After Us

Chapter Four

It was a Tuesday morning and my dad had work. It always surprises me how parents don't get a summer break when summer comes. I was up when he left, I couldn't sleep.

I headed into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. Normally Mum, Dad, and I would take turns making cups of tea for each other in the morning. These days Dad wakes up first and only makes one for my Mum. I've once asked him why he never made me one and his shallow excuse was, "You never drink it anyways." When I was little I used to only drink half a cup but these days I never leave a sip. It doesn't matter nowadays anyhow, I make it for myself. Dad and I have always been close but recently our relationship has shifted. Maybe I had changed and found that his once funny comments now  were annoying and didn't help things. These days all he says is, "I wish you were still little again," or "you used to be so much fun." Like how is that supposed to make me feel? That I'm boring and not fun anymore that I'm older?

Whatever, tea wasn't going to help me this morning. I needed a coffee fix. I opened the coffee drawer only to realize we were out. Why had we run out of coffee on the days I needed it the most?

The rest of the day continued to feel long and depressing. I lay in bed for the next four hours binge-watching all the random youtube videos that came up on my "for you page". Although I was tired, I couldn't fall asleep. No matter how tired I was, I could never take naps during the day.

I eventually headed out with Luca to get lunch. He was back from college and lunch was just our thing, time to catch up and spend time together. After lunch we had to stop on the way back at the grocery store because we needed milk and coffee. He handed me the family credit card and I walked into the old market shop. The shop was old and placed right in the center of town. It used to be the place where all the kids went after school on a Friday when we were in middle school. The school was only a block away. On the weekend the place was empty. I headed straight to my favorite aisle, which was the one that smelt like caramel coffee. I grabbed the first box I could find and then took a box some random milk from the fridge. On my way to the cash register, I stopped by the candy aisle to see if they had any treats. The selection of candy seems to have reduced since my middle school days or maybe I remembered it that way.

Then in the corner of my eye, I spotted a boy who looked around my age at the end of the aisle. When he turned around I recognized him straight away, the boy from the Summer Spong, the one with the chocolate brown hair. I knew it was him but I still couldn't remember how I knew him.

"Ann?" he called. My heart stopped. He knew me just like I thought I knew him. He started walking towards me and I prayed I didn't look as awkward as I thought I looked. "Annalise Parker?" he asked.

As he got closer I remembered his brown shiny eyes and light freckles on his nose. His name came to me straight away.

"Miles Miller?" I nearly choked on my own words, I couldn't believe it.

"I was scared for a minute that you didn't recognize me," he laughed. I didn't let him say anything else, I flung awkwardly into his arms and surprisingly he caught me. My head was spinning and my heart was racing.

"What are you still doing here?" I asked, smiling wider than I've ever smiled. "I thought you'd moved."

"I did," he laughed, getting me back on my feet, "I only went with my dad. My mom still lives here. I'm back for the summer." He slid his fingers through his fluffy brown hair. It was long but short at the same time. Miles Miller had been my best friend in sixth grade until his parents got divorced and he had to move at the end of eighth grade. After that, I never saw him. I only got real social media at the start of Freshman year so I never kept in touch with many people from Middle school.

"I thought I saw you at the summer spong a couple weeks ago but I didn't know if it was you or not." I pushed my hair behind my ears trying to keep my big smile down.

"Yeah you probably did, I was there. I couldn't believe they still had the Spong after all these years." I laughed with agreement. Suddenly my brother appeared from around the corner.

"Are you okay?" he asked, "You've been gone for ages, I thought I'd come check on you." When I was little I was always afraid of going to the store alone so Luca helped me get over my fear by promising that if I was ever gone for more than ten minutes he would come looking for me. It made me smile that even now, he still kept that promise. He looked over at Miles and then looked back at me, he seemed to have recognized him as well. "Miles?" he asked. Miles smiled as they both did one of those bro hugs. "No way it's you, you're a giant now." he laughed.

"Miles is back for the summer." I told Luca.

"That's great, you should come over some time." In Middle School Miles used to come over all the time. We would hang out and play fun games and whenever I took a break he would spend that time hanging out with Luca and Austin. he was like a third brother to me. I loved him even when he was little.

"Yeah definitely," Miles turned to me, "I better go actually my mom's waiting in the car but I'll hopefully see you both around."

I couldn't believe I had ever forgotten about Miles. Well not forgotten just didn't think about. All the fun middle school memories we had started to come back. I couldn't wait to tell Oliver so he and I went for milkshakes at Pebbles Diner once again and got the same waitress as last time. I told him about bumping into Miles and how he was the mystery guy at the party. Oliver was intrigued by every detail. I wasn't quite sure when I would see him again but I wasn't going to worry about that until I finished work for the week and had free time.

I worked a few more days at Mrs. Grams and each day was hard to get through. Nancy and Ruby never showed up after their second day, Travis told me they'd quit. Josh was upset because he knew that but meant extra work but, honestly, I didn't even mind. Those two didn't do anything much even when they were here.

I had to keep reminding myself that I'm getting paid to do this and this isn't some old lady's charity work. I was tired of digging so I made my way over to the shed where Josh was organizing wrappers and packets of some kind. He was quieter than usual.

"Do you mind passing the watering can?" I asked, trying to sound extra polite in case he actually was in a bad mood. He didn't even look back, just passed me the can and didn't say a word. He's probably just mad about the girls quitting. I went over and watered flowers with Travis.

"I'm nearly done with this section but the yellow ones need doing," he tells me. I never minded doing things when Travis asked, he was way nicer about it than Josh ever was.

After work, Mrs. Graham gave us all envelopes with money in them. Thank goodness it was payday already. This was my second payday and honestly, I can't complain, Mrs. Gram gives us more money than the kids just sitting around at the sports field snack shack. I guess it's because they do a lot less. It didn't matter though, I was almost done with work. I have a couple more days still to do and then I would have earned the money I owe dad.

My brother picked me up as usual and instead of going home, he told me we had to stop quickly at his girlfriend's house to pick up something. I didn't know what that something was but I wasn't going to question it. I waited in the car as he ran to meet her on her doorstep.

Austin this girl, Jodie, had been dating for three months now. I've only seen her at the house once and said hi but apart from that I didn't really know her. Austin likes to keep everything to himself so he probably never wants to brings her over.