DONE ✔️ (UNDER EDIT)

Chapter Fifteen.

Chapter Fifteen.
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There was, apparently, a way to make me come.

It involved me hobbling across sand on crutches, which I quickly decided was worse than running on it. Every step sank, every shift of weight felt like work, and by the time Marie spread a picnic blanket down in front of the still-unlit fire, I didn't argue when she told me to sit.

Didn't really have a choice anyway.

She handed me a beer. I looked at it, then at her, and she sighed before swapping it for a bottle of water. The meds I was on didn't mix well with alcohol, so I was steering clear. Plus, I didn't exactly want to get drunk in front of the... What, ten strangers scattered around the beach.

We'd gotten there before sunset.

I watched the sky turn orange, the light stretching across the water until the sun finally dipped under the horizon. The air cooled not long after, more people showing up as it got darker, the fire eventually being lit once someone decided they knew what they were doing.

The others drifted back toward the blanket.

Parker dropped down beside me, nursing a beer while he lazily threw a tennis ball back and forth for Spike. The dog, surprisingly, seemed fine with all the strangers, actually acting like a normal dog for once instead of the overprotective menace he usually was.

Back and forth he ran, always snatching the ball before it hit the water, growling at anyone who got too close. He'd drop it proudly at Parker's feet, only to bolt again the second it was thrown again, and Parker had one hell of an arm on him.

The four of them — Kimmy, Parker, River, and Spike — had arrived together. Kimmy was already perched on the lap of someone she'd met five minutes ago, flirting like it was a competitive sport. River stood across the fire with Marie and a few others I'd been introduced to earlier but had already forgotten the names of.

Savannah wasn't here, she was back home with our parents, and Caleb was working the night shift. No brother to talk to, no sister to annoy, which left Parker and me as the antisocial black sheep's of the group. Not that either of us minded. We didn't have much to say, so we mostly sat in silence.

The night filled with the crackle of the fire, low music from a nearby speaker, laughter, conversation, and waves rolling onto the shore. Sea salt, smoke, and alcohol hung in the air, a mix that dragged up memories I tried hard to keep buried. At least here, we didn't have to look over our shoulders, waiting for something to come at us from the dark.

I stayed on the blanket, tugging another over my legs when the cold crept in. The ocean breeze didn't care that it was technically summer.

As the night wore on, more people drifted in. Someone turned the music up louder, bass thumping until conversations had to be half-shouted. Before long, it had shifted into a full party. Alcohol everywhere, the faint smell of weed weaving through the air.