Chapter One: What He Did
I stretched out my limbs, recoiling when I hit a bare chest in an unfortunately familiar room. My eyes widened as I sat up, relishing in the fact that I was still wearing last night's clothes under this large hoodie. I closed my eyes for one moment, two, three, hoping that when I opened them... I would be somewhere else, this would all be a dream, praying that I would be anywhere but here.
But when I opened my eyes again, I was still in the same typical teenage boy bedroom, trophies standing on a wall shelf, a couple ribbons, a few framed photos of friends, and of course, sleeping next to me was the teenage boy himself, Connor Wilson, aka my ex-boyfriend. It was his room and his all too familiar bed. The one I always seemed to end up in every time I went to a party and drank too much.
Looking at his peaceful sleeping face, I decided not to wake him, instead choosing to slip out of his bed and under the loose arm he had draped around me. He rolled around and shifted a bit, for a moment I feared that he was going to wake up, but he settled back into sleep, his mouth slightly parted.
For just a second, I let my gaze on him turn fond. He was, after all, very handsome. His skin was tanned already from days spent on the beach, his dirty blonde hair was rumpled from sleeping, but still managed to look perfect, and I knew behind those closed lids, were the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. They were the color of the water you see in those edited Instagram model's photos when they go to Jamaica, except his eyes weren't edited.
I shook my head, forcing all of the fondness from my mind- we'd broken up for a reason- instead I turned around to leave, grabbing my phone off his desk which he must have plugged in before he went to sleep, and walking to the door where I saw my shoes neatly sitting with a post-it note attached to the heel.
'don't leave without saying goodbye :)'
I rolled my eyes, again pushing away the creep of warm and fond that began to spread to my cheeks, and walked out of his room, careful not to disturb his parents. When I walked outside and realized I had no car or way to get home, I looked down at my phone screen that had two unread text messages from my best friend, Miles.
'dnt kill me 4 letting connor take u home. dnt wrry he'llll be respecfulshhl'
'just text me when you want me to pick u up.'
The first one, I could tell had been sent last night while Miles was piss drunk both by the time stamp, and his spelling. It looked like he'd been hoping he could get autocorrect to understand him with the last word, but it obviously hadn't worked. The second one, however, had been sent this morning.
I sent him a quick text saying 'now pls' followed by an angry emoji to let him know I was unhappy he'd let me go home with my ex.... Again.
When I got in the car, I fake huffed as I buckled my seatbelt, sending Miles a glare that didn't last long before I cracked a smile.
He rolled his eyes at me and leaned down to grab the post-it note that must've still been attached to my shoe. "Don't leave without saying goodbye, huh." He stated, eyes narrowing as he read it. "Let me guess, you left without saying goodbye?"
I shot him a sheepish grin. "Did I leave my ex's house that I somehow ended up at last night without saying goodbye so things wouldn't be awkward?" My rephrasing of the question had Miles bark out a laugh.
"Well, when you put it like that." He said with a smile and a slight eye roll as he put the car in reverse.
"You know, I do wonder how everytime we go out to a party together, you seem to let me end up with him," I said, adding in a light punch of his shoulder just for fun.
"Hey now, trust me, I would take sleeping at his, with that nice comfy sweatshirt, over sleeping at the party last night any day, and you would too if you knew what I'd woken up to" Miles replied with a shudder. "Both of us were too drunk to leave, guys kept trying to take you upstairs, and he offered to take you home, so I told him sure."
"Miles," I whined, shoving at his shoulder again as he pulled up to my house.
"What? You've gone home with him enough times, and he never tries anything... and yet you always leave before he wakes up in the morning and then ignore his texts." Miles said, looking at me inquisitively.
I stayed silent, instead reaching over to press a big fat kiss against his cheek. "Thanks for driving me home."
He chuckled, accepting my change of subject and wrapping his arm around me in a side hug. "Anytime, love you Hal, see you at work in an hour."
With that, I got out of his car and walked inside. My mom was already up and unfazed at my arrival. It was a perk of beach life and having a strong bond of trust with your parents, well, parent. Plus, my mom always said I could never be as bad as Jace was when he was my age, so she gave me lots of freedom as long as I made sure to let her know where I was and be safe.
"Hallie, the Cox family is coming to stay with us this summer." My mom told me, though as the words passed through my mind, I barely registered them as I was climbing up on the counter to reach the cereal in the cabinets.
Once I did realize however, choking and sputtering on my words was all I could do not to fall off, "What? Why? All of them?" I asked.
The Cox family had two children. One was an angel named Jill who was just about to be a freshman in high school, and the other not so angel was named Mitchell.
Mitchell was about to be a senior in high school, therefore one year younger and last time I saw him, two inches shorter. We were close. I considered him my best friend at one point.
"Mom, you can't be serious," I added.
"I am, you know they're family friends, and maybe you and Mitchell can make up." She replied with a grin.
"Ugh mom, don't say his name." I groaned and she decided to mess with me.
"Mitchell! Mitchell! Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell!" She sang.
I groaned very unattractively. "He's a jerk."
"Hallie, he was a freshman when you left. He was immature, and he didn't know how to handle you leaving." My mom replied, sympathizing with him, leaving me wondering whose side she was truly on.
"I told him I was leaving and he said 'that sucks', and that's the last memory I have of him. Forgive me if I'm not too willing to make anymore." I sat down at our high top breakfast table and poured myself a bowl of cereal.
My mom tsk-ed at me and shook her head. "He's life-guarding with you this summer, can you please show him around and introduce him to people? And be nice, please."
"Be nice to him? He'll be lucky if I say one word to him all summer." I replied with a scoff. Like hell I would show him around. The guy who single-handedly broke me. My ex-best friend.
