A Summer to Remember

chapter 14





I was woken up the next morning by my cellphone buzzing on my nightstand. I picked up my phone and saw Lily’s name across the screen.

“Hello?” I answered, irritated. She knew I wasn’t a morning person.

“Morning, sleepy head! Time to get up so I can hear all about your date last night!” I never understood how she could be so chipper all the time, especially in the mornings.

“It’s too early,” I grumbled.

“Girl, please! It’s nine o’clock. You want to go to the pool?” I knew that even if I tried to say no she was going to end up getting her way anyway, she always did.

“Might as well, I’m up now.”

“I’ll be there in forty-five minutes and you better be ready to spill about last night. Bye.” She hung up and I set my phone back down on the nightstand.

About a half hour passed before I decided to get out of bed. I knew if I didn’t, she’d come up here and drag me out the door. I didn’t do much except wash my face and throw my hair up in a bun on top of my head.

“Ava! I’m here!” Lily yelled up the stairs. “Let’s go!”

“I’m coming! Hold your horses!” I grabbed my phone and pool bag and went downstairs.

“You ready? I’m hungry. We should grab some food on our way there.” Even in a cover up, no makeup and her hair literally thrown on top of her head, Lily still managed to look amazing. She was one of those girls that looked good even when she wasn’t trying to.

“Sounds good.” I locked up the house and jumped in her convertible. We drove to the nearest drive-thru and got a couple salads and some caffeine. Lily’s known me long enough to know she wasn’t going to get anything out of me without food and caffeine first.

When we got to the pool, we weaved in and out of groups of elementary school kids and looked around for two empty chairs. By this time it was late morning, so it was already pretty packed. This pool is where most of the richer parents took their kids for play dates. Or should I say, where the richer parents had their nannies take their kids for play dates. It was one of the nicer pools in town. There were giant umbrellas for shade and a covered sand pit for the kids. It also had three different pool areas for different age groups; a small pool for toddlers, a bigger pool with a play area for elementary aged kids, and one with waterslides for the older kids. We managed to find two chairs under a giant blue umbrella, so we dragged them to the grassy area near the back fence, farthest away from all the screaming kids running around.

“So how was it?” Lily laid her towel down on her chair and made herself comfortable.

“It was amazing. You’ll never guess where he took me.” I sat down on my chair.

“Where?”

“Rooftop Terrace.” Lily flew up into a sitting position. I laughed, I didn’t even know she could move that fast.

“Shut up! How did he even get reservations? Steven and I have been trying to get in for months, and when I say months, I mean literally months!”

“Apparently his uncle works there so he was able to squeeze us in. Not only that, we were upgraded to a VIP dining room because one of their regulars had to cancel at the last minute.” Lily laid back down in her chair.

“Oh my God! I am so jealous right now! You have the best boyfriend ever. Well besides Steven, of course.” Boyfriend? I guess I hadn’t really thought of calling him my boyfriend. I started to get a little giddy inside at the thought of it.

“Of course.” I joked with her.

“So how was it? Was it amazing?” She pried for details as usual.

“Oh yes. The view was absolutely spectacular!”

“I wasn’t talking about the room.” She lowered her sunglasses onto the tip of her nose and looked at me.

“Of course you weren’t.” Lily never failed to make me laugh. “It was great. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. Well. Except…” I thought about the bombshell Adrian dropped on me last night. I could feel a lump forming in my throat just from thinking about it.

“Except what?” Lily was concerned. She must be able to see how upset I was even behind my bug-eyed sunglasses.

“He’s leaving in two and a half months.”

“Leaving? Leaving for where?” She looked at me, confused.

“Florida,” I choked out.

“Like vacation leaving or moving leaving?”

“Like leaving, leaving. This might be the last few months I get to spend with him. I may never see him again after this.”

“Oh Ava, I’m sorry.” She sat on the edge of my chair and hugged me. I didn’t realize tears were running down my cheeks.

“I don’t understand. What’s in Florida?” I wiped the tears from my face and explained to her what he had told me the night before.

“Okay. Well, that’s an amazing job offer. Do you really like him?”

“I haven’t known him long, but I think I do.” I didn’t want to explain to her the stunt I tried to pull last night. When I woke up this morning I was feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing. I should be able to control myself and not just throw myself at someone I’d just met.

“Well, why don’t you see how things go this summer and if you still feel the same way…maybe you should go to Florida.”

“You’re crazy! I can’t do that.” I was shocked she would even suggest such a thing.

“Why not? I mean, I’m your best friend and I would hate to see you leave, but I think this guy is really good for you and I want you to be happy. Besides, Florida is definitely not the worst place in the world to be.”

“I’m already enrolled to take classes at Brant in the fall and my family is here. I can’t imagine leaving them or you behind.” Just the thought of leaving them got me upset.

“I’m not saying you have to make a decision now, but it’s an option. It wouldn’t be so bad for you to get out of this town and they have great schools down there. Schools that are ten times better than Brant.”

“It’s an option, but it’s a crazy option.” I couldn’t even imagine leaving my family and friends behind. It literally scared me half to death. The reason I think Lily and I got along so well is because even though we’re so much alike, she is way more outgoing than me and she always knows how to give me that little push to get me outside of my comfort zone.

“Just think about it.” She got up and went back over to her chair.

We spent the next couple hours talking about things not related to Adrian. Like Steven’s most recent habits that annoyed Lily. They seemed to be arguing a lot more since Jason and I broke up. Lily tended to be a little over dramatic at times and I think Steven didn’t really know how to deal with it. He’d always been really quiet and laid back and he was incredible smart. For as long as I’d known him I don’t think he’d ever gotten less than a 3.8 GPA. I’d always thought of Steven as a super sweet guy with a great heart. The type of guy that would loan you a hundred dollars if you needed it and would never ask you to pay him back. He wanted to go to Brant to play football and get a degree in business, which was completely opposite of Lily.

Lily’s always wanted to go to film school and travel the world, but her parents wouldn’t allow it. They wanted her to go to Brant and get a degree so she could get a “real” job. Of course her parents loved Steven because he was exactly the type of guy they wanted her to marry. I knew Lily loved him, but sometimes I wondered if her free spirit was going to get the best of them one of these days.

When late afternoon rolled around, we decided to gather our things and head home. As we walked through the parking lot to Lily’s car, my phone rang. I dug through my bag until I finally found it stuffed in the bottom. I pulled it out and saw Adrian’s name on the screen.

“Hello?” I tried not to sound too excited.

“Hey, beautiful! How are you today?” I smiled.

“I’m doing pretty good. How about you?”

“I’d be better if I was with you.” I could feel my cheeks turn red. “I’m just on break so I thought I’d call and see what you were up to. I was going to call you this morning when I was on my way to work but I figured you wouldn’t be up yet.”

“Yeah, I’m not much of a morning person. I’m just leaving the pool with Lily. She came over and picked me up this morning and we’ve been hanging out here for a while. We’re heading back to my house now.”

“That sounds fun.”

“Will we be able to hang out tonight?” I had a feeling I knew what his answer was gonna to be, but I thought I’d ask anyways.

“Probably not.” He sounded disappointed. “I’m sorry but I won’t get off until late and I’ll be really exhausted. Working in this heat really takes a toll on me.”

“Okay, I understand.” I tried not to sound too disappointed.

“Don’t forget about Friday,” he reminded me, trying to give me something to look forward to. “Have you thought about what you want to do yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, don’t forget, it’s your call. I have to get back to work. I’ll give you a call tonight.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you then. Bye.”