Good night, Alicia

Chapter One

The summer days at the family's country house had always been mostly uneventful. It seemed like forever since we had been down that unchanged country road, even though, it hadn't been but three years.

Getting together for two months during the summer had been a steady tradition for as long as I could remember, and this last three years had been the  longest stretch my parents, my sister and I had gone without being a part.

We all sort of skipped out on this tradition the year of my grandpa's passing, since nobody really felt like getting together.  And the past two years my parents were wrapped up in business deals in Europe and I was in college.

I couldn't say I had missed it until I spotted the country houses's rustic and colossal silhouette out in on the top of the hill as we entered the unpaved little path leading up to it.

A sudden nostalgia shook me to me the core and It suddenly dawned on me that there was no place I would've rather been in that moment other than our current destination.

I opened the back window to take in that Georgia's rural air and Kesia, my sister let out a huff. The afternoons in this secluded place were normally sunny. The heat in Braselton - while intense, was much enjoyable on a late May day such as that day.

At the helm of the rental car was my mother, hands firmly on the steering wheel. By her side was my father. He fiddled with his watch, trying to contain his urge to make a comment about her driving. Next to me, sat my oldest sister Kesia; eyes lowered to her cell as she scrolled mindlessly, and I had the strongest suspicion this was her way of keeping herself distracted elsewhere other than the familiar, dusty road ahead of us. I looked at her and I wished I could sympathize.

There was a time in my life, back when I first discovered frat parties and late nights - brain fuzzy with God-knows-what -  when these yearly trips seemed to get in the way of my life's rhythm and this whole tradition had admittedly cramped my style.

Those years still didn't compare the summer I had to endure  without my favorite cousin Ewan while he was studying abroad. I distinctively remembered that year as being dreadfully long. Just the worst.

Ewan was my paternal aunt's adopted son and you could tell a mile away too. He was the pale, blonde all-American boy amongst all of us dark-haired, olive-skinned Italians. I still recalled the year my aunt Trina had introduced him to the family. He was shy of five years of age, I was four. We had clicked almost instantaneously and the rest had been history.

How we had grown up since those days...

But as fun as it was about running around getting into trouble with Ewan in the past, this year was different.

This year I was returning as a completely changed woman.

Life had happened too fast for me since I had last seen my family it seemed and I couldn't wait to tell them...everything.

First, there was my graduation last year, followed by what I could only describe as a miraculous internship becoming instantly available. But that wasn't even the best part, six months later that internship had turned into my first real job.

It wasn't anything fancy, but I was doing what I loved the most, which was helping create and design clothing lines for a very modest company that only supplied a few small businesses around the US. Small as it was, it kept me busy, that was for sure

But not even my new job, nor the fact that I was finally able to afford my tiny new place came close to the main reason why I sort-of-really needed this getaway.

We pulled in, just a few steps from the old, huge country house's entrance steps and my mother parked behind a sky blue muscle car I hadn't seen before. From inside that car,  the first face of the summer emerged and it's none other than my cousin Ewan's face.