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a summer in Broome
I’ve been writing this lil’ book thing for fun for a few months and wanted to start publishing in even tho no one’s going to read it :D
Chapter 1
It was the crack of dawn when Willow Reykes pressed the snooze button on her phone's alarm. She rolled over to her other side and fell asleep again, knowing she shouldn’t. A few more alarms and snoozes later, Willow finally managed to get out of the bed. She walked over to the other side of her rather small room and took a look at her calendar. She had been counting down the days since February, and finally she drew a red X on the last day of May. Today was the day. Every year Willow left London to visit her Gran in Broome, Western Australia for the summer. Her adopted parents started the tradition when she was about 5 years old, which was two years after she got adopted. Willow thinks the reason behind her leaving every summer is the fact that her parents wanted to get rid of her, since even Willow herself admits she can be quite a handful. Spending summer in Broome didn’t bother Willow at all. She loved her gran though she wasn’t Willow’s biological grandmother, it sure did feel like she was.
 Willow stumbled to the bathroom. She hadn’t fully woken up yet and felt like she didn’t have full control of her legs. Willow got to the bathroom shared by her and her parents and washed her face with ice-cold water. After she dried her face with a towel, her green eyes met her reflection. Looking back at Willow was a skinny, blonde, pale and freckle faced girl with bleached edges in need of some fixing. Willow opened the tap again and wet her hands then using them to swipe back her crazy edges. She left the bathroom, went back to her bedroom and got dressed. She had already chosen the outfit for today last night so all she had to do was to take off her pajamas, stuff them into the suitcase by the door and put on the clothes she’d picked. After realizing that she hadn’t picked out any socks, and then spending over 5 minutes to find a matching pair, she was out of her bedroom door with her two suitcases, her backpack and her ukulele in a handy carry on case.
Downstairs Amanda Reykes lifted her eyebrow as she heard thumping and clanging noises coming from the staircase. She didn’t really care enough to get up to help, she just paid her attention back to her computer on which she was answering to work related emails. One suitcase fell down the stairs. Mrs. Reykes sighed and carefully shut her laptop.
”Willow, your father is sleeping please try to be quiet” she said with a very aggravated tone in her voice. Another suitcase fell down. ”Oh god don’t you know how to get down the stairs without making noise?” Mrs. Reykes stood up and walked to the hallway, to the bottom of the staircase. She crossed her arms looking down at the two suitcases which both had opened up while the bumpy ride down the steps. ”Jesus christ Willow, now your stuff is all over the place” she spit out and lifted her eyes to meet Willow’s.
”Yeah I’m sorry mother I’ll put them back, the suitcases just slipped my hands” Willow muttered while getting down the last steps with her backpack and ukulele case. She kneeled to the ground and collected all of the stuff that had fallen out back into the suitcases. After closing the zippers, she got up and looked up at her mother who was still staring at her. A little hint of a smile quivered on Mrs. Reykes face.
”Well, your cab is gonna be here in a few minutes, so I guess you should go outside to wait for it” Amanda said with the smile growing into something a bit more noticeable. ”I love you, I’m sorry your father isn’t awake to say goodbye but I’ll make him call you, just text me when you land, okay?”
”Yeah mom I’ll text you” Willow said and leaned towards her mom to hug her. After a quick loose hug, Willow grabbed her luggage and headed out the door. ”Bye, I’ll text you” she said just as the door closed in front of her face.
 Willow sighed and dragged her very heavy suitcases along the driveway to the side of the street. Maybe she shouldn’t have packed so many books? She could buy some books there too. Just as Willow was about to turn around to leave a few books to the house, a cab stopped in front of her. The driver got out and gave Willow a big fake smile.
”Good morning miss, so to the airport it is?” the driver said already grabbing Willow’s luggage.
”Yes please” Willow said and got into the car as gestured by the driver. The driver was a bald headed, short and chubby man, in about his forties. That’s what the majority of the cab drivers she had seen looked like. Her mother always used this certain cab business, she wouldn’t trust any other. To Willow it seemed that the requirements to work for that cab co. were having a bald head, 30+ years of age and at least a little bit of a beer belly.
