About Time - a summer novel

ONE

Whenever summer was around, it felt like my whole life took a full turn. 

As one was going from the muddy grey weather, the rain and wind, the thunder storms and the cold to summer holiday, tanlines and picnics outside in the sun felt like the world was actually okay again. Time got lost track of, the sun rose early and set late. Hours were spent at the beach, the lakes, in forests or on walks trough fields, soft warm wind blowing through hair and flowy summer dresses. Swimsuits dried on bodys right before getting soaked from the fresh water again and the smoothies and drinks from the cheap bar a short walk away from the beach tasted better than they ever had before. 

The usual summer trip to our beach house was planned and already packed for and the excitement to see my friends again was growing with every day, every hour left until i'd see my  best friends and absolute favorite people in the world again. 

I've known the two girls since i could think, every year all three of our families take the same trip to our beach houses that were all almost next to each other for four weeks, and every year we left the beach tanned and with unforgettable new memories- and this year shouldn't be any different. 

The way to the beach houses was a few hours long from each of our normal homes, but the yearly day-long and not completely voluntary road trip was worth it every time. It was our special thing, a ritual of the families to meet up every year. It was how we had gotten to known each other as little kids and how we had stayed friends for over a decade.

Three days were left until my five headed family composed of my two siblings, my parents and I,  would leave our small home village and drive to the south of france, towards the hot, burning sun and glistening sea. School was already over and some other friends from my class had already left for their summer trips to see every possible country around the globe. Some went to east or west Canada or Asia, others to the United States and again others spread out in the varity of countries in Europe like my family and i did. 

As I am still sitting on my bed, the golden sun shining in my room as she is about to start setting, the online storys and account feeds were already filled with pictures out of plane windows, palmtrees or drinks at the beach- just waiting for me to add some snapshots myself.

And then there were Lee and Fen. 

Starting with Fen's account, I went scrolling through her posts, focusing on the ones from last summer where Lee and I appeared too. Smiles and sunburns beamed from the small phone screen, three completely different looking yet all gorgeous girls in swimsuits, short and colorful dresses and sunhats smiled from the candids, some taken with a film or polaroid camera, others more high quality and even some from our friendgroup swimming or snorkeling underwater.

 A warm feeling started to spread in my chest as it felt like i could hear their laughter and voices in the silence of my room and i went to check Lee's feed too. Just like with Fen, it was a bit bizarre just seeing her on a tiny screen and sudden memories from last summer crept up in my head, making me feel weird all of a sudden- still warm but now also slightly strange. 

Last summer something between Lee and I had changed and taken a turn in a slightly different direction than before but I had forgotten about it until i was seeing her face right now. 

Not that i hadn't checked my friends profiles and online appearance- I did, along texting them and all of us sending a good amount of pictures throughout our seperate weeks and lifes outside the yearly summer crossovers. But knowing that i'm so close to meeting them again filled me with a huge amount of joy and excitement. While Fen's posts were colorful, bright and uploaded every other week, Lee only had a few pictures on her account. She looked beautiful, especially in one picture i had shot one summer ago. It was my favorite picture of her and the image that instantly popped in my head when I heard her name. 

In this polaroid she was pictured from behind and sat on some big rocks, surrounded by water and the beach, seagulls flying over her head which, to the most part, was covered in a big sun hat. Her face was turned to her left and her long black hair was flying to the side, blown there by the soft summer wind that had been in the air that day. She had captured it 'your kiss,my cheek-i watched you leave' seemingly random from an outsiders perspective- but I knew who she was talking about; I knew who had kissed Lee that day. 

What would she look like when i saw her in a few days? Probably even more grown up. The Asian girl had always been the most mature looking in their trio and i had always slightly envied her for that. It suited her calm yet cheerful personality a lot though.                             

Just as i was about to go off of social media and put my phone away a new story notification from @fenmontesmoments which- already obvious from the username- was Fen's account. Also an slightly old summer picture was shown here, her bright ginger hair blown in her face, Lee and I standing left and right by her sides, each of us having one arm wrapped around her. 'Can't wait to see my favorite people again! @Leethefarley @justettahenson' read the text on the picture, mentioning mine and Lees accounts. 'Can't wait to see you either' i responded to her after reposting the picture on my story. 

I put the charger in my phone and put it away although i saw another notification popping up- this time from Lee, and went to bed,small bits of the setting sun still shining through my room, drawing shadow patterns on the ground and walls. . .