beach

The shack was slanting and peeling, with creaky skinny stairs that went right up to the door. Sand covered everything in a constant veil of summer. Ally had so many grains of the stuff stuck in her hair and beneath her fingernails that she thought even in November when the rain would pound down on this old roof, it'd still feel like summer was right on the edge of her periphery, reaching out her golden fingertips. 

Every night the moon would extend it's intangible arms around their bodies like cardigans, like solace was embedded in it's very touch, wrapping everything in dim light and warm air. 

At 3am she sat semi-naked on the splintering floorboards, head in hands, eyelids weighing a tenfold more than the planet itself. She heard him rise steadily from the bed and sit down beside her, hand on the small of her back. 

"Bad dream again?"

She nodded.

"You wanna take a walk?"

Ally took one look at Morgan's face, exhaustion clogging up each pore and filling each crevice like ill make-up; like tired foundation. She shook her head no. She couldn't be outside anyway, not tonight. Not even the moon could help her tonight.

"Let's just go back to sleep, I'll be fine." 

There was uncertainty lingering in the back of his throat and seeping out underneath his eyelids. They drooped shut ever so slowly, like a bridge folding back in two so no boats could pass through, and she looked at him, lachrymose breaths escaping from her mouth. 

Ally adjusted herself and stood up languidly. After taking his hand in hers, she pulled upwards and guided him towards the left side of the bed. 

She just lay beside him with eyes wide open, like planets waiting to collide.