TIME. : chapters 1-3

CHAPTER 1

Iris

I wake up to the sun casting a ray of morning light to my face through the car window, Milo still sleeping with his head in my lap. His parents are in the front seats driving, I feel a bit guilty that they had to drive through the night, normally we would pull over to a hotel. The guilt quickly fades when I see the familiar sign pass us, ‘Surf City’. We come here every summer, we have been since before I can remember, and before I can remember, Milo has always been with me, not quite a friend and not quite a brother. We didn’t argue enough for that. Milo Reed. He was my best friend, and I was his. His mom turns up the radio and whoops, startling him awake and I laugh. “What was that..?” He mumbles sleepily, rubbing the drool from his cheek. I jab him in the ribs playfully. “Wake up, we’re almost there!” I say with a grin, he sits up, looking out the window at the not so distant ocean. “And it only took…forever. Ugh. I hate road trips.” He says grumbling and I roll my eyes, he’s always grumpy when he wakes up. “Shut up and be happy already, just think in an hour we’ll be in swimsuits surfing with Kylie and James, complaining about the sand in our hair.” I say, and that perks him up. Kylie and James were our friends since two summers ago, we only get to see them during summer though. That was enough for me, as much as I love them, they sure are energetic. They’re the party–now–sleep–later type. So is Milo, which made me the outlier. It’s not that I don’t like to party, more so that I just tire easily. That was perfectly fine with Milo, however Kylie and James always teased me for it. I didn’t mind. Much. I glance over at the GPS, only 20 minutes until we get to the Reed’s summer house. We had one too for a while, until my parents sold it when they got a new job, now they’re on business trips for more than half the year, pretty much only home on holidays. I couldn’t even tell you their favorite food if you asked. It’s like living with strangers. Could be worse though, Milo’s dad gets violent when he’s angry, or drunk. Luckily he’s almost as absent as my parents. His mom is great though, it’s mystery to me why such an amazing woman could be married to such an awful man. She’s pretty too, blonde curly hair just like Milo, and blue eyes like his as well. He looks a lot more like his mom than his dad. Only he has his dad’s height and stubbornness. I look like my dad more, straight mousy brown hair and terrible eyesight. Milo says I can pull off the glasses, I’m not sure what to think of them. Milo flicks my cheek to get my attention again, I was probably spacing out like always. “Whatcha thinking about, bug?” I smile at the nickname, my real name is Iris Spindly but he’s always called me bug for my love of them. I once raised a dozen caterpillars to the beautiful winged insects that they are. I cried when I released them into the wild, I even named each one. Realistically they’re dead by now, but I’d like to believe they’re still flitting about. Exploring the world like I’d like to one day. Time is a funny thing, one day you’re watching your parents argue in the living room and the next you’re wishing they were home long enough to do that. Milo has been right there through it all, sitting next to me on the stairs while we listened in on my parent's fights, now giving me rides while they were away. I finally answer his question, “nothing much, why?” I say, brushing my thoughts off, he gives me a crooked smile. “You’ve got a look on your face…never mind.” I laugh in response. His dad pulls the car into the garage of the summer home, and I hop out of the car, the familiar salty ocean air hitting my nose and I smile. “I’ll get the boards!” I say, grabbing the surf boards from the bungee cords on top of the car, it takes a bit of effort to carry both of them, but Milo takes them before I can say anything. “Weakling.” He says with a laugh and I huff before carrying our suitcases instead. I tug them up the stairs, my bag is much heavier than Milo’s per usual. I sigh and he swipes them away from me with a grin. “Hey! I was carrying those!” I protest, throwing my hands up, he smirks and continues bringing them up the stairs, he’s been like this since we were little, I think he sees it like a competition. One that he always wins. “Too bad.” And with that, he disappears down the hallway.

(side note - all my chapters are very short, as this is my first piece)

