Summer Love (First Love Book 1) (2 page)

“What’s going on with you man?” Brayden asked.

“I’m going to see if your cousin has any more water,” Chad told his friend.

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

Chad stopped walking and turned towards Brayden. “I have been screwing up a lot this year. If Tamara is pregnant, things will change. I will be a good father and prove to everyone that I’m not the screw up they think I am. Prove that I can be better.”

“So you are going to raise a kid, who may or may not even be yours by the way, at sixteen? With no job. You are in high school. What about wrestling? What about school in general?”

“Being a father is more important than some stupid sport,” Chad pointed out.

“That stupid sport was always your plan out of this town.  A scholarship so you could get away from your family,” Brayden reminded him. “Besides, you haven’t even seen Tamara since May. Don’t you think that if she really was pregnant she would have told you by now?”

“If I stop the drinking and stupid shit I’ve been doing I’m sure my parents would help me, but if not, I have more than enough money. And if she’s pregnant, Tam would have to stop too. She wasn’t allowed to visit or even call me, so she had no way to tell me.” Chad looked at his best friend. “I need you to help me. I have to see her.”

Brayden looked down. Chad had been his best friend for almost ten years, when they first started wrestling. They had been through so much together. How could he tell Chad that Tamara had moved on?

“Look, I know you don’t like Tam,” Chad continued, “but please, help me find a way to talk to her. I need to know that we’re still together. And I need to know if the rumors are true.”

“But you really will stop the stupid shit?” Brayden raised his eyebrows as Chad went to light another cigarette.

“I’ll stop the rest of it. The drinking, the drugs, the stealing, even the lying and skipping school, is done. I haven’t had a drink since May. I’m on probation til I’m 18, and I sure as hell don’t want to be locked back up. I’ll go back to school when it starts, although I’m a few credits behind where I am supposed to be.” Chad put the cigarettes away without lighting one.

“And your so-called friends?” Brayden asked.

“I’m done with them. You are the absolutely only person that I’m not related to that wrote to me at all while I was gone. I’ve had a lot of time to figure out who my real friends are. Please, just help me see her.” Chad hoped Brayden was still his best friend.  He hoped that he hadn’t thrown it all away in the past eight months. “Look, I know I screwed up. I know I was an ass. But I’m here, asking you to forgive me and to help me with one little thing. Please.”

“What if she has moved on?” Brayden asked. “Or even worse, what if she wants to go back to the way things were before you were busted?”

Chad tried to blink the tears from his eyes without drawing attention to them, something he had a lot of practice at over the last couple of months. “If she has really moved on, I will have to accept that. But if she waited for me and is pregnant, I will find a way for us to raise this baby together. I won’t go back to how things were though, no matter what.”             

Brayden had already known that Tamara had moved on, probably with more than one guy, since Chad was gone. He knew that she had left the police station with someone else the very night that Chad was arrested, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his best friend that. “I can’t promise that I can get you to see her, but I can get you to talk to her. If you can stay at my house tonight.”

“With your cute cousin?” Chad started walking toward Marissa.

Brayden rolled his eyes. “Yea, because that will help your situation. Dude, I already told you, she’s twelve!”

“Just messing with you.” Chad approached Marissa and Melanie. “Got any more water? None of the guys came prepared, but we’re not ready to leave yet.” When he smiled at her, a chill shot up through Marissa’s spine. She reached into her bag and handed him her last three bottles of water. When she looked at him, she noticed a deep scar on his left cheek bone and his adorable dimples.  “Thanks. Guess I’ll see you later,” he told her as he and Brayden turned and walked away.

“Oh. My. God. I haven’t seen him flirt with anyone else since he met Tamara!” Melanie exclaimed when the boys were out of ear shot.

“He was not flirting with me,” although Marissa thought he was.
He’s too old for me
, she told herself.
But maybe someday
. She couldn’t help but smile.

“No he totally was! Maybe he will forget about Tamara!”

Marissa picked up her notebook and started to write. It wasn’t long before Melanie grew bored and walked away. Marissa had filled up several pages before Chad and Brayden approached her again. The sun was starting to set, which meant they would be expected home soon.

“Ready to go?” Marissa asked Brayden.

“We have to swing by Chad’s house on the way back to see if he can spend the night,” Brayden told her.

“Don’t count on it,” Chris mumbled, catching up to the crowd.

“Are you kidding, bro? Mom and Dad love Brayden! I’ll totally be able to go!” Chad sounded confident.              

