Stay (Completed)

Chapter 8- Dogs, Moms, and Beverage Choices (Again)

“…be a wonderful summer! Don’t you think so Evan?” My mom asked as she turned around with her arms loaded with lunch.

“Yeah I have a feeling it’s going to be a good one.” Evan said as he glanced at me and smiled. “Here let me help you with that.” Evan offered as he walked over and grabbed the cheese and lunch meat that was falling out of my mom’s grasp.

“Why thank you!” My mom exclaimed as she walked over to where she would prepare our sandwiches.

“You’re welcome, ma’am.” Evan nodded.

“Ma’am! Now son you don’t have to call me ma’am. Kate will do. Although I do like your manners! Your mother raised you right!”

“Yeah…she did.” Evan half smiled and turned away from my mother and me to look out the window.

“So mom can you make those sandwiches and Evan and I will be right back. I just want to show him the basement real quick and we can grab some drinks.”

“Sure thing sweetie.”

As I led Evan down the stairs I felt like something was off. Evan was still smiling and all but it looked fake, like he was wearing a mask.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked as we came to the bottom of the stairs and turned to the left to go to the bar area.

“What? Yeah, I’m good.” He said smiling.

“Good. I just thought you seemed a little…sad…for a second there.”

“Oh…yeah…I was…I just miss my mom.” He told me as he looked around the room before stopping and staring into my eyes.

“Oh. Well did she stay back in Wisconsin?” I asked, assuming that was why he missed her.

“Yeah...She did.” It didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it so I figured a new topic was necessary.

“So! How do you like the basement? We’ve got the standard leather couch and about the largest TV I have ever seen. Um there is a pool table, a foosball table, and an air hockey table over there. And the bar is right over here.” I turned and smiled at him.

“It’s nice it really is. Seems perfect for parties.” He commented as he glanced around. “Actually now every high school party I am going to go to I am going to think about how it would be instantly better if it was here. Seriously this place is amazing!”

I laughed and walked over to the refrigerator. “So what would you like to drink?”

“I’ll take a Pepsi. What about you? Can you make up your mind this time?” He asked me, making me think that was going to be our inside joke; that I could never decide on a beverage.

“Well ya know…it really is a very difficult decision that takes lots of time-“

“Oh whatever!”He yelled and we were back to laughing and goofing around just like we were in the beginning.

“Come on, let’s get back upstairs. I’m sure lunch is ready by now.” I told Evan as I headed back toward the stairs.

He agreed and when we came back upstairs with our beverage choices, I had eventually chosen a Pepsi like Evan, my mom was waiting at the table with three plates of sandwiches and potato chips on the table. Hopefully, lunch would be fun and Evan I could possibly hang out afterwards.

Evan’s POV:

Lunch was great. Kate did ask a lot of questions but most of them were easy to answer and she always had a fun comment about my response. I told her I had twin brothers and she launched into a story about how she had these two twin boys in her senior class her were absolutely hilarious and one day they decided to go to each other’s classes. She explained how all of the teachers knew that it wasn’t the right twin but they went along with it because both boys were well respected for their courtesy and achievements around school. Even the questions she asked about my family weren’t too hard to answer. I had learned over the past couple of months how to answer a question about your family and not include your mother, yet make it seem like she is there. I felt like Maria was curious about my mom and I knew I would have to tell her eventually but I wasn’t sure when that would be or how I would have to go about it. Either way the thought of talking about it still gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach.

After lunch was over, Maria and I did the dishes and then walked back down to the beach. We took off our shoes and waded in the water for a little bit, simply enjoying the water.

“Ya know, my brothers have been dying to build a sandcastle. I was thinking about heading back down there and helping them out. Would you like to join me?” I asked her, hopeful she would come. I didn’t want to say goodbye and I knew my dad would be expecting me back soon.

“Sure! I love sandcastles!!! Let me go change clothes and I then we can go k?”

“Yeah, awesome.” I replied, relieved she said yes.

“Do you want to come back in or do you want to wait down here?”

“Here’s good.” I told her, it would give me a chance to think about the rest of the afternoon.

“Okay, I’ll be quick, promise.” Maria told me as she backed up toward her house.

“You better be!” I told her laughing. I could hear her laughing as she climbed the steps. I really did love her laugh.

I wonder if she would wear a swimsuit…she should because then we could go swimming and it would be a blast. I guess I could have told her that, but I mean it is a day at the beach so she probably will. I think I saw some buckets and other sand castle making items back at the house. I assume they were left there for us to use. What if Tommy and Jack already made sand castle today? What would we do then? Would we just sit at the beach? Oh gosh what was I going to do? Did I even pack swimming trunks? Surely I did…we were going to be here the whole summer, why wouldn’t I? What—

“Hey! I’m ready!” Maria yelled as she ran up to where I was standing in the cool water. She had changed into some jean cutoff shorts and white tank top. Underneath I could see the strings of a red bikini. She knew the plan apparently. And I knew she was going to look smoking hot in the bikini. “Ready?” She asked me since I hadn’t moved

“Yep! As ready as could be!” I told her and we began our walk back to my house. I realized then how our houses really weren’t that far apart. We had our own private beaches in front of both of our houses but then a public beach was stretched out in between. Summer here was going to be a really good one, I hadn’t lied when I told Maria’s mom that. I only hope that it will be great because I get to spend it with Maria. She was a really cool person and knew we were meant to be friends, and maybe even something more.