Our Summers

CHAPTER FIVE

“Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.”  -Richard Bach

Christian came through the door grumbling about Pop's truck and how it was a death trap. "It's not nice to talk bad about your elders." I joked looking up from the papers I was working on. Pop grinned "That's my girl." he said around a mouthful of cherry pie. Gran snorted but didn't comment. Christian threw himself into seat across from me pulling the entire pie-tin in front of him and digging in with my discarded fork. "Hey!" Pop said looking like a puppy who'd just lost his bone. "Leave the boy alone Alexander, he's been out there working all morning." Gran said without turning around. Christian grinned and Pop glared at him. "Yeah Pop, I've been working on your death trap all morning. I really don't want to ride that thing into town just to grab a few receipts for Noelle." Christian said. I groaned, Christian had been making the same complaint for a week now. He would barely talk to me or look at me after our earlier argument and continued to complain about doing paper runs for me and Pop. "Why don't you suck it up?" I asked rolling my eyes. "Why don't you do your own paper runs?" Christian shot back. I grabbed the keys from the table. "As a matter of fact I will." I said sticking my tongue out at him. "Oh, no you don’t. You sit down and eat before you go slave a way in that dang store." Gran said glaring at me. "I'll eat at the store Gran. Pop can consider it payment for the slaving." I said standing to go. "Make sure Haden's not slacking off ya here?" Pop called after me. I hesitated on the steps and I heard Christian clear his throat. "Speaking of Haden and Kaden did I mention the big part of the baby situation…" I heard him start. I rushed to the truck and slid in patting the dash affectionately. "Hey Betty. Long time since we've been together huh?" I mumbled.

It took two or three tries before she started up, but with some work I was rolling into town and staring at the old buildings. They looked a lot different now that I was able to go into them alone. I pulled in behind Pop's store and walked around to the front running my hand along the wall and reading some of the fresher graffiti while watching out for a certain tag. You didn’t notice it unless you knew it was there. I found it right in the middle of a new tag. K&N PROMISE  we'd done it on the night my mom died. Before we found out she'd been in the accident. I stared at it briefly and continued inside. I didn’t recognize Haden when I stepped inside, and he obviously didn’t recognize me. "Hi! Looking for anything in particular?" he asked smiling. I shook my head and he frowned "You sure? These isles have been known to eat tourist. Wouldn’t want a beautiful girl like you to go missing." He said looking me up and down. I laughed quietly and made my way to the back wall. I was grabbing a beer and a sandwich when the door opened again. "Haden! There you are! Did you get the invite to my party tonight? We only graduate once you know." Said a blonde. She had a group of girls with her and one of them was staring at me. She whispered to the others and they all glanced at me, the blonde too. It took me a moment to place her, but the blue eyes were unmistakable. "Wow. Tourist already. They sure do come earlier every year." Brandy West said staring right at me. I popped open my beer and made my way back to the front. I stopped next to the group and smiled "Tourist sure are annoying. Almost as annoying as locals who think there high and mighty." I said before unlocking the side door and stepping in. I heard Haden chuckle and Brandy snort. "God, who peed in her apple juice?" she muttered.

I slid into Pop's desk and pulled all his papers out his desk drawer. A few minutes later the girls left and Haden peeked in. "So are you one of Grants friends?" he asked. "You could say that" I answered not looking up from some old receipts for shelves. I glanced up and frowned "Do you know if Pop has any other paper work around?" I asked impatiently. "Oh. Yeah it's all in the file cabinet behind the counter. My brother's been trying to sort it out and Christian's been stopping by to grab it for him. So umm… are you a relative or something?" he asked studying me. "Yeah." I said smiling. "You know Noelle?" he asked coming closer. "Mmmhmmm"  I couldn’t say anything. "How is she?" he asked. "Fine." I murmured. He nodded and gave me one last curious glance before going to attend to whoever had just come in.

"Shouldn’t you be working?" Kaden said when he came in. There was a shuffle and Haden laughed "Pop hired some girl to sort through those papers. I was helping her out." He said. Kaden snorted "Yeah, right. You can barely count to 20 let alone sort through financial documents." Kaden said. "Shut-up and bring her those papers." Haden replied. I grinned, but continued going over the receipts. Kaden came in and set the filing cabinet down next to the desk. "Want help?" he asked. "I could use it." I said grinning at him. He froze "She lives." He said pulling up a chair across from me. "I do." I replied coolly. "I'm surprised Haden isn’t in here slobbering all over you." He said glancing at the door. "He's not the brightest. It'll take him awhile." I said laughing. "So… I thought you weren’t coming back?" he asked seriously. I took a deep breath "I wanted to spend my last summer before we go to college with my family." I said truthfully. "It would be nice to spend the summer with you before I have to spend the school year with you." He replied grinning. I threw some papers at him and he laughed. "Hey! This doesn’t look like paper work." Haden said coming into the room. I threw papers at him too "Stuff it bubble bottom." I said using his old nick-name. he frowned and stared at me for a minute. "Wait for it." Kaden said laughing. "Noelle!" Haden said pulling me out of my chair and into a bear hug. "I can't breathe!" I wheezed squirming out his arms. "Why didn’t you say something?" he asked grinning. "Because I wanted to get some work done before messing with you two." I said rolling my eyes.

"Hello!? Noelle!?" Christian called when he entered the store. "Oh here we go." I muttered glancing at Kaden. He smiled and I felt my heart lighten. I could never forget why I was here or what happened, but I could move on with my family. With my best friend.