Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

1.

“I’m going to build the biggest sandcastle ever!” 

“Not without your spade you’re not.”

“What do you-Hey Benedict! Give me that back!”

Exiting the car with a laugh, an amused Colin Bridgerton watches on as one of his older brothers, Benedict, holds a purple spade up high in the air so that one of his younger sisters, Daphne, could not reach. No matter how much she stretches her arms and rises onto the tips of her toes to try and grab it.

“Ugh! When I get my spade back I’m going to dig a big hole in the sand to bury you in it!”

“No burying your siblings in sand today please.” Their father, Edmund, comes up behind Benedict and takes the spade from his hand to give it back to Daphne. Leaving one child slightly sulking while the other was beaming with a triumphant grin. “It will be a pain to get sand out of the car if you come home with it all over you.” 

Edmund looks over at his wife, who was juggling a beach bag in one arm while holding their youngest child in the other, and sends her a skeptical look. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“It’s the best idea dad!” Colin answers for his mum as he takes a few steps forward to get a better look at the view in front of him. 

The weather was quite unfortunate in the UK. Sometimes there would be weeks of cold and wet weather and people would be longing for the warmer days to come. So when the sun finally shone in the sky and the temperature rose to where you weren’t shivering when you stepped outside, people didn’t take it for granted, especially the Bridgerton family.

They went on picnics in the park, went wild at amusement parks, or even just had a day out in the garden. Where their mum would set up the slip and slide, and their dad would make hot dogs and burgers on the barbecue. However, Colins favourite days in the sun was when they spent the day at the beach. 

He may be only ten years old, and has only seen a small part of the world, but he finds the view of their local beach one of the most beautiful views his eyes have ever seen. The golden sand which was soft under one’s feet leads to the blue sea which shimmers under the sunlight that was high in the sky above them. The waves were gentle as they lapped against the shore, soothing to hear as they crashed against the rocks, leaving a spray of saltiness in the air that was refreshing to breathe in.

They were surrounded by cliffs, by little shops and cafes, and they were surrounded by people who were already soaking up the sun in their own way. Whether that was relaxing on the sand or running towards the sea, or flying kites high in the sky or eating ice cream which melts down ones fingers. The place was a serotonin boost that really lifts one’s mood, and Colin always felt happy to be here.

“Colin is right. We haven’t been to the beach for a while, and a little sand in the car won’t hurt.” She gives her husband a pointed look that tells him she will not be taking any of his complaints today before relaying out orders. “Right Anthony, Benedict, help your father with the deck chairs and bags please.” 

“It’s so warm!” Anthony groans.

“Well I can throw you into the sea if you like?” Benedict teases his older brother as he walks past him, Edmund chuckling at Anthony’s glare that was fiery as the sun as he follows.

“Daphne, make sure nothings been left in the car and Colin can you hold Eloise and Francescas hands so that they don’t run off.” 

Colin nods his head enthusiastically, reaching out for his two wandering little sisters hands as he asks, “Mum, can we go and collect seashells today?” 

“Well of course, my dear.” Violet smiles sweetly down at him as she shuffles Gregory in her arms. Nodding her head towards her youngest son, she tells Colin, “We might find some beautiful ones with our little helper here.”

Colin smiles widely with excitement as they make their way down to find a place on the sand. 

While he loved building sandcastles, and splashing about in the sea, one of his favourite activities to do on the beach was to collect seashells. On his first few visits to the beach, his mum told him that a place like this had the finest of treasures, and he’s been determined to find some ever since. Now, he hasn’t found something big like a chest full with jewels and gold like he’s seen pirates find on the tv, but he’s found shells which hold a beauty of its own. 

Throughout the years he has collected many in all different sizes, ones that fitted in the palms of his hands while others only covered the pad of his pinky finger. They all had different shapes too! He has spotted shells that were scalloped, to shells that were twisted, he’s even spotted flat and hallow ones that hid themselves deeply in the sand. Every shell fascinated him as he walked along the shore. Sometimes they looked like shattered gems with their pearly, luminous colours, or pieces of porcelain with their spotted or striped patterns. 

He believed that every shell had a story, and when he felt the shell in his hand, feeling the smoothness of it and examining how brittle it was with it’s ridges, he wished they could talk so he could hear them. 

Sometimes, he imagines the adventures these shell took to end up on this beach and into his hands.

He never brings all of his findings home, he only selects two or three of his favourite ones which he places in a jar that was on his bedside table. Some nights he looks at the shells before he goes to sleep, looking at his own chest (well jar) of treasure that he has collected from his visits.

Colin wonders what will be added to his collection today as they set up on the west side of the beach. But first- 

“Sun cream!”

A chorus of groans is heard from the Bridgeton children, and Colin trudges his feet towards his mum who was holding out a bottle of sun cream for him. “Why so we need sun cream?” Colin whines, “It’s so sticky.” 

“It’s sticky because you run away before I can rub it in properly.” His mother tells him as she sprays the sunscreen down his arms, rubbing it into his skin thoroughly. “And we need sun cream to protect us from the sun so we don’t end up as red as a lobster.” 

She sprays the cream on her hands and begins to spread it across his face, while he giggles at the thought of them turning into lobsters after a day in the sun.

“And then we’ll be walking like this!” Colin holds out his arms, pinching his fingers like claws as he moves across the space like the sea creature. In the end it was more like a crab, but it makes his mother amused as she laughs, and even breaks Anthony’s mood as he stands up from his towel to tell him:

“That is not the way lobsters walk.”

And suddenly there was laughter bubbling in the air as the Bridgerton children pretend to walk like lobsters around their towels and deck chairs. Even Gregory, who was sat under a parasol and was surrounded by his toys, holds up his arms to take part.

Edmund looks over to his wife, humoured by the situation happening in front of them. “Are you sure you’re ready to endure this chaos?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” His wife, Violet, smiles sweetly, which grows wider as Edmund presses a kiss to her head.

Colin stops to smile at his parents being so happy. See! There was something about this place that was so joyous. He wished he could bottle it up so he could carry that feeling with him every day. 

But perhaps joy like this can only be contained between the grains of sand and the waves of the sea. Or on an adventure collecting treasure across the shore. 

However, Colin’s adventure today didn’t go exactly as planned. 

It started off as it usually would. It was in the middle of afternoon after him and his family had eaten their lunch, and he was running along the shore in front of his mother (and little Gregory, who was holding onto their mothers hand and making little sandalled footprints in the sand) with his green bucket in hand which already had a few of the most fascinating shells in it. He stops and gasps as he finds a white cockle shell in the sand, the colour vibrant and having no chips in it’s decorative ridges. It was a shell he had not seen in some time, and it was the prettiest shining under the sun. Colin reaches for the shell, and turns around to his mum and little brother to show them, but then he hears someone shout:

“Look out!” 

