MOLTEN HEART ♱ BELLY CONKLIN

03. Midnight Breeze

ILLICIT BLUES.
03.   ╱ Midnight Breeze

A midnight breeze blew through Marigold's golden hair. The girl, eagerly, moved the stands out of her eyesight. Charcoal painted her fingertips, dusts of it smeared against her cheeks. Black bits had taken their place underneath her nails, filling the empty spot just between the skin and itself. Using the back of her palm to brush away any stray loose strands of hair. The bits of charcoal were starting to disappear onto the page, dusting over the paper.

The view of the glowing ocean, waves crashing upon the sand, brushed onto the paper like it was nothing. A mirror view painted black onto the paper in Marigold's hands. Her legs were nestled against her chest, the sketchbook laying flatly against them while she drew whatever it was that she saw, including the silhouette of her brother───feet in the pool, joint in hand.

    She noticed she had begun to shiver from the cold wind, sweeping against the exposed skin between her shorts and shirt. But she didn't move back inside. She would stay out here for hours, even if it meant she was freezing or melting from the heat.

Her bedroom window was open, a corner of the blanket falling from the roof───the rest covering her legs. Nights like this were the girl's paradise. The ethereal sounds of water crashing against each other, the soft glow the moon had against said water. The sun had fully set and it was dark, a single lantern beside her legs being the only source of light atop the roof.

Susannah was never a fan of her going onto the roof.

But one night as she staggered into Marigold's room to bring her a bowl of soup when she was sick, she saw her sitting there.

Susannah watched her for a moment. The girl hadn't even noticed her at first, a soft smile played against her lips, eyes closed and head drawn back against the concrete wall behind her. Shoulders were slack and face was relieved of any sign of stress. At that moment, Susannah realized that this was her escape, and she wasn't going to take that from her. Marigold felt very thankful for her understanding.

    Truly, it was only a mother's instinct to protect her children, but it seemed the pain of falling was canceled out by the peace of living.

   The sound of the door creaking underneath her brought her away from my thoughts. She peered down at the pool area to see Belly walking out in her black swimsuit. She dived in beside Conrad and Marigold suddenly felt guilty for staring at the girl for too long, looking away when she broke into the water.

Belly resurfaced, swimming toward the boy. Marigold's once peaceful expression began to disappear only to be replaced with a small frown.

Moments like this is when she hated her brother───hated Belly even (which was hard to do). The boy was leading her on, playing into the harmless flirting, but it wasn't harmless. Belly believed it, Belly believed he truly felt for her what she felt for him.

It broke Marigold's heart, to say the least.

She wanted Belly to see that it wasn't her fault, it was her stupid brother's. She wanted to hold the girl when she was crying, make the girl laugh when she was feeling down, protect the girl when she was scared. She wanted to tell her how she felt, but Marigold couldn't.

   "Goldilocks, you still up to go to that bonfire?" Jeremiah questioned, peeking his head through his sister's open window, standing inside her room.