A WORLD ALONE , tsitp

☪︎ a world alone

we're dancing in this world alone

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

     ASPEN KERSHAW has never been one to shy away from attention. She wears bright colors and always has her hair done, highlights perfect. She prided herself on her looks. It made her world brighter when everything else seemed so dull.

Though, it is no secret the 16 year old girl has mental health issues. From a young age her parents could tell she was different. At the young age of 4, Aspen got diagnosed with ADHD. Years later it was severe anxiety to the point she had to start medication and then depression. Aspen had a cocktail of mental illnesses.

It's not that her parents refuse to acknowledge their child's issues, Aspen just thinks they think she overreacts.

Yes, she has anxiety. Yes, she has depression but she simply needs to move past both and she'll be fine. It's a bump in the road.

It'll go away once she's in high school.

Well, she's in high school, has been and  it hasn't gone away. Aspen still has to take her anxiety and depression medication, she gave up on the Adderall a while ago.

But, summer is here.

Summer is supposed to be Aspen's peace. The ocean, the flowers that bloom. Cousin's comes to life. Not only that but the Fisher's come back which means also means—the Conklin's are back for the summer.

Belly and Steven Conklin. As long as Aspen and her brother Theo have known the Fisher's, they've known the Conklin's. Belly and Aspen became fast friends as kids. And now every summer the two girls look forward to seeing each other.

The Kershaw's are neighbors with the Fisher's so it makes hanging out all the easier.

Everything should be easier when summer comes around. But her family is suddenly falling apart right in front of her. Her mom isn't quiet about the cheating she thinks her husband is doing. And her dad isn't quiet about how pissed off he is at her mother. It's a mess, one that is bringing up far too many unwanted thoughts and feelings for Aspen.

Ones that she isn't even sure Belly Conklin, the biggest ray of sunshine, the brightest smile she's ever seen—can fix.

   MAGNOLIA FINNEGAN doesn't look like her family should be able to afford a beach house every summer. The one with two floors while the home she's in the rest of the year is one floor.

Maggie Finnegan gets into fights and stick n pokes herself for fun, she researches haunted forests and places near her that harbor ghosts. She doesn't belong in a beach house—in her brutal opinion about herself.

And the only thing Maggie can thank her disappearing act of a father for is the money he makes.

His way of being a parent his letting his wife and kids take over his beach house for the summer, the one conveniently across the street from the Fisher's aka, her mom's best friends.

Ever since they were young, Laurel, Susannah and Millie have been best friends which in turn makes their kids best friends. That's how it was for a really long time. Maggie and her twin brother Caiden were inseparable with the Conklin and Fisher kids, alongside the Kershaw kids.