“That was before he became your cover story,” Chris pointed out. “How many times did you claim to be with Brayden when you were running off and getting into trouble? They won’t trust you to actually stay there. And before you even ask, I have a date tonight, so no, I will not be tagging along to babysit my twin brother.” Chris turned down a side street and disappeared from view.

“I guess I forgot about all that.” Chad’s mood fell.

“Won’t hurt to ask,” Brayden told him, but he wasn’t sure either.

Chad’s parents eventually did agree to let him stay, but only after talking to Lynn and being reassured that he would not leave the house that night.

After dinner, Marissa made her way to the basement, where the boys were hanging out. The basement consisted of Brayden’s bedroom, as well as a common room, which her cousin claimed as his living room. “Don’t mean to interrupt, but Aunt Lynn wanted me to make sure either of you didn’t sneak out a window or some…” She stopped abruptly when she saw Chad was sitting on the couch crying. Brayden was nowhere in sight.

Chad wiped his face. “It’s true. She really has moved on. Everything I have done, all of the trouble I got into, was just to keep her happy. And now it’s over, just like that.”

Marissa didn’t know how to react. With the exception of funerals, she had never seen a boy cry before. She walked to the couch and sat next to him. Silence filled the room while Marissa worked up the courage to put her arm around him, expecting to be pushed away. Instead, Chad turned toward her and buried his face in her arms.

After a few minutes, Chad began to compose himself. “I’m sorry.” He sat up, wiping the tears from his face. Judging by how bloodshot his eyes were he had apparently been crying for quite a while. “I shouldn’t have lost it like that. I knew it was too good to be true. Why would an nineteen year old be interested in a sophomore? It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t put it all of you. Your cousin will be back soon. We can play cards or watch a movie, or do something tonight.”

“I’m not supposed to stay down here. I’m just supposed to make sure you’re both here and give you guys your space tonight. Where is Brayden anyway?”

“Please don’t get him in trouble. He did it for me.”

“Did what?” Marissa asked. “I’m not going to tell,” she added when he didn’t answer right away.

“He snuck out when Tamara snuck in to give us time to talk. He said he would give us an hour, so he should be back any minute now.”

Just then, the window opened. “You done?” Brayden’s voice called from outside.

“Yea,” Chad answered.

Brayden was halfway through the window when he noticed Marissa sitting there. “Crap. I’m in trouble.”

“No, she’s cool,” Chad told him. “Let’s watch a movie or something to get my mind off this horrible night.”

Brayden made it through the window and settled on the couch, still worried that his little cousin could get him in major trouble at any moment. “Was it that bad?”

Chad laughed. “Worse. She hooked up with Brent the night I was arrested. A few days later, she moved on to Dave. Now she’s dating some college guy from La Crosse.”

“I’m sorry man.”

“Are you? You never liked her.”

Marissa was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “Maybe I should go.” She started to stand up.

“No, please stay,” Chad said.

“I didn’t like her because she changed you,” Brayden cut in, ignoring Marissa. “After barely five months, she had you robbing liquor stores. At sixteen years old. You could have anything you wanted just by asking, but instead you had to go stealing. You were lying to everyone, about everything. I hadn’t seen you in months.”

“Six months,” Chad told him.

“What?” Brayden was caught off guard by Chad’s interruption.

“It’s been six months since we’ve hung out. In March, Tam was sick for a couple of days, so I stayed here. Until I started sneaking out at night. That’s when you confronted me and told me that if I kept expecting you to lie for me, that we weren’t friends any more. That day has haunted me since I turned and walked away from you. I thought I had ruined everything. I never thought you would forgive me. I never expected to be able to get my best friend back. But then I got your first letter. I had only been in there for less than a week, and you were already reaching out to me.  In the last three months, you were the only one there for me. That’s when I knew things had to change. I knew I still had my best friend, and I sure as hell will never throw that away again.”

“At least not over a girl,” added Brayden.

“Especially for a girl.”

“And no more guy bonding in front of my little cousin,” Brayden added.

Chad laughed. “Sounds good to me.”

“So did you find out if she’s pregnant? “

Chad sighed. “No. She stormed out before I could even ask. But since she didn’t say anything, and she didn’t look like she was, I’m going to assume that she’s not.”

Marissa stood up. “I’m going to go assure Lynn that neither of you snuck out the window and make some popcorn. Drinks?”

“Mountain Dew,” Brayden answered.

“Bud Light. Or tequila.” Brayden gave Chad a look. Chad started laughing. “I’m kidding! I told you I was done with that. Extremely caffeinated sugar water would be great.”

