sequence is followed by a severe panic episode: Shelby experiences images of pain and water, feels her throat tighten, and collapses in tears. Madison recognizes that Shelby is having an anxiety attack and goes to find Jungkook. He comes quickly, sits beside Shelby, and draws her against him; she recognizes his familiar scent, holds on to him, and gradually returns to normal breathing. The episode shows how a place associated with both refuge and danger can sit alongside a past that has not ceased to affect Shelby. It does not make the beach the sole cause of her distress; rather, the setting brings the encounter and its emotional aftermath into a sequence already shaped by her memories.

Across the novel, the beach’s meaning changes with Shelby’s circumstances. It preserves a childhood image of her parents caring for her, becomes a temporary refuge during the betrayal and isolation of her school years, and later belongs to a journey shared with Jungkook. Surfing recalls her father’s teaching, while the present-day visit connects the coast to new experiences with a partner. The beach does not erase the danger or pain attached to memory. Instead, its returns let earlier and later versions of Shelby occupy the same landscape, making the movement from solitude toward connection visible without pretending that recovery is immediate or complete.