Project Marlee

Chapter Three: Inky Sky

A/N: Okay, so the picture above is pretty much exactly how I picture Marlee and aunt Peggy's backyard. The steps there would lead up to their balcony. You can also kind of see where the grass ends and the steep downward slope to the beach begins. I just wanted to give you some sort of picture of what the following scene would look like. (also that picture was taken when I was in Florida last summer, my friend is taking the picture. Seaside is all based on the location we were in.) I hope you like this chapter 'cause my girls are introduced here, and I'm loving them. Emily // march 9, 2016

I COULDN'T BEGIN to put into words what stars in the Seaside sky looked like.

There were millions of them strung like popcorn on a string in the inky sky, aligned in a perfect corner of the universe. Seaside. I couldn't get enough of it. I took everything in: the sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline, the breeze rustling my hair, the warm salty air.

It was good to be home. Better than good. I was happier than I had been in what felt like forever.

Aunt Peggy had sat with me as the sun set for dinner, but left to "give you time to yourself, sweetheart." She knew me so well, sometimes better than I did myself. I loved spending time with her, but aunt Peggy knew how I craved time to myself. Time to reflect, I suppose.

Given how few (read: none) friends I had and the usual absence of my father, you'd think I'd want anything but. Yet after a full day of talking and noises, silence - me, my thoughts, and the rush of the ocean - was a virtue.

So when the silence was interrupted by two girls with streaks of pink and blue in their wild hair and four sparklers, I was angry. Angry that they ruined the perfect night. Looking back, I knew there'd be dozens more of those same nights ahead of me that summer held in store but moreover... I felt a pang of jealousy for their friendship. They probably didn't know what they had.

And then they invited me with them.

"Catch me, Alex!" The girl with the pink hair ran through the grass just above the steep slope to the shore below. Wooden steps were just yards from where she was running, leading down the beach, but I feared that she would slip and fall into the brush and sand below.

"Watch out-!" I reached over the balcony from aunt Peggy's second-floor condo, as if I could catch her if I reached far enough.

"Whoa!" The girl skidded to a stop, sparklers in her hands fading until they reached the end of the stick. "Hey, thanks!" She waved into the darkness, and now I could just make out her shadow: long legs and shoulder-length hair sticking out at odd angles.

"Alex, do we have more left?"

At this, the blue-haired girl, apparently named Alex, lit a match and off went another sparkler. Alex lifted it into the sky and twirled around, laughing like she held the world itself in her hand.

"Hey, you!" The pink one - this was how I'd think of Libby for the rest of the summer due to her shiny pink hair - jumped up and down. (As if I couldn't see her?) "Wanna come hang out with us? We have more sparklers! Alex, light me up another."

I hesitated. Hang out? With these girls?

It did seem like fun. I'd done sparklers years ago with aunt Peggy once, timid and shy of the fire at the time. But they were beautiful, sparking and crackling until the light slowly faded.

"You coming?" the girl called up, expectant and - what was it? - happy. That was it. Her voice was expectant and happy. Sheer joy lit up her face, which I could vaguely make out thanks to the two sparklers Alex set off.