A Teaspoon Of Stardust

6) The Beach House

"Cause I don't dance, but here I am
Spinnin you round and round in circles
It ain't my style, but I don't care
I'd do anything with you anywhere
Yeah you got me in the palm of your hand girl
Cause I don't dance"

I only woke up a minute or two ago from a very uncomfortable position, and this song was enough to make me tear up. It was night now, and we were driving down a small road surrounded by an empty field. The stars were so bright, and there were so many.

"Hey, are you alright?" Dylan looked over, concerned. I quickly wiped my eyes and turned my head away from him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." I lied, hoping it was believable.

"C'mon, Scar. Talk to me." He said, green eyes trained on the road. So much for that. I thought.

*flashback*

"Scarlett, Scarlett. Wake up. Please." A southern accent pleaded. I opened my eyes with a start, minty breath blowing in my face.

"Ew, stop." I smiled tiredly. "Where are we? What happened?" I sat up frantically and looked at my surroundings then back at Luke.

"See, you passed out before so I carried you back to my room. You should've seen the looks we got." He tried to lighten the mood, but I needed answers.

"When? I don't remember anything." I said. "Tell me everything that happened before."

"Well, I walked into this strange new class called Creative Writing and-" I shot him a look. "Okay, okay. So after you ran out of the diner, remember that? I followed you outside and I told you that I took care of them and that I had fun. Then you said you did too and then you know..." He trailed off awkwardly.

"Then I fainted." I finished for him. Luke's eyes went wide in what looked like shock or disbelief.
"Noo. Then we, we, we kissed." He wouldn't look at me. I felt uncomfortable.

"We... kissed?" I asked, the words feeling foreign on my lips. I don't remember it. He has to be lying, I thought.

"You don't remember?" Luke questioned, looking relieved? hurt?

"You're lying." I stated. "We couldn't have. I remember it now, I said 'I had fun, too.' and then I remember falling backwards." His mouth gaped.

"N-no. I don't know what you think you're remembering but we kissed. I know it." He said sternly. I don't know what he's trying to pull here.

"What makes you so sure I would've kissed you anyway?" I started shouting, getting off the couch and stood to face him.

"I'm sure because it happened. Why would I lie? Why would you think I'd lie about it?" He was getting angry too.

"I don't know. All I know is your lips.. never touched.. mine." I said my voice reaching a whisper by the end.

"Well, all I know Scarlett, is that THEY DID." He yelled and I backed away from him.

"This was a mistake." I said. "I'm leaving." I turned away from Luke before I could see his expression.

"Fine. Go." His voice quiet now.

"And I'd appreciate it if you'd stay away from me now on." I said, just like the first day, before slamming the door on my way out.

*end of flashback*

"And since then, it's been like some unspoken agreement. We avoided each other. And I don't know. I just.." Sniffling, I found it hard to complete the sentence. "I thought maybe, he cared about me."

"Sounds like a perv." Dylan said. "What kind of weirdo makes up something like that?" He shook his head and pulled into the dirt driveway of an old house.

"Okay, enough of this deep stuff. Are you alright now?" He asked, placing his hand on my shoulder. I nodded truthfully, glad to have talked about it.

He pulled our bags out and walked onto the yellow, two story house's porch. I took the keys he gave me earlier and unlocked the door.

"This," He said, putting the bags down to swing either arm out. "Is the White family summer house, which was not supposed to sound like it just did." He finished quickly and I laughed. "Okaaay. I'm not sure you want to unpack everything tonight since, it's like what? 2 in the morning?" He checked his phone. I walked around the house taking in everything. I knew he was still talking about something, but I wasn't listening and was too tired to feel guilty about that.

Where we first stepped into was the mudroom, which led to the living room on the left, and beautiful white wooden stairs on the right. I ran my fingers lightly over the carved railing. All along the ceiling was crown molding, and the walls themselves were a summery light blue.

I stepped into the kitchen which had an island, and a big window right above the sink. The lace curtains were a bit dusty but that didn't matter. I looked out of the window that pointed towards the backyard. It was so dark, and the only thing lighting the field up were the millions of stars and the abundance of fireflies. It seemed magical. I couldn't have asked for a moment better than this one right now.

"Boo." I looked to my right and saw Dylan's face inches from mine. I elbowed him hard in the side and he yelped. "Sooo." He said, pursing his lips. "Do you like it?"

"It's perfect." I said wistfully. Not taking my eyes off the beautiful scene in front of me.

"My great grandfather built this house. Bought the land cheap off a friend, well as cheap as shore land can be, and built it for my great grandmother as a wedding gift. It's been passed down since then." He told me, leaning over and resting his elbows on the countertop.

Having an idea, I gasped. "CAN WE OPEN THE WINDOWS?" I asked excitedly. We could never have done that in my neighborhood. Not only is it dangerous, the suburb of a city does not have the best air.

"Uh, sure." He chuckled. I pushed open the window in front of me, then pushed passed him and opened every other window I saw as fast as I could.

I fell back on a bed upstairs and smiled. The air was warm, just a little chilly and smelled of the sea. I sighed and listened to the overwhelming sound of crickets take over the house.

"Guess you claimed your room?" Dylan said, walking past my open door.

"Yup." I replied, popping the p.

With the curtain open wide enough for the overwhelming darkness to pour in heavily, anything outside without light on it was invisible. But very far, in the vast expanse of wetlands or fields surrounding the shore house, in the distance struck a sudden flame, like someone lighting a match. It was so small and so distanced that you would have easily overlooked it had it been morning, but with nothing around to illuminate it the light shone constant and steady.

I couldn't figure it out, how could that be? We didn't pass any houses close enough for us to see the light. Only a human could've lit that, it was definitely a flame, and there were no houses or stores. We passed the town with the boardwalk, then a small area of brush and thick trees and forest.

It still hadn't gone out and hadn't moved it all since I'd first seen it. I closed my eyes to try and get the image out of my head.

"Goodnight, Scarlett. Love you." Dylan called from his room, directly across from mine.

"Goodnight, Dylan. Don't let the bed bugs bite." I yawned pulling the quilt over top of me.

And for the first time since I could remember, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

A/N
This was pretty fun to write, I'm not gonna lie. Give me feedback and tell me how I'm doing so far, what I can do better. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for everything!