After a long and awkward cap ride full of small talk, they finally arrived to the terminal. Small talk had never been Willow’s strong suit, it’s not that she's socially awkward she’s just never liked talking about the weather or her past week. The conversations she could truly enjoy were deep and legit, she didn’t like talking to someone who wouldn’t even care. Willow got out of the car and so did the cab driver. He opened the trunk and took out Willow’s suitcases. Willow swung her backpack onto her shoulders and then carefully placed the over-the-shoulder strap of her ukulele case onto her left shoulder. She thanked the pre-paid cab driver ja grabbed her two suitcases. Willow walked into the building looking around to find her air-line. After spotting it, she headed to the very long line to check-in.
Half an hour later she was walking suitcase less to the security check. The security check line wasn’t as long as the check in-line had been, she waited for around 10 minutes before it was her turn to empty out all her stuff into boxes and then walk through the metal detector. Something on her beeped, so she took off her shoes and tried again. No beep. She put her shoes back on and took all her stuff, then heading to her assigned gate. Willow was good at being on time. She was never too early or too late. When she got to her gate, her flight was already boarding and after showing the flight attendant her boarding pass, she was sitting on her seat in the third row from the back of the plane. It didn’t take long for the plane to take off and as it did, Willow put on her sleeping mask and popped on her headphones. Listening to Nirvana, Green Day and Sonic Youth, she forgot about the people around her. She was in the middle seat, which was the worst seat to sit in in her opinion, there were strangers on both sides of her. On her left side, sitting in the window seat there was a middle aged woman snoring very loud and on her right on the aisle seat there was a little boy who’s family was sitting in the row on the other side of the aisle.
 Willow hated the middle seat. The window seat was a good place to sit because of the view and the opportunity to lay your head on the wall. The bad side of the window seat was that if you wanted to go to the bathroom, two people had to get up. The aisle seat was personally Willow’s favorite, because there’s some space on your other side unlike the other seats when there’s either another passenger or a wall. Also sitting on the aisle seat gave you the chance to move all you wanted around the plane without bothering anyone else.
Willow slept for a couple of hours and then spent the rest of her flight reading one of the books she had taken on her carry-on. She was currently reading the Lord of the Rings, which she had finished when the plane touched the ground in the Broome airport. Willow had been lucky to book a flight straight to her destination, so she wouldn’t need to take the bus to her Grandmother’s. After a 15 minute wait Willow and the other passengers got out of the plane to wait for their luggage. Willow’s two suitcases were one of the first ones to arrive so she headed to the airport lobby where her gran would be waiting for her. As she passed the sliding doors separating the luggage claim from the lobby, Willow instantly spotted her gran, who was holding a piece of paper with Willow’s name on it written inside a pink heart. A smile rose on Willow’s gran’s face as she saw her grandchild and wrapped her arms around her.
”I’ve missed ya honey” she said with her eyes tearing up.
”I’ve missed you too gran” Willow said as she took a step back.
”Wow, ya look so mature. You’ve grown a lot since the last time I saw ya, and so beautiful” Gran said admiring her granddaughter.
”Thank you gran” Willow muttered, she wasn’t that good at receiving compliments.
”Oh you’re almost a grown woman now, 17 ha? Big number” Willow’s gran said poking Willow with her wrinkly elbow. Willow let out a little laugh as her gran gestured her to follow, grabbing one of the suitcases. Willow grabbed the other and walked behind her grandma. They walked out of the building to the airport’s parking lot. Willow instantly saw her gran’s red chevy. She had had that car for as long as Willow could possibly remember. Willow’s gran opened the trunk and Willow lifted her suitcases inside. She threw her backpack and ukulele case to the backseat and then sat on the front seat herself. Her gran was already sitting on the driver’s seat and had started the car. They drove for 15 minutes. Past beautiful beaches and palm trees, Willow never saw anything like this while she was home in London, it was never that warm there, not even in the summer, so she loved coming to Broome.
