About Time - a summer novel

THREE

The weather was warm but not too hot  when we left in the middle of the summer night to start our way to France. All the bags and suitcases were neatly stacked in the trunk of the big family car and the little Lizzy was being put in her seat, still half asleep, while my two years older brother Dylan sat next to me, listening to music and texting his friends. 

It was just around three A.M. and therefore in the middle of the night, yet my phone showed new messages of Fen, Lee or both every few minutes.

 They were about to leave or on their way already too. I felt tired, not just because it was literally in the middle of the night but also because i had been up the whole day packing and loading everything in the car on yesterdays burning hot afternoon. The air still felt thick as if you could slice it with a knife and suffocating, the heat still hanging in the air. It felt tiring and with weather like this my head always felt slightly dizzy and heavy. 

I didn't complain though. I don't do stuff like that- it doesn't change the weather, neither does it improve anything else. 

Wearing my big blue crochet pullover and small grey sweat shorts i sat down in my car seat, buckling up and reminding Dylan to do so too. He is a bit scatterbrained as I like to call it. Not in a mean way. And he isn't dumb either, just a bit odd sometimes. 

All of a sudden, for a short moment and just from the corner of my eye i saw a small but quite familiar looking picture popping up on Dylans lockscreen.

I snatched his phone under semi-loud protest and had my suspicions confirmed as Fen's name was showen directly next to the little profile picture revealing that she and my brother had in fact been messaging each other. 

How on earth didn't I know of this? Not that it bothered me, but remembering last summer there had seemed to be some kind of tension going on between them- Lee and I had been so sure of that although the two alleged lovebirds were still denying absolutely everything up to this day.

 "Oh my god y'all are texting each other? Since when and why didn't ya tell me?" I exclaimed, basically screaming but in a quiet tone so my parents wouldn't hear us talk about anything like this and get involved and so Lizzy could continue sleeping peacefully. "Just.. ya know for a few weeks- but just casual smalltalk. Nothing else. Also it's not like it's any of your business anyway you nosy bitch" he answered, not just in an pissed off but also in a slightly embarrassed voice. "Nosy bitch? How dare you- oh my god can you  please stop hitting on my friends? Can't you leave ONE thing or person just for me for once? Why do you always have to do that ? Geez it's so annoying !" I rolled my eyes, gave him his phone back and put on my headphones as i turned to the left side and the cars window, away from where my brother was sitting. 

It wasnt the first time he tried to get with one of my friends- i couln't blame him 'cause they were all beautiful and kind, yet it was just a bit weird to me. It was like two seperate worlds- my family on one and my friends on the other side- getting mixed together and i just couldn't imagine having to handle that if things went downhill in some way or another. 

I felt Dylan tapping on my shoulder, trying to once again get me to listen to his justification about the situation but the reaction he got out of me was just me demonstratively turning my phones screen to him and turning the volume of my music up. 

The playlist that played now kind of felt like it was sung- or screamed- directly into my ears but you won't ever catch me complaining about good music being too loud. 

Still, I could close my eyes and calm down, now completely focusing about the film of my wildest dreams and imaginary scenarios of how the future weeks could go and snippets of past summers playing on the inside of my eyes, in my head, my imagination. As always when i thought about something like this, a warm feeling spread in my chest and later to the rest of my body like my hands, which made them tingle and my expression turn into a smile. 

I remember a day from the beginning of last summer. We were on the white wooden sailing boat that belonged to Lee's dad. Our towels had been laying neatly next to each other, us lounging on them. The sun was shining warm on our bodys, that were just barely covered in our colorful swimsuits, leaving tanlines as reminders of these days where the world belonged just to us- when it's just us three alone on the wide of the shiny blue ocean. Birds of the sea and surrounding land are screaming, flying over our our bodys. We had spent the day in and out the water, diving to find and collect shells to later make jewelry out of. After a while, when we all had stopped talking and just listened to music and relax, Lee had had the idea to turn on music that sounded like a Siren or Mermaid singing and humming a melody. It made the whole ongoing scenario feel so magical and also definitly a core memory taht all of us shared. On our way back, when the sun had started to set and after we went in for this days last round of swimming- the enchanting music still playing I looked at Lee. 

She looked beautiful- her straight dark hair was dripping with water and now looking almost completely black. Her dark blue bikini looked so nice on her and when I think about it now, this gorgeous girl was probably the closest thing i'd ever see to a siren. It was just an connection that suited her well. Not just because of how she looked. Her voice sounded so gentle yet clear and powerful when she spoke and on the few rare occasions i've had heard her sing too. She once told us that she used to sing in a choir- her mom had made her do that although she secretly really had liked it sometimes. 

Lee. Still in the water, you had turned around to me and smiled your pretty smile. You had stroked a strand of my chocolate brown hair out of my face and looked at me with your pretty, dark eyes . The water around us had been sparkling from the last bit of evening sunlight that day and it was the moment I knew that something had changed. 

These memories made me drift off to sleep quite rapidly and while I can't remember dreaming of anything i still fell asleep with a slight smile on my face. How could I know that? Well, my brother took a picture and sent it to me, together with the message 'dreaming about murdering me ? or thinking of some guy maybe?' My reply was a simple and dry 'funny.' and with that I put my phone away again to get some more sleep.

The next time i woke up was because i heard my parents call my name. I looked out of the window and didn't see the landscape move anymore. We were there. I saw the beach to my left and the houses to my right. And then, standing on the street in front of the beach after all this time again, I recognized you. Finally.