Our Last Summer

9.

June 11th, 2023

It had been a couple weeks since everyone arrived at Holden, and everything was going just fine, the kids got the Wi-Fi back, Mia was spending more time with her parents and the adults were still going out every day enjoying their days together, they really missed each other.

It was a Friday afternoon and once again, the kids had no plans for the evening. Eloise and Nathan were making ice-cream in the kitchen, Elliot and Colin were playing minigolf in the backyard, James and Atlas played with Goldy in the sand, Chase was reading in the hammock, Ivy and Ava were in their room, Blair was also reading in the living room, and Vienna was taking a nap.

Then suddenly, Atlas came running into the living room, "hey guys, we just got invited to a bonfire, are y'all in?"

Vienna opened her eyes as fast as she could when she heard the word bonfire. "I'm so in"

"I'll ask the girls" James appeared behind him and walked over to Ivy's room.

"We are also in" Eloise said, speaking for her and Nathan, what was going on between the two of them anyways?

Oh lord, they were secretly dating.

---

October 25th, 2022

Nathan and Sawyer took a trip to San Jose, California to watch Atlas play against the San Jose Sharks, also taking the opportunity to take a couple days off from life in Florida and have some Dad-Son's time.

They arrived at the arena and sat on their seats, that's when he saw her.

Eloise Hayes, wearing her jersey with her favorite player's last name, Eklund, walking down the stairs to her great seat right by the glass. Nathan kept looking at her, she was his first crush when they were kids and now that they were grown up, he just felt starstruck by her.

"Hey son, isn't that Eloise Hayes?" Sawyer asked his son.

"I think it's her" but he didn't think it was her, he knew.

"You should say hi, you haven't seen her in so many years" Sawyer knew what he was doing, he always rooted for them, just like his wife.

"Yeah, I think I will" Nathan stood up and walked to where she was. He was just a couple feet away when he froze and felt nervous out of nowhere, luckily, Eloise just turned around and saw him, standing there.

"Nathan St James, wow" she said with a confident grin on her face "it has been what? 5 years?" she asked.

"7 actually" he kept counting the days until he saw her again.

"You sure have been counting them huh? Well, I wouldn't expect to see you all the way on the west coast"

"Atlas is playing your guys, we came here to spend a few days on a different place and see him play, never thought I would see you" he admitted.

"Well, I'm glad you did" Eloise smiled at him. "Do you and your dad want to sit down here with me? My friends bailed last minute and have two places in front of the glass" she offered.

"We would love to"

After that, they spent the whole game together, and a few hours of the next few days seeing each other, this without Claire knowing, and Spencer taking the chance to see his friend again, still, this trip was kept a secret kept by everyone.

On that note, Nathan took the opportunity of asking her to be his girlfriend and she said yes, ever since, they have been just seeing each other whenever they can, and they can't complain. Just Ava sending them to the closet made it harder to hide how they really feel around each other.

Do you remember the ghosts Blair saw last time at midnight? It was them sneaking out to the tree house.

I guess the heart wants what it wants, and even the difficulties of sneaking during the night wasn't going to stop them.

---

A few hours later, everyone got into the cars they were able to get, in Atlas's jeep we got Blair, Vienna, Chase and Elliot, meanwhile with James on his parents' truck, you had Ivy, Ava, Colin, Nathan and Eloise. Thankfully the way they arranged to seat was mess free.

Elliot was on the passenger seat besides Atlas, so he was in charge of the music. He chose a song that brought memories to Blair about the last time she saw Atlas.

Coast by Hailee Steinfeld played with the volume all up, the windows were down, and the vibes were amazing. It was just her mind going around him again.

That ended soon when they arrived to where the bonfire was taking place, Oak Island.

They all got out of the car and started to walk to the group of people they were able to see from the distance. It was the beginning of an eventful night.