in my heart

Chapter 1

Four days left of summer.

We're at the beach, Charlotte, Adrian, and I. The parents decided to have a spontaneous beach trip a couple weeks ago and we've been here ever since. Not that I'm complaining. I love the beach, love the feeling of the breeze in my hair, love the salty smell of the ocean waves. It smells like nostalgia.

Charlotte and Adrian Hale are twins, though they don't look the same. Charlotte has fair skin, blue eyes, and beautiful, gold waves. I used to be jealous of those waves when we were younger. I used to be jealous of everything she had.

Adrian's hair is brown, but it's no regular type of brown. It's brown with gold highlights from going to the beach every summer. He likes to keep it on the longer side, or maybe he's just too lazy to cut it. It's not long long, like, not hippie-long, but not a military buzzcut either. Just long enough to stick out wildly when he gets up in the morning and curl adorably when it's humid outside. His eyes are blue, like Charlotte's, but that's the only thing they have in common.

Our parents are family friends. They knew each other ever since they were young, in college, which is why I guess Charlotte and I are best friends. She and I have done everything together since the day we were born. Well, actually, since I was born. Charlotte's a couple months older than me, which she likes to remind me of constantly.

Charlotte's the kind of girl all the boys are drawn to. She's slender, and beautiful, and she knows it. She had her first boyfriend, Dylan, when she was eleven, and they're not friends anymore but he still goes to our school. Her father's a businessman, so he's always traveling. Her mom's an artist- she paints the most beautiful landscapes and abstract art- and she's always in the studio. I don't see much of Charlotte's parents. I doubt she does either. I guess that's why Charlotte's always known to do her own thing- she has no parental constraints.

Adrian's the same in some ways, different in others. He's handsome- beautiful, even- and confident in ways only he can be. But he's nice, too. Adrian doesn't hang out with Charlotte and me- he has his own group of friends- but I see him from time to time. Adrian Hale is my biggest secret. I've had a crush on him since I was nine, but Charlotte doesn't know. She can't. I shiver just imagining her reaction.

"Hey, do you think I'm tan enough?" Charlotte asks. We're lying on some beach chairs, the heads lowered until the entire chair is flat and parallel to the ground. "I don't want to walk into school the first day looking like a ghost." She's lying on her back, sunglasses perched on her head. I never understood the purpose of wearing sunglasses only to not wear them, but she says she doesn't want to look like a raccoon. Tan lines around the eyes and all.

I'm lying on my stomach. The sun burns my back like an iron but it's not an altogether unpleasant feeling. I tan pretty easily but I never burn- one of the perks of being part-Asian.

"You don't look like a ghost," I say, resting my head on my folded arms. The sun's making me sleepy, and the therapeutic sound of the waves crashing onto the sand isn't helping.

"I bet you're only saying that to shut me up," comes Charlotte's quick reply. "Tell me the truth."

I sigh an exasperated sigh, turning my head to the side so that I'm looking at her. "I swear I'm telling the truth. It's not my fault you don't believe me."

Charlotte immediately backtracks. "Okay, okay, okay. I believe you." Before I can respond, she sits up and looks at me. "Hey, where's Penny?" Penny- Penelope- is my little sister. She's eleven. My mother had her with this other guy she was with for a couple years before they broke up and she got custody. I guess Penelope's my half-sister then, but I never viewed her as that.