𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐫𝐝 ✰ 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

• • • • • • •

charlotte's chair scraped across the wooden floor, making her yelp in surprise.

"hey!" she yelled, but the lifeguard obviously couldn't hear her. he just dusted his hands off and shivered. "cold this morning." he murmured to himself.

charlotte snatched her bag from the ground and popped out onto the sand.

"stupid living people." she muttered, and slid her sunglasses on to block the bright light of the california sun.

after a week or so, charlotte got used to just passing through people on the street. it was easier, and the "cold spot" comments always made her laugh.

to pass the time, charlotte had busied herself with finding her best friend.
she knew that blake would probably have a family and a steady job by now. she could have forgotten about her childhood best friend charlie entirely.

charlotte shuddered at the thought. blake wouldn't have forgotten about her. she couldn't.

today, charlotte decided to go back to her parents' house. maybe they would know where blake was.

she passed straight through the door. boxes were piled up, and they were all labeled "c's room."

they were finally moving her out.
tears threatened to fill her eyes at the thought of her parents getting rid of her things.

"frank!" her mom's voice, fragile and meek, called from upstairs. she'd obviously been crying.

"what, honey?"

"where's-" she sniffled, "where's charlie's leather jacket? she lived in that thing."

"why?"

"i-i just want to know where it is. she wasn't wearing it when...

charlotte looked down to the jacket wrapped around her.

"i don't know." her dad emerged from the kitchen and climbed the stairs. "maybe she left it at blake's house. she kept some of charlie's things."

"a lot of her clothes are missing." she said. "i-i know she had more than this."

"strange." he sighed.

"and her converse. the white ones, those are missing, too."

they were tucked under all the missing clothes in the bag on charlotte's back.