And he turns back around, his brows furrowed with confusion as he wonders who the young voice was calling out to. Colin realises quite quickly that it was him when something flat and yellow, like a frisbee, was flying in his direction.

“Woah!” 

Colin leans back as the frisbee whizzes past him, but the wet sand made it a slippery surface, and he finds himself loosing his balance and falling backwards onto the ground. The cold water beneath him splashing up onto his body and giving him a cold shock to his system. 

He closes his eyes for a second, sinking into the sand, floating on the water that trickles underneath him. Soaking in the rays of sun shining down on him before it gets slightly taken away by someone kneeling beside him. 

“I’m s-so sorry. Are you okay?!”

He opens his eyes slowly, and finds the worried eyes of a girl staring back at him. They were blue, a colour more like the shallow parts of the sea than the deep blue waters, glistening with unshed tears that were soaking up her waterline. Her hair was more like a sunset than a sunrise, ringlets of rich, auburn hair falling in front of her face while the rest was tied in a low braid at the bottom of her head. 

But what distracted him the most, was the freckles that were dotted across her button nose, finding there way to the apples of her cheeks which were slightly red from the sun. He felt like if he connected them all together, it would create a pretty picture. 

While imagining his eyes were a pen that connected them, he realises that he hadn’t responded to the upset girl. Who’s bottom lip begins to tremble as her emotions continued to build even more. 

And what surprises him, is that he doesn’t respond with words. Or with anger and frustration. Instead, he laughs. A rumble of laughter that comes from his stomach and sings from his mouth. 

Because honestly, who wouldn’t find falling over from a flying frisbee funny?

“That was silly of me, wasn’t it?”

The little girl frowns as Colin starts to sit up. “W-what?”

Colin continues to laugh as he stands up, shaking his hands to throw droplets of the sea off of his fingers and back on the sand. With a grin, he tells her “Never thought a frisbee would make me fall in the water.”

“Oh, it was not the frisbee, it was me!” She rushes out to say, her hands wringing together nervously as she explains. “My s-sisters were laughing at me because they said I couldn’t throw the frisbee far, so I threw it harder to prove them wrong.” A flush of embarrassment beams on her already rosy cheeks as she mumbles out, “And threw it in the wrong direction at the same time.” 

He looks over her (he was much taller in height) to see two girls with similar red hair looking over at them and giggling, and Colin felt like their giggling was towards their sister standing before him. He frowns, he didn’t like seeing that. Teasing his siblings was something he did on the daily, but he would never be spiteful, even when they argued. His mother always told him that kindness was the most valuable thing to have, even sweeter to the people who never shared it.  

His eyes squint, glaring at them, and their eyes widen as the run away. 

“I really am sorry.” 

Colin looks back at the girl, whose eyes still harboured tears. Who still had this nervous look because she thinks that he was going to get angry, but Colin didn’t even have an inch of that feeling towards her.

In fact, he found her very sweet.

“Well I think that was an excellent throw, even if it is now lost at sea.” He looks behind him to see if he could see a yellow circle floating in the water, but Colin couldn’t see anything. He turns back to the girl, and sees her eyes finally finding some light. With a grin, he carries on to say, “I apologise that my massive head nearly stopped it.” 

A light giggle brushes past her lips. “Your head is not that big!”

“It is. It’s why my mother says I’m the smartest out of my brother and sisters, because my brain is so full with ideas.” Colin playfully jests, patting his head. He doesn’t know if that’s entirely true, but it makes the girl laugh louder, makes her smile. And he would rather see her like this instead of being upset. 

He never likes seeing anyone sad, even when it was a person he has just met. Even when it was a young girl who he doesn’t even know the name of.

Perhaps it was time to solve that mystery.

“I’m Colin!” He stands proudly, holding out his hand for her to shake, something he has seen his dad do to the people he works with when they have business meetings in the house (all boring stuff, Colin presumes).

She steps forward and slides her hand in his, and as she was about to open her mouth to introduce herself, they both hear-

“Penelope Featherington!”

- a sharp voice in the distance, and they both see an older woman storming over to them.

The girl, which Colin now knows as Penelope, pulls her hand away from his quickly. The nervousness that disappeared now returning as she looks down to her hands. Colin was about to ask what was wrong. but his mother had caught up with them.

“Colin, are you alright?”

He nods his head with a grin, staring up at his mum and Gregory, who was back in their mothers arms. “I’m fine mum!” Colin just about tells her, as the loud voice from the other woman overpowers them all. 

“What were you thinking Penelope?!” The woman exclaims, a stern gaze fixated on the young girl now beside her. “You could have seriously hurt this young boy!”

“I’m sorry mama.” Penelope cries, looking up at her mother with big, apologetic eyes.

“I’m good!” Colin interjects her mother from telling Penelope off. He pushes air through his lips as he fans his face with his hands “I needed a cool down anyway.”

His mum chuckles warmly at him as she ruffles his hair, and it gets a small smile out of Penelope which she straightens when her mother just lets out a huff and returns to her stern gaze again. 

“You don’t need to embarrass yourself by trying to throw the frisbee far. Especially since now you have lost it.” Colin watches her mother turn Penelope around, crouching so they were seeing eye to eye. “You’re are just not at good as your sisters with most things, and that’s okay to admit.” She stands up, pulling her daughter closer as she lets out a laugh. “Kids hey?”

Colin frowns, looking up at his mum to see that she was forcing a smile around the edges of her lips. There was a slight uncomfortable twitch on her face too, which she was very good at hiding. Colin had not found the trick to mask his emotions just yet, so his dislike for the woman was showing clearly on his face.

He didn’t like the way she was speaking to Penelope.

“Frisbees have a mind of their own sometimes. You can throw them one way and they will go in another direction.” His mother says, her tone slightly sharp, before softening to smile gently at Penelope. “I’m sure your daughter did not mean to throw it into the sea.” 

“Well there’s no way we will ever find it now.” Her mother huffs, “and with nothing else to do she’ll have to stay with me and her father for the rest of day.” 

Disappointment ran through Penelope’s face, and Colin stood straighter, quickly thinking on how he could get rid of it. There was plenty of stuff to do at the beach! Stuff that didn’t have to make her sit with her parents, that could take away from her sisters picking on her.

Colin notices his bucket in the sand, and lets out a small gasp as an idea forms in his head. 

“Perhaps Penelope could join us in collecting seashells?!” Colin suggests, reaching down for his bucket and tilting it so Penelope and her mother could see inside. “I’ve already collected a few already.” 

The young girl gasp excitedly, looking up at her mother with pleading eyes. “Can I mama?”

“Can she join us mum?” Colin asks his own with the same pleading expression on his face.