CHAPTER 2

Milo

I hoist her green suitcase onto her bed, since Iris comes here every year, I thought it was appropriate to give her, her own room. It took a little convincing to get my mom to give up her sewing room, but she agreed. I didn’t tell Iris it was my idea to give her the room. I know her own room back in Sleepy Hollow isn’t much. her parents say they don’t want her room “throwing off the style” whatever that means…it’s safe to say I’m not a fan of her parents. Her room here is full of butterflies and her favorite color, green. Just like her eyes. God. Those eyes. It was so terribly obvious I like her..okay maybe love her. But she’s always been oblivious. Even to my advances or flirting..which takes a lot of guts by the way. Maybe she does notice and she just doesn’t say anything because she doesn’t feel the same… sometimes I wish I could read her mind. I know her pretty damn well but I’m clueless when it comes to love. She’s got this expressive face, you can always tell what she’s feeling, never what she’s thinking though. I’m so whipped for her. I am snapped out of my daze when I see her flop onto her bed, “incoming!” She yells and a stuffed ladybug bounces off the bed onto the floor and I laugh. I grab the ladybug plush and toss it at her, which she attempts to catch and misses. I flop onto the bed next to Iris, stretching my arms out and shutting my eyes as I yawn. “Hey bug.” I say, cracking one eye open to look at her. How can anyone be so gorgeous and so clueless? “Thanks for grabbing my bag by the way” she says. “Well of course, what else am I good for?” I tease and she ruffles my hair, if anyone else did that I’d shove their hands away. “Many things, like…” she pauses to think. “Being my best friend, that’s a hard one.” She says and I sit up, grabbing one of her throw pillows and hugging it. “Nah, pretty easy if you ask me. Just gotta help you collect seashells on the beach and make sure you eat once in a while.” I could go on for hours talking about everything I love about her. “Hey! Look at this!” She says, grabbing an old scrapbook she made of us, she flips to the first page. It’s a photo of her piggybacking off me when we were 10, back when we were baby-faced. 7 years ago. It doesn’t feel that long ago. Time is funny like that. “Hah, you still had ice cream on your cheek” she says. Pointing to me and I turn red. “Hey don’t look at that! Next page!” I flip the page and almost melt at the sight, it’s the junior ball I took her to 8th grade year. She thought we were going as friends. I thought we were going as a date. I even told all my friends that I finally had her. Then it all crashed down when at the end of the night she said ‘well it was fun going with you, even thought we’re friends.’ She’s brilliantly smart, how could she not notice? She shuts the book, and for a second I catch a glimpse of a frown on her face before she grins again, opening her suitcase and grabbing her bikini out of it “Let’s go down to the beach! Cmon!” She says through a grin and I let her pull me up. “Is Kylie and James down there yet?” “Yeah Kylie’s blowing up my phone, she says the waves are great today.” Me and Iris have been surfing since we could walk, I hate to brag..hah no I don’t. I’m amazing at surfing. Iris tries her best and that’s all that matters. “They are!? Hell yeah! I’ll grab the boards and get in your bathing suit!” I say with a grin, running down the hall to my room to get my surf board and change into my swim trunks. When we get down to the beach Kylie and James are waiting for us holding their boards as well. Kylie, of course in the skimpiest bikini possible—not that I’m judging, my mother raised me better than that—and James in a pair of grey swim trunks. Iris runs over and jumps to Kylie, I walk over and punch James in the arm, then I notice he’s staring at Kylie and I raise an eyebrow. “You and Kylie?” I say and he smiles sheepishly. “That obvious huh?” I laugh and shake my head. “C’mon let’s get in the water.” Iris tugs me with her and Kylie grabs James’s hand, pecking his cheek. We all pad out to the deeper part of the water, towards the waves, and we wait to get one. Iris finds one first, riding it out before she slips and hits her face on the surf board before sinking into the water, I immediately start swimming toward her incase she was hurt. Luckily it didn’t look like a bad fall, just an humbling one. “You alright Iris?” I say, helping her back onto her surfboard she laughs, her face red from embarrassment and probably the impact of the board to her face. “Yeah..that didn’t look as stupid as it felt did it?” She says and I stifle a laugh shaking my head. “It did. But it’s okay, everyone’s a bit rusty at the start of summer, you know that.” I say, hoping to ease her awkwardness, just as it looks like it worked, Kylie and James fly by on a nice wave flawlessly riding it out and her head droops with a small embarrassed smile. “Okay so I’m not very good at surfing.” She says and I laugh. “You wanna go back to the shore?” I say nodding towards it. “Yeah, let’s go.” Once we make it to the sandy shore I lie down on my back, staring up at the clear blue sky, shutting my eyes from the blinding sun. Iris lays her head on my chest, fiddling with a shell. Now it’s summer. My favorite time of year. Just me and my favorite girl.

CHAPTER 3

Iris

Back at the beach house, me, Milo, Kylie, and James are out on the balcony. They’re all sharing a smoke and I stand against the wall, trying not to breathe too much of it in. I can’t stand smoking, Milo hates itas well, but of course, he’s putting on his usual cool–guy mask. I watch as he puts the cigarette to his lips and then cough uncontrollably after breathing it in, I stifle a laugh as Kylie and James start laughing loudly. “Why the hell do you guys like this?!” He says through wheezes. “Never again..” He says weakly, leaning against the wall beside me. Even if I did want to smoke with them he wouldn’t let me. Thank god for that. “Maybe don’t suck on cancer sticks then.” I say rolling my eyes playfully and he pinches my nose in response. “You guys are such buzzkills, live a little!!” Kylie says giving us a side-eye. “Well I-“ I start but James interrupts me. “What music should we play-“ before he can finish Milo jabs in. “Iris was speaking.” He says with a flat tone, I wish he would’ve at least made it into a joke, now I have to remember what I was saying. “It’s fine, it wasn’t important anyways. Thanks Milo.” I say and he gives me a nod, ruffling my hair as he so often does. “As I was saying..what music?” James says, it seems he didn’t take offense. Good. The last thing I need in my life is drama. “We could play Frank Ocean?” Milo says and everyone seems to agree. Kylie turns to her phone and starts playing his music. “Come on! Out of all the songs you could’ve played?!” James says to Kylie and she laughs, I’m a bit confused by the exchange but I pay no mind to it, probably an inside joke. I turn to Milo, and he takes his hands out of his pockets, holding them towards me. “Rock paper scissors?” He says with a smile and I grin, holding my hands up as well. “You’re on.” We play a few rounds until the score is 3-2. I win. “Hah! You’re so predictable. You always choose rock.” I say with a laugh. “That’s not true!! Sometimes I pick paper…okay fine I always choose rock. But that’s because realistically-“ He starts but I grab his face making him stop in his tracks. “It’s a game Milo, relax.” We stare at each other for a long moment before we fall back into our usual comfortable chatter. Me and Milo are leaning against the railing together, looking at the star scattered sky. It’s so clear here compared to the city. I can make out the constellations in the navy never ending void. I hope when I die I become apart of the stars. They don’t have to worry about simple unimportant things like time or money. They just get to dance across the night sky, twinkling and always shining. But even stars die eventually. The thought makes me sad. Nothing truly lasts forever. Except time. I can’t ever escape time. A ticking timer, constantly reminding me how fragile everything I have, everything I am is.