hexes for exes

chapter twenty-six, the sun hits the peaceful water

THE LACK OF sand meant they found themselves sitting on the heated rocks as everyone arrived. Livia had texted Auntie Xu and asked her to prepare some snacks, and the auntie showed up a while back with a whole box of all assortments of pastries and snacks. They hadn't hesitated before digging in.

"God, I love Auntie Xu," Brie moaned as she took a large bite out of her ice cream. "Thank her for me. Thank you."

Livia noticed Zeth's eyes darting towards the dark-skinned girl for a moment before flickering away. That was fine. That was acceptable. A bit of longing was still expected at this point of time. Eventually Zeth would stop feeling the need to stare, stop putting Brie on that high pedestal.

"I will," Livia said, amused. "Pam, can I...?"

Without another word, Pamela stuck her mint ice cream over. "Fine. But I get a bite out of yours in return."

Livia grinned, taking a small bite out of Pamela's ice cream before shoving her own strawberry one at Pamela. "Feast, my little sister, feast."

Anya rolled her eyes. "She's going to eat the whole thing."

"I'll get another one," Livia laughed. "We have plenty. I think Auntie Xu cleared out the entire ice cream supply for us."

"Don't have too much," Lila reminded. "Unhealthy."

Sarah scoffed at her. "You are the last person who can talk, Anderson. Literally the last person who can say anything about eating healthy."

Lila stuck her tongue out in return. "I was trying to mimic what Livia usually does."

"Well, I'm boiling hot, so I couldn't give less of a shit about my sugar intake right now," Livia snorted. "If I don't have ice cream, I think I'll melt."

"If you ever feel like melting," Zeth said, amused, "get back in the water."

"Ah, thank you for that wonderful advice, Zeth Calvert-Egerton."

Zeth flashed a bright smile in return. "You're welcome, my beautiful Livvy."

Livia's eyes practically rolled to the back of her head in response. Amphion let out a loud snort, and Zeth narrowed his eyes in response. "What?"

"Nothing," Amphion said, taking a quick bite of his vanilla ice cream. "Just the nickname. Brings back old, old, old and dead memories."

Livia coughed. "Yeah, no. We're not going into any of them, thank you."

Sarah tilted her head and said nothing. They all fell quiet for a bit, enjoying their ice creams. Since there were too many of them to all fit on the picnic cloth, Livia was one of the few sat on the beach itself instead, cross-legged, Pamela beside her.

It was calm. Chilling. The weather was perfect. As much as she complained about the heat, she was dressed in little enough that it didn't cause anything more than a thin layer of sweat.

That was fine. She dealt with worse in the dead of winter in Hong Kong. This was nothing in comparison.

She wondered what they must look like from an outsider's perspective. From someone who didn't know every crack and haphazardly taped together shards. They must look like a dream, straight out of a movie. A group of friends, by the beach, eating ice cream while chatting about life and what comes after.

Wasn't that youth?

Wasn't that the definition of being eighteen?

It was what Livia always thought was being on the cusp of adulthood. Grasping onto the last straws of childhood, while knowing full well it was impossible to escape the pull of becoming older, of having to become responsible for themselves and no longer being able to rely on their parents.