His mother mouth agapes as she looks between the three other people, while also trying to deal with Gregory who’s grabby hands were starting to pull at her hair. There was a few seconds of silence, of Colin holding his breath with anticipation, before his mother agrees.

“If her mother say yes I don’t see why she can’t join us.” Colin grins brightly as her mother reassures the other women, telling her, “we won’t be walking very far.” 

“You really want to go and collect… seashells?” Her mother asks Penelope skeptically, who nods her head eagerly at the question. “Fine.” She eventually agrees with a sigh, holding out a straw bucket hat that Colin has just noticed was in her hand. Was this woman a magician that could pull out things from behind her back? “But make sure you wear this, we don’t want you getting sunburnt.”

Her mother walks away after placing the hat on her daughters head, leaving Penelope standing there with a hat that was slightly too big for her and was covering her eyes. Colin steps forward to fix it, pulling it backwards, smiling when he sees her blue eyes and her pattern of freckles once more. 

“There, now you can see again!”

“Thank you.” Penelope giggles shyly, which turns into a squeal as Colin grabs her hand and starts to pull her along the shore.

“Come on! Lets go!”

His adventure continues, but now, he had a new friend alongside him. Who was a good spotter of finding shells that were buried deep in the sand, and shells in different shapes and colours were starting to fill his green bucket. Some came with stories that they made up, both of them laughing when Colin reveals that a cone shell they found traveled with a school of clown fish (he just watched Finding Nemo a few nights ago) and when Penelope says that scallop shells come from a magical lair deep under the sea and have powers. While others came from them playing pirates that were looking for gold.

“Unwind the sails!” Colin shouts loudly in his best pirate voice, as he uses his hands to form a telescope.

“Aye aye, Captain!” Penelope says back as they move like they were sailing across the shore. 

And as the blistering sun still moves high in the sky, Colin thinks that this was the most fun he has had collecting seashells. 

“Oooh, oooh, look at this one!” Penelope gasps out as she runs to a shell stuck in the sand. With her tiny fingers, she digs around the shell before pulling it out to show Colin. It was a spiral shell, with a gradient of stripes in pink and brownish tones. “It’s so pretty.” She breathes out, pulling it closer to inspect it more before going to place it in Colin’s bucket.

But he stops her before she does so.

“You can keep it.”

Penelope eyes light up. “Really?!”

Colin nods his head with a small smile at her excitement. He couldn’t keep all of the seashells, not when this time he wasn’t alone in this adventure. And he wanted to give her something that she could take home with her. “So you can remember this day forever and ever!” He cheers with his arms spread wide.

Penelope pulls the shell to her chest with a wide grin, “I’ll treasure it with all my heart!” She promises, just as his mother was calling them back, telling him it was time to go home.

A sad feeling settles in his chest. Sometimes he forgets he couldn’t stay on the beach forever. Which he means he has to say goodbye to the sand and sea, to the path of seashells he will never reach, to his new friend Penelope.

He felt a little bit more sad to leave the beach today.

“Do you think we’ll see Penelope again?” Colin asks his mum, who was getting Gregory into the baby seat next to him. The rest of his siblings were in the car, while his father was in the drivers seat sorting out the air con for the ride home. 

He sees his mother give his father a look, a look that showed uncertainty. Which slowly plummets his hope down to almost nothing. 

“Maybe, my dear.” His mother replies eventually, softly caressing his cheek before leaning back out of the car. “Right, who’s ready for ice cream?!” 

The rest of his sibling cheer, while he smiles half heartedly as he looks down to his green bucket by his feet, to the four shells he decided to bring home. Shells that reminded of the day he spent with his new friend. 

And there may be uncertainty in the air, but he had this feeling. Something that told him that he would be seeing Penelope again very soon.

(And he was right, because two weeks later, Penelope and her family move to a house at the end of their street.) 

**

2.

Colin crouches down next to his brother Benedict and tilts his head to look inside the pool of water in front of them. 

“Look! There’s something moving.”

“That’s seaweed, you idiot.” 

Colin snorts at Benedict, who nudges him playfully as he gets up to move along the rocks.

“Hey! No nudging remember?” Colin reminds his brother while standing up. Benedict turns to him confused, so Colin tells him with a smile. “It was the second rule that Daphne told us before we came to the rocks.”

His brother lets out a huff, crossing his arms over his chest as he asks. “Why is Daphne in charge again?”

“Because I have the guidebook.” Their sister voice calls from behind them. 

“A guidebook?” Benedict scoffs, turning to her, “do we really need a guidebook for rock pooling?”

Daphne raises her eyebrows, bringing the book out from under her arm and skimming through the pages. “Well do you know what a Beadlet Anemone is?” She asks him with a challenge to her tone.

“Of course I do!” Benedict says confidently, but his confidence only lasts a few seconds. “Its-well it’s…um.” He turns to his brothers for help, but Colin shrugs his shoulders helplessly (because he didn’t really have a clue either.) and Anthony pretends to be distracted with Gregory who he was looking after. With another huff, he plasters on a smile to say. “Its obviously something that lives in rock pool.” 

“Obviously.” Daphne mocks back, closing the book. “Perhaps we need the guidebook after all.” She says smugly, before holding Francescas hand to move further along the rocks. Leaving two tickled brothers and one grumpy brother behind.

“Cheers for the help.” Benedict mutters sarcastically.

“I didn’t have a clue.” Colin laughs, holding his hands up in innocence. 

“I did.” Anthony, looking towards Benedict with a smirk. “I just wanted to see you squirm.” 

“Ooh!”

“Ah ah ah. You can’t push me over.” Anthony nods his head towards the young child who was holding his hand. “I’m looking after our younger brother.” 

Colin shakes his head amusingly as his brothers continue to bicker as they move forward, and he was about to move as well until another voice makes him stop.

“Um Eloise? Can you wait for a second?” 

Colin turns to find Penelope, who was looking conflicted on which way she could go across the rocks while his sister has sped off in another direction, fishnet in hand.

He smiles, making his way over to her.

The days out with his family were everything, but these days it wasn’t the same if Penelope did not join them. Ever since he saw and her family move across the street a few years ago, where after remembering his road safety and making sure no cars were driving down the road ran across it to give her the biggest hug ever, Penelope became truly one of his greatest friends. The girl who collected seashells with him also became the girl who would read books with him in the corner of the room, who would sneak out with him at sleepovers to stargaze in the garden. Who would join him and his family on trips outside when the weather was good and joined in with the chaos that endured in their home when the weather was not. Penelope would also join him when the garden became a whole new world, letting her imagination run free alongside his as they played superhero’s one day, and then pretending they were flying a spaceship to the moon the next. (He was at the age where playing imaginary games like this was considered not cool. But hey! Being creative was cool!)

