Below pic gives me total Emmy vibes!!!! Also V much the boat I picture lol

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Brooks and I play Alex and his flavor of the week Katie in horseshoes. She's pretty shit but I'm not so bad. In fact, I'm surprisingly good. After three matches and three more drinks I decide I really like Katie. She's easy enough to get along with without knowing her too much. I imagine that's what Alex likes about her too. Then again, Alex gets along with anyone. He's just that type of person. Bit of annoying really if you weren't already used to it. Then again, I pride myself on being an extroverted introvert.

Then we swap. Alex and I play Brooks and Katie. Then Meg and Nate. We get a whole bracket going. It feels almost normal. And you know what they say about almost. It actually counts in this game.

Travis and Nate fire up the charcoal grill. There's something about grilling on the beach that's so summer. Summer to a T. Trix plates a bunch of hotdog rolls and opens ketchup and mustard and green relish that's oddly neon. It smells like summer, in a nostalgic very non-vegan friendly kind of way.

"Em, Brooks, Alex, come get some dogs!" Trix shouts.

"Thanks mom," Meg laughs taking the plate from Trix.

Meg passes more spiked seltzers around the group.

"Eat up. We aren't taking any of this shit back on the boat." Travis tosses the tongs back on top of the cooler.

Brooks sits down on the towel next to me holding two hotdogs. I roll my eyes but take the one he holds out to me. I almost squeal and look at him in shock when I see the hotdog.

"How?" There is no way he could remember.

"Like I could forget something so weird," he says defensively, rolling his eyes.

I look down at the slightly charred hotdog and smile. Ketchup runs down one side to the middle where it abruptly stops and meets Mustard. Half and half, but not mixed. Just the way I take my hotdog. Took my hotdogs.

"What's wrong?" Brooks says, looking at me holding my hotdog. His is still in his hands. "Is it wrong?"

"No," I say, biting my lip to stop from smiling. "It's just that, well I'm a vegan now."

"Even for the night?" He asks, creasing his eyebrows.

I nod.

"Fine." He exhales a heavy sigh and takes the hotdog from my hands. His skin brushes against mine and I almost can't wait until we're alone later. I want to be alone now. "I'll eat this weird halfy dog."

"Thank you," I smile.

"This could be the rest of your summer, Emmy." Trix watches me from sitting on the cooler.

"All ya gotta do is stay," Meg smirks.

"Guys," I start.

"Come on, Em," Alex laughs. "Can't get tired of boat rides and hot dogs."

"And seltzers." Nate grabs another hot dog from the grill. The mustard oozes over the sides of his bun.

"Definitely never tired of seltzers," I say, raising my koozi to cheers him.

"How come no one gets on me to stay? You guys realize I don't live here anymore either, right?" Brooks asks, waving his hot dog in front of him.

"Guess we just don't like you as much," Meg says.

"Ya we love you too, Brooks... Just not as much!" Trix laughs.

"Can't blame us," Travis shrugs.

"Too much brooding. Can't be around that all summer." Nate nods.

"Fuck off." Brooks throws his empty plate at Nate. I notice the smile playing on the corners of his lips. The muscle in his jaw always twitches whenever he tries to resist smiling.

It's golden hour, baby. Golden. Hour. The sun is starting to set and the waves are glimmering with light. It's high tide now; the boat bobs almost 30 feet offshore. The air smells like salt. Travis and Trix are battling Meg and Nate at horseshoes. Brooks and I are sitting on the afghan next to the grill. The water is close to our toes now.

Alex has the guitar out again. I can hear Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun from across the sand.

Brooks's arm is around my shoulder and he's leaning into my neck. "Hey."

"Hey back," I say.

"You know what we should do?" Brooks slides his free hand up my thigh.

"Brooks!" I laugh, swatting his hand away.

"Come on. What's wrong?" He asks. His lips brush against my ears. God, it feels good.

"You can't be serious? There are people here!" I point out.

"There were people last night, too. Didn't stop us," Brooks says, shrugging. His hand is back on my leg, inching up.

I glance sideways at the makeshift game zone. I can't even see the horseshoes. Between the grill and the umbrella and stacked coolers, no one can even see us let alone hear us.

"We can't." I moan as Brooks kisses my neck again.

"Let's go for a swim," he says. His arm is around my back now, on my waist. His eyes are so alive, so reflecting the golden hour light right now.

"What?" I blink too fast.

"A swim. To the boat. Let's go," Brooks says, standing. He holds a hand out to me. I look at him like he's crazy, because well.

