Chapter Text
Fawn’s Rest wasn’t much—just an abandoned cabin tucked away in the thick woods outside Velvet Cove, its wooden walls weathered by time, its porch half-rotted but still standing. It had been their place for as long as they could remember. A hideaway, a sanctuary, a stage for late-night confessions and terrible acoustic covers of their favorite songs.
Tonight, it was something else entirely.
"Okay, move!" Nora barked, hauling a tangled string of fairy lights over her shoulder. She nearly tripped over an old rug, catching herself just in time. "Someone plug these in before I lose my mind."
Swann, already perched on the old couch with her camcorder in hand, smirked. "I don’t think lights are gonna fix your mind, Nor."
"Ha-ha."
Autumn snickered as she sifted through a pile of mismatched decorations they had dragged from their homes—faded streamers, half-melted candles, even a disco ball from Kat’s older brother’s junk pile.
"This thing still works?" Autumn held it up, eyeing Kat.
Kat shrugged. "It did when Dylan used it. But, y’know… he was probably high most of the time."
"Guess we’ll find out."
The moment the disco ball was strung up and the lights flicked on, the cabin transformed. Shadows danced across the walls, the fairy lights casting a warm glow over the old furniture and boarded-up windows. It was perfect in its own messy, imperfect way.
Music crackled from Nora’s beaten-up speaker—grungy, bass-heavy, just loud enough to drown out the outside world.
"Okay, now it’s a party," Kat announced, flopping onto the couch next to Swann and stealing a handful of popcorn from the bowl on the table.
Swann rolled her eyes but didn’t complain. Instead, she pointed the camera at them, capturing the moment. "Alright, say something to commemorate the occasion."
Nora flipped off the camera with a grin. "Screw you, Holloway."
Autumn, leaning against the wall with her guitar in hand, laughed. "To the best summer we’ll never remember."
Swann smirked. "Kat?"
Kat blinked, glancing at the lens before flashing a lazy smile. "To us," she said simply, clinking her soda can against Swann’s.
The night unraveled in laughter and music. They danced, badly. They sang, even worse. At some point, Nora convinced Kat to let her paint her nails, and Swann caught the whole thing on tape—Kat grumbling but letting it happen anyway.
It felt endless.
It felt like nothing could touch them here.
And yet, beneath all the joy, there was something else. A quiet knowing. That this—the lights, the music, the laughter—was fleeting. That summers didn’t last forever. That soon, the real world would come knocking.
But for now, they had Fawn’s Rest.
And that was enough.