Marissa disappeared upstairs. Brayden waited until the door closed. “What is your deal with my little cousin?” he asked his friend.

Chad shrugged. “She’s cute.”

“Well you can stop. It’s not going to happen. She’s way too young for you. You are way more, um, experienced than she is. She will be leaving in a few days, and she lives four hours away. Oh yea, and she’s my cousin. Ew.”

Chad smiled. “I don’t know. I just like being around her. I know it won’t turn in to anything, but having a good girl like that might be good for me. As a friend,” he added when Brayden started glaring at him. “I like talking to her. She doesn’t judge me for my past and she really listens. And it’s only a four year age difference. Tamara was three years older than me,” he pointed out.

“You had a good argument until your last point, which didn’t help you a bit.”

“So what’s the plan?” Marissa had returned to the basement carrying a bowl of popcorn and a case of pop.

“Let’s watch a movie. I’m too exhausted for anything else,” Brayden answered.

The three settled down on the floor. Just minutes into the opening credits, Brayden had fallen asleep. Chad took the opportunity to learn more about Marissa.

“When do you go back home?” He still had almost three weeks before school started, and he hoped she had the same.

“Any day now,” she answered. “School starts Monday.”

Chad’s heart sank. It was already Wednesday. He had to meet with his probation officer the next day and probably wouldn’t get a chance to see her again before she left.

“And that’s pretty far away isn’t it?” he asked.

Marissa nodded. “Four hours.”

“You should give me your number and we can keep in touch.”
The worst she can do is say no
, he told himself. “If you want to.”

Marissa pulled her notebook out of her bag and wrote down her number. She ripped out the page and handed it to him.

“So I feel like you know a lot about me, but I barely know anything about you,” Chad told her. “What do you do for fun?” he asked.

“Come up here,” she answered instantly.

“I meant when you’re not here.”

“I stay busy at home. I have a four year old sister that I baby sit a lot. I play volleyball and basketball.” She didn’t mention that she also played the clarinet in the school band and had overloaded her school schedule with advanced classes.

“What grade are you in?”

“Starting 7th next week.”

“You must be pretty smart to be starting junior high already. Aren’t you twelve?” He couldn’t believe how easy she was to talk to. “Do you like your school?”

“I’ll be thirteen next month,” she told him. “And I really can’t stand the school I go to. It’s such a small town that if you don’t fit in with the popular crowd you are basically treated like dirt. But I have Melissa. We have been best friends since third grade.”

“I know the feeling about the small school. I’m really dreading going back, because everyone knows what happened. I was on top of the world in January. A lowly sophomore dating a girl that was already out of school was a pretty big deal. And now I’m going to have to deal with all sorts of people talking about me. And I am still considered a sophomore since I missed a few weeks of school, so I failed a couple of classes.” He was embarrassed to admit his faults to Marissa.

“Are you going to be able to catch up before wrestling starts?”

Chad shrugged. “I hope so. That was the one thing in school that I was good at. If I can’t wrestle, I don’t know what I would do.” He picked up her notebook. “Why do you always carry this around?” he asked her.

Marissa blushed. “I write a lot,” she admitted.

“Like a diary?”

“Not exactly. I want to be a writer someday so it’s just something that I’m always working on. Short stories. Poems. Song lyrics.”

The television grew silent and drew their attention. The movie was over. They had talked through the entire two hours.

“Want to watch it again?” Chad asked.

“It’s late. I think I am just going to go up to bed.” Marissa started to stand up and gather her things.

Chad reached out for her hand. “Stay here.”

Marissa thought about it. Clearly he was asking her to stay with him, but did he expect anything to happen between them? Marissa knew she wouldn’t let it, but she also knew that Melissa would love hearing everything about this night.

“I’ll sleep on the floor, you can have the couch,” he told her, as though he was able to read her thoughts. “I like being around you. I feel like I don’t have to be ashamed of who I was. I feel like I can get passed it all. I just feel like myself when I’m around you.”

Marissa agreed and moved to the couch, not realizing how completely exhausted she really was. “Good night,” she mumbled as her head hit the pillow, already half asleep.

Chad sat up and watched her sleep. He had always had sleeping problems. They didn’t bother him so much back when he was high or drinking himself to sleep. As he started the movie over, he considered reading her notebook but quickly decided against it.
Who am I kidding?
he thought to himself.
She’s too good for me. If only I had met her before Tamara, before I got into this mess. Before my world fell apart.
He eventually drifted off to sleep.