Eloise has joined them on most occasions, and has actually taken Penelope under her wing too. When the three of them were together, Colin felt like they were unstoppable. But he truly enjoyed the moments when it was just him and Penelope the most.

So when those opportunities came, he took them quite quickly.

“Pen, come this way!” Colin calls out to her when he was close, holding out his hand for her to take. That was new, Pen, a nickname he had for his friend that just rolled off the tongue so naturally these past few weeks. He asked her if it was okay the first time he said it, and she shyly admitted to him that she never had a nickname before, so Colin was happy to be the first to give her one.  

“Oh thank you.” Penelope grabs his hand and steps over a small rock pool to stand next to Colin. With a soft giggle, she says, “Eloise is on a mission.” 

“Probably to find a crab to taunt us with.” Colin tells her, looking back to find his sister crouched down poring over some water. 

“T-there’s no big crabs here right?” 

“There can be, but they are usually quite hidden in the pools you sometimes can’t see them.” Colin tells her, looking around the rocks and not noticing how nervous Penelope was being. “It is mostly the younger, smaller crabs you find under small rocks, or see them scuttling across the pool floor.” 

He turns back to her, and frowns when he sees some fear glazing over her eyes. Colin thought Penelope was asking him out of curiosity, but maybe she was asking him because of something else. 

“Pen are you scared of the crabs?”

“No!” She bursts out quickly, before she goes red in the cheeks, stumbling out an explanation when Colin tilts his head at her, unconvinced. “It’s j-just that..well…crabs have very sharp claws and what if I get in their way and they pinch my toes!” 

Colin presses his lips together tightly to try and muffle his laughter.

“I’m being serious Colin! Mother told me once that someone’s toes turned blue!” 

He rolls his eyes at the mention of her mother. Getting to know Penelope all of these years meant getting to know the rest of her family, and Portia Featherington was someone that always got under his skin.

“Does your mother see the fun in anything?”

“Not really.”

Colin snorts in amusement at Penelope’s bluntness. 

“Look, you may think I’m being silly-”

“I don’t.” Colin cuts her off softly. He wasn’t laughing at her, he was laughing at the thought of crabs being the enemies of their toes. He can imagine how funny the battle between them would be. “I just think it’s adorable that you think crabs are our toes nemesis.” 

The rosiness on her cheeks becomes bolder as she murmurs out “well they can’t really reach anywhere else.” Her eyes widen, as if she just thought of something more terrifying, rushing out, “unless they can jump. They can’t jump right?”

“Not the crabs here Pen.” Colin chuckles softly, brushing his humour aside now to reassure her. “Look, as long as we don’t make them angry no crabs will come after us.” His mouth spread to a grin as he continues to say, “and if they do, I will protect you!” 

Penelope’s face lights up at that. “Really?”

“Of course.” Colin puts his hands to his hips to create a superhero pose. “Captain Colin reporting for duty. To save you from all the pinching crabs!” He speaks deeply like the superhero’s they’ve watched on the TV, making Penelope throw her head back in laughter.

Colin smiles wider. He likes how he can make Penelope laugh. Laughter was his favourite sound to hear.

Holding out a hand to her, he asks, “You ready?”

Penelope nods her head, taking his hand as they move across the rocks to join the others.

Together with the rest of his family, they explore the pools around them. Peering into deep and shallows depths of water to see what was living in them. The smaller ones contained mostly brown and bright green seaweed (Penelope giggling at it being called sea lettuce), red jelly like blobs that were beadlet anemone (which Daphne could not help but be smug when telling Benedict) and sea urchins. But in the bigger rock pools they saw more. Little fishes with large eyes and thick lips, known as the Shanny, swam across the pools while mottled brown fish called Rock Goby lied on the bottom of them. And most importantly, the thing they were all looking for, crabs. 

“Look! There’s one there.” Colin points a moving crab out to Penelope, Francesca and Daphne who were gathered around one large rock pool with him. 

“It’s a shore crab.” Daphne tells them as she reads through the book, “the most common crab you can find in rock pools and oh!” Her eyes widen as she reads with excitement, “they are typically green, but can be orange, red, or brown to hide in the seaweed.” 

“Aww, it’s quite cute.” Penelope coos as the small crab (with a green colour shell) starts to bury itself under a rock. Colin raises his eyebrows at her change of tune.

“See!” He grins at her, “they’re not that bad are they?”

Penelope open’s her mouth to respond, but a high pitched shriek behind them makes all of them stand up worried.

With Daphne, Francesca and Penelope with him, Colins main thought was thinking Eloise was hurt. But when his eyes move to the right to find his other sister looking absolutely fine as she holds up a crab towards Anthony, who looks like he’s had the fright of his life, he slowly connects the dots to realise that maybe the shriek came from his older brother. 

“Got ya!” Eloise exclaims to Anthony with her mischievous grin growing wider. 

Shocked laughter bursts out of Colin’s lips, while Penelope lifts one of her hands to muffle hers. 

“Brother, did Eloise frighten you with the crab?” Francesca asks with amused curiosity.

“And make you scream like a little girl?” Benedict, who was now with Gregory, teasingly asks him while laughing loudly. 

“I did not-well…it’s…did you see the claws on that thing?!” 

Laughter bursts out of everyone then and slowly bounces across the rocks, and Penelope nudges Colin to tell him that she’s taken a liking to the crabs even more before his mother shouts to tell them it was time for lunch. 

The group was disappointed to be leaving the rock pools so soon, Anthony was more than glad to be getting off of them. 

They sat in the sand as they ate their picnic graciously made by Violet, eating up their ham and cucumber sandwiches, a selection of crisps, and hurrying to eat their cookies before the chocolate melted on their fingers. After that they decided to go for a swim in the sea. But first, as they mother sternly pointed out them, they needed to re-apply their sun cream, because applying it once throughout the day was just not good enough. 

“Here, do want this bottle?”

Penelope, now bright in a yellow flowery swimsuit, hands over a bottle of sun cream to Colin. He had applied sun cream to most of his body before Benedict had stolen it from him, so he just needed to apply some to his face. 

He crouches down slightly, closing his eyes as he asks her, “can you apply some to my face?”

He hears a soft murmur of ‘okay’ before he feels the warmth of her hands apply the cool substance to his face. Colin was relaxed as his friend softly moved her hands to massage the cream on his forehead, down his nose and across his cheeks, until she squishes his cheeks together, making his lips pucker out like a fish.

He opens his eyes and frowns at an humoured Penelope. “I don’t think this is how you apply sun cream.” He gets out through his squished lips, making her giggle as she pulls her hands away, resting her heels back on the sand after standing so long on the tips of her toes. 

“There, all done!” 

“Thank you.” Colin smiles at her silliness before saying, “I definitely won’t be getting my skin burnt today.” 

