SALTWATER HEARTS

every summer you went to cousins beach and stayed in your mothers beach house. your brothers—jeremiah and conrad, would come too, as well as another family; the conklins. laurel, belly and steven. they were like family.

it was the kind of summer that never changed—same house, same creaky floors, same salty breeze blowing through the open windows. the days bled into each other, golden and lazy, marked only by sunburns, cannonballs in the pool, and the smell of sunscreen on tanned skin.

speaking of sunscreen, you sat by the pool, feet dipped in the water as you applied sunscreen to your upper half. jeremiah splashed around with belly—the laughter never ending. conrad watched from a sun lounger, you could tell he always felt something about belly—now that shes ‘changed’ jeremiah thought she was everything.

you watch them all from the pool edge, thinking like the middle child you are before steven plops down next to you.

“why do you look so serious?” he teases, though its just your thinking face.