A Year Around the Sun

f o u r t e e n - do you want me to leave?

when you smile,
i melt i n s i d e . . .

🌊🌊🌊

The weather couldn't have been more beautiful, serving as the reason for my extremely good mood. It was odd, because although the sun was thriving and everyone seemed to be wearing mid-summer attire, the heat wasn't affecting me at all. The glass of iced tea sitting in front of me wasn't even dripping from the warm air surrounding the cold glass.

I played with the hem of my sundress as I crossed my legs, watching strangers swiftly walk by me like everyone was in a hurry. Apparently, I had all the time in the world while at this particular, unfamiliar café. That's when I realized I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.

My eyes popped out of my head behind my sunglasses when I looked across from me to see Zac Efron sitting at my table. Why am I having lunch with Zac Efron?

He didn't seem to think my company was strange, because the easy smile that appeared on his face when our eyes met told me that this was normal. So I mustered up a smile too, and thought for sure that my face was bright red. How I ended up in a foreign place, eating lunch with my celebrity crush beats me.

Suddenly there was a taxi coming to a halt on the street. The brakes screeched loudly, causing everyone to turn to the scene. I whipped my head around to see what had happened, and everything became a blur.

My eyes pried themselves open and when I came to my senses, I was comfortably snuggled in my bed. At home. Not with Zac Efron.

"Damn dreams," I grumbled to myself, sitting up to stretch my limbs.

Even though it was only a dream, it seemed like I predicted the weather. The sun was leaking through my curtains, softly lighting up my whole room with a late morning glow. Perfect weather and a whole Friday ahead of me with no work scheduled sounded too good to be true. But that's how today was looking, and that was enough to brighten my mood.

I took my phone from where it was charging next to my bed and unplugged it to check my notifications. Nothing else mattered when I saw the "good morning" text that Brody sent not too long ago. The smile that boy could put on my face was absolutely ridiculous, but I don't really care.

Knowing both my parents were at work already, and still had about two hours until closing time at the diner, the house was empty. I made my way down to the kitchen and made some iced coffee, then decided on cereal for breakfast. After I had my bowl of Cheerios and cold coffee ready, I went outside to eat on the front porch.

I sat down on the couch and propped my feet up on the small table, looking out to the ocean while I spooned down my breakfast. There were already some people scattered across the sand, soaking in the sun that was relentless with no clouds around it. The crashing of the waves at the shoreline stole my attention, making the squawking of the nearby seagulls sound faint. I could never get tired of this.

I'd finished my breakfast and coffee long ago, but continued sitting on the porch and enjoying the view. Brody and I were going back and forth about what to do today since neither of us had work, but we weren't getting anywhere. Once 11 o'clock came around, I told him I was getting in the shower and he could always come over afterwards.

For the twenty minutes or so that I was in the shower, I belted out a random arrangement of songs. Anything that came to my mind was part of my concert for my bathroom walls to hear. Even though I kind of hate it, being home alone has its perks sometimes. No one is there to listen to your singing, no matter how awful it might be.

In the middle of a shrill high note from a Miley song, what sounded like a thump interrupted me. I stopped mid-note and froze for a second, then carefully popped my head out of the glass door. When I didn't hear anything else, I figured it was nothing, so I shrugged it off and went right back into my song.