he’s been here at the santa monica pier with xyla a handful of times before now, but never under such complex circumstances. for him, anyway--jude doubts whether it feels all that complex for xyla, who likely had been able to keep feeling apart from sleeping together. and it isn’t as though he’s fallen in love with her or anything as dramatic as that, it’s just that jude has a penchant for growing soft for people quite quickly, and having come out of a breakup with city so recently his emotions had been vulnerable, to say the very least. sometimes he wonders if his real problem is the way he romanticizes absolutely everything, but even if that were the case it wouldn’t matter. he can’t change it. anyway, the small-time heartache that comes with longing for something he can’t have is oddly satisfying--nostalgic, even, of being a teenager with a crush. standing on the pier with her now, backdropped by the setting sun on the water and the pier’s ferris wheel, that ache is keener than ever. “alright, really important question,” he says, leaning back against the railing and grinning in a way that contradicts the tone of his voice. “what’s the least amount of money i’d have to give you to start pushing people into the water? as many as you can in thirty seconds.” // @xylavilla