“And my mother won’t be moaning about my freckles starting to show when we get home.” Penelope says with a roll of her eyes, but what she says causes him to frown. 

He understands someone’s persistence about not getting sun burnt. For your skin to turn bright red can be painful, and sometimes quite dangerous. Colin remembers how uncomfortable Anthony was a couple of summers ago when he badly burnt his shoulders. He could barely lift them for a few days without a wince or a groan. So when his mum says to put on sun cream, he willingly obliges now, slowly moving on from despising it for being sticky. 

But Colin doesn’t understand why anyone would not like someone’s freckles. He finds them quite wonderful. Well, he’s really only seen freckles on Penelope, but he thinks they are an unique form of beauty that people could have.

He learnt from his mum about how freckles were genetic and how they became bolder on people’s skin in the warmer weather. At the time he learnt about this he was upset that his family didn’t have the gene, that his skin remained a blank canvas under the sun while Penelope’s revealed freckles that were like a dusting of sugar, dancing across her ivory skin. But his mother told him that everyone’s skin was different, and while his turned more golden in the heat, his friend lived in the sun with small dots that looked like stars that have been borrowed from the universe. 

He notices how they gather on the bridge of her nose, above her left eyebrow. How they were sporadically spaced across her cheeks and on her forehead. It was like the sun was an artist that was painting on her skin.

And Colin believes the sun could be cruel at times, but could also show its love by leaving small gifts like this. 

“I like your freckles.”

Penelope eyes widen in surprise. “Y-you do?”

Colin nods with a smile, his arms spreading wide as he exclaims “it’s like the sun has given you a hundred kisses!”

She giggles at his words, a hint of surprise and delight across her face like this was first time she heard something nice about her freckles. But if the stars and moon at night can leave a twinkle in your eye, surely the sun can leave you twinkling too?

He watches as her freckles come together as she frowns, tilting her head while looking at him.“But you don’t have any freckles. Does the sun not like you?”

Colin hums, looking out towards the blue water. The sound of the waves lapping on the shore tingling his ear drums. “Perhaps I belong to sea instead.” 

“Like a merman?”

Colin gasps, turning back to her. “Do you think when I dive into the water I will grow a tail?” 

Penelope throws her head back in laughter, her eyes crinkling as she stares up at the sun. But while she was laughing, a plan forms in Colin’s head. 

Grabbing her hands, he pulls her closer, murmuring quietly, “let’s find out, shall we?” 

Colin turns from his friends confused expression to shout over his shoulder to his siblings. “Last one in the sea is a rotten egg!” 

Then he was running towards the water, dragging a squealing Penelope behind him. 

“Colin!”

He pushes back on sand as he runs, and he battles through the gusts of cold wind as he gets closer to the sea. With the head start they were obviously first - well, Colin graciously lets Penelope be first, but he happily takes second place as he dives into the water. He shakes his head as his reappears, shaking off droplets of water that stuck to his strands of hair.

“Got a tail let?”

He looks down in the water and wiggles his legs, which weren’t glittering with shiny scales, before looking up to Penelope who was swimming by him with a small, playful pout. “Not yet.” He tells her, just as Daphne and Eloise splash into the water next to him. Then, it was Benedict, and with Francesca deciding to stay behind and Gregory and Hyacinth (who at one years old was more interested in the sand than anything else) being too young to run down the beach by themselves, it left Anthony in last place.

“That was not fair!” Anthony protest as he stands knee deep in the sea, hands on his hips and wearing a deep frown which Colin believes could one day freeze permanently on his face. The group erupt into laughter as he protests more, “You all got a head start!”

“Getting scared by a crab and being a rotten egg all in one day.” Benedict teases him. “However will you-”

Benedict doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Anthony splashes him, a wave of water hitting him in the face. 

“Sorry Benedict, I didn’t really catch that.”

It wasn’t long before they were all scooping up handfuls of water to fling at one another, and across the beach people could hear a chorus of laugher and echoes of mocking protects as the water falls on their soaked skin and flattens their hair. 

But their smiles never fade, the light of them catching the waves just like the sun does on these warmer days. And Colin thinks that the sun might not give him freckles, but it always leaves him with a smile.

Perhaps the beauty that comes from days like this shows differently on everyone. 

It wasn’t long before they were teaming up, and with Eloise now on Benedict’s team while Daphne was on Anthony’s, Colin and Penelope immediately drift towards one another. 

“Get behind me Pen!” 

His friend giggles as she runs away from Benedict’s splashes, hiding behind Colins back. “Lets get them!” She shouts cheerfully as Colin splashes Benedict back with a bigger scoop of water.

Colin smiles at her over his shoulder. “Time to put my merman skills to the test.” He jokes, just as Anthony and Daphne splash them.

“Its not going well so far!” Penelope laughs brightly, making him laugh too as he pushes the soaked strands of hair that was now stuck to his forehead back. 

Together, they work as a team to protect each other from their rivals splashes, and even though it was just a game, Colin realises he would always protect Penelope. From the sea, from the comments her mother makes about her freckles, from sea creatures who decide to pinch at her feet, and… well from anything really, because that what great friends do. 

However, what Colin realises today is that Penelope wasn’t his greatest friend. He has great friends, like the ones he hangs out in school with and goes to football practice with every Thursday night. But they were the friends he could only tell stories about days like this. With Penelope, she lives these days with him. 

She was there for his laughter, for his tears. For his strange food combinations and his imaginary worlds. For moments like this which they will look back on when they get older. Colin may still have many lessons to learn, but he knows what a true friend is. Someone that wasn’t just a part of his life, but a part of his story. And he knew that every chapter he turned to Penelope would be there.

Because Penelope Featherington was his best friend, and he tells her so on the way home. When they were all beached out and starting to fall asleep in the car. 

“Pen.” He mumbles her name quietly as she was dozing off on his shoulder, shaking her arm slightly to make her look up at him. 

She does so a few seconds later, squinting slightly and adorably scrunching her nose as she slowly wakes up. “Yes Colin?”

He smiles brightly down at her. “You’re my best friend.” 

He speaks it like it was the easiest thing to say in the world. 

A small gasps escapes her lips. She was now fully awake, and matches his blinding grin as she spread her lips into a smile. 

“You’re my best friend too!” She tells him happily, and a little too loudly. Her eyes widening as she looks over to Eloise next to her, who was snoring against the window. With small giggle, she whispers to him. “Lets not tell Eloise that I have another best friend just yet, or she might scare us with a crab next.” 

Colin laughs softly at that. Eloise claimed Penelope’s best friend spot a few weeks ago, and was still stubborn to believe that people could have more than one. And as much as Colin would like to taunt his little sister that Penelope and him were best friends too, he knows Eloise always had a trick up her sleeve when she gets annoyed. 

