The Long, Hot Summer [RETIRED]

Chapter 1

Michelle

Last year, Late July

When the Isley Brothers sang about the summer breeze making them feel nice, they couldn't have possibly been thinking about Houston's weather, because the summer breeze is anything but nice. Its hot, and humid, and it makes you wanna stay in the house. Which is where I wish I could be, but unfortunately, my current shift at my job was keeping me from doing so. I wasn't complaining too much though, because this summer I started working at the local ice cream shop, so at least I didn't have to worry about being in the summer heat. Not only that, the pay was great, I could get ice cream for free, and it got me out of the house and meeting new people, which made my mama happy because if you let her tell it, I was a hermit who refused to be the social butterfly she knew I could be. Apparently at home I was full of personality, but out in public I was like a shy, timid little church mouse, which happened to be the name all the kids called me in school.

Church Mouse or Church Girl, that's that what they called me.

I mean it wasn't a lie, I was a church girl; my dad was a deacon and my mom was on the usher board, so it was only natural that a lot of my life and free time was spent doing something church related, whether it be something for the youth ministry or singing in the choir, the church was almost my second home. But it wasn't too bad, contrary to popular belief I did have a friend, so I wasn't a complete social outcast. My best friend Lamman was the Bishop's son, and the bishop also happened to be one of my dad's best friends. He's been my best friend literally since we were born. He knows everything about me and I know everything about him. Of course, because our parents are so close we already know that they expect us to hopefully and potentially date, because to them it just made perfect sense, but that would never happen. We aren't romantically interested in each other at all, in fact when I look at him I see the brother I never had and always wanted, and he sees the sister he could relate to since his younger sister was eleven.

Lamman also went to the same school as me, but since he played football and basically had a mirror version of my schedule, I hardly saw him, and if I did, it was in passing in between classes or during lunch, but that wasn't often, because we were in two different social groups, him being a jock and being the shy, nerdy 'Church Girl.' As a result, during lunch we didn't hang out too often, the times we did were mainly when football season was over and the basketball season was the center of attention. I didn't mind that we couldn't spend a lot of time together at school, because that kept unnecessary attention away from me. I didn't want people drawing their own conclusions about me that were incorrect, and thinking things about me that were not true.

Also, I'm the type of person that likes to stay in the background, because my philosophy is, if they can't see you, they can't talk about you, and the less attention on me, the better.

Like the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.

Lamman was my best friend, but you know how you can have friends for different circumstances, like that one person you share one class with, and it's literally the only time you see them, so you become friends for that class to help you pass the time together, or your next door neighbor that goes to the other school across town but is still your friend, that's how Lamman was for me. He was my outside of school best friend, even though we went to the same school, but we saw each other the most at Church and when our families got together. The fact that we went to the same school was merely a coincidence.

Times like this I wish I had a job bestie to help me pass the time during my shifts and for times like now, but unfortunately for me everyone I worked with were either in college or just didn't or couldn't relate to me at all. We had reached one of the slow hours of the day, when the traffic from the day had died down and as it neared evening, but it was only temporary because the after dinner rush would be soon to happen. I was wiping down the counters to pass the time when the bell on top of the door rang, signaling a new customer had arrived.