SUMMERLANDS, JJ Maybank

𝒊. COMPANY WITH THE SUN

It told everyone Sabella-June Cordova was home again.

"I'm drunk in the back of the car, and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar!" Belli sang at the top of her lungs, laughing when her puppy, Blue joined in and her friends rolled their eyes fondly. The boy beside her groaned.

"Belli, I'm literally begging you to keep it down, Kai Appoline pleaded, while Topper Thornton nods in agreement beside him, no doubt still nursing the hangover from the night before.

"Maybe we should turn it down just a little, huh, Belli?" Hera Burberry tried to amend, catching Belli's eyes in the rearview mirror before snaking her hand to the radio dial and cracking it up even louder. Kai and Topper groaned, causing the rest of the car members to burst into a fit of giggles.

"Don't act like you aren't mumbling the lyrics under your breath Kai!" Belli teased, reaching over to ruffle the boy's hair. "I still have pictures of you crying at Taylor's last concert, Kai!"

The touron pulled his blue bucket hat lower over his eyes, smiling softly despite himself. Soon, Kai found himself singing the lyrics softly against his will, just as Belly had predicted. He couldn't even stay miffed, it was Belli after all.

Not one could stay mad at Belli Cordova. She was happy, she was home...and she ached and Jason noticed.

Jason Burberry, ex-Pogue Scumbag turned newest Kook heir, and one of Belli's best friends. She knew he'd been watching her with intense eyes ever since she'd stepped onto OBX soil at the airport. Her hair had been loose and humidity had slithered between the barrier her bandana had tried to establish and made friends with her hair, but judging by the volume, they may have been more than friends.

He'd watched her light up the room when the surprise party his sister, Hera Burberry and the Kook princess, Sarah Cameron had thrown just for her. (Though Sarah may have thrown it, just for the sake of throwing a party.) All of them had been dressed to the nines in pressed and pristine clothes, yet there she'd been, dressed in a white bikini and denim cutoffs, smiling her pearly smile and fooling everyone into thinking it reached her eyes.

Jason knew why. "Bellsy," he called, smiling when the girl slithered back into the car, "Smile so I can take a picture. You can show it to Bryony next time we see her." Belli smiled so wide her cheek hurt, and for a second, the grin that Jason flashed back at her made all the pretending worth it.

Then Sea Star House came into view, and the smile became real.

Casa Stella Marina was a place of delight and ecstasy. Sunshine and savoury, it was just a mimicked snippet of its predecessor, Diaspro Cordova's childhood home in the South of Italy. Bliss weaved into the ivory cream walls and sun-soaked oak panels, and granules of warm sand and water droplet made themselves at home in the nooks and crannies of the green couch, its fabric still sticky with sunscreen and sweat. It had multicoloured porcelain vases and plants and pretty coral plates. Floor-to-ceiling windows and bookshelves filled with everything from Italian cookbooks, Coleen Hoover's latest heart-wrenching story, and a few of Pope Heyward and Belli's meaningless fanfics and books.

Sea Star House wasn't a house at all, but a home. The ivory cream walls were glazed in crayon drawing young Sabella had spent her summer childhood months perfecting until they became the beautiful seas side murals that dotted the walls. The tantalizing scent of whatever Aunt Día was cooking wafted in the air and tickled Belli's nose, and the people-

Belli knew that people were not made to be homes but she found hers in four beach bum souls.

"BELLI!"

The car door was jarringly pushed open even before the vehicle had come to a complete halt. Two blurs ran towards each other, present joy and future heartbreak nipping at their heels. One with a head of blonde curls messily and barely pushed back by a headband and a hand of silver rings, the turtle one matching the hand of the other blur, with a stream of sun-bleached hair flowing carelessly in the wind.