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prologue
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TWO MONTHS EARLIER
"Mae, please just listen!" Lillian looked at her daughter that was sat next to her on the sofa.
"No! This isn't fair! You can't just tell me things like this and then say it's happening next week!" Maeve yelled. Her parents told her that they were moving to America and, of course, Maeve wasn't excited. It was a big change in her life, which she had always hated. Even when she was twelve and her parents had told her it was time to re-decorate her room that was originally done when she was 6, she was scared of the change.
"We're not moving in a week. I said we're moving in a month, that's plenty of time for you to get used to the idea," Her mother spoke calmly, hoping it would also calm Maeve.
"It's a big house; I'm sure you'll like it. We're right by the beach, and there are loads of shops and new things to try. I can even teach you how to surf! Come on, it'll be fun," Jeremy tried to convince her further. Maeve had always thought his American accent sounded out of place when he'd use British words instead of American. Such as 'shops' instead of 'stores', or 'bin' instead of 'trash can', yet Lillian insisted he used them.
Maeve groaned and stood up, storming off to her room. She slammed her door, hearing a faint 'Don't slam your door!' from her dad, downstairs and sat on the edge of her bed. Running a hand through her hair, she huffed and tried calming herself down.
She reached to the other side of her bed and grabbed her headphones. Music had always been a safe space for Maeve. It always found a way to calm her down when nothing else could. It was almost like the music would hypnotise her with the way she would start slowly swaying or tapping her foot to the rhythm.
As Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac started flowing through her ears, Maeve felt the anger disappear from her body.
The thought of moving to the Outerbanks crossed her mind, this time with less bitterness. Her dad had mentioned the beach, probably one of Maeve's favourite places to be.
She enjoyed the feeling of sand and the sound of the waves softly crawled to the shore. She also liked going to the beach in autumn to see the seals that would find themselves on the beaches.
Maybe it would be similar there. Maybe, just maybe, she could at least tolerate it there.
✩✩✩
PRESENT
Maevelaughed at a dumb joke Pope had made as the group drove towards a spot they'd occasionally hang out at.
It was a half-built house on the coast of the main land that they definitely weren't supposed to be.
If you couldn't tell, she was more than enjoying herself in her new home, with her new friends, and her new criminal record.
Every now and then, when Maeve was hand-cuffed to a desk inside the police station for petty theft, Lillian would think that moving to America may have been the wrong choice.
