Something a little happier this time perhaps. For the lovely Chad – *offers donut*

The window’s wound all the way down and the music settles into your bones. There’s a comfortable lethargy about it all and you can smell the salt in the air.

It tingles a little.

“Where now?”

It breaks your concentration and you crack an eye open and turn your head slightly to the side.

“Beach,” you say firmly. “Now.”

He laughs and raises an eyebrow. “No room for argument there.”

Now, you aren’t that fond of pop music as a rule. You make an exception for songs that remind you of summer like this and make you hum with energy.

You sing along loudly. So does everyone in the car.

The wind makes a mess of your hair and it doesn’t matter because you get out of the car and the sand’s there and you can smell the salt and it’s dark and sometimes there’ll be a light glinting off the water.

You wonder how you ever thought there was something wrong with the world.

Their laughter makes you giggle and you hit the jetty at a run, blood still thrumming in your veins and you forget that the wood isn’t that even. You trip and they laugh as you catch yourself and Craig stabs at you with his icecream.

The cone breaks and your eyes widen as you realise there’s a massive white patch on the ass of your shorts.

You pin him and sit on him, spilling jelly from your donut on his face. You crush it against his nose and Mahalia laughs delightedly as you wriggle and the donut falls apart on his face, jelly going everywhere.

He has a white patch on his chest now and you snort with laughter.

You bolt further up the jetty, you can hear him yelling after you and Mahalia giggling as she catches up.

You reach halfway and you both sit on the railing and the salt’s stronger out here. Craig reaches you and you both laugh and it looks awfully suspicious, if reversed.

Hours are whiled away in a cacophony of laughter and stories and the breeze and the splash of the water.

The stars are twinkling and the music’s settled in your bones and you’re quite possibly goo from head to toe.

You’d live like this. It wouldn’t be hard, with jelly all over Craig’s face and icecream on your shorts.

It’s what the summer nights are all about.