We Had the Right Kind of Love // L.S.

Chapter 7. Summer

"What are your summer plans?" I ask Zayn one hot afternoon. We had just had our last day of seventh grade and while Harry went to the doctors that afternoon, I invited Zayn over to hang out at my place. It was rare that we hung out just the two of us.

"Not quite sure," he licked the popsicle my mom had given us, "Might go to the lake house with my family. We have one up in Michigan."

"That's neat, we've always been more of a beach family. What can you do at a lake?"

"Lots of things. Boating, fishing, jet skis, kayaking," Zayn lists off on his fingers, "Say, maybe one summer I can invite all you guys up there for a week. My mom would probably let us even have the whole guest cabin to ourselves!"

I nod my head eagerly, "That would be so fun! What else would we do?"

"We could go hiking. I've been biking enough times with Harry he'd probably go on one of the biking trails with me. You could too," He asks, "I know you guys like doing things together."

"No, I'd probably sit that one out."

"How come?"

"Can't ride a bike."

"You can't?"

"Nope. Harry promised he'd teach me one day, but it's never come up."

"Well, have him teach you before next summer because that trip will definitely happen!"

"I'll ask him about it when he gets back."

"Where is he anyway?" Zayn slurps up the last of his popsicle and lays the sticky stick on the hot concrete.

"He's at the doctor's."

"Why are you and him always at the doctor's?"

I'm saved from answering that question when Fizzy emerges from the house, a bowl of fresh strawberries in her arms, "Do any of you want strawberries before I eat them all?" she calls to us.

"Ooo yes!" Zayn exclaims, running over to her.

I get up, rolling my eyes. Zayn would never say no to sugar, even if it came in berry form.

Zayn's dad picks him up later that day and after promising he'd be in touch over the summer, they drive off into the sunset leaving me to go sit on my front step with a book and wait for Harry to come back from Los Angeles.

**

Three weeks later Harry and I are in my hot room as the small portable fan on my desk attempts to cool our sweaty faces from the warm summer sun.

"Harry?" I look over at him where he lies on my bed, feet up on the wall and slowly munching his way through a bag of gummy bears.

"Yeah?"

"Sit up or you'll choke."

"No, I won't."

I sigh and put down my book. The heat was getting to my head and I'd been reading the same paragraph for the past five minutes, "Should we do something?"

"Like what? We can't go anywhere because your parents are at therapy and Gemma's with friends."

"Mhmm," he was right. All my sisters were at friends' houses while my parents went to see Linda, a licensed marriage therapist because apparently, things between mom and dad had become worse. I hadn't told any of my friends about this except Harry, of course, and he was under orders not to say anything about it around the girls because they didn't know either.

"We could walk to the park?" Harry suggests, falling out of his halfway handstand against the wall and turning, "But it's almost a hundred degrees out so that doesn't sound like much fun."