 Willow hadn't made any friends there. All she did when she was visiting her gran, was spend time with her, read books and lay on the beach. She rarely talked to anybody she didn’t know. One exception had happened about ten years ago when she was 7 years old. That’s when she met her gran’s neighbor family. They had lived there for a few years already but for some reason Willow had never met them or even seen them. But that summer, when she was 7, she met the neighbor’s son who was nearly the same age as Willow. The boy’s family was all Australian and Willow liked listening to their strong accents. Willow and the boy, who’s name she had forgotten used to play together. They played water war, made sandcastles and swam. That was one of the best summers she spent there, that was the only summer she had some other company besides her gran. It’s not like there was some kind of an issue with spending a lot of time with her grandmother, but talking to one person only for three months gets boring. When she left back to London that summer, she thought about that boy for the whole year. She had had so much fun with him and couldn’t wait to see him again next summer. But when she got there, her gran told her that his family had moved away. Willow didn’t talk to him, or anyone else her age for the rest of that summer or any summer after that. Its not that she was specially shy, she just didn’t find anyone she’d liked enough to talk to them.
 The red chevy rolled up to a sandy driveway of a small, wooden house built straight on the beach. Willow got out of the car and couldn’t even wait to get her luggage inside. She started running toward the water. For the first time in a year she felt free. When she got to the beach she stopped to take her shoes off so she could feel the sand in between her toes. For the first few days she always loved that feeling but having sand everywhere gets annoying in a while. Willow got to the part of the beach where the sand was wet from the waves, she took a deep breath of the clean, ocean air. A wave washed up and wet her feet up to her ankles. It wasn’t that warm but not too cold either. Willow closed her eyes just to enjoy the moment, because in about two and a half months she knew she would be back home in crowded, cloudy London. She opened her eyes and stood there for about five minutes just taking it all in. The view was absolutely incredible and she wanted to remember it forever. It was the crack of dawn. The sun was rising from behind the ocean making the water appear orange. Willow heard soft footsteps behind her and then felt her gran’s hand on her shoulder.
”You’ve always loved the sunrise” she whispered to Willow’s ear.
”Probably even more than I do the sunsets” Willow answered turning around and facing her grandmother. She wrapped her arms around her and they embraced each other for a long minute. When they finally separated gran’s eyes had gotten teary again.
”When I go.. I’m leaving you this place ya know” Willow’s gran said wiping away a lonely teardrop that had fallen from her eye.
”I’ll take care of this place, I promise. But not to worry about that, I am sure you have many healthy, happy years of life to live. You look younger than ever” Willow said to her grandmother. They hugged once more before Willow left back to the car to get her suitcases. Her gran stayed on the beach just staring at the sky. She had witnessed a lot of beautiful sunrises, but this must’ve been the most beautiful out of them all. Not just the colors of the sky but the hope it brought to her heart
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the 1975 concert in Helsinki last night 💙
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female
Your freedom can’t be owned, your words can’t be controlled, your body can’t be sold, your mind won’t be told,
they will try with all their might, to chain you down and out of sight, no way you’ll go down without a fight, all thanks to the strength of your light.
- w.j
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Keep It Burnin’
© 2017, Kirsten Rothbart
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Do you spend a lot of time writing poems and reading books?
yess! reading and writing are my favorite things to do ✨💗
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him
he came strolling into my life, made me fall in love, then he made a mess and left, leaving me to clean it up.
still I was waiting for his response, way after my bedtime, ‘cause I always had hope, he would turn to love me again.
w.j
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starry eyes
the night sky was dark and gloomy, not even a whisper of wind, the quiet was my home but that night, it didn’t feel like a friend.
chills were running down my spine, butterflies escaping my gut, and all I could think of, was what had dissapeared from above.
it must’ve been too obvious ‘cause first I couldn’t see, that someone had stolen the starts and put them inside me.
it’s hard to see what's right in front of you, but when it’s inside the presence is strong, the stars were twinkling in my eyes, knowing that it’s where they belong.
w.j
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untitled
her mind, wavy and unpredictable like the sea, not controlled or persuaded, roamed and splashed, however she chose to, no one’s to own, no one’s to keep, a godess of sorts, who needed no help, to be free.
-w.j
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Quote
Your words are disguised Indignities are your specialty Do you think it’s okay How you talk people down Empathy and understanding Two words you can’t comprehend
t.m. (via tmpoem)
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A List Of Topics To Talk About Instead Of Asking “Wyd”
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sihyuuun
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it's a trap
my mind is a trap, it traps my thoughts, and leaves them echoing in my head, but it never chooses the good ones, all I hear are my doubts and insecurities, circling, shouting.
-w.j
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