chapter one: stranger danger
I slid into the backseat of my family's Volkswagen Atlas, crammed in between loose bags that did not fit in the trunk. My brother sat to the left of me with a wide grin. His expression did not match my irritated one. My dreaded summer was just beginning, and I already wanted to curl up in a ball and complain.
"Buckle up," my dad ordered from the driver's seat. As I did so, my mom reached over her armrest to turn on the radio. Immediately, the familiar beats of the song "Ric Flair Drip," flooded through the car. Ryan must've driven last.
"I'm tryin' fuck you and your bestie, yeah," Ryan began to rap loudly. I groaned and slouched down in my seat. It was 5 in the morning, the sun was hardly up, yet Ryan still managed to get on my nerves. I was not a morning person.
My mom switched the channel to one of her songs and I thanked her in my mind, even though her taste in music was not good. There was just no way that I could put up with Ryan's loud, rapping mouth this early. It's at the point where my mom does not even scold my brother for his language. She knows that no matter how hard she tries, she will not be able to control his cussing.
I slipped my hand into my backpack that was lying by my feet and grabbed my AirPods and connected them to my phone. Music filled my ears as I laid my head against the window. This was about to be a long car ride, so thankfully my phone was fully charged. Last year it died halfway through the drive and I wanted to scream.
I closed my eyes as my dad pulled onto the parkway, and since I hardly slept last night, I just about passed out.
........
"Kendall," someone said. I rolled my head over, hoping that the person saying my name would go away. I silently prayed that when I opened my eyes, that I would be in my bed. "Kendall, wake up." I groaned and squeezed my eyes tighter.
"Wake the fuck up!" A manlier voice shouted as they shook me. My head bobbed from side to side and I quickly opened my eyes to see Ryan shaking me roughly. His light brown hair spilled across his forehead, just reaching the tips of his dark eyelashes. He had a major bedhead.
To my demise, I was not in my bed. Instead, I was in the backseat of our car which was now located in Florida.
"Ryan, what the hell?" I mumbled as he began to stop shaking me, noticing that I had woken up.
"We're here," he informed me as if it was not already obvious.
I groaned in response. If only I could just sleep the summer away. Or better yet, take the next flight home. Or I could just steal the car. I had brought my license just in case if I needed to escape from my family for a little while.
"Help unload the car, Kendall," my dad requested from where he was standing outside. I slowly made my way out of the car and towards the trunk.
"Please wipe that annoying look off your face, Kendall," my mother begged. "The least you could do was pretend that you want to be here."
"I've been pretending for the past 17 years. Might as well stop now when no one seems to care that I don't want to spend my summers like this anymore," I inserted. I felt a bit of relief as I got that off my chest. However, I did feel guilty for not fully wanting to be here. Trust me, I loved my family with all of my heart, but it had come to a point in my life where I was sick and tired of leaving my hometown for the summer. My friends always came to school with memories that never included me. I despised feeling like I was missing out.
I hated seeming ungrateful for the beautiful house that my family shared with my dad's sister's family, but it was just at the point where I hated leaving my best friends to come here for the entire summer break. I really did love it here, but being stripped away from my friends back home was extremely hard to handle year after year.
My mom ignored me as she began to roll luggage up the driveway to the front door.
"Kendall, I know you might not want to be here, but maybe this year it'll be different," Ryan tried to tell me. I turned around and lifted up my chin to look him in the eyes. He was at least six inches taller than me, so looking up at him was something I was used to doing.
"How could this year possibly be different than all the others?" I questioned.
Ryan did not bother answering my question. He just smirked and shrugged his shoulders. He was acting as if he knew something that I did not. It was during moments like these when I wished that twin telepathy really did work so that I could read his mind.
"Alright, whatever." I grabbed my two ginormous bags out of the back of the car and made my way up to the front door.
"Hello, sweetie." I looked up to see my aunt in the doorway with a gigantic smile plastered on her tan face. She looked amazing.
"Hi, Aunt Dina," I replied.
She reached forward and grabbed a piece of my hair.
"Oh my, your hair has gotten so long and beautiful," she gasped. "And you've grown so much!" She continued. I stood there confused. I had hardly grown in the past twelve months. Maybe only an inch.
I laughed awkwardly.
"Well come in! Jesse and Amberly are in the living room, so when your done unpacking just come back downstairs," she told me. I nodded and continued my way inside.
Although this isn't my ideal summer, I can't help but admit how beautiful it is down here. The ocean is the perfect color of blue and even on a hot day, it's always comfortable at the beach with the breeze. Not only is the outside breathtakingly gorgeous but even inside the beach house, it is.
