Chapter Two

So, I started that summer differently. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I started to run more to get away, and when I wasn’t running, I was sleeping the day away. I wasted the entire summer moping and grieving. I was wishing my life away. The next thing I knew, we were taking our family trip to North Carolina in August. I was a heart-broken wreck. My mom thought it would be a good idea for me to get away and try to get on with my life, which was how I ended up having to pack my bags for a twelve hour car ride to the beach house in North Carolina. My mom had to work so she couldn’t come with us, as we loaded the bags in the car, she pulled me aside and kissed my forehead.

“Have some fun. It’s okay to be happy.” she said, squeezing my hand.

I held the tears in as I closed the door and we drove away.

Getting to North Carolina was a complete disaster. Somehow we managed, despite constantly looking at the map, to miss the turn and ended up going in the completely wrong direction for miles. By the time that we actually got to the beach house, all I wanted to do was go to sleep again. The second our car pulled up in the driveway, I heard someone scream from the back yard that a car pulled up. As I opened the door, the summer air hit me, my hair blowing in the slight breeze. It smelled like summer.

            The entire family knew. They looked at me like they pitied me, and they told me that “if I needed to talk they were there.” I didn’t want to talk. All I wanted was to sleep.

            “Hey, Hailey.” I heard from behind me, and I turned around to see Aunt Kim walking towards me.

            “Hi, Aunt Kim.”

            “Oh, honey. How are you doing?”

            “I’m fine.” I lied. It was my answer to everything.

            “There’s a hot tub out near the kitchen on the top floor. Why don’t you go up there, relax a bit?”

            “Okay. I’ll be up in a bit. Thanks.”

            I closed the door to my room, and took a breath. I dug through my bags for a few minutes, looking for a bathing suit. I took out the first bikini I found and put it on. I was disgusted. How was it that I had lost twenty pounds, and yet I still looked obese no matter what I wore? I looked in the mirror and saw thighs that were too big, stomach that stuck out too much, my round face. I put shorts and a t-shirt on over my bathing suit and walked out of my room.

I grabbed a towel out of the closet, and walked upstairs to the third floor. I ignored the looks of pity and the look I’d been getting ever since people found out that Annie had died, said hello to everyone, and walked straight out of the sliding glass doors to the hot tub.

I sat in the hot tub for a while, just thinking. I heard voices from inside, and when I turned around, I saw that they were all staring at me. I knew they were talking about how they were worried, how I was depressed, but whatever. I didn’t care. I heard someone walking up the steps of the balcony, and, probably more by reflex than anything, I went to get up and go back to my room, but I was too tired. I sat there, waiting to see who it was and once I saw feet at the landing, I hesitated to look up, but when I did, it was the person I least expected to see. Jason. Curly-haired, green eyed, gorgeous Jason. Jason was a friend of the family I had met a few years ago. He was seventeen, a year older than me. The only time he and I ever really talked was at the family parties since we were the only teenagers there.

I heard that his girlfriend had broken up with him in the beginning of the summer. At first, everyone thought that it was because she wanted to have freedom to do what she wanted in the summer, but later, I found out she cheated on him. He walked in on her with his best friend when he went to his house. I saw him a couple of times walking around town, and he looked like he was a wreck. Now though, he looked amazing.

He stood there for a second, not saying anything at all.

“Hey.” he said, after a minute.

“Hey.” I said, smiling.

“You look…different.”

“Thanks…I think.” I said, raising my eyebrows at him.

“No, no! Not in a bad way.” He said, easing himself into the hot tub. “You just look really different since last summer. I haven’t seen you since then.”

“Yeah…” I said, embarrassed. I couldn’t help thinking that he meant it in a bad way. I folded my arms over my stomach, disgusted with myself.

“How have you been?” he asked, and I stayed quiet for a minute.

“I’ve been…okay.”

“It gets better.” He said, but I didn’t say anything. “Come on, let’s go.” He said holding his hand out to me, getting out of the hot tub. “I’ll race you to the beach.”

