【 𝗷𝗷 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸 x 𝘧𝘦𝘮!𝘰𝘤 】
𝙄𝙉 𝙒𝙃𝙄𝘾𝙃, a long-lost neighbour returns to the island, her differences clear. But she wasn't the only one that had changed, as was discovered when an old friend slowly weaves back into her life.
【 𝗢𝗨�...
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CARMEN HAD NEVER met someone like JJ Maybank. The towhead blond across the road, the boy with paint staining his clothes. Looking back, she wished she had noticed him earlier. People always told her she had time, years upon years of existence, but she didn't. Not really. Not if she'd known.
The sky was gloomy on the second Saturday of 2010. The birds singing in the trees outside of her porch interrupted the constant screams from her younger sister inside, the baby's cries clawing at the peeling wallpaper in the living room. Carmen sighed as she flicked the page of her book, slapping her arm when a mosquito managed to slip through the torn flyscreen wrapping around the front deck.
Her eyes scanned the page, drinking in the words. Her teachers had told her to stop, that she was getting too ahead of herself. But she had things to learn, she would argue. She wanted to know everything, experience everything, see everything. She would only be given eighty years, maybe. Every second counted.
She only looked up from her book when she heard scuffling from the other side of the road. More than scuffling. She watched, eyes narrowed and book abandoned in her lap, as a boy was shoved out of his front door, rolling down the front steps as the older man - who Carmen assumed was his father - slammed the door shut.
She was running before she could think, her older sister's tennis shoes slapping against the hot concrete and piles of litter as she crossed the road. Her chest was heaving, breath lodged in her throat, as the boy's sobs grew louder. The sound slowed her pace, haunting her. Suddenly, she felt herself tearing up.
She didn't want to scare him. She hovered by the treeline, concerned eyes latched on the blond curled up in the uncut grass. She hesitated. Could she turn around now? But then he sobbed again, louder, harrowing, and she knew she couldn't leave him.
