JUNE THIRD, THE WRECK — @ofyates
“thank you, val,” thalia says as she pulls the basket of beer-battered onion rings across the table, toward where she’s sitting. the wreck is an outer banks institution — it’s only fitting that she come here almost immediately after touching down on the east coast. and of course, she’s with charlie, because home wouldn’t be home without him. although adam isn’t around to whip up her favorite strawberry-chocolate milkshake the way she likes it, she’s still content just hearing the still-sizzling oil lining the onion rings.
lia turns back to face charlie. “and then i told him i got into duke, and he totally didn’t care, which was kind of perfect, because. well, you know. i’m not doing the whole commitment thing right now,” she narrates as she stuffs her mouth with an onion ring. “so, yeah. that’s the tale of my not-really-boyfriend boyfriend.” she’s been going on about this for at least four minutes, but it’s hard not to get lost in her stories when she’s missed charlie so much and just wants to share everything that’s happened this semester with him. when she was in california, sure, they’d talk every day on the phone, and thalia’s proud to believe that not an ounce of their friendship was lost, but still. not everything can be squeezed into video calls. and they haven’t spoken that regularly the past couple of weeks, with the craziness of graduation and everything. “that’s enough about me, though — i wanna know what you’ve been up to, my little engineer man. how’s work been? have you taken over the place yet?”