A Summer to Remember Read online

  Table of Conents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  About the Author

  I want to thank my husband, Johnny, for continually supporting me and being patient with me while I take on whatever my latest venture may be. I also want to thank my parents for teaching and encouraging me to follow my dreams. And last but not least, my family, for believing in me.

  Chapter 1

  How can what was supposed to be one of the best days of my life turn into one of the worst days in just a matter of hours?

  Today was the day I’d been working toward for the last eighteen years…high school graduation. I jumped out of bed with all different emotions running through me. I was excited and happy to move on and become an adult, but I was also a little sad because I would be leaving behind one of the best times of my life.

  I was supposed to meet everyone at Lily’s house before the ceremony so we could take pre-graduation pictures. Lily is one of my best friends and has been since the second grade. We’ve spent almost every weekend together since we met; we share a bond like sisters. We look and act like complete opposites, but I think that’s why we’ve always gotten along so well. I’m average as far as height goes, fair skinned and have light brown hair that reaches the middle of my back. She’s short, tan and has shoulder-length bleached blonde hair. We have so much in common we are even dating twin brothers. She’s dating Steven, the tall, skinny, dark-haired one and I’m dating the tall but muscular, blond-haired one, Jason.

  After I jumped out of the shower, I blow-dried and curled my hair, put on some makeup and pulled on my black and white knee-length dress. I slipped into a pair of black wedges that Lily and I had spent weeks looking for—they matched my cap and gown perfectly. I grabbed the hanger with the neatly pressed gown and headed out the door.

  As I pulled into my usual parking spot outside of Lily’s house, I saw Jason’s cherry red Jeep already in the driveway. I ran up the front walk and in the front door.

  “Sorry I’m late!” I yelled as I walked through the living room to the kitchen.

  “It just wouldn’t be right if you were on time, even on the day like this,” Lily said with a smirk.

  “Hey babe!” I walked over and kissed Jason on the cheek. I couldn’t help but smile as I admired him in his dark wash jeans and green button up shirt. I’d always loved that shirt, it really brought out the color of his eyes.

  “Hey…Can we start the pictures already?” He turned to walk out the door. I grabbed his hand right before he was out of reach.

  “Is something wrong?” I could tell right away something was bothering him.

  “No, I’m fine. You know how much I hate waiting on you.” I do have a habit of being late for…well, everything. No matter how hard I try to break the habit, I can’t seem to kick it.

  “I said I’m sorry,” I pleaded as I grabbed his arm and gave him my best pouty lips and ‘I’m sorry’ eyes.

  “Yeah, you always do. Let’s get this done so we can go.” He pulled his arm away and he and Steven headed out to the backyard where Lily’s parents and my parents were chatting.

  “Um…What was that all about? Are you guys fighting or something?” Lily whispered as we followed them.

  “No. I don’t think so. Last night everything was fine.” I recalled our conversation from last night and tried to think of anything I said or did that might have pissed him off. Nothing came to mind.

  “Hm…Well, maybe he’s just nervous or having a bad day.” Lily gave me a half smile. I could tell even she didn’t believe what she’d just said.

  “Yeah, maybe…” I knew there had to be something else going on. I’d gotten to know Jason pretty well during the last four years, mood swings and all. We’d been together since freshman year. The first two years were pretty rocky, we were off and on, well, a lot. But nothing could keep us apart too long. He wouldn’t be thinking of breaking up with me, would he? The four of us had been planning on getting an apartment just off Brant University’s campus when we start school in the fall. We’d been talking about it since Lily started dating Steven a year ago.

  After we finished taking pictures with our parents, we jumped into Jason’s Jeep and headed to the school to get ready for the ceremony. Lily and Steven sat in back and talked about the upcoming parties tonight and sang along to the songs on the radio. I sat in front with Jason and we didn’t say two words to each other the whole way there. It just felt awkward.

  When we got to the school, Lily and Steven jumped out of the car and made their way through the excited mob of students to the auditorium. Jason started to get out of the car but I grabbed his arm.

  “Wait…what’s going on?” He pulled himself back in the car and closed the door.

  “I already told you, Ava, I hate waiting on you!” He looked away from me quickly.

  “That’s not why you’re mad, Jason. I can tell there’s something else. Just tell me so we can talk it out and enjoy today. I don’t want to fight.” I reached for his hand but he pulled it away.

  “Dammit, Ava! Everything is always about you, isn’t it?” He opened the door of the Jeep and hopped out.

  “What are you talking about? I just want to know why you’re mad. Everything seemed fine last night when we talked on the phone.” I could tell he was really pissed off but I didn’t want to spend a day like today arguing. It was too exhausting and tonight I just wanted to have fun.

  “I can’t do this anymore! I’m done!” He slammed his door and opened up the back to grab his cap and gown.

