A Summer to Remember

chapter 6





After what felt like hours, I finally spotted the sign to the entrance to the cabins. I’d been to this lake many times growing up, some of my best summer memories happened here. We used to come up here at least three times a week and park our cars in a little gravel lot and walk about forty-five minutes to spend the afternoon cliff jumping.

“He said cabin twenty seven, right, Jesse?” Steven asked.

“Yeah. Take the next right and it should be down at the end of that road.” Jesse pointed Steven in the direction of the cabin.

Jesse was right, a few miles down the road we saw a large cabin in the distance. I could feel the butterflies multiplying in my stomach, only this time it was more like anxiety. What if I just imagined the feelings I had last night? What if I really was crazy and I was just some girl he met at a party? Heck, he could just be a man whore and I was his next prey.

While all these thoughts were racing through my head, we pulled up to the front of the cabin. There he was, standing on the front porch, beer in hand, waiting for our arrival. Well, there wasn’t any turning back now. Everyone got out of the car but me. I took more time than the others, hoping my nerves would settle a little.

“Hey! I’m glad you guys found the place. Let me give you a hand.” He set down his beer and helped Jesse and Steven unhitch the boat and unload our things. Lily and I waited impatiently on the front deck while Adrian admired Steven’s boat. Steven made sure to tell him every little detail, including the custom paint job.

“Where do you want me to set up the tents?” Jesse asked.

“Bro, look at the size of this place.” He gestured to the cabin. “There are plenty of rooms in there for you guys. It’s only me and two of my buddies and their girlfriends staying here.”

“Damn, all right. Where can we put our stuff?” Jesse grabbed his things and headed toward the front door. Adrian took my bags and the rest of us followed him into the house. After a short tour of the house we all had our own rooms. Well, except Lily and Steven, they were sharing a room, of course. I decided to unpack some of my things before going downstairs to join the others.

“Hey.” I looked up to see Jesse standing in the doorway. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

“You going to be okay staying in here by yourself? The room I’m in has two beds if you’d feel more comfortable in there.”

“I’ll be fine in here.” I smiled at him. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

“If you need anything, I’ll be down the hall.” I could hear the protectiveness in his voice. Jesse had always been a good friend of mine, kind of like a brother to me. But the last few times we’d been around each other, things had started to get a little weird. I was hoping we weren’t going to have to have a conversation about this.

“Thanks.” I gave him one last smile before he walked out the door.

Adrian’s friends had come back from spending the day out on their boat, and decided to start a little pit fire in the back of the cabin overlooking the lake. It was dinnertime and everyone was clearly hungry, so while they were inside getting things ready to grill, I sat out by the fire and watched the sunset. I’d always loved the outdoors, there’s something about it that gives me peace of mind.

“It’s peaceful out here, isn’t it?” Adrian walked up behind me.

“Yes, it is. I love coming up here. We come here every summer, but we’ve never really stayed long enough to watch the sunset.” I scooted down the log bench and he sat down next to me.

“Yeah, I’ve been coming up here with Brian’s family since we met in sixth grade. It was cool because my family didn’t do a lot of things like this, but Brian’s family took me in like I was their second son. So sitting out here watching the sunset brings back good memories for me. It was one of the only things that let me get away from my problems at home as a kid.” I could see the look in his eyes like he was a kid all over again.

“You guys ready to eat or what?” Brian came out with a tray of burgers and hot dogs ready to be cooked.

“It’s about time. I’m starving!” Adrian jumped up and grabbed some burgers to put on the grill.

After dinner, we sat around the fire and reminisced about coming up here during the summers growing up. It was funny to think out of all the summers we’d spent up here and we’d never crossed paths. We even used to jump off the same cliff!

When early morning rolled around, everyone was buzzed up and ready to call it a night. Everyone went inside but I stayed back to help Adrian clean up and put out the fire.

“Looks like it’s going to be a full moon tomorrow night.” He tossed a bucket of water onto the fire.

“I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully it’s not so cloudy.” We walked into the cabin and up the stairs to our rooms.

“Yeah, let’s hope for clear skies.” When we got to the door of my room, I got that weird first date feeling. You know, that ‘to kiss or not to kiss’ feeling. I really hoped this wasn’t going to be awkward.

“Well, amazing Ava, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” He looked right into my eyes. I could feel goosebumps crawling up my spine. I felt as if he could see right though me. “Goodnight,” he whispered as he kissed me on the forehead and turned to walk away.

What was happening? First Jason, then Jesse, now this? I was so confused. But there was something in me that couldn’t let him go. “Wait…” I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward me.

“Hey, Adrian! Where the hell is the bathroom in this place again?” Jesse yelled as he came stumbling down the hallway.

“There’s one right down the hall to the left.” He pointed Jesse in the right direction.

“Thanks, man.” Jesse patted him on the back as he stumbled by. He didn’t even realize he’d just ruined a perfectly good first kiss moment. He turned around halfway down the hall. “You know where I am if you need me.” He pointed at me and gave his best attempt at what I think was a wink but the lazy eye from the alcohol made it hard to distinguish.

“Thanks.” I looked back at Adrian as I covered my mouth to try and mask a laugh, hoping he wasn’t reading anything into it. “Um…thanks for inviting us up here. We all had a lot of fun tonight, if you couldn’t already tell.” We laughed as we watched Jesse stumbling into the bathroom.

“I’m glad you guys are enjoying yourselves. I’ll see you in the morning.” He smiled at me with his perfect smile and went to his room a few doors down. It took everything in me to force myself to walk into my room by myself. As much as I’d like to blame it on the alcohol, I knew it was something more than that.