All the rooms had some sort of beach theme (of course), with shells either on the shelves or painted on a frame on the wall. There was one large painting of a beautiful sunset that I couldn't help but stare at when I first walked into the house every year. I just wished that it was closer to home so that I could somehow find a way to see my friends during the summer as well.
"Hello, Kendall!" I heard from behind me as I was making my way up the stairs towards my room. I turned around to see my uncle at the base of the steps with a grin as wide as Aunt Dina's.
"Hi, Uncle Jeff," I smiled back.
"It's so good to see you and your beautiful smile again." He took a few steps up and embraced me in a tight hug. By the time he let go, I seemed to be gasping for air. My uncle was a very muscular man, and I think that he sometimes underestimated how tight his hugs were.
"You too," I answered back.
"Now why don't you go unpack real fast, and when you're done, we are all gonna head down to the beach for our annual volleyball game to start up the summer," my uncle announced.
"Okay, sounds great!" I forced out. I pivoted around and started to make my way up the stairs again.
I opened the door to the bedroom that I was forced to share with Ryan. It wasn't too big, but there was enough room to fit two queen beds, furniture, and still have walking room. Sharing a room with my twin brother for the entire summer was just another reason why I wished that we were back home. It was perfectly fine when we were younger, but now that we were almost eighteen and completely different from each other, I hated it. Especially when he would snore in the middle of the night.
I walked over to my designated dresser and started to unpack my clothes that were inside the bags. I hadn't packed as much as I had last year, but there was still an overbearing amount of clothes and bathing suits that I had brought.
After putting away all of the clothes that were in the bags, I stripped down to get changed into a bikini. Quickly, I rummaged through the drawer where I had put all of my folded bathing suits, looking for my favorite.
Once I found it, I slipped the blue material on, and a white tee shirt dress over it.
"Hey, um-." The door burst open to reveal an unfamiliar guy standing in front of me with no shirt on. My eyes widened at the sight of a stranger in the house. He looked at me curiously. "Who are you?" He asked as he rested his broad shoulder against the door frame and eyed me up and down. Suddenly, I felt insecure and timid under his gaze.
He was tall. Very tall. At least a solid eight or so inches bigger than me, and I'm not the shortest. His skin was a warm, olive tone and freckles were lightly covering his nose— and freckles were my weakness.
"Who are you?" I responded, taken aback by his presence.
He laughed but didn't answer my question. Instead, he stated, "I asked first."
I rolled my eyes and said, "I'm Kendall. And you are...?"
"Asher. I'm one of Jesse's friends." He ran a hand through his brown hair that was styled on his head. I noticed his eyes flicker past mine to the room behind me. He seemed interested in it, almost as if he was trying to figure out which half of the room was nicer.
Jesse was my older cousin. Well, he was only a year older than me, but he never let me live it down that he somehow had authority over me. He also had never brought a friend to Florida before. It made me wonder how he knew Asher. Maybe he had a house here, too. In the past, my cousins and I had been told that we weren't allowed to bring friends since the summer was our time to spend with our family.
"Yo, Asher when you're done, come down to the beach!" I heard my brother yell from downstairs. Seems like they already met.
"Alright!" Asher hollered back. He looked back at me and grinned.
"So this is your room?" He asked me, taking a step in and leaning his back against the dresser. His blue eyes scanned the room and hesitated on my bed before he returned his focus to me.
"Yeah," I told him, apprehensively. His smile grew deviously.
"Looks like you have a great roommate then," he smirked. Who, Ryan? He might honestly be the worst roommate possible. I guess the confusion on my face was pretty noticeable. "Me. I'm your lucky roommate," Asher added as he pointed to himself confidently.
"Huh?" Was I seriously expected to share a room with a guy that I just met? A hot guy, nonetheless. Were my parents aware of this arrangement? There was no way. They don't even let any guys in my room back home. Not even Ryan's best friend since pre-school. How would they be fine with a guy who I do not even know sleeping in the same room as me? This must be a mistake. And what was Ryan supposed to do? I had way too many questions that needed answers.
"Well, that is unless you want the couch," he nonchalantly responded with a shrug. With that being said, he strolled out of the room, not bothering to wait for a response. Once the door was closed, I let out a breath I had not realized I had been holding.
I am going to need to have a serious talk with Jesse. There was no way that I was sharing the room with Asher.
.......
"Finally! Only took two hours," Ryan complained as I took my first step onto the sand. I did not even bother answering him. Instead, I inhaled a large breath of the salty air and smiled to myself as I closed my eyes. The beach was my favorite place to spend my time. It was right in the backyard of our house. Sometimes, I would come out here at night and sit down by the shore and just think.
