That summer smelled of salt air and suncream... and hope - the kind you can only feel at seventeen. The lock on the beach house was rusting, and the paint on the door itself was peeling. You told me your parents didn't use it at all anymore; we were the only ones who did, and that was only for a few short weeks, wasn't it?
Nobody had bothered to fix the broken window, either, so it was permanently open just a crack - at night, after the moon came out over the sea, the breeze would flutter through, making the white curtains flutter like the skirts of a ghostly dancer. In those early hours of the morning, as you slept next to me, I would watch the shadows flicker on the wall.
When I couldn't sleep, the moonlight mesmerised me, illuminating the painting of the promenade your sister did before she went off to college. I could never tell how the time passed - but soon enough I'd wake, blinking at the brightness of the morning. You'd throw me a smile over your shoulder from where you stood by the door, already ready to go.
I pushed myself up on my elbows, squinting at you in the light. Your hair fell over your eyes, in strands of chestnut brown. I thought about how I'd pushed my fingers through it last night and the night before, and my cheeks burned. You must've caught me looking, because your smile turned awkward.
"Want to get coffees and head down to the beach today?"
I smiled, kicking off the rumpled sheets. "Sure. Give me a minute,"
You looked, for a moment, as if you might wait here while I got ready. As if you might stay with me.
You never did, though.
YOU ARE READING
august
Fanfiction"august sipped away like a bottle of wine/cause you were never mine..." *** this is just a little writing exercise i'm doing for a bit of a break from longer projects! for this reason it's a bit messy, just for fun :) this is a short story based on...
