thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

[one hundred, thirty-three]

He was wondering why the windows weren’t big enough; why did they even have curtains; why was he here in the first place? The entire drive up there was hardly any focus on conversation, that girls had complained about the air conditioning being broken and the humidity and the lack of trail mix, but there wasn’t much for him to complain about until now. The window, with their clear glass lightly punctured with raindrops and smears were the size of a torso, the size of an average, lack-of-interest window. He could tell that this would be tres disappointing.
There wasn’t much else to complain about really, other than the windows’s size, the only other relatively bad thing would be that the cottage was so close to the water. It wasn’t like Brian was afraid of the water, it was just that he had never really been a big fan of large portions of water with no end in sight. Swimming pools were okay, bathtubs were spectacular, but anything like oceans lakes rivers, nothing could be entered nothing could even be talked about without severe breathing issues that caused him to hyperventilate and seriously damage his ability to focus or do anything in particular. Brian was not a fan of water, and it was wonderful that Judy did.
That was the thing with Judy though and Brian knew it, it was like she wanted to be with him really bad, but she loved everything that he hated. She loved the water, she loved her job in the cubicle office space, she loved wearing belts and chewing on the straws of every drink she could get her hands on. Sometimes he figured she did all of this in spite, but he had to come to accept that they were hardly compatible. He loved the sky, he loved the stars and the clouds and everything found above them. Brian loved large open rooms with high ceilings and licorice stubs used as straws. Brian and Judy weren’t the closest couple in the cottage, or the most obviously matched, or the most cohesive...
Sitting on the edge of the deck a good ways away from the water where the girls were frolicking and Derrik was playing along with them, Brian was sitting cradling a beer in the crook of his arm. He had his notebook on his knees, and he was swiftly noting the stars that appeared first as the sun fell from its tag in the sky. Condensation from the beer was leaking onto his grey sweatshirt, but he ignored it as he didn’t want to miss the first Introduction. That’s what he called it when the stars first kissed the sky, their Introduction, especially in new places. This being their first night at the cottage he assumed that he’d get to know these stars very well, learn their history a bit, know them better than he knew Judy, probably.

This ^ happened when I was upset and fed up one day so it's not beautifully worded, it's not even the closest to how I want the story to go, but it's got some ideas and character stuff that I wanted. I write in steps, and the first step is to hammer out the story and the characters and how I want them to be.

Take care,

Jess