"You just ate like three hotdogs," I say. "Isn't there a statute of limitations or something?

"On eating hotdogs?" He laughs. "Come on."

"Fine," I say, standing up. I brush the sand off my calves, but not sure why I'm bothering. I'll have to swim all the way out to the boat.

We fight the waves and before I know it I am waist-deep in the water. I flip my hair into a bun so it won't get even saltier. Brooks pulls me to him and lifts me up under the water. I wrap my legs around his waist and I'm reminded of playing Chicken –of hanging on his muscly arms –of being hopelessly pathetic.

"Feeling queasy yet?" I smirk.

"Little lightheaded. If I drown, will you save me?" Brooks asks, kissing my nose.

"No. Alex is the lifeguard," I tease.

"Will you at least do CPR?" He asks.

"Ha-ha."

I can't help but roll my eyes at him. His hands are still on my waist under water, keeping my front pressed against his.

"You know," Brooks says, eyes flashing. "The boat looks awfully empty over there."

I turn my head to the boat that's 10 feet behind us. It's a dark silhouette against the sunset sky, bobbing up and down, back and forth.

"We should change that," I say, before I can stop myself. I'm already getting excited. I can feel him getting excited too.

Brooks throws his head back to laugh at me and drops me from his waist. I follow him to the back of the boat –to the ladder in the water. It's so deep I can't stand anymore. The boat is almost parallel to the beach now.

Brooks helps me up around the engine and over the back of the boat. As soon as we stand up Brooks has his arms around me again, pulling me along with him to the front of the boat. He sits on the same cushion from earlier and positions me on top of him.

"Brooks, this is so obvious," I whine.

"Who cares. No one is looking." Brooks says, beginning to untie my top.

"Brooks," I groan.

He sighs but moves me off his lap and onto the seat next to him. Brooks lies down on the floor in the space between the front bucket seats. His back is flat against the floor, but his knees are bent up. I climb onto his lap and lean back against his legs. His fingers are back to undoing the strings on my bikini top. It falls to the side and Brooks's hands stay on my waist.

"Hell of a view." Brooks smirks.

"You're welcome." I lean in to kiss him, my hands flat against his bare chest.

I lay flat against him, still paranoid we can somehow be seen from the sandbar even though I know it's impossible. My hands push against the side of the boat above his head to press myself onto him. Ya know, sometimes a great make out sesh is better than the rest.

We lay there for maybe twenty minutes. My head is against his chest and the boat is rocking us both like we're overgrown babies sharing the same crib. It smells like salt and like wet cushions. I can still taste seltzer lime on my lips. I can still taste Brooks on my lips.

I realize Brooks is right. Who cares? No one is looking. Even if they were, what are they gonna do? They're judging us anyway already.

"Let's get back in the water," I say finally. My eyes dart to the beach where I still see everyone standing by the grill or else sprawled across blankets.

"Relax. No one even noticed we were gone." Brooks rolls his eyes, jumping into the water after me. It's even deeper now. My feet didn't even touch the bottom when I jumped.

"I am relaxed," I shrug.

"Not very zen if you ask me." Brooks jumps in behind me.

"Go zen yourself." I smack the water so it sprinkles Brooks's face.

It feels warm to be back in the water again. I didn't realize how cool the air had gotten. Weird how water feels warmer once you were out and then get back in.

Then again, lots of things are better when you go back for seconds.

The boat ride back at dusk gives me the feels. The salty spray of the ocean raining over the sides of the boats. I can feel it on my skin. I can feel in on Brooks's arms as they're wrapped around me. It's almost cold now. I pull my striped sweater up to my lips. #nauticalAF

It hurts a little in this moment. Looking at the last few weeks and my old friends and our new memories. I realize I'm already losing them. And I'm not ready to.

I just keep thinking how summer is almost over, how it's fading away. How I'm not leaving here with everything I came with.

I better add Dashboard Confessional's Stolen to my soundtrack.

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Hi guys! It's always an adventure carefully cultivating the songs that encapsulate the emotions/vibes of a specific moment. Truly I relate to Emmy. Songs seem to always be playing in my head!! When I'm happy and excited or sad and depressed, my mood likes to subconsciously pick a song.
Music is transformative. And creating the in-story mix tape for One More Time has also been transformative lol. It's a MOOD. Also, I happen to obsess daily over every single song on this list (for varying, emotionally dependent reasons).

The mix tape for One More Time is named...

Could I be any more original, I know!