He still remembers the day that Eloise put worms in Benedict’s school backpack because he ate her favourite cupcake that she was saving for the next day. 

“Our little secret for now.” Colin whispers back as he holds up his pinky finger to Penelope, who links her pinky with his with a smile before resting her head back on his shoulder. 

He doesn’t realise until his dad turns onto their street that he held on to her pinky finger for the rest of drive home.

**

3.

“Ugh! Colin! You’re going to get my book wet.” 

He lets out a laugh, flicking some water from his fingers at Penelope. Smiling wildly when she glares at him over the top her current read. “I thought you weren’t enjoying that book?”

Penelope sighs, closing and resting the book on her thighs, shuffling against her beach bag which she using to rest her back on as she lays on the sand, a striped parasol keeping her mostly in the shade. “I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it, I said it wasn’t going anywhere. But fifteen chapters in and the guy has suddenly had an epiphany, so I’ll carry on to see if it gets better.”

“Or you could just read another one” 

Penelope gasps like he said something offensive. “I never drop a book Colin. I’m not starting now!”

“Is that because you don’t want to fail your challenge two months in?”

Turning eighteen a couple of months ago, his best friend made the challenge to read one book every month for a year. The first two books she read were a breeze, but this book - a mad mystery thriller - Penelope was struggling to get through. And with only a few days left of July, she was pushing herself to get to the end.

“Maybe.” She mumbles quietly as she picks up her book again. 

Colin laughs, moving to sit on his towel next to her and leaning back on his hands to let his body soak in the warmth of the sun. To melt away the beads of the sea that were rolling down his bare chest from his swim in the cold water. On a hot summers day like this, Colin couldn’t think of a better place to be. 

With happy sigh, he states while leaning his head back. “this is the life.” 

A chuckle is heard to the left of him. 

“Won’t be long till you be living this life for a while.” 

Colin turns his head, squinting towards Benedict who had just come back from the sea as well with his girlfriend Sophie.

“The Greek sea and sun will be calling your name very soon.” Benedict continues to say, making Colin spread his lips into a smile. 

“When do you go?” Sophie asks him.

“The last week of August.” Colin answers her, “only a few weeks to go now.” 

He thought his love for the beach was something temporary. Something that would fade as he grew older and hit adulthood. Where, as Anthony claims, you start living in the real world and focus on your responsibilities more. But at twenty years old, Colin has been finding it difficult to find his feet. Struggling to figure out where he wanted to go in life and juggling with ideas on what his purpose was in this world. 

There was something about university that wasn’t his cup of tea, and he didn’t want a job that was so repetitive it made him move like a machine. He wanted something exciting, something that kept him on his toes. However no path he has thought about had called to him, and his uncertainty has left him trapped between a pestering older brother and a concerned mother. 

Not that his mother has spoken of her concern, but Colin could see it in her eyes. 

On the other hand, Anthony was not afraid to be vocal. But Colin believes his wife Kate has soften him ever so slightly, and distracted him from being overly strict. Which has given Colin plenty of time to think peacefully over the past few months, to realise what has called to him for so long, and well it was the exact place he was currently sitting in.

The beach.

And he realised his love for this place had trapped him here, but not in a bad way. The grains of yellow sand have bounded him and pulled him to the whispers of the shore, luring him to a sense of adventure, a sense of freedom. To not just wonder what was there across the blue sea, but to go and experience it. 

To travel. 

Not primarily for the beaches. But to also visit the big cities and the little towns that have hidden gems that don’t get seen. To visit historical buildings and famous places to see the countries roots and how it has shaped the identity of the region. To expand his palette by tasting the most amazing foods and hearing the most incredible stories from people who lived there for all of their lives. To learn about the world, and to learn more about himself as he travelled from country from country. 

Because you don’t return as the same person you left as do you? And its not a complete change in someone, it’s more of a alteration. Giving you a broader perspective of the world, and how to live in it.

So he'll follow the waves of the sea to see where it takes him, until the waves welcome him back home, and Colin couldn’t wait. 

Penelope was the first person he told about it, a late night conversation over the phone where she voiced her full support on him taking this adventure. His family had to get warmed up to the idea, but slowly they accepted it.

Probably because for the first time he was so determined about something. 

“Could you show a inch of sadness that you’re leaving us behind soon.” Benedict snorts before letting out a fake sob, wiping a tear underneath his eye. “I don’t think he’ll even miss us.” 

Colin shakes his head with a laugh, looking over to Penelope to see if she was amused just like him. But as he catches her eyes, he notices how they weren’t as bright as his, and she looks away from his gaze quickly and back to her book, scrunching up her nose and pursing her lips as she reads.

Colin frowns at her, concerned. 

Its been happening for a few weeks now, ever since the discussion of his travels have become more of a popular topic to discuss. Colin would be talking about it, and then catch Penelope’s eyes and notice a glaze of sadness taking over them. It was only for a quick second, as Penelope would turn away from him and cover it up with a scrunch of her nose and pursing her lips. Someone else would say she had an itch, but Colin knew Penelope. He knew this was her trying to hide her emotions, just like he knows when Penelope eyes crinkle on the sides she was really happy. Or when he knows she was getting angry or irritated because the ends of her eyebrows would start to twitch. Colin at most times could tell what Penelope was feeling, and sometimes, he knew why. But this sadness that Penelope was wearing, he didn’t have a clue on what was the reason for it. 

But he was determined to find out, he hated seeing Penelope upset. 

“You know I will miss you all.” Colin turns to Benedict with a smile. “But do you know what I will miss the most?” 

Benedict tilts his head, waiting for his answer.

“You buying lunch for me.” 

There must be something about siblings understanding hidden meaning in words, because Benedict glances over to Penelope and immediately nods his head at Colin’s request. “Guess were off to get food.” He says to his girlfriend as he throws his t-shirt on. 

“We could try that pizza place up the road from here?” Sophie suggests.

“I heard they do great mozzarella sticks.” Benedict ruffles his brothers hair, laughing at his protests as he asks. “And what does my dear brother want?” 

“For you to leave my hair alone.” Colin grumbles as he fixes a few strands at the front. “And a spicy pepperoni pizza please.”

“Penelope?”

“A not spicy pepperoni pizza for me please.” 

Benedict and Sophie make their way off the beach, leaving Penelope and Colin alone, and giving Colin the chance to ask Penelope a question that was perching on the top of his tongue.

He shuffles closer, nudging his shoulder with hers as he asks her softly, “is everything alright?”

Penelope looks up at him quizzically, “yeah, everything is fine. Why is there something wrong?”

“No! Well it’s just..” Colin looks out towards the sea as he tries to gather his words. “Since I’ve been talking about my travels recently you seem quite…distant in joining in on the discussion. Like something about it upsets you.” 

