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"WHENEVER I'M ALONE WITH YOU, you make me feel like I am home again.."
Summer pushed her board to the tune of The Cure blaring through her headphones, her Walkman tucked in the right hip pocket of her overalls.
It was four days before summer vacation, the early morning, and the grass was still dewy and cool, but the sun warmed her bare arms, not covered by her blue floral blouse.
She had left for school early, needing to get out of the house, where she couldn't hear her mother sobbing upstairs or hear the continuous tick of a clock that creeped her out as she sat in the dark.
There was always something off about Derry anyway, and she felt it now, pricking at her skin and she shivered, despite the warm morning.
There was at least an hour until school started, and although there was only a week until school let out, it felt like ages.
Summer had too much time on her hands. Too much time to be alone.
In fact, being alone kind of blew, when she thought about it. No one to go to. No one to hang out with. No one to care for her-
Stop.
Summer realized she had physically stopped skateboarding, and as The Cure crooned in her ear, she physically shook herself.
Take a chill pill, Summer, she told herself. You're fine. This summer will be fine.
Except maybe it wouldn't. Being friendless over the summer was like being the fox in a fox hunt.
Bullies hunted you if you were alone. They saw you as fragile. Easy.
When you were alone as a kid, the monsters saw you as weaker.
And Summer was not weak.
But how the hell was she supposed to make friends? Making friends wasn't exactly her forte, and she had no idea how to pick the right ones.
'Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant,' Gordie Lachance had said, and Summer couldn't bring herself to believe him. Ever since Jesse had gone missing, things had been imperfect. Something was wrong. It was like empty holes covered with tarps. You couldn't see it exactly, but it was there. He was gone, but no one acted like it had ever happened. Even his parents had reverted back to routine, perfectly plastic and pretend. Two months later, her father had split.
It was all too much. She started off on her skateboard again.
She had only made it over the next hill when she skidded to a halt.
There was a bike knocked over, and peering over, Summer saw a boy kneeling in the grass beside the road, gasping for breath. It was the same boy who had actually made eye contact with her yesterday.
