Old Orchard

Carla

I could not wait for my mom to get her. I was looking at her completely differently, but I had questions after starting her last journal, the summer before senior year.
June 10th – I want to leave. I never want to come back. Everything I look at reminds me of him. I should be mad, but I am just broken.

I would have kept reading, but Craig had arrived a few hours after my parents. This time, he drove with someone, and I assumed it was Dylan, a friend of his from back home. He had said Dylan had gone to crash at a local hotel to get some sleep before tomorrow since he had driven the last twelve hours while Craig had slept. Craig had arrived happy, but when he returned from the kennel with Annabelle and Frasier in tow, he was not the overly cheery Craig that everyone was used to. I was glad mom was not around, so she could not start asking a million questions. I think she would have figured out the situation very quickly; even my dad would probably be able to pick up on what was going on. Craig was into his daughter, but she was falling for one of the new locals who I was pretty sure was falling for her. It will be interesting to see what mom says to Annabelle about Luke.

Luke's face almost seemed distraught when my mother had told him that Annabelle had not had any other guy friends besides Craig. Then after processing what she was saying, his attitude had changed, as if this was good news. He knew he had a chance, and he was probably banking on the fact that my sister and Craig had never had a history like that that nothing would happen. With Craig's new attitude, I was sure that Luke would be correct if he were thinking. I am getting dragged along to the local amusement park that Annabelle and I swore off when our freshman summer, stating that we needed to act like we were in high school. It had bugged me more than I thought since I was dying to go on the scrambler. I was a fan of the spiny rides instead of the thriller rides. All I wanted to do was stay in and read what happened to change my mom's attitude toward Maine.

My mom loved Iowa, but the ocean still grabbed her in just like it did her two daughters. I felt terrible that I was leaving my parents to grocery shop, but I had a feeling my parents would like some alone time on the beach to relax after shopping. Instead, I was at the amusement park near the pier, but it had enough rides to keep you busy for a few hours.

Walking up the gate entrance to get in, I see Luke standing off, and I can see Craig's posture tighten. He does not want Luke here. 

"Hey," Luke calls out to Annabelle as we get closer.

"Hey," she says, and I can see her blush a little bit. Craig pushes his hands into his front pockets even farther, and I want to tell him that he looks like a little boy throwing a tantrum. Annabelle is not noticing this, so I buy my ticket and insist we go on the scrambler first.