  “What do you mean you can’t do this anymore?” I didn’t think I’d been this confused since the last calculus test I forgot to study for.

  “I mean I’m done! Me, you—we’re done!” He slammed the door and followed the swarm of classmates into the building.

  I sat there for a minute, frozen, in complete shock. What just happened? One night we’re talking about our summer and college plans and the next minute he’s done? My eyes swelled with tears. I dug through my purse and picked out my cellphone. I scrolled through the contacts until I reached Lily’s name. As soon as I was about to hit new message, I heard a tap on the window. I looked up to see Lily’s grin drop, she knew right away something was wrong. I’m not the type of girl to let people see me cry. She grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open.

  “Ava, what’s wrong?” She grabbed my shoulders to take in my expression then pulled me in for a hug. Great, here comes the waterworks!

  “Jason broke up with me,” I managed to get out between sobs. “I don’t know what went wrong, one minute we were talking about all our future plans together and the next minute he says he doesn’t want to do this anymore. I just don’t understand it.” I dug a tissue out of my purse and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

  “Aw sweetie, I’m so sorry.” She gave me another hug then pulled back and looked at me. “Ava, I think I might know what went wrong.” I could tell by the sound of her voice I wasn’t going to be happy wi
th what she was about to tell me.

  “What? Did Steven say something?” I stopped dabbing the tears off my face long enough to look at her.

  “No…” She looked down and immediately looked like she regretted saying anything to me. “Maybe this should wait until after the ceremony.”

  “No, just tell me now. The sooner I know what’s going on, the better.”

  She slowly looked back up at me. “When Steven and I were heading into the auditorium to wait for rehearsal to start, we saw someone…” She waited for me to understand what she was saying. Then it finally dawned on me. She didn’t even have to finish her story. I already knew who the person was. “Cally’s back…and she seemed like she was waiting for someone.”

  Lily could already see the heartbreak written all over my face. Cally was the reason Jason and I were off and on through freshman and sophomore year. Eventually, Cally ended up moving to Texas to live with her dad and I thought all of the Cally problems were over. I guess I was wrong.

  “I asked Steven if she and Jason had been talking recently and he said he wasn’t sure. Jason probably wouldn’t tell him anyway because he knows he’d tell me and I’d tell you.” She grabbed my hands to try and comfort me.

  “Babe! Come on, rehearsal is about to start!” Steven yelled from the front door, interrupting our conversation.

  “Okay, give us just a minute!” Lily yelled back. “Listen, Ava, I know this has got to be hard for you right now, but you don’t want that bitch to see you like this, especially on a day like today.”

  “You’re right.” I flipped down the visor and looked into the mirror. “Oh my God. Please tell me I have time to touch up my makeup.” I dabbed around my eyes with the tissue to make an attempt at fixing the smeared black mascara, which was now running down my cheeks.

  “Of course. Hurry, though, we have to get going.” She dug through her purse, pulled out a compact, and handed it to me.

  “I can’t believe I have to do this after all that.” I carefully patted the powder onto the dark circles under my eyes.

  “Here, I have a little something that might help calm you down.” She pulled two shot size bottles of vodka out of her purse. She took the lids off both and handed one to me.

  “Here’s to the first day of the rest of our lives! But you’ll be a lot happier for the rest of your life from this moment on, of course.” She winked at me and we both tipped back the bottles.

  “Okay, let’s do this.” I jumped out of the Jeep and slammed the door behind me.

  Chapter 2

  We had to sit through two agonizing hours of people talking about creating a future for ourselves, memories that were made here, and of course, listening to name after name being called. Finally they announced our class. The crowd burst into cheers and whistles while throwing their hats into the air. It was over and I was definitely ready for another shot or two.

  I slowly made my way out of the gym and tried to squirm my way through the mob of people to get outside. When I made it, I headed over to the tree near the left of the parking lot, where Lily and I had agreed to meet our parents afterwards for more pictures.

  “Ava!” I stopped when I heard Lily call my name. “Oh my God! That was like the longest ceremony ever! I really thought I was going to fall asleep. How are you doing?” she asked as I pulled a few strands of silly string off her graduation cap.

  “Doing about as well as I can after just being dumped.” I looked down in an attempt to keep myself from getting upset again.

  “You have to be at least a little bit excited you just graduated high school. I mean, just think, we never have to come back to this hell hole again! All those speeches were right, today is the day we can change our lives and shape our futures. Do you really want to remember this as the day you got broken up with? Or do you want to remember it as the day your new life started?” We wove our way through the massive group of people.

  “You’re right, I’ve worked too long and hard to get to this point. Tonight it’s all about me.” Even if it was only for the night, I had to lock away the overwhelming emotions I was having from the break up.

  “That’s more like the Ava I know.” She smiled as we stepped through the last wall of people and were met by our families.