“I’m fine-”

“Penelope I know you.” Colin cuts her off with a warm chuckle, glancing over at her. “I know when you are trying to hide something. You can talk to me you know?” Suddenly, a wave of dread washes over him. Fear that she was now against him travelling just like some of his family were at the beginning. Where she defended his idea by his side when his family confronted him about it. “D-do you now think I’m making a mistake-”

“Oh no Colin of course not.” Penelope pushing her book off of her thighs and turns to him, placing a reassuring hand on his arm. “This is so exciting for you.”

Her hands rubs up and down his arm gently, from his wrist to just below the crook of his elbow. Her touch has always calmed him. He could be battling the strongest of storms inside of him and a simple touch or smile from her could keep him grounded. 

“It’s just…”

And it was the same for Penelope. If there was something brewing in the distance, he wanted to find out what was wrong and ease it before it creeps closer. 

“When you first talked about travelling it was months ago.” Penelope explains, “and now suddenly it’s all creeping up so fast and I’m just…going to find it strange without you here that’s all.” She sighs sadly, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Pen I’ll miss you too.” Colin wraps an arm around her, resting his head on hers as his thumb traces the patch of freckles on her shoulder. “I’ll miss you the most.”

He will find it strange, going from seeing his best friend almost every day to not seeing her for months. Not ordering her oat milk vanilla latte with his black americano at the cafes he will go to visit across the world, not getting her a sweet treat at the bakeries like he always does when he makes a trip to their local one. Small things that were just so normal in his daily routine that will change when he is away. He thinks of the trips he will take, like going to visit the countries local libraries, and realises how different it will be without Penelope scolding him for laughing at silly book titles (she eventually laughs along with him). And in a moment of terror, who will he call for when he spots a massive moth in his room? Penelope was always the one to catch them. 

Colin could handle the small ones, but the big, flying winged creatures he was still working on. 

Penelope chuckles softly, lifting her head. “You’ll have so much going on I bet you won’t even think about us here at home.” 

Colin brows furrow. Was that what she was worried about? That when he stepped on to the plane to set off on his adventure that she would be forgotten? All their years of friendship completely vanished because he was in another country experiencing something new all on his own?

He wanted to laugh. How could she be so foolish to even think that?

How could he forget the women who literally swept him off his feet when they first met. Who helped fill up his jar with seashells (which he still has to this day) and joined forces with him in the worlds which they created. Who helped him make cupcakes for his mothers birthday, and made the same cupcakes to cheer him up when he broke his arm after falling off his scooter (she had the privileged of signing his bright green cast first). Who helped him with his GCSE Spanish speaking exam, making sure he went through his cue cards every night, even when she was at home and speaking to him on FaceTime. Gifting him with cute little drawings on the cards which motivated him to do his best. 

Who when his father died, lied beside him in his bed as he fell into a rut. Hiding under the sheets for a couple of days before the funeral, because if he left them then everything would seem so real. Penelope didn’t force him to get up, she stayed with him as he grieved. She let him cry, let him laugh as they talked about the fondest memories of him, let him be angry that the universe took his father away so soon, until he was ready to face everyone and his family again. Penelope was his biggest rock at one of the toughest moments of his life. 

And when Penelope’s father died last year, Colin stayed by her side throughout it too.

There was many more moments in his life which he could talk about where Penelope was there. And that was the thing, Penelope was someone who was so constant in his life. She was his light that brightened his day, and kept him out of the darkness at night. Colin doesn’t think he could find a source of light like that even across the globe. 

A small part of him wanted to ask Penelope to come with him, but in September she was flying the nest to start her creative writing course in University. Because writing was her world, and travelling was his, and he sadly had to realise that they both were on different paths.

Still, Colin believes they will always be connected no matter where he was. Thank god for technology, and even if that didn’t exist, they’d probably send each other letters like they did back in the day. 

Actually, maybe sending letters would be quite a cute thing to do. 

“Pen,” Colin grasps one of her hands in his, squeezing it softly until her eyes move away from the view and meet with his. “Just because I’m going to be gone for a while doesn’t mean that you will not be a part of my life. I’m always going to be here for you.” 

“I wouldn’t want to annoy you-”

“You never annoy me.” Colin cuts her off. He tilts his head in thought, scrunching his face before adding on. “Well, apart from that time you and Gregory cheated in charades.”

“We never cheated!” Penelope protests, shoving him away playfully which makes him laugh. 

He knew they didn’t, but at last years summer bbq he was pretty annoyed that him and Eloise lost against them by one point. So he was sulking until Penelope chucked a water balloon at him, the bright smile on her face as he was dripping wet cheering him up instantly (and also making him become mischievous in wanting to get revenge).

“Do you know what I’m worried about? Me annoying you with all the phone calls I’ll be making to tell you about my travels. FaceTiming you to show you the views that I will be seeing. And don’t think I don’t want you to talk about your life at uni as well, I’ll happily listen to you rant about a roommate who keeps leaving his dirty cutlery on the counter.” 

Penelope giggles at that, making him smile. But in truth Colin would listen to whatever Penelope had to say, even when he was miles away. He knows that hearing her voice would soften that sickly feeling of missing home.  

“And I don’t care if I’m so many hours ahead or behind you, I’ll wake up at the ass crack of dawn to answer your call. If the signal is bad I’ll climb up a mountain till I get some.”

“You might hurt yourself doing that.” 

“Well it would be a story to tell.” 

“Or it would leave you facing an angry mother.” 

“Hmm.” Colin presses his lips together, not overly keen on that to happen. His mother was a someone who never got very angry, so when you had the brunt of her wrath, you knew you were in deep trouble. “Perhaps I’ll just send you a postcard instead.” 

“I quite like a postcard.” Penelope tells him. “They always have the prettiest designs on them.” 

Colin keeps that in mind as she shuffles closer to him. 

“But, you never will annoy me Colin.” She tells him softly, “I will never get sick of hearing your voice.”

His eyebrows rise at her words, while her eyes widen, shyly tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “B-because you tell great stories a-and I’ll know you’ll have plenty when you are away!” She rushes out to add on to her statement, which surprises him even more.

Because he doesn’t believe to be a great story teller, sometimes he does exaggerate things. He actually thinks Penelope was better, she creeped up the anticipation to reach the climax of a story, grounded in more of the reality when telling it. He thought more outside of the box, while she thought more inside of it, and that’s what made it work. What made them work. 

Colin and Penelope.

Penelope and Colin.

“Speaking of the stories of your travels…”

Colin watches as she pulls her beach bag that she was resting on to the front, opening up the zip and digging through it. “I have something for you.” She tells him as she pulls out something which was wrapped in dark blue tissue paper. 

