Forever August ✔️

chapter four

"she smelled of daisies, she drives me crazy."
- angus and julia stone
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IT WAS THREE in the morning when Gus returned to the beach. He eyed the cliff he had watched the mystery girl jump off of while part of him expected, or hoped, that she'd be standing there again. But the beach was deserted at this time of night, as it always was.

Gus walked through the sand and, finding his usual spot, he threw down a thin towel and laid on his back, staring up at the clear night sky.

He remembered her scream as she soared through the air. He remembered being taken back because she didn't sound afraid, but excited. Exhilarated. There was no fear in the mysterious girl's eyes, only a burning longing for adventure.

Gus found himself wishing that she were here, simply so they could talk more. He also found himself wishing she wasn't dying. Her wit made him laugh and her outlook on life made him want to live. But Gus didn't even know her name. For all he knew, the mystery girl was gone for good.

With the sand as his pillow and the ocean air as his blanket, Gus closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He dreamed of a house he could one day call home, with walls so high that he could jump off of them and dive right into the ocean.

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Aurora's eyes opened to sunlight seeping in through the living room's curtains. She groaned, covering her head with a pillow to block out the harsh light.

The couch cushions sank as someone sat on her feet. Peeking out from beneath the pillow, Aurora saw her brother, Thomas, sitting on her as he happily munched on a bowl of cereal. His head turned to her and he grinned.

"Morning, Rory. You look like absolute shit." He leaned in to pick the pillow off her face, his nose scrunching up in disgust. "You smell like it, too."

"Shut up," she murmured, her voice still weighed down by sleep. Aurora sat up and snatched the bowl out of brother's hand, beginning to eat his breakfast. He only rolled his eyes as he watched her with raised eyebrows.

"What did you do yesterday?" he asked.

"Cliff diving."

"Cliff — What!?"

"Diving," Aurora clarified, chewing happily on her breakfast.

Her brother rested his elbows on his knees and buried his head in his hands. "Mom and Dad asked me to look after you this summer and you decide to become a dare-devil? You're such a pain in my ass," he whined, getting off the couch and walking out of the room.

"Those could be your last words to me!" she called behind him, milk trailing down her chin.

"You're not fucking dying, Rory!"

Aurora rolled her eyes. Thomas was the only person she told about the psychic's prediction and when she did, he laughed until tears streamed down his face. He didn't believe that his twin sister would die anytime soon so when she asked him to not to tell their parents, he agreed.

Aurora kicked off the blanket covering her body, not even remembering falling asleep on the couch last night, and trudged upstairs to take a shower and wash the smell of the ocean off of her.

It was only when she was standing under the warm stream that she remembered the boy with the mismatched eyes. Gus, she recalled. Aurora let her mind drift to him freely. After all, she was dying. What harm would it do?

As the water warmed her skin, she tried to decipher the meaning behind their encounter the day before. Alas, she chalked their moment of bonding up to just that, a moment. She knew the chances of running into him again where slim to none. Plus, she had an entire life to live in a few weeks. She had no time to waste.

Aurora walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body, her thick brown hair spilling water onto the wooden floor. She dressed quickly and searched her bedroom for her phone, but she couldn't find it anywhere. She pulled the shorts she had been wearing yesterday out of the laundry but the pockets were empty, too.

She groaned, plopping down on her bed as she ran a comb through her hair. Her phone was at the beach, still resting on the rock she had left it on before she jumped. Or at least she hoped it was still there.

With her wet hair hanging limply down her chest, Aurora pulled on her Converse, slung her crotchet bag over her shoulder, and ran out the front door, yelling a halfhearted goodbye to her brother.

Aurora rode her bike down the dirt road, the wheels bumping over holes and large rocks as she got closer to the sound of the ocean. She could hardly contain her own worry as she hoped off the bicycle and sprinted towards the water. Her eyes analyzed the area, searching for the rock she had left her phone on. It had a small crevice on the side that she hid it in, believing it would be safe until she retrieved it.

Aurora walked through the sand, the morning sunlight blinding her eyes and drying her hair, when she stopped dead in her tracks. There was someone sleeping on the sand, his black curls sprawled out widely on top of a yellow towel. Her breathing hitched when she realized who it was: Gus.

She tiptoed to the spot where he lay, careful not to wake him, although she didn't understand how or why he was sleeping out here in the first place. Gus was laying on his back, his long legs off the blanket, with one arm draped over his eyes. His chest was rising and falling slowly as he slept.

Aurora wanted to wake him, but she had a better idea. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a notebook and ripped out a blank page. With a pink gel pen, she scribbled a note onto it, folded it in half, and placed it on the sand next to Gus with a rock on top so it wouldn't blow away.

She took one last look at the boy, sleeping so peacefully on the uneven sand, before she walked away to retrieve her phone from the rock Aurora had now spotted.

She was tempted to take a photo of him but decided against it. He was the stalker, not her. The memory from their conversation yesterday made her smile.

Aurora straddled her bike and road back up the dirt road, wondering where her spontaneous bucket adventure would take her today.