August sipped away like a bottle of wine...

James

I woke up sweating, my clothes sticking to my skin. I groaned, stretching my stiff muscles. I felt something on my chest, and I let my eyes open to see what it was.

Augustine was cuddled up on me, her head resting on my chest. We were still on the couch, covered in blankets from last night. I smiled at how peaceful she looked. Her hair was ruffled, and her arms were wrapped around me. She shifted upwards along me until her forehead rested in the crook of my neck.

Last night had been awkward, but it ended well. Augustine and I talked a lot about our lives and what we were like as children. I learned that her parents were both lawyers and very busy, but always traveled to PEI in the summer. She also told me that Aurora was constantly neglected by their parents, so Augustine was like her mother. I told her about how my parents got divorced a few years ago and then my dad married Leah in early Spring. My dad got full custody, so Miles and I moved with him while my mom stayed at our old house.

Even though our family had broken up, I was happy my dad met Leah. Miles and I loved her and there was a lot less conflict in our house. I still spoke to my mom while Miles chose to cut contact. He never talked about it, so I assume he didn't want me asking questions. We found out that Leah was great friends with Augustine's family and invited us to spend the summer with her on PEI.

Augustine stirred softly as her eyes slowly fluttered open. I smiled down at her while she blinked a few times and met my gaze.

"Morning, lovely," I grinned.

"Hi," she muttered, not fully awake yet.

"How did you sleep?" I asked her.

"I'm not done sleeping," she grumbled, and nestled herself against me.

I kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair softly, letting her sleep as long as she needed.

Augustine

"Auggie!" Aurora squealed, jumping into my arms. She had two purple butterfly clips pulling back her hair and wore a purple shirt with light blue shorts.

"Hi, princess," I smiled. I twirled her around as she giggled.

"Come with me!" she said excitedly. "I have a surprise."

"In a minute," came a voice from behind me.

I spun around to see my mom looking at me with one eyebrow raised. My dad wasn't with her, so I assumed he was looking through some legal documents per usual.

"Where were you last night?" she asked. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Leah invited me to stay the night," I said truthfully.

My mom's face broke into a grin. "Things are going good with you and James, huh?"

I blushed. "They're alright." I was surprised my mom had noticed.

"I'm happy for you," she smiled. "I know I'm busy, but I could tell things haven't been so great during the past few months. I'm glad you've found James." She walked closer to me and brush my hair back.

"Thanks, Mom," I whispered.

Aurora came over and wrapped her arms around our mom's leg. "I love you, Mommy," she said.

"I love both of you," Mom said, giving me a hug. "Now go on upstairs. I believe Aurora has a surprise for you."

I smiled at her again, before following a very excited Aurora up the stairs.

"Close your eyes!" she exclaimed when we reached my bedroom door.

"Aurora, this better not be something scary," I warned her.

"Rory," she corrected me.

"Sorry." I covered my eyes with my right hand while she took my left.

"No peeking," I heard her say.

"Promise."

She opened my door and led me through. I was a bit worried of what she had done to my room, but at the same time, it was Aurora. Everything she did was in best interest of the people she loved. Which was currently our family plus James's family.

"Ta da!" she exclaimed, tugging at my hand.

I uncovered my eyes to see little drawings outlining my window. They were cut into misshapen circles and pasted along my window frame. I stepped forward to examine all of them.

They were lots of her and me, some of her and James, and a shocking number of her with Miles. I grinned as I studied them, noticing the amount of work she put in. She had drawn her and Miles building a sandcastle, with James and I in the background admiring their work. She had one of her and me sitting on the front porch of the beach house. She may have been four, but her artwork was very detailed for someone so young.

"Well? Do you like them?"

"Aurora - I mean, Rory - these are beautiful. Thank you." I picked her up to give her a hug. She wrapped her arms around my neck.

"I'm so glad you like them," she said.

"When have you been drawing these?" I asked her.

"All the time," she announced, spreading out her arms. "I love drawing."

"This is the best gift I've gotten," I told her, kissing her cheek. "When did you get so good at art?"

"I've been working really hard on them," she told me.

I should've noticed it before, but she was a lot more mature than most kids. It probably came from a lack of effort put in by our parents, mostly Dad, but it did make her very mature.

"I love all of them," I told her sincerely.

"I kept one of them," she said, holding back a smile. She slipped out of my arms and beckoned for me to follow her.

Entering her room, Aurora trudged through her massive piles of animal stuffies and reached her small desk. Opening it carefully, she pulled out a large drawing and sat down on her bed, the messy purple duvet almost engulfing her. I took a seat next to her, looking over the paper.

She had drawn a picture of a boy holding a girl in his arms at the beach. Both were smiling as if they were looking at a camera. I grinned, admiring all the colours Aurora had used for the drawing. She had drawn the sun in the corner of the page shining down on the beach, with the red sand all around them. She had even drawn the "sand mountains" she loved so much. My eyes traveled to the bottom of the page, where Aurora had printed, "Rory + Miles" with hearts surrounding their names.

Well then.

"This, uh, this is a great drawing," I told her.

"I love Miles," she responded, nodding her head and smiling.

"Yeah, uh, I see that," I said, blinking a few times. "What do you mean by 'love?' Like he's your friend?"

She shook her head immediately. "No, Auggie," she said, like I was a child who didn't understand what was going on. "I love him like I want to marry him!"

Aww, I thought. How cute. She clearly looked up to him.

"You're only four," I smiled at her. "You have your whole life ahead of you. There might be someone else you meet who you love. Someone who is age appropriate."

