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August 27 - September 2, 2025
I have a swirling feeling deep inside my bones that tells me this summer in Pacific Shores, California, might just change my life.
“I believe in those rules, too, Honeysuckle. I just don’t think I need to be God-fearing to follow them. I’m going to be a good person because I want to be, not because anyone else told me I should be.”
I’ve always loved the beauty of the boardwalk at night, but I quickly realize it holds no comparison to the golden girl standing in front of me now.
Pacific Shores is my favorite place in the world because it’s the place that built me, but it also tends to feel like every mistake I’ve ever made. Every promise I’ve ever broken. Every disappointment I’ve ever been to those I love. When I act out, break rules, and generally cause a ruckus, it makes me feel like I’m taking it back a little bit, making Pacific Shores my own, ensuring nobody here forgets me.
“I don’t want to marry him, but I feel like I’ve waited too long to change my mind.”
“Be selfish for once, Darby. Please.”
Dahlia
“I don’t give a shit what anyone in this town thinks of me. I don’t give a shit about upsetting Mom and Dad. You’ve overcorrected my mistakes your entire life. You’ve been the golden girl because I’ve been the black sheep.”
Dahlia
“I can’t help but feel like the reason you were mere moments away from going through with a wedding you didn’t want is because of me. It’s my fault you’ve felt so much pressure to make up for all my wrongs.”
Dahlia
Meadow Creek Inn. Room 616. Four squeezes, okay? Heathen
“I want to bring you with me because you scare my ghosts away, Darby.”
I squeeze her hand four times. I’ll. Keep. You. Safe.
We jump together, free-falling into the abyss.
“You feelin’ like a heathen now, Honeysuckle?”
the feeling that you’ve been longing for something your whole life, and you didn’t know what it was until it was right in front of you. Like you’ve been missing a piece of yourself, but you had no idea what part until you suddenly find it.
“Operation ‘Get Honeysuckle The Hell Out of Dodge.’”
“Don’t ever hide your smiles from me, Honeysuckle. I need to see every single one, especially the ones I put there.”
“Show me every smile, and I’ll do whatever you want, yeah?”
It feels like one of those moments where you suddenly realize you’d been longing for something your entire life, but you weren’t sure what it was until it was standing in front of you.
“I dare you.”
“When the divine is trying to intervene, Honeysuckle, I’m going to fucking listen.”
“I’ve decided that you are good for me. You’ve changed me more—made me better—in one month than anyone else in my whole life. You make me feel free. You make me feel beautiful and safe and smart, and that makes me want to kiss you.”
“Stop running away.”
“Clearly, running away is what I do, Leo.”
“Run from the things that...
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“Leo,”
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Looking at you like what, Ho...
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“Like you know exactly what my soul feels like, and you’ve been incomplete wi...
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I do. I...
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“For what it’s worth, I really did love you,”
“My word is worthless…but I loved you too.”
He’s always kissing my mouth. Or, he’ll kiss my forehead, my hands, my shoulder, as if he can’t get enough of me.
“You taste like honey,”
“You taste like corruption.”
“You’d wait a whole year just for me to come back?”
“I think I might wait my whole life for you to come back, Darby. Something tells me there would be no point in trying to move on from this, because I’d end up searching for you in every place I go, in every person I meet, aimlessly wandering until I find you again.”
I close my eyes, letting his words soak into my skin, into my bones, my soul. I want them tattooed there, want to remember what this feels like. This moment. This feeling. His breath, his sk...
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No other person, no other love—no other soul—will ever be enough for either of us. And now, as we stare into each other through the mirror, we can see the reason behind it all.
“I thought I heard my name.”
“You did.”
“What?”
“You ...
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“You did hear me say your name. The name I’ve been moaning every time I fuck my fist...
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“You’re kind. You’re brave and smart. You’re a hard worker, you’re empathetic, and you care deeply for those in your life. You’ve made me brave. You’ve given me safety, protection, and comfort I’ve never felt before. You’ve made me feel alive for the first time in my life, Leo. That’s something she’d be proud of.”
“You don’t need a piece of my soul, Honeysuckle. You already own the whole goddamn thing.”
“Then show me.”
“You can suffocate me with these pretty thighs, Honeysuckle. In fact, between your legs is the only way I want to go.”
“But you better keep those eyes on me, baby. I want you to watch as I give you everything you’ve been missing.”
How badly I want to simply just date him. Lazy Sundays. Going to the movies. Eating dinner on the living room floor while we binge some television show we both love. I want to do laundry with him. I want to do his laundry. I hate laundry.
“She is not a piece of property to be ‘returned’ to you, asshole. She’s a human fucking being. Your child. Your child whom you haven’t contacted one single time since she left that church.”
