A Cold Night In The Summer

One

THE few things I knew about Florida were ：it was called The Sunshine State, it was bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, people really liked vacationing there and enjoying the amazing and beautiful Floridian beaches, and the sky there was the most of the time sunny

Or rather, those were the few informations my Aunt June had deigned to give me about the place she called "her home".

Of course, she couldn't tell me about the bad ones.

For example, she hadn't mentioned the "cyclone" that had passed by two weeks ago and that still caused rainy and windy weather in some seaside Florida towns like the one I was actually heading to.

She probably didn't want me to change my mind and decide not to come. But, well, I actually had no other place where to spend the summer anyway.

That summer was my last one before going to College, so I couldn't waste it doing shitty things or staying in my room. Even though I had never been the kind to make a big deal out of summer vacations, I really wanted to make this one special and unforgettable. Plus, for once, I didn't have to watch over my father. I could finally behave like the teenager I was and not my fourty-year-old alcoholic father's frigging babysitter.

So while my dad would be at a rehab, eighteen-year-old me would be having fun. Until then my definition of "having fun" was reading mushy novels in my room, or watching movies on Netflix. But now that I had officially finished high school, and had realized that maybe I had missed out on some awsome experiences by locking myself in a shell, I felt like doing all those kinds of things I had never done before like going outside or partying out or why not even taking a midnight swim ? And the place I was going to was the exact ideal place for all those kinds of things ： Crystal River.

If you google the town's name, like I did, you'd see beautiful pictures of manatees, of a wonderful river, of people canoeing on the river or swimming with the manatees. But the article wouldn't warn you of the possible bad weather, in any case, it didn't warn me of it, which explained why I was wearing a tank top and mini shorts that barely covered my frail pale skin.

All this to say that I absolutely didn't expect the downpour that welcomed me at the bus station of Crystal River. And what felt worst than feeling dumb for not checking the weather forecast before coming over like a preventive and smart human would have done, was feeling like the only one dumb person around ！Because everyone in the bus was actually wearing jeans and sweatshirts.

Anyway, I tried to stay positive. There was no way I'd let a downpour ruin the vacation I had planned to make the most unforgettable of my life ！

I walked out of the bus with my small suitcase. The downpour had stopped, but the clouds above our heads still looked heavy enough to pour rain on us at any moment. I just tried to ignore it.
When I felt the wind blowing my short brown hair, I wanted to inhale and exhale like those chicks in movies when they arrive in some peaceful town, but I got blinded by my own hair and it totally spoiled the moment.

Dang it ！

Tucking my hair behind my ears, I dragged my suitcase behind me till I reached an empty bench by the road where to sit down. My bare thighs got goosebumps from the wet cold wood, but I didn't move, partly because there was no other bench around and mostly because I felt like I had fusionned with that bench.

I pulled my smartphone out of my pocket and pressed on Aunt June's name in my repertory. It rang, and rang, but nothing. She didn't respond, which I found really rude of her ！
I was all alone, in a town I knew only through pictures and my mom's anecdotes. It would have been really nice to come pick me up in time ！Well, it would have prevented me from freaking out.