My Perfect Summer

Chapter 12

RENEE

It's surprising how a day can go from being a bad kind of emotional to a good kind of emotional.

My mother and I spent the day shopping, eating ice cream, a mini trip to Blue Whales Books, and this was just the beginning.

Spending the day with my Mother was pretty fun, a temporary solution to my problems. Today helped me just let go of all the weight I had felt on my shoulders.  And I can't even express how good it felt, to just feel free.

Today, the sun was shining brightly, that summer breeze blew, and you could smell the ocean water. Everything about today was amazing.

My Mother and I were now visiting a friend at her small Ice Cream shop she had here at the Bay.

Taylor's Homemade Ice Cream.

It was more of a stand, but Taylor made some pretty good ice cream. Taylor and I were good friends, not the type of friends that hung out per se. But Taylor was overly kind and sweet, she always made an effort to check in on everyone and was just always there for you if you needed her.

If you asked someone about her, they'd tell you Oh, that Taylor is a good one.

She was a good person, and I aspire to be as social and kind as her.

It's not that Taylor and her family were struggling, because they weren't. She did this for fun in her spare time. Because she was every bit an environmentalist and self destructive.

We did come here all the time and we were regulars. I always got vanilla ice-cream in a small cup. All those other flavors didn't interest me. It was usually just me, my vanilla ice-cream, and the beach.

When we walked up to the stand Taylor stood there all giggles and smiles. "Renee!" she shrieks, stepping from the stand to hug me, "You're back!"

"Yeah, I guess I am," I say, hugging her back.

"And you Ms. Alder," Taylor says once she lets go moving to hug my mom,  "It's been way too long. And I'm sorry for your loss."

"Aw, Thank you, Taylor," my Mother says, returning her hug.

"So, has anything fun happened lately?" Taylor says, smiling, and serving somebody's ice cream, when she returns to her station.

"Nothing much, just hanging by the beach with the others," I say as if I was thinking about a special magical world.

"Hanging out with boys," my Mom says, laughing.

"Ren-Ren and a boy?" she says dramatically, acting shocked and laughing.

"What? I can talk to boys, and no I haven't," I say trying to defend myself.

"Very convincing," my Mom says, giving me a look.

"Wait, which boy are we talking about exactly?" Taylor asks before an enthusiastic voice with a rich British accent interrupts her, saying, "Olivia! It's lovely to see you,"

That's when a petite woman enters my vision. She has shoulder-length brown hair, fair skin, brown eyes, and the body of a model.

"Morgan, it's great to see you too," my Mother says, hugging the stranger, once she lets go she introduces Taylor and I saying, "This is my daughter Reneé and her friend Taylor."

"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance ladies," Morgan says. "This is my son, James," indicating the tall boy now standing beside her. "I'm not sure if you've met him because he's always hanging with those wild pairs of lads," she also says chuckling.

"Same with this one, every day and always, Madelyn and Claudia," my Mother replies laughing.

"Actually, Renee and I have already met," James says, bringing out his deep accent, not as defined as his Mothers' but this specific voice, always causing something in my stomach to flutter.

"Yeah, we just hung out with everyone the other day," I add.

"Oh that must've slipped my mind," Mrs. Davenport says brightly.

She seemed very enthusiastic, the type of person who was always looking for fun. A golden type of person, a person who cared for others. And I could tell where James got his personality, maybe not his whole personality because he was a little more intimidating than her.

I could hear Mrs. Morgan or Davenport, I'm not entirely sure what to call her, but I could hear her speaking but that's not what or who had my attention. My attention was completely on her son.

James.

His eyes met mine and it felt like all the breath was taken out of me.

Although I had already told myself that I could not be with him, every time he was near me my body became attentive and reacted.

I could never be with anyone. And I think that's the best thing because if they realized how broken and bad off I was, they'd most likely leave me and I could not ever go through the pain of someone leaving me again.

My heart could physically not take it.

Reminding myself of all the reasons I cannot be with James, or anyone for that matter helps me when I turn my gaze and attention back to his Mother.

"Why don't we all go out for a late Brunch," she says smiling.

"That sounds lovely," my Mother replies.

"Oo I have a place just in mind," Mrs. Davenport said, hooking her arm in my Mothers' as they began walking.

"You should come to hang out with us next time," I tell Taylor, smiling.

"Sounds like a plan," she says grinning.

After that, I do a little jog to catch up with the others. Not knowing how I'm supposed to spend the next hour with the boy has me feeling all weird.