“You didn’t have to get me anything-”

“I know.” Penelope cuts him off, pressing the gift into his hands. “But I was out shopping with Eloise a few days ago and when I saw this I..” she appears shy as she admits. “Well I thought of you.” 

A small smile of curiosity grows on his face, as he uses his thumb to lift the corner of the tissue paper that was stuck down with a smiley face sticker. Unwrapping the paper, he now holds a book in his hands. Well, it was not a traditional book that holds a narrative inside, instead the pages were blank. Cream coloured pages with painted grey lines, wrapped in a brown leather cover.

It was not book, it was a journal.

“Sometimes taking a picture doesn’t express every detail. I find sometimes the best way to capture every little moment is to write them down.” Penelope explains, “So when you go on this crazy adventure soon, I thought you could use this journal to write down your experiences. To write down what you see, what you smell and taste, and what you feel in detail.”

Colin smile softens as he skims through the blank pages.

“I even managed to get your initials on it.”

She closes the journal and points to the bottom right corner of the cover, where Colin sees the letters C.B embossed on the leather. His initials. Penelope was so thoughtful in getting this gift she even got it personalised for him. 

A little something from home to take with him across the world.

A blank canvas for him to write his words and stories.

“You don’t have to bring it with you-”

“This is perfect.” Colin tells her warmly as he places the journal down between them and pulls her in to an embrace. “You really are the best you know that?”

He feels the warmth returned as Penelope arms wrap around him. 

The thing that was so good about Penelope was that she always was so considerate in appreciating the smaller things in life. Little details of life and parts of conversations that for Colin sometimes just goes over his head, moving more to appreciate the larger scale of things instead. But now he was heading off to travel, maybe this was the time to start appreciating those little things as he goes from country to country, even if it just the way his coffee tastes in the morning. 

Small things that he could write a thousands words on in his new journal too. 

He hasn’t wrote anything since he finished school, securing a solid B in his story he wrote in his English language and literature class. Penelope was more of a writer than him (hence the creative writing course), and sometimes he watched as Penelope wrote in her cute purple notebook. When the world around them was quiet, letting her mind be loud and letting him complete a level on his Xbox next to her with only some distractions. 

(His distractions being Penelope twirling her pen between her fingers as she reads through her work. Her looking up towards the ceiling, her hands being expressive as she mouths a sentence to see if it made sense. His striped cushion that he gets whacked with by her when he gets caught staring. Sometimes, it was Gregory barging into his room if they were playing together on their own consoles, demanding why he was playing so shit.) 

Colin has never really thought about writing again, even when Penelope found his grade B story and told him it was very good. But, if he was dipping his toes in the water and setting off on a new adventure, perhaps he could try and dip his pen in the ink and try to see what the world makes him write.

Because change, comes with trying something new.

But one thing that wouldn’t change, was his friendship with Penelope, and he was very grateful for that. 

“Come on.” Colin pulls away with a grin, neatly putting the journal back in her beach bag and moving it behind her so she could rest on it once more. “I’m sure we can get through one chapter of your book before Benedict and Sophie come back with our food.” 

“We?” Penelope lets out a laugh as Colin moves to rest his head on her lap, his legs stretching out on the sand. “You don’t even know what’s happening.” 

Colin shrugs his shoulders, looking up at her, “I’m sure I can get up to speed.” 

Penelope hums, unconvinced, as she picks up her book to find the page she left herself on. “Alright, but no interrupting me.” 

“I promise.” 

Penelope gets three paragraphs in before Colin breaks it.

“I thought you said this guy had an epiphany.”

“Colin!” Penelope breaks out into another burst of laughter. 

“This guys sounds like an idiot!” Colin complains with a laugh, squinting up to see a mocking glare from his friend. “Okay okay.” He holds out his hands in a silent apology, before resting his hands on his stomach and closing his eyes. “No more interrupting.” 

He smiles as he relaxes to the sound of Penelope’s voice carrying on the story, blending with the moving waves of the sea. 

With only a few weeks to go before he travels, Colin has been trying to savour times like this. Moments that he won’t have for a while, like spending time with his favourite person in his favourite place. Hearing her gentle voice read to him, the laughter that bursts out of her because of his comments, the feeling of her fingers running through his curls that were still slightly damp from his swim. 

It was like people that get those tiny cork bottles and fill it with sand, making a keepsake that they could take anywhere with them. Colin felt like he had those bottles, and was holding moments with his family, with his friends, and with Penelope in them, something that he could take across the world with him.

And with them imaginary bottles of moments and Penelope’s journal placed on top of his clothes in his travelling backpack, Colin headed to his boarding gate with excitement for the adventure that awaits for him.

He travelled through Greece, appreciating the landmarks such as the Acropolis in Athens while also taking in the small things such as the jasmine-scented nights he smelt as he walked through whitewashed cobblestone streets, looking around at the white buildings that had a sprinkling of blue across them. He lived in paradise on the beaches with soft pink and white sand and crystal-clear turquoise waters, and learnt a lot from the people he met, hearing stories from the locals over a delicious selection of hot and cold meze.

His love of this life was cemented in him from the first day, and so, he carried on. Travelling to Italy, Spain and Portugal, his eyes opened to the treasures of the world. He captured memories through the camera on his phone and his digital one, and also in the journal Penelope got for him. Surprisingly, he found himself reaching for his journal to write a lot more than he expected, what was not surprising, was him being in contact with his best friend the most. 

From good morning text messages to evening calls. From FaceTimes where they stargazed together even when in different countries, to the postcards he would send to her with the prettiest and vibrant designs. Colin always updated her on his experiences, while she would tell him about her life at university and life back at home, and he would sit there with a smile listening to her rant on about one roommate who actually was leaving his dirty dishes everywhere. As she spoke to him on FaceTime, Colin would linger on the sparkle in her blue eyes, the ringlets of red hair, the dots of freckles across her cheeks which he hasn’t seen in the flesh for some time. 

He missed her terribly, and with their daily routines so different and chaotic it was now them finding the time to talk instead of everyday contact. So when those moments came, he cherished them deeply.

And on the days they didn’t speak, the journal he had reminded him of her, so he held it close as he discovered more of the world around him. 

It was New Years Eve in Portugal when he told his family and Penelope that he was coming home to visit in February, telling them all over FaceTime as they counted down till midnight - which luckily with the time zones being the same meant they could bring in the New Years together. He remembers the excitement from all of them, and he carried that feeling through the last weeks of his travels.

Colin knew as soon as he landed back on home soil, things would just fall back into place, and he thought that would always happen everytime he went away.

If only he didn’t screw things up on his first visit home.

**

“Stop! I would never dream of dating Penelope alright! It’s a ridiculous thing to even think that me and her would-”

“Oh.”