Summers

Part 2

I hopped on the next flight out to Bandon and before I knew it, I was there. I stepped off to see my Aunt Iris standing there in a light blue sundress clutching a small white bag and sunglasses. She smiled and ran over to hug me tight.

"Hey Aunt Iris," I wheezed.

"How are ya, Hon?" Again with the look.

"Fine," I sighed. She nodded curtly and led me to her old Volkswagen Beetle. This matched her dress, and I could only imagine what her house looked like.

"The air conditioning doesn't work, so you'll have to roll down your window, but it isn't all that bad out today, temperature wise. The knob is over there, on the door," she pointed. I grabbed the window crank that she had suggested, and, since there was nothing else automatic in her car from way back when, I twisted it until the badly tinted window slowly came down. The wind ruffled my hair as I dozed off. I awoke minutes after we had arrived.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to get awake. Iris had her back to me and she was talking to a girl that looked about my age. The girl wore an expression of boredom throughout the conversation. She seemed somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it. I saw the girl glance over at me and say something I couldn't detect from my horrible lip reading skills. I then saw Iris look back over at me and then say something. I was sure now they were talking about me. Iris walked over to the car door and opened it. She waited patiently for me to unbuckle myself.

"Opal," Iris said, " this is your cousin Julia."

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Hey." We stood there for as moment or two before Iris told Julia to "show me around town". There wasn't much town to begin with, so this wasn't going to take long.

"There are two bikes in the garage around the side you can use," Iris called from inside the kitchen and through an open window.

"Yup. Sure thing," Julia said with a voice that sounded annoyed and bored at the same time. There was a blue bike and a red bike in the garage. The garage was more like a shed that was obviously very old. The once white paint was now almost brown and was peeling, the roof was red, but that was fading, as was everything in this town. Even the town itself seemed to fade. I guessed what bike was Iris' bike. I grabbed the nearest one, which happened to be the red one.

I sat down on the uncomfortable bike seat and waited for Julia to get on the other one. She, however, didn't wait or me and just pedaled off. She left it totally up to me whether or not to follow. I chose to follow. I needed to be at ease with my surroundings, and what better way to do that than get a tour around the tiny town. I pushed off and caught up to her.

"Grocery store, Charlie's restaurant, gas station," she named off the buildings. When we got back, it was getting dark and so we put the bikes back where they came from.

"Dinners on," Julia said to me. I nodded silently and hurried inside, trailing right behind her.

"Ok," Iris said, "we have hot dogs and tofu dogs for moi!"

"Yum," Julia muttered.

"Sounds good," I smiled, trying to be cheery for the both of us. She was acting very strange and very monotone.

"Well, eat up, because I made a bunch." I went over to the small bathroom and washed my hands. Eating dinner was excruciating. Julia refused to speak to me; she wouldn't even look at me. Iris was jabbering about nonsense, thinking both of us were listening. She talked about work, gossip, and pretty much anything else that she could thing of. I hoped every night wouldn't be like this.

The moment I was done, I excused myself from the table. I ran out to the car and grabbed my suitcase and carry-on bag. I hauled them inside and started to unpack the clothes I would sleep in. Spandex and a huge t-shirt. Finally, I was comfortable. I crawled into the bad that was going to be mine for the remainder of this trip. I thought about Joel and cried. Eventually, I drifted off into a fitful sleep.

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"Joel! How can you listen to music like this?" I winced.

"What? You don't like metal or screamo?" he said over the pounding drum solo and screams. I shook my head violently. He smiled and kissed me. We stopped at the next light and he kissed me again.

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