"Nope, I love Miles," she proclaimed stubbornly.

With that said, she stood up and walked out of the room.

"Guess I'm not changing her mind," I said aloud. "That girl has ideas of her own."

*

"...and that's what my princess movie would be about," Aurora chatted.

"Sounds...interesting," I replied, more focused on the sunset and sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Aurora had asked me to go for a walk, so we headed along the beach to watch the sunset. Though I tried to pay attention to what she was talking about, I couldn't stop thinking about my kiss with James. He was as nervous as me when we kissed, so I knew it meant something to him. Though things were awkward when Betty texted him, I appreciated how he handled it. I was falling for him, as much as it terrified me.

"Miles!" Aurora squealed suddenly. She pointed across the beach where he was walking towards us. He waved, and Aurora let go of my hand to run to him.

"Rory!" he exclaimed, picking her up and swinging her around. She kicked her feet and threw her head back laughing. When he stopped spinning, she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. I jogged over to them.

"Hi, Auggie," Miles smiled at me. "How are you?" He winked suggestively, which told me James either told him about our kiss, or he figured it out himself. His hair looked slightly damp, like he just had a shower, and he wore a white t-shirt that showed off his defined muscles.

I bet a lot of girls at his school are into him, I thought.

"I'm alright, what about you?" I answered.

"I'm great, and you must be better than alright," he smirked. His blue eyes twinkled in a teasing fashion as he stared at me.

"Fine," I admitted. "It was pretty good."

"I'll say," he laughed. "Rory, guess what?"

"What?" my sister asked, intrigued.

"Augustine may have...kissed someone." He raised his eyebrows, waiting for her response.

"Auggie!" Aurora exclaimed. "You kissed someone? Who?"

"Miles, c'mon," I said, smacking his shoulder. "She's four!"

"So?" he laughed. "She's your sister. Just tell her."

"Take a guess," I said, sighing in defeat.

Aurora's eyes lit up. "Did you kiss James?" she asked in delight.

"Yep," I said.

Aurora slipped out of Miles's arms and started jumping up and down, clapping her hands.

"I told you, I told you!" she exclaimed, looking at Miles.

"You called it, Rory," he smiled. Looking at me, he said, "We were betting that something would happen with you two."

"Of course you were." I shook my head playfully at him.

"So," he began, nonchalantly. "I heard you slept over last night. Did you guys have sex?"

"Miles!" I exclaimed in shock, my cheeks flaming. "Not appropriate!" I nodded my head at Aurora, who gazed at me in curiosity.

"What's sex?" she asked.

"Something we'll talk about another time," I said. Covering her ears, I looked at Miles.

"FYI, we did not," I hissed. "And don't bring that up in front of Aurora!" I uncovered her ears, glaring at a smiling Miles.

"Just sayin'," he winked at me. "He needs to get some."

I shook my head and hoped I wasn't still blushing.

"Get some what?" Aurora asked.

I glared at Miles, waiting for his response.

"Uh, snacks," Miles nodded. "James needs to get lots of snacks to stay healthy."

"Me too," Aurora smiled.

"God," I muttered.

"Well, this is fun," Miles smirked. "How are you, Aurora?"

"I made you something," she replied, pulling something out of her pocket and passing it to him.

Miles sat down on the log near us and opened the piece of paper she gave to him. On it was the picture she had shown me earlier. Miles smiled softly as he gazed over it, and I saw a look of vulnerability flash across his face.

"Rory, thank you," he said, giving her a hug. "This is beautiful. I love how it says our names at the bottom."

"Did you see the plus sign?" she asked, tilting her head to the side with her hands clasped.

"I did, yeah," Miles said. "Is that 'cause we're friends?"

"It's because I love you," Aurora smiled.

"Oh," he stated, looking up at me. I nodded, holding back a laugh as his blue eyes winded in recognition.

"Well," he continued. "This is a very nice gift. Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Aurora said, looking extremely proud.

"Rory?" I asked her. "Could you go find me a cool shell? I need it for a project."

Aurora took off towards the water, skipping along the sand. With her out of earshot, I turned and sat next to Miles.

"Spoiler alert; she's a fan of you," I told him.

Miles laughed, running his hand through his dirty-blond hair. "She's quite something," he said.

"She's four," I reminded him. "And she's never had older kids pay attention to her before, and she admires how fun you are."

"Way to downplay her crush," he laughed.

I laughed with him. "She said she wants to marry you," I told him.

"She's the first girl who wants to." He smiled at me.

"You're not a hit with the girls back home?" I teased.

"Oh, I am," he smirked. "It's just...usually they realized I'm not who they thought and get bored. I've had a few 'flings,' I guess, but nothing serious. I haven't met the right girl." His face fell, and he stared at the ground.

"That's not surprising for a fifteen-year-old," I said, nudging him. "You've got time."

"I'm not patient," he said, looked at me. I met his gaze as his eyes became serious. "But I guess I'll wait for her."

My heart skipped a beat as he stared at me. I didn't like the energy shift and quickly broke my gaze from his, looking out at Aurora, who had forgotten about finding a shell and was writing something in the sand.

"I'm going to go see what she's doing," I said to Miles, avoiding eye contact.

He cleared his throat. "Good idea," he muttered. "I should head out anyways."

With that, he stood up and waved to Aurora. He didn't glance my way; instead, quickly walking towards his cottage.

I shook my head, extremely confused by his disheartened behavior. That was unlike him. Unless...

Poems August 12

He doesn't 'like' me.

Right?

No.

He couldn't.

...

He just couldn't.