Slowly, I announced towards the volleyball net where my parents, my aunt, and my uncle were hitting the ball back and forth.
With a thud, the ball hit the sand on my parent's side, and when my mom went to pick it up, she noticed my presence.
"Oh hey, Kendall. Amberly was wondering where you were. She told me to tell you to go down to the ocean," my mother informed me.
"Okay," I said. I began to walk towards the shore.
"Kenny!" Amberly happily shouted from where she popped up near the ocean. She ran up to me and wrapped her frail arms around my hips.
"Hey Amber," I grinned down at her. Amberly was almost seven years old and she was the cutest thing alive, not counting the dog I had when I was younger. He sadly passed away two years ago.
"I'm so glad to see you!" She jumped up and down, only then reaching the height of my chest.
"Me too," I bent down. Her face was then directly in front of mine and I could make out the tiny brown flecks in her green eyes, just like her brother, Jesse's.
"Wanna go mermaid sighting?" She asked me, eagerly. Ever since she could talk, she was obsessed with mermaids.
"Of course," I agreed. She reached over and grabbed my hand with her tiny fingers, tugging me closer to where the waves crashed upon the shore. It was gorgeous out today.
We stood there for a little, letting the wind push our hair back and out of our faces and the ocean soak our feet. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, letting the warm air settle my nerves.
"Hey! Look! I think I see something!" Amberly yelled causing me to open my eyes. She began to bounce up and down in excitement. "It's getting closer, Kenny!" She pointed. She was right though. The one speck of black that she had spotted began to get bigger, and suddenly someone's head became visible. I squinted, trying to get a better view of who was in the distance.
"It's a mermaid! Oh my gosh! I can't wait to keep it as a pet! I'll feed her the fish that my daddy catches!"
I laughed but was a little concerned as to where this person had come from because there was one-hundred-percent someone advancing towards us. Slowly, I grabbed Amberly's hand, ready to make a run for it.
"I think it's a merman!" Amber confessed.
Suddenly, the "merman" began to walk up onto the shore, crushing her hopes of discovering a new pet.
It was Asher.
"Where's your tail?" Amberly sadly questioned when he approached us.
He ran a hand through his wet hair, untangling the knots the salty water had caused. "I wanted to be with Kendall, so I asked Ursula to give me feet," Asher jokingly admitted. I laughed at his reply.
"What did she take so that you could have feet?" Amberly wondered. Let's see what he has to say to this.
"She took my girlfriend," Asher gloomily announced. "So now I'm all yours," he added as he winked at me.
"Yay," I sarcastically said.
"Don't worry, princess. We will be together soon, just as we were destined to be," Asher grabbed my hand as he continued his little act. A content smile stretched across his face.
"Ah!" Amberly squealed, jumping up and down. At least she was enjoying this.
He laughed and dropped my hand.
"Let's go up to where everyone is playing volleyball," I said to Amberly, turning away from Asher.
"Okay!" We began to make our way back up to where our parents were playing a game. Asher followed behind us.
"So what are the teams?" Ryan asked once Asher, Amberly, and I arrived.
"Mellark's versus Reid's?" Uncle Jeff suggested like always.
"Oh it's on," my dad announced confidently.
"Losing team chips in to buy everyone ice cream," Uncle Jeff shouted from his side of the net.
"Make sure you brought your money," my mom smirked.
"We won't be needing it anyway," Aunt Dina replied. She flipped her head over and tied her short, brown hair into a knot. Oh, she was in game mode.
"We get Asher!" Uncle Jeff hollered as he pulled Jesse's friend over onto his side of the net.
"Well, we get Kendall!" Ryan shouted back
"Ryan, I'm on your team anyway. I'm your sister and a Mellark," I told him. Sometimes I am convinced that he does not use his brain before he speaks.
"Oh yeah..." He responded.
"Good luck," my dad called over to the opposing side.
"And the same for you," Uncle Jeff called out just before he served the ball. I stepped back and waited for the ball to come to me. I am not about to buy anyone ice cream, so I am definitely not going to let them win, especially if Asher's on the other team. I do not want him to get the wrong idea of what type of person I am. I never go down without a fight and I am definitely not easy.
..........
Hey, everyone! I have so many ideas for this book, so I hope you like it so far. If any of you have any feedback, please comment! I would love to read your guys' opinions.
Who do you think is gonna win the volleyball game??
Who is your favorite character so far? Kendall? Ryan? Asher? Amberly? Someone else? You guys still have to meet Jesse... hehehe
Also, sorry if there are grammatical errors. Grammarly only helps me so much with the free version lol. ~the struggles~
Stay tuned, loves. <3