  My mom, dad, brother, grandparents, aunties and uncles were all waiting for hugs and to congratulate me. They alternated taking pictures with me. Every couple minutes we were interrupted by some of my fellow classmates also wanting to snap pictures and talk about all our post graduation plans.

  “Where’s Jason? I wanted to get some more pictures of you two together,” my mom asked as she looked at the viewfinder on her camera scrolling through some of the pictures she’d already taken.

  “Jason and I broke up,” I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

  “What?” She looked up from her camera. “Oh my gosh! Honey, are you okay?” She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me a little too tightly.

  “Yes, Mom, I’m fine. I’d rather not talk about it right now.” I made an attempt to hug her back the best I could with my arms being pinned to my sides.

  “Of course not, honey.” She pulled away from me.

  “Are you all set to go, Ava?” Lily interrupted just in time. “My parents will give us a ride back to my house so we can get ready for tonight.”

  “Yeah,” I said to Lily. “I’ll be staying at Lily’s tonight, I’ll check-in in the morning and let you know I’m still alive,” I joked with my mom. She can be a little more overprotective than needed at times.

  “Okay, be safe and let me know if you need anything. Even if you guys are drinking and need a ride, call me anytime.” She’s pounded the no drinking and driving speech into my head for as long as I can remember.

  “I know, Mom, we’ll be fine. There will be taxis all over tonight since it’s graduation, but thanks.” I gave her a hug before I headed in Lily’s direction.

  “Okay.” My dad pulled up to the curb in their silver SUV. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.” She climbed into the car and my parents and brother waved as they drove away.

  “All right, let’s get out of here, I’m ready to celebrate!” Lily grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her parents’ car.

  “Me too!” And for the first time all night, I actually felt like it was true.

  “So, what’s the party of choice tonight?” Lily walked into her huge closet and started browsing through her clothes. They were neatly color coordinated and arranged by sleeve length.

  “Well, we had originally planned on going to the annual party at the frat house, right?” I laid out the three outfit choices and shoes I brought on Lily’s bed. I examined each outfit carefully, trying to make a decision.

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure if it was still something you wanted to do since Jason is going to be there and I’m sure his little tagalong Cally will be there, too.” She walked out of her closet, outfit in hand.

  “We’ve been looking forward to this party since freshman year! I think I can put my sorrows away for one night.” The annual party at the frat house was a huge end of year party where the college kids and the graduates were able to get together and see what would be in store for next year. They’d been throwing this party for as long as I could remember.

  “The frat party it is, then.” She grinned at me. “You have to wear that red top!” She pointed to one of my outfits I had spread across her bed.

  “Are you sure it’s not too dressy?” I held it up. I always loved this top because it fit all my best features perfectly, but wasn’t too revealing in the chest. Not like I had much to show, anyway. And the red silk felt amazingly soft.

  “Girl, pair that with those dark jeans and zip up black heels and when those frat guys see you, you’ll have Jason wishing he never let you go!” She walked into her bathroom and shut the door behind her.

  “The red one it is, then.” Lily never failed to make me smile.

  When we finished getting dressed, we shared the
bathroom mirror to do our hair and apply our makeup. I loved getting dressed up, even if it was only for dinner and a movie.

  “Steven said he just got a cab and he’s heading this way. We’ll go grab something to eat then head to the party after.”

  “All right, sounds good. Is he by himself?” I added a few more sprits of hairspray to my curled hair.

  “I think just Jesse is with him.” She waved her hand in front of her face in an attempt to clear the air so she could breathe.

  “Okay, cool.”

  “I think they’re here. Are you ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  When we got down to the cab, Lily crawled into the back of the van with Steven, and Jesse and I each sat in a bucket seat. Jesse has been friends with Steven and Jason for as long as I can remember. I met him when Jason and I started dating. He’s always been a super nice guy.

  “Hey,” I said to Jesse as I closed the van door behind me.

  “Hey, I’m sorry to hear about you and Jason,” he said, sounding genuinely concerned.

  “Thanks.” I’m a little shocked he bothered to say anything about the break up. I mean he’s always been super nice to me but I didn’t think guys cared about that kind of thing. “I’m sure everyone knows by now, huh? Word travels like a wildfire at that school.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. I bet by the end of tonight they’ll all have something else to talk about.” He smiled at me.

  “I’m sure you’re right.” I laughed.

  “You know, I think he made a big mistake. You’re a great girl. Even though he’s my friend, he’s never treated you the way you should be treated. You could do better.” Jesse turned to look out the window. I took a minute to regroup my thoughts; I wasn’t really sure what to say to that. Was he just being nice or was he hitting on me?

  “Thanks, Jesse, that’s really sweet.” I smiled even though he was trying to avoid looking at me.