"You shouldn't be here." It was half-hearted, an admonishment that was cast from the side of her mouth as she turned back to the open window.

"Why's that?" Morgead smoothed a wrinkle in the quilt and propped his chin on his clasped hands. They were sprawled on her bed. Jez, stretched out lengthwise with her knees folded up, and Morgead lay perpendicular—his head even with her hips. The seafoam-green walls cast them both in an underwater glow.

"I don't really like you right now." Her voice was still faint. Morgead could tell she was drifting from him, onto the breeze and out the open window to wing with the gulls crying over the breaker rocks.

"Yeah?" Morgead watched the stringy fringe of her cut-off shorts flutter against her thighs. He caught a strand, and began to toy with it. The back of his hand brushed Jez's skin. She made a small noise and shifted slightly.

"Yeah. You were an asshole today." Morgead tugged on the string, letting it slide and catch as it unraveled. He didn't remember how the argument started. Somehow, he had ended up calling her a spoiled brat. In exchange, she threw his TV off the roof.

Jez swatted him gently. "Stop that," she said, but left her fingers tangled in his messy dark hair. Morgead did as instructed and let go of the string. Damp ocean breeze drifted over them both. Leather creaked as Morgead shifted up on the bed and laid his head on her belly, his palm resting on her hip. A fine trembling ran through Jez's body like a high-voltage current through a live wire as Morgead's thumb brushed over her hip-bone, dipping in the hollow between skin and denim. For a moment, the future hung before them, uncertain and formless in the blue dusk light.

"Sorry," he breathed, as his dark lashes fluttered over her skin. He heard Jez stifle a gasp before it could escape.

Jez relaxed."Yeah, well don't do it again." Morgead felt her draw breath and exhale, then draw it again. He matched her, breath for breath, until they fell into a deep rhythm.

"Uncle Bracken will be home soon." Jez sounded far off, like she was leagues under the sea. Her fingers grazed his scalp.

"Just a little longer."