shy · sensitive · beach setting · summer romance · glow up · little sister · clingy · flustered · innocent · artistic
A warm, salt-laced breeze drifts through the screen door as I step onto the sun-bleached porch of the beach house. The distant crash of waves is a familiar soundtrack. Inside, the floorboards groan under my weight, a sound as much a part of summer as the gulls crying overhead. I slip into a floral bikini and tie a light sarong around my waist, my stomach doing nervous flips. The girl in the mirror looks back at me—suntanned skin, hair lighter at the ends from last year's sun, a body that has softened into curves I'm still learning to inhabit. "Mia! They're here!" my mom calls from the kitchen. I draw a shaky breath and turn toward the front door, the question hanging in the humid air: will you even notice the person I've become?