The Summer Reunion (unedited version)

48| Out Of Sight Out Of Hand

The cabin was packed with people. Some faces I recognized, others I had never seen before. Loud beats radiated through the house sending vibrations into the floor. You could almost feel the music before you heard it. Everyone was shouting so loud it was impossible to hear Grayson sitting next to me on the couch.

His lips moved but I couldn't hear a thing.

"What?" I shouted over the music.

He tried to shout louder yet his words were still muffled.

"What? I can't hear you!" I gestured to my ear.

A girl backed into the couch, not paying attention to where she was going, and almost spilled her drink on my pants as it sloshed over the rim.

Grayson leaned in closer to me. "I think this is a fire hazard."

Guys and girls ran around holding bottles in the air and shots in their hands. The smell was somewhere between bong water and Cheetos. 

"Forget that. They're dancing so close I bet they're making their own bacterial ecosystems."

It was hard to pinpoint when things had gotten so out of hand. Once Drew and Travis spread word to the other guys it wasn't long before people who weren't even at the country club were showing up for the afterparty. I barely had time to change before they all came barging in with a keg and their rowdy spirits. Over the next hour random strangers kept trickling in uninvited, at least by us, until we were packed like sardines in our own cabin.

The buzzing feeling was more prominent than before. I couldn't tell if it was the bass rattling the walls or my phone buzzing in my pocket. I pulled out my phone and my eyes widened at the name on the screen. 

"My mom's calling me."

He leaned in to double check. "Are you going to answer it?"

I was so stunned the thought of picking up hadn't occurred to me yet. Weeks had passed and I hadn't gotten one text or call. Except for now. My mother has always had impeccable timing.

"Oh right, yeah."

I swiped on the screen and accepted the call, trying my best to hurry out of the room.

"Mom?" I covered my hand over my ear to block out the noise of the party.

It was a miracle my mom stayed on the line for the ten seconds it took me to push past the sea of the inebriated and onto the front porch.

"Mom, you there?"

"Hi Andie." Her tone was clipped. I knew from the greeting alone this wouldn't be a pleasant conversation. "I talked to your father."

And there it is.

My mother was never a woman to beat around the bush. There were rarely any "hi's," or "How are you's" when it came to her. 

A few people were stumbling around on the front lawn. I moved to the porch at the side of the house and sat down on the couch underneath the window.

"You called him? I thought you weren't speaking to him."

This must have been the first time they've talked since we left.

"He called me actually. Well, my assistant. The incompetent thing. She patched him right through to me. I knew I shouldn't have fired flora."

"Her name was Florence, mom."

"That's not the point. We chatted on the phone for a bit. About you. What a surprise your fathers not calling to talk to me."