We were sprinting, down flights of stairs, across decks, down more stairs, across the patio then up the set of stairs leading to the beach. I felt myself getting weaker as we raced, my legs getting numb, my vision starting to blur out as we made our way to the landing of the stairs. All I saw was black when I heard him yell “And I’m the winner!” Then next thing I remembered was waking up to Jason kneeling next to me.

“Are you okay?” someone said as I opened my eyes. I looked up and saw Jason looking at me, concerned. “You took a hard fall. You almost fell down the stairs.”

“I’m fine. I just..I haven’t slept much lately.”

“You sure? You want to go lay down or something?”

“No, I’m okay. Let’s go down to the beach, I’ll lay out. God knows I need the tan.” I said, faking a laugh.

I hated lying to Jason, but I knew that I was fine. It took all of my strength to stand up and start walking down the dune to the beach.

“Just don’t tell anyone? The last thing I need is them worrying even more about me.”

He laughed. “I know the feeling. Don’t worry about it.”

            We walked down near the water where my uncle had set up a tent.

            “Hailey! Hey, how are ya?”

            “I’m alright, how are you?”

            “I’m good. Jason, my man. How you doin’?”

            “I’m…I’m good now. I’m over it, ya know?”

            “Yeah. Good man. She isn’t worth it.” he said, hitting his shoulder then walking away.

            “Becca?”

            “Yeah. Everyone got all freaked when I was upset about it. I’m fine though. It was just weird. I mean, you heard what happened, right?”

            “With your friend?” He nodded his head. “Yeah, I heard about it.”

            “Yeah, so it just sucked. He was the one that would have gotten me through it, but he was the one that put me through it. You know?”

            “Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.”

            “I’m sorry about Annie.”

            “Thanks.”

            After that, we just tried to have fun.

            “Why talk about it? Might as well have fun while we’re here.”

            He grabbed a boogie board and told me to take the other and I followed him up to the top of the dune.

            “Come on!” he said, putting the board down and laying on it. I smiled, put the board down and went stomach first on it.     

            “One! Two! Three! Go!”

            We pushed off with our feet and speeded down the dune. It was so steep that we made it all the way down to the water. We both got up laughing. We climbed up the dune again and did it a few more times.

            I lay in the sun while he surfed and rode on his skim board. My aunt asked me to come in for lunch while I was tanning, but I told her I had eaten a big breakfast that morning. I wasn’t hungry. I must have fallen asleep on the beach because the next thing I knew, Jason was sitting next to me.

            “Hey, sleepy head. Want to make a sand castle?”     

            “Yes!”

            After an hour, we had built just about the best sand castle on that beach.

            “You know, this is probably the most fun I’ve had in months.” I said, admiring our sand castle.

            “It’s the most fun I’ve had since Becca and I broke up.”

            I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

                All day, Jason and I were together. We played ping-pong. I lost. Jason came running with me on the beach, then we played Trouble with his brother, Taylor. I won.

            I went to bed around eleven that night, and as I pulled on a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt, I heard a knock at my door.

            “Hailey, it’s me.” I heard Jason whisper, opening the door open a crack and I laughed.     

            “Come in. What are you doing?”

            “I can’t sleep.” He smiled at me. He looked at me weirdly for a minute, then looked down.

            “What, Jay?”

            “Nothing.” he said, and he sat down on my bed.

            I sat down next to him, and we were both quiet for a minute. I looked up at him and he moved in slowly. He wrapped his arm around my waist and I closed my eyes and let myself go. I smelled the beach and I calmed down. I could have sat there for hours, even days just being with him. I felt comfortable in his arms, something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Even though I barely knew him, I trusted him.

            “You’re beautiful.” he said. I just smiled at him.

Reviews

[Kiynteyh]

This chapter is even more interesting than the first. :D
Raises many important questions. Well written, and again, you do very well with the emotions. Makes me jealous, haha. :p
Great job still, can't wait to read the next chapter.