riley rises with the sun, maya unfortunately learns the next morning when shes awoken by the girl shaking her violently.
"jesus, what time is it?" she asks, sitting up.
the blankets in the bed are knotted and messed up, and she finds herself a lot closer to riley than she remembers being when they finally slept the previous night.
"six."
"you woke me up at six in the morning? after we stayed up until three a.m. dancing?" maya asks, an appalled look on her face.
"if i hadnt, you wouldve slept the day away!" riley justifies, climbing out of the bed and bouncing to her closet.
"its summer! we're supposed to sleep all day!"
riley sends her a look, one that says there's no amount of arguing thats going to make her let maya go back to sleep.
wordlessly, she climbs out of bed and reaches for her bag, pulling her clothes out and disappearing into rileys bathroom.
---
once theyre both ready, maya finds herself trudging behind an enthusiastic riley towards the beach. for a moment she wonders if the group ever gets bored of the hot weather. she finds herself missing the rain again. the summer has been fun so far, she'll admit, but it's not home. and all she really wants, all she needs, is home.
they arrive at a spot where farkle and smackle are already seated on beach towels, seemingly in a deep conversation about something maya couldn't possibly get her brain to understand or care about.
she lays her towel down on the sand next to riley's, pulling her shirt off and laying back to allow the sun to gleam on her pale skin.
it's only moments before she's being nudged by riley, who's laying next to her, chin propped up on her hand. her brown eyes are gleaming, and maya wonders whether the stars are jealous of how shiny riley is compared to them. she bets even the sun is jealous of the brunette's ability to show up anything and everything that attempts to compete with her.
"are you going to miss us when you leave?" riley asks, an expression on her face that maya can't quite read.
maya thinks the question over in her head, tries to figure out how to word her response. she hasn't known any of them for a very long time, but nonetheless, she doesn't think she'll ever be able to forget them.
"i will miss you, all of you. i think that ill always wonder what happened to you guys after i left, ill always be curious of what became of the the spunky brown haired girl who knocked into me on the beach one day."
"do you think we'll talk again? we have phones, and there's letters," riley suggests, voice hopeful.
"i don't think so. i don't think we're meant to stay in touch after this summer. i think that... we're supposed to take these moments that we have right now and appreciate them. we aren't meant to be best friends forever, but, we're meant to make an impact on each other's lives, you know? we're just supposed to be good memories, the things you think about when you turn eighteen and start figuring your life out, or when youre sad and don't know what to do. we'll all think about this summer... the summer when we came together, and the summer we all split up."
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hi! im back from the dead ://///// idk this is a lousy chapter but i havent updated since december what the fuck kayla.
