summer of '17 • jenzie

1 ↝ arriving & admiring

Mackenzie Ziegler
8 June 2017

•••

Finally. Finally we're here– and the view out my car window is picture perfect. Pink, purple and orange clouds are scattered throughout the sky like candyfloss. The house glows a yellow from the light of the escaping sun, and the deep blue waves roll over and over onto the sand. The seagulls squeal down by the jetty, and the air smells like salt. I sigh. It's beautiful, just like always.

Ever since I was born I've been coming here. To the beach house. Along with us come the Orlando's; Meredith, Darian, Johnny and Lauren. Our families together? Well that equals crazy.

Suddenly, Maddie honks the horn loudly, which brings me out of my reverie. I blink. Realising what she means, I unclip my seatbelt and open my car door. The gravel crunches underneath my flip flops as we all head to get our bags, and a smile forms on my lips as I realise how excited I am to see everyone again.

My Mum and Maddie grab a bag each and head straight over to greet the others, but I stay behind– needing a deep breath. I hear them laugh and and giggle as they all catch up briefly, and it's then when I decide it's time. Hearing a yell, I turn around.

"Mackenzie!" Lauren screams, running towards me and crashing into my arms.

"Lauren!" I giggle, embracing her in a massive hug and pulling on her hair. We rock back and forth slowly.

"Just like always." She laughs, referring to the hair pulling. I smile; it's our tradition, and it's been like that for so long that I can't even remember when it started. I told you, our families go crazy when together!

"Of course." I say, not able to keep my grin at bay. "It's good to see you, finally!"

"And even better to see you. But Kenz, you look good!" She says excitedly, looking me up and down. "Have you been working out?"

I shrug. "A little." I say smiling, waiting for her to work it out. And then she gasps.

"Oh my gosh, you have no glasses!" She gasps. I grin. "And you got a haircut!" She realises again.

"Yup." I blush, popping the P on the end. She looks me up and down for the second time.

"Seriously Kenz, you look amazing." ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"Thank you." I smile modestly, and I feel a tap on my shoulder. Lauren grins.

"Can I get a hug from my best friend forever?" Darian asks, and I laugh at his weirdness.

"Of course you can idiot!" I grin, throwing my arms around his neck. We hug, and then I take a step back. Darian has dirty brown hair, and very tanned skin. Freckles are scattered across his body, and– "You've gotten even taller." I realise, groaning, and he grins his schoolboy grin.

"That's right kiddo. I can tag a stop sign without even having to jump."

I laugh deeply. "Good to see you haven't changed." ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"But you have. And I have to say, you look nice." He then grins, dropping his voice to a whisper. "If you didn't have a thing for Johnny, I'd totally go for you."

"Darian!" I gasp, jumping away and whacking him on the arm. He roars with laughter, and my cheeks begin to flame red.

I move on to hug Meredith, the Orlando's Mom, and after she releases me I look over to the last one standing and swallow.

Johnny.

He looks good, in that clean cut way that only some boys are blessed with. He's grown as well, and the muscle he's developed in a year is astounding. He's now braces free, and the cheesy white smile he grins at me almost makes my knees shake. Apart from Darian, no one else here knows that I've had a crush on Johnny since I was twelve years old.

"Mackenzie." He says huskily, walking towards me and making the gap between us smaller. I grin, looking him up and down.

"John." I nod, slightly nervous.

He grins, and holds his arms out for a hug. I step into them easily, breathing in his scent and shivering. He smells like salt.

"Have you been in the ocean?" I ask, stepping back and wrinkling my nose. He grins, and although I stepped back he doesn't let go of our hug.

"I was surfing this morning." He says, raising an eyebrow at my uncomfortableness. I watch his eyes slowly assess and linger on my shoulders and hair. "You look different. But– in a good way." ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"Nice save." I wink, trying to calm my soaring heartbeat. "But thank you."

"You're welcome." He mumbles, looking into my glasses free eyes and finally letting go of our hug.

Following everyone else, we walk up the wooden steps together. Before we walk inside the house, I look out the balcony– it's still beautiful.

The smell of Meredith's cooking envelops us as we all trail inside; I sigh in content and look at Lauren knowingly. We both absolutely love her Mom's food.

Lauren now falls into step with me as Johnny says something about the food smelling amazing, and Maddie and I grin at eachother when she reveals it's only ten minutes away. Our Mum's definitely not the best cook. We share a quiet giggle, and then Lauren accompanies us to our shared room. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
There's five bedrooms in this house. The two smaller ones upstairs belong to Mer, formally known as Meredith, and Mom. They hangout upstairs most of the time, and their rooms are plain white with a single bed and a wardrobe mainly– our fathers don't come to the beach house. Ever. Not that my parents are together anyway.

Maddie, Lauren and I share a fairly large bedroom downstairs, which is fitted with bunks and sets of drawers.
We also have a joining bathroom.

The boys; Johnny and Darian, share a room at the end of our hall which has a bathroom attached to it, and that bathroom is also attached to the spare room– If that makes sense.

Normally, when we were kids, it wouldn't be uncommon for our Mums to come downstairs in the middle of the night and find us all sleeping together in one room; I miss that. It was much more fun. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Smiling slightly, I put down my bags and take my first few steps into the room that I will be spending my time in for the next few weeks– I can't wait for the summer ahead.

•••

[1109 words]

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please leave a comment below if you liked it, voting really helps too! x

*edited