Fade into you

Lottie

This a Lottie chapter. It is double the length of a regular chapter. Enjoy.
Songs I listened to while writing:
Right where you left me by Taylor Swift
Bags by Clairo
Seventeen by Sharon Van Etten

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Lottie was four, and today was the best day of her life.

Her mother had agreed to bring her to the park.

She sits on the edge of the sandbox and takes off her sandals to dig her little feet in the sand. It felt funny, so she let out a giggle. She was finally going to get to play with toys she had never used. Her parents had bought her a bucket and a shovel, as well as sand moulds made of the prettiest greens and pinks she had ever seen.

Lottie looked around at the other kids. Perhaps one of them would take interest in the sandbox and they could play together. She had put on her prettiest dress and her favourite pink bow after all.

She noticed a girl attempting to climb monkey bars four times her size. It was a mission doomed to fail, but she wasn't going to give up. Lottie watched as the girl gripped onto the ladder, the paint flaking off under the contact of her hands. Surprisingly enough, she made it until about halfway through before inevitably falling to the ground. She cried and cried, but no one came.

"Are you okay?" Lottie asked hesitantly, holding her plastic shovel tightly for support.

"I fell." the girl said in between sobs, the tears rolling down her cheeks creating clear streaks amidst the dust that had gathered on her face.

"Do you want to play with me in the sandbox? Maybe you'll feel better?"

The girl looked up at her. She had big brown eyes like Lottie, her skin was pale like the moon, and the freckles around her nose resembled the stars Lottie spoke to in the nights she was scared of the dark of her room. Still holding the shovel tight in her right hand, she handed her left hand to the girl, who accepted it.

"Since we are going to play together we can be friends if you want" she said in a burst of courage. The girl nodded and walked with her. She wasn't crying anymore, but Lottie could hear her sniffling, swallowing back emotions that were too big for her little heart. They sat down together and lottie gave her her favourite toys, the big bucket to make a sand castle and some green moulds shaped like shells and sea stars.

"All of these toys are yours?" She asked Lottie.

"Yes! I got them for my birthday because we're gonna go to the beach this summer!" Lottie replied proudly.

"They're so pretty."

"They're yours if you want." She blurted out without thinking. The girl looked up at her in shock.

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Wait," frowned the girl, "are you my best friend?" Genuine confusion written in her face. Lottie wasn't an expert on the best friend system, so she wasn't sure what to answer.

"I don't know. Do you have another best friend?"

"No I don't."

"And how old are you?"

The girl looked at her hand, trying to figure out which fingers to raise and which to keep down in order to show the pattern that she wanted. After a couple of seconds, she finally raised her hand confidently. Lottie's face illuminated

"You're four and me too! That means we are best friends!" They giggled together and started playing together, the tears and the scratched knees now long forgotten. They created new continents together, lands where fish were the rulers and shells lived in princess castles. They dug secret tunnels between the blue mermaid kingdom and the purple mermaid kingdom until their nails turned black and their hands felt funny. They became best friends.