"Hallie Scout Johnson, you will do as I say. Now go put on some decent clothes, they'll be here any minute." My mom said with an accusatory angry glance at me.
"I am decent, mom," I said as she scanned my attire. Maybe I wasn't decent per say, with last night's dress and Connor's hoodie that I'd forgotten to take off, but all the important body parts that needed to be covered were covered.
My mom scanned my outfit, narrowing her gaze at me and refusing to break eye contact. I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Fine, be right back." I told her and quickly ran up the stairs to change into my guard uniform which consisted of a bikini, and a large guard shirt with flip flops.
Once my mom saw my outfit she huffed. "They aren't used to how people dress around here yet. You know they're from the city." My mom rolled her eyes and once again fixed me with her withering angry mom stare.
"Well then let me be the first to welcome them," I said with a mocking bow.
"Hallie." My mom scolded disapprovingly.
"Fine, fine, I'll put shorts on." I replied, rolling my eyes and ran up the spiral staircase to my room. Once I got there, I decided to comply with my mother's wishes and threw on a pair of red Nike shorts, and put my long curly brown hair into a bun.
But right before I was about to head downstairs, I heard voices. I peeked outside my window and saw a family of four getting out of a sleek black convertible.
I ran down the stairs, hopping down the last four, and up to the door to greet them with my mom.
"You didn't mention they were coming now," I muttered under my breath through the guise of a smile.
"Well you didn't ask," My mom replied before glancing over at my outfit and giving me a small nod of approval, and opened the door. "Shelley!" She exclaimed happily like she was seeing Mrs. Cox for the first time in years, which, I suppose she was. My mom ran to meet Mrs. Cox halfway to the door in the middle of the driveway and they embraced. "Hello Don," my mom said once she let go of Mrs. Cox, "Jill, you look so pretty and grown up!" She said, turning to the youngest Cox and embracing her before looking to the demon himself, "Oh my goodness Mitchell, look at you! You've gotten so tall and muscular." she fawned before pulling him into a tight hug like she'd done with the rest of the family.
Mitchell had grown about six inches since I saw him last and was now about four inches taller than me. He had also gained a lot of muscle in two years, no longer the short scrawny kid I remembered.
"I'm sure you all remember Hallie." My mom said and gestured for me to walk forward.
Mrs. Cox hugged me and told me how pretty I was, Mr. Cox said I looked so grown up... standard family friend greetings. Jill hugged me and told me how she had missed me... at least one of the Cox children had. And then all too soon, it was my turn to greet Mitchell.
I met his eyes and tried to distinguish whether his expression was one of surprise, regret, guilt, or if it was simply emotionless. "Hey Hallie," He said smoothly. His voice had definitely dropped, "It's good to see you." He held out his hand for me to shake.
His hand.
As if I was supposed to shake his hand like I was greeting some old friend I hadn't seen in a while. As if.
I didn't want to see him, nor touch his hand, but after debating with myself for about .07 seconds, I decided to be mature and shake his hand.
Mitchell's grip was firm and it almost could have seemed as though his hand lingered on mine for a second after the handshake, but that was probably just me wanting to let go of him as quick as possible.
"Why don't you all come inside and get settled? We can show you your rooms?" My mom suggested, and took one of Mrs. Cox's bags from her.
They followed us inside, and I went to the living room to lounge on the couch as my mom gave a grand tour of our house. Living in a small town by the beach was a lot cheaper, so we sold our tiny house in the city and bought this huge beach house for half the price.
After about twenty minutes of the grand tour and unpacking in their respective rooms, the family all came downstairs, and I had to retract my legs from their stretched out position so other people could sit on the couch too.
The parents made casual conversation as I stared at the clock, waiting until it was time for me to go to my guarding shift, which thankfully came after only five minutes of painful silence, while the rest of us listened to my mom and Mrs. Cox catch up on the past two years.
"Hallie was so sad when Cal went off to college, and thankfully he's only an hour away, but now my baby is gonna be going off to Stanford next year." My mom was telling Mrs. Cox when I stood up. "Oh, Hallie dear, is it time for you to go already?"
"Yep, my shift starts in twenty minutes." I replied, awkwardly smiling at the whole Cox family who were now all staring at me.
"Well why don't you take Mitchell with you? And show him around?" My mom asked.
"As much as I'd love to, I don't know how much showing around I'll get to do because I have to, you know, guard lives." I replied to my mom with a tight smile and a fake cheery voice.
"How about after your shift then?" My mom shot back at me. She could be such a pain sometimes.
"I took Wes's afternoon shift, so I'm working double today. I won't get off until 8 pm, and then I'm hanging out with the guys after."
"Perfect! You can take Mitchell with you and introduce him to his future co-workers." She smiled at me angelically like nothing was wrong, but she knew what she was doing.
"Sure." I answered her, internally sighing knowing it wasn't worth arguing because I had already lost this debate, and there was no getting out of this. I turned to leave but was stopped by the same low and unfamiliar voice.
"You don't have to do that." A pause ensued before he continued "Take me with you I mean, it's fine."
I spun around to face the source and locked eyes with him, remaining quiet for a few seconds. His eyes were hard, and one of his eyebrows was cocked slightly as if he was challenging me.
"Don't be nervous, M. I'm sure the guys will love you." I said.
At the use of the old nickname I used to have for him, the cocky look dropped from his face. "I-I'll see you later then I guess." he stuttered, breaking eye contact with me and looking away.
As I walked out the door, a part of me wanted to celebrate, knowing I had just won a small battle against him, but I knew that I had lost the war because I would, after all, be taking him out to dinner with my friends tonight.
Welcome to Chapter One of Summer Love!! Let me know what you think in the comments! <3