Strawberries & Cigarettes

Chapter 19

TW: drugs and intrusive thoughts.

There have been mentions/or use of drugs (weed) in past chapters but I just want to say that I'm not either romanticizing or promoting drugs at all!!

I don't want to make it seem like doing drugs is completely normal or is cool and all that shit, since marijuana (not prescribed) has somehow been more normalized but don't forget, it's still a drug!

This is the first and last trigger warning I'll do about it so please remember it's not me showing how "fun" or "trendy" doing drugs is. It's showing light on how addicting it is or how it affects someone's life (which you will see more of that in the future!)

Don't do any type of drugs, be safe <3

And for the intrusive thoughts throughout the chapter, you are more than entitled to skip over those!!

I love you, and remember your mental health is always important.

━━━

May 27, 2015

"Here's your meal, butterfly," Niall says to her as he gives her the McDonald's paper bag and her iced coca-cola drink, offering her a toothy smile as well.

Aurora shows him an appreciative smile before she digs into the bag and takes out her six-piece chicken nuggets box and the sweet 'n sour sauces.

It will forever be her go-to order, alongside medium fries and for dessert, an apple pie.

She shifts her legs to sit crisscross on the rainbow-swirled beach towel, placing the opened chicken nuggets box on her lap.

The navy blue waves resume to crash on the sandy shore in the distance, the breeze salty and musky and too cold that it stings her button nose.

She's grown a new liking for the beach, especially when the group keeps her company.

Her fluffy locks run wild in the air, and while she switches between eating the smaller limp fries and the roundest chicken nuggets, her eyebrows furrow together.

Aurora wonders why she now likes the beach.

It was always ideal to go to one in the state she grew up in but she rarely went to any sort of beach.

The sand felt too hot under her bare feet and people crowded the littered area that the motive of relaxation never fulfilled.

But the only beach in the small town of Rye is the opposite.

Even when the weather gets colder near the unnerving ocean, Aurora obtains a piece of tranquility with the crisp background noises of nature.

She carries that stability of inner peace for a moment, no distracting or rowdy sounds that can easily shatter her train of thoughts.

Sometimes she appreciates being within her head, finding familiarity when her surroundings are foreign enough to suffocate her lungs.

Though sometimes, her head betrays her and once she starts to think, she can't stop thinking and thinking and overthinking her thinking.