Southern Summer

Chapter Thirteen

I woke up the next morning to a text from Jamie.

J: Hey! I think I'm gonna have some girls come over and stay the night tonight.. wanna come?

Finally I had girls I could talk to. I highly doubted Jamie had invited Lilly either, after what had happened at the pool party, so that was a relief.

The smell of bacon cooking drew me out of bed and I hurried downstairs for breakfast.

"What are you up to today, darlin'?" Grandma asked sweetly as she set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me.

I took a few hungry bites before I answered, "Well Jamie invited me to stay the night at her house tonight with some other girls," I ventured.

Grandma perked up, "That's great honey," she said, "I suppose you get tired of talking to an old gizzard all day anyway huh?"

I laughed ,"So I can go then?"

Grandma nodded, "I think I culd drop you off over there tonight. What time is that?"

I shrugged, "I dunno yet," I said, "I'll ask."

I quickly pulled my phone out from under the table to answer Jamie.

C: Yeah, sounds fun! What time do you think?

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At six o'clock that night Grandma dropped me off at Jamie's house. I thought it was kind of embarrassing being dropped off by my grandma when I was old enough to drive, but I didn't want to leave Tilly home alone all night without a vehicle. I said good-bye to her and went up to the front door, ringing the doorbell.

Jamie arrived a moment later, swinging the door open, "Come on out of the heat!" She said, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside. I recognized Rylie and Sarah from the pool party, they were sitting at the counter talking. Another girl I had met, Annah, come in a few minutes later.

"What kind of pizza should we get?" Jamie asked, looking at some list taped to her fridge of phone numbers of pizza places.

After a few minutes of heated debate, we decided on half supreme half pepperoni.

"Wait!" Annah shrieked in excitement, "Ethan's probably back from college for the summer, isn't he?"

Jamie paused in punching numbers into the phone, face lighting up. The group of girls collapsed into squeals of jumping joy, and I stared in confusion.

"Who?"

I was then quickly informed about Ethan, the oober-hot college boy who had worked at the Pizza Pit during his high school days. He was now a sophomore in college, but still apparently pulled at the fan-girl strings of this group of girls. They said he had come back last summer and delivered pizzas, so he probably was this year too.

"And he hasn't seen us for a whole year, I mean we probably look older you know?" Rylie was saying quickly.

I rolled my eyes as the girls gushed on and on about this guy.

"Hush!" Jamie finally said, laughing, "I haven't even gotten to order the pizza yet."

We were silent as she called and ordered the pizza.

"Oh, and who is delivering today?" she asked casually. She nodded, "Okay, thank you!"

We stared at her as she was silent for a moment, "Ethan may or may not be the delivery driver today," Jamie said as casually as possible.

The girls were screaming again, fighting over who would get to answer the door. Everyone threw in a few dollars to pay for the pizza.

"If I remember right," Sarah was saying, "Rylie got to answer last time, so it should be me."