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[apinkrose]

Recently, things on the island had been quite odd. Jim had always been a part of her life here, ever since the moment she fell into the pool of the waterfall, completely soaking her clothing so that she was forced to dry off. Their kiss had been just the beginning of what turned into the best thing to ever happen to her, save her arrival on the

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[turnthebadinme]

Out walking down the beach, Serena hesitated. She didn't know the girl crying there, and it seemed likely that she'd wouldn't want to deal with strangers while upset, but Serena couldn't help it. The urge to make sure she was okay won out quickly. Wandering over, she knelt down near the girl, placing a hand lightly on her arm. "Hey," she said gently, "what's the matter? Are you hurt?" She didn't seem to be, but that didn't mean she wasn't.

[apinkrose]

Cecily looked up at the girl, her cheeks flushed from emotion, her eyes stained red with tears. "I am quite well, physically," she replied, "My heart feels a bit fractured."

[turnthebadinme]

That decided Serena completely. Legs folding under her, she sat, all wide-eyed concern. "Oh, no," she said. "Poor thing." She should have had a handkerchief, but she'd never been able to remember to carry one. "Would you like some company? I'm a good listener."

[apinkrose]

"That is a very grand thing to be," Cecily noted while wiping the tears from under her eyes. "Some company would be much appreciated. I am Cecily."

[all_happening]

Penny didn't usually spend a whole lot of time down on the beach, and had really only been there to take a walk, but her plan changed when she saw Cecily sitting there. Without a moment's hesitation, she headed over, taking a seat beside her and sliding an arm around her shoulders. "Hey," she murmured, head tipping so she could try to meet Cecily's gaze, the corners of her mouth lowering in concern. "What's wrong?"

[apinkrose]

Cecily raised her eyes and looked at Penny. Immediately, she wiped away her tears, trying to regain composure so that she would not have to explain herself.

"Nothing, of course. I am fine. How are your wedding plans, dearest Penny?"

[all_happening]

"They're fine, but you're not," Penny said, gently insistent. "Come on, you're sitting here crying. What's going on?" If it, or Cecily's evasion of it, had anything to do with the aforementioned wedding, she was oblivious to that fact, too focused on just trying to figure out what was wrong at all.

[apinkrose]

"Oh, Penny," Cecily began, letting tears well on the brim of her eyelids, "It is Jim and I. We have been fighting." Though their battle had been verbal once, it had turned into a war of silence, which, Cecily felt, was much, much worse.

[pocketfullowit]

See, back home, girls cried in privacy, and if they had to in public, they usually went running to the bathroom with their face buried in their hands, often from whatever boy had just broken their heart. What they didn't do was stop on a beach and cry, but this was the second time Seth came across a crying girl here.

Was it just something in the cosmos that sent him here? He looked up at the sky as if asking that, but then looked back at the girl again when the sky turned out to be only that - a sky. "Hey," he greeted tentatively. He couldn't just keep strolling along as if he hadn't seen her at all, could he? Sure, if he were Luke.

[apinkrose]

The strange man immediately caught her attention. When fighting with Jim, she often found that other men became increasingly attractive. She did not wish for any other man, but she did find this one quite alluring all the same. She wiped the tears from her eyes, although she could hardly hide how were cheeks were puffed and blotted with red spots.

"Hello, there. I am terribly sorry. I am a horrible mess."

[pocketfullowit]

Was that...

No, of course it wasn't Reese Witherspoon. It was someone else, because no one was ever the actor they resembled. Seth shook his head and suddenly wished he carried tissues around with him everywhere.

"Nah," he waved a hand. "You should see me in the morning." With the same hand, he made a gesture of his hair to indicate how it tended to lean to one side in a state of general muss.

[apinkrose]

Cecily smiled, blushed, and turned her head away. "I am sure that no one looks their best in the morning. You are a very fine looking man, however, so you should not worry," she offered while placing her head in her hands. She could cover her cheeks, but her eyes still seemed bloodshot, and she had to sniffle ever so often so that she could avoid an embarrassing display of snot.

[belongsomeplace]

Jim isn't even sure he should be the one to go up to Cecily and try to console her. She hasn't been too happy with him in a long time, and there aren't many honest things he can say to her to make it better. He's not any closer to being ready to be married than he was when they'd first talked about it, and he doesn't know when he will be.

How can she know him well enough to want to marry him when he doesn't even know himself that well yet?

But he can't just pass by and say nothing. She's still his Cecily, and so he cautiously makes his way to her side, sitting down in the sand next to her and waiting to see if she has anything to say to him, or whether she wants him there at all.

[apinkrose]

For a moment, Cecily lets Jim wait in silence. She wondered if he would just walk away on his own if she did not say a thing to him. Yet, her willpower was not strong enough to keep her mouth closed, and she tilted her head so that she could see him better.

"Hello, dearest Jim," she said, her sentence broken with soft whimpers.

[belongsomeplace]

"Hey, Cecily," he says, wrapping his arms around his knees and looking out at the water. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

[apinkrose]

"Thinking, I suppose," she replied, gently wiping some tears from her eyes. "And you?"