The Last Summer

Chapter 9

"What is this?" he demands.

I pull my arm back. "Nothing."

"No, Macy," he says, grabbing my arm back. "Oh my god, Macy! It's all the way up your arm!" he grabs my other arm. "This arm too!"

I pull my arms out of his grip. "Jason," I say. "It's nothing important. It's ok."

He sits down on Drew's bed. "Sit down and tell me everything that happened because I know that's not nothing."

I slowly walk over and sit down. I tell him the story, how my mom was drunk when she threw the plate.

I sigh as I finish. I look at Jason, who's face is unreadable. That's strange since he's drunk. I think. I don't really go to parties.

"Wow," he manages. "I knew the story about your dad, but I didn't know this still happens."

"Every once in a while," I mumble.

He takes my hand. "If it happens, just come straight to my house. Even if I'm sleeping."

I nod. He gets me a different shirt, this one long sleeved. My finger tips barely sneak out the sleeves. We go back down and stay at the party until it's about midnight.

I drive him home, since he's still drunk.

He gets out if the car and walks to his front porch. He looks back and waves. I respond with a smile.

He just stands there for a minute then starts walking back to the car. He motions for me to get out.

"What?" I ask. "Is something wrong?"

He cups my face in his hands. "Just don't forget what I said."

Before I can respond, his lips are on mine.

Time stops for a moment before I know what's going on.

Jason's kissing me.

Jason's kissing me.

Jason. Is. Kissing. Me.

Is this because he's drunk or out if his free will?

I don't think about that and close my eyes. I swear I could melt right now.

Jason pulls away and looks at me. "Ok?"

I can't find my words so I just nod.

He smiles and walks back to his house.

I get in my car and go home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's the Fourth of July today, so I don't have work.

Me and Hannah always go to see the fireworks at night and then sleepover at her house. It's one of the only things I look forward to all year.

I decide to go to Hannah's around noon. She doesn't know I'm coming, but I don't care.

When I get there, she is just getting out of bed. I drag her out of bed so it'll wake her up so I can tell her about last night.

When I'm done telling her, her jaw drops.

"OH MY GOD MACY THAT'S AMAZING!!!!!" she yells.

"Calm down. Plus, I don't know if it was real," I say. "I mean, he was drunk."

"So what?" she says. "You can obviously tell he likes you and boys just don't kiss you for the first time like that if they're drunk. His mind was 100% sure of this."

"How do you know?" I ask.

"I've been to more parties than you have. I know things."

I laugh. We go downstairs so Hannah can eat her breakfast/lunch. I just make myself a sandwich.

We go back upstairs and watch The Fault In Our Stars. We've seen it about 100 times, but we still cry at the end.

"Augustus noooo!" Hannah screams at the TV through her sobs.

"Why'd you do that John Green?" I yell with her.

When the movie's over, it's about 3:30, so we decide to go shopping before the fireworks. Another tradition I love so dearly.

When we are done with that, we go to the park where we can see the fireworks. They're coming on in about an hour, but we like to be early. We sit in my car and crank the music up loudly, loud enough to blast our eardrums.

This is what I love about summer. Not having a care in the world and being able to do whatever you want.

I get yanked out of my thoughts when Hannah yells my name.

"What?! What?!" I scream.

"They're starting the pre-show!" she tells me.

We get out of the car and sit on the hood, the music still blaring from inside the car. They set off little fireworks that are only one color, but it's still beautiful.

"Hey," Hannah whispers.

"What?" I whisper back.

"I've got something."

"What?" I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. With Hannah, you never know.

She gets up and gets her bag. She pulls out a box of matches and a pack of sparklers.

"Lets have our own little show, shall we?" she says.

I smile and open the sparklers. We each get one and light 'em up. We start dancing to the music that's still playing in the car while the fireworks still fly up in the sky.

We grab the attention of multiple people, but we don't care. Who cares if we've graduated? Whoever thinks it's weird needs to shut up.

A few minutes later, they send up the huge, multi-colored fireworks. We sit back on the car and watch them with ooh's and ahh's.

When they're over, we drive back to Hannah's. We don't decide to go in just yet. We grab the rest of the sparklers and light those up.

We run around the front yard with 4 sparklers in hand. We spin in circles and jump up and down, our hair flying all over the place. Her curly blonde hair, mine brown and wavy.

It's these moments that I absolutely love, just me and my best friend, together, being ourselves. Bringing out our inner child.

After the sparklers go out, we get our stuff out of the car and start to head inside when I get a text. It's from Jason.

"Hold on," I tell Hannah.

She waits while I read the text.

Jason: You looked cute running around with the sparklers

I smile and feel myself blush as we walk inside for the night.