This Summer. Katlyn Duncan
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Hadley
“There’s the heartbreaker!”
I stop in the middle of my driveway and glare at my best friend, Lily. She’s grinning madly.
I roll my eyes. “Is this going to be a thing?” I shout over the radio blaring from her car. I glance at the houses across the street and hustle to the passenger door.
Lily reaches for the volume and turns the music down to a level just below ear-shattering as I slide into the passenger seat. She snaps her gum, still holding onto her smile. “Probably.” Her hand leans on the horn.
I slap her hand away from the steering wheel.
“What?”
“You know Mrs. Jones hates that.” My neighbor across the street spends most of her day peering between her curtains, taking her self-appointed neighborhood watch duties very seriously.
Lily blows a raspberry and I shake my head.
“You know you love me,” she says.
Ethan, my eager seventeen year old brother, bounds out of the house.
“It’s not every day that Hadley Beauman breaks it off with the most drool-worthy guy in school,” Lily continues.
“That’s the thing,” I say, adjusting the hem of my shorts over my tanned legs. “We aren’t in school anymore. So technically it’s not a big deal.”
Lily hoots. “I see my methods are finally rubbing off on you. It’s about damn time.” She flips her chestnut waves over her shoulder. “It feels good, doesn’t it?” she says in a low, seductive voice.
I roll my eyes. Lily has no experience with a boyfriend but she has plenty with guys. Men, mostly. She finds high school boys too immature.
“Not really,” I say honestly. Carter and I were together for barely a year.
Ethan opens the back door and jumps in.
I sneak a glance at him and I’m blasted with his scent: some cologne that Mom gave him for Christmas. It’s a fight to get him up and showered in the morning, never mind put on scent, but I knew he didn’t do it for me.
Lily turns around in her seat and unleashes a smile at him. He gives her a lopsided grin. I don’t know how she does it, but with just a look she manages to turn even the most confident guys into blithering idiots. My brother never stood a chance. “Looking good, Ethan. A two-week cruise really does the Beauman clan well.” She flicks her finger at a lock of my sun-kissed blonde hair that had lightened even more over the graduation vacation from my parents. Dad was busy with work so it was my mom and her best friend along with Ethan and me.
Lily puts the car in reverse, then brakes so quickly I’m thrown back in my seat. I grab the seatbelt. “Why are you stopping?”
Lily’s head is turned toward the house next door. The two story cape that I’ve avoided looking at over the past two years. “What’s with the sign?”
“Dad told me they are selling the house,” Ethan chimes in.
My breathing constricts as I break the promise to myself and look up at the sharp lines of the house. I can just see the corner of Will Carson’s window from this angle, but I tear my focus away and look over the overgrown lawn to the 'For Sale' sign near the curb. A blue car idles in the driveway and I squint to make out who is in the driver’s seat.
As if the person heard the hammering of my heart, the driver’s side opens. A woman in her mid-fifties with a short black bob and black pantsuit exits the car. Her stick-thin legs look as if they are about to crack under the pressure of standing on five-inch heels. I’ve seen this woman’s face all over town on benches and other 'For Sale' signs.
My damp hands pull into fists in my lap. My head snaps towards Lily and she nods. There wasn’t an exact moment or time we spent on our mental connection, but it's strong enough that we can convey entire stories across a crowded room with one look. And sitting in the same car I sent the strongest message I could.
I made a point to be over my neighbor and best friend since childhood leaving my life without a word since. I take a slow breath and exhale, turning my gaze to the glove box, focusing my thoughts away from him.
Lily peels out of the driveway, away from our house.
The further down the street we get, the easier my breathing comes and I unfurl my hands and wipe them on the plush seat.
The car is silent except for the roar of my heartbeat in my ears. Lily reaches for the volume and turns the music up again. I swallow, attempting to dislodge the lump in my throat. It’s not until we reach the main road that I’m able to breathe normally again.
“Ethan!” Lily calls over the music. “Did you meet any hot babes on the cruise?”
“Oh yeah,” he says, dragging the words out. “But none as hot as you.”
Lily cackles and I can’t help but smile. She has no idea how he feels about her, and I would never spill the beans.
“Do you know which pool you’re assigned to?” Lily asks, pushing the subject farther away from the near fatal freakout she just witnessed.
“No way,” Ethan says. “You know Dad doesn’t treat us any differently than the rest of the staff.”
Lily nudges my arm. “Have you talked to Carter since you got back?”
“Seriously?” Ethan groans. “We had a nice two weeks without talking about Carter.”
Lily glances at him in the rearview mirror.
I shake my head. “We just got in last night. I passed out like the second we got home. I don’t see a problem though. We’re still friends. I don’t see why anything will change.” I don't mention the dozens of angry and sappy texts I returned to, all dated the first week I’d been gone. I know I'm seeing him today and, by the late timestamp on most of them, I'm not sure if he still feels the same way after a week of silence.
Ethan snorts.
I turn in my seat. “What?”
He tilts his head as if I just told him the world was flat. “You can’t be that stupid.”
I sock him in the leg and he wrinkles his nose.
“He’s right,” Lily says. “It’s going to be awkward as hell if you two are working as co-counselors together. You better not get back together.”
I turn in my seat to face her. “That’s not going to happen. He’s going to California for college. It was going to happen eventually. And he agreed to still work at the camp.”
Lily turns the music lower. “What if he hooks up with another girl? Then you have to work with him every day.”
I shrug. “He can hook up with whoever he wants.”
“You say that,” her tone is serious. “But you know you are going to feel like crap.”
“I forgot you wrote the book on boyfriends.” The words slip out of my mouth before I can stop them.
I don’t look at her, but I know she’s chewing her lip.
“You’re right. But I’ve dated enough to know that this isn’t going to turn out well.”
We rarely argue and she has to know I didn’t mean it. I don’t do conflict so, in typical best friend fashion, she drops it. Our relationship is strong because we’re able to be honest with each other. She’s dished it out at me a few times but I never faulted her. But that doesn't make it feel any better.
“Maybe Dad will switch Carter with someone else,” I offer