The sun streaming in the window settles hot on both their skins, almost too hot to stay touching. Their legs are tangled together under the cheap, thin sheet anyways. Marcus soaks in as much of that heat as he can; his limbs feel too heavy to move and it’s comforting. It’s too deep into summer to do anything but stay in bed.
“Weren’t we going to the beach today?”
Her voice is low from sleep, grating on a lazy laugh. They both smoke too much, but Norah actually sounds like it and he always liked that sound, the gravel to it. His mother would call that a lounge singer’s voice.
“We were.”
Norah hums in place of a response, skating her fingers down his arm, slung over her bare waist. He thinks he must have known this girl for years, or maybe his soul has, some new age-y sentiment like that; it goes beyond both being military or some base attraction or the same sense of humor. This is only their second summer together. Their routine is too good to not be pre-destined.
The beach is two blocks from their complex, a short sweaty hike down a broad commercial street. Past the boardwalk, they’ll plant an umbrella in the sand and do just as much nothing there as they are now until Marcus drags her into the water, or a burst of rain sends them home, or they take another short walk to share some greasy fries from the $2 burger joint selling ‘I 🖤 SC’ shirts and handheld fans.
Enough time in the sun will tan the gray out of Norah’s skin from the time spent indoors scanning radar, though it’ll never be enough to get rid of the permanent watch tan she makes fun of him for. She’ll stick her iPod in the cupholder of her chair and blare her music too loud, sit on his lap, share a cigarette, scandalize family beach-goers when the two of them got too handsy. There’ll be some mock-fury over his preferring Kid Rock’s sample of Sweet Home Alabama to the original. A whole summer of being irreverent, dickish twenty-somethings.
Or just this. Just lying together, his hands on her skin.
the fallen by franz ferdinand (for blood on her hands and her face and violence in her eyes and for the thought that one day he’s going to have to watch her destroy herself)
heaven knows by the pretty reckless (for hyperion and for leto, for a pair of murderers; holding hands as they sprint into hell)
make a move by icon for hire (for ryan and for bas, for two broken kids just trying to find their way and not stopping for anyone in their path)
“I hope that was okay, I know it’s only our second date...” Kit trails off, and he’s caught up in how her eyes are still slightly closed, and her skin feels so soft under his touch. She’s beautiful, and she looks so much less dangerous right now which is so different but such a good look on her. He’s rushing this moment, and he knows maybe he shouldn’t but he can’t help but think that this is the beginning of something beautiful.
things you said that I wasn’t meant to hear
“I told you, I’m over her. I can’t excuse what she did to me......She lied, She lied about everything, and I can’t just.....” Kit bites his lip, listening to the voice on the other end of the phone, standing barefoot and bare chested in his apartment hallway, whispering. “Well, I don’t think it’s any of your business, but I found someone else. “
send a faceclaim to see who they’d be as an npc in my muse’s life.
AMANDA RICHARDS, professor of sociology at the university of maryland, college park. al had her for socy110: the logic of social inquiry. the two of them weren’t particularly close by any means, but she did write them a ( rather generic ) letter of recommendation for their work-study job sophomore year.