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001 cousins beach
Caroline couldn't remember a summer she wasn't spending most of her time at the Fishers summer home. The season would hit and she'd find herself with her friends she only got to see during those summer moments.
She loved them. She loved the breeze that came through the heat and the smell of salt in the air that seemed to only be nice in the warm season. Winter in Cousins was not something she enjoyed much, so summer was always a nice treat.
But of course her favorite part wasn't the season, but the people who came along with it. Belly and Steven Conklin as well as their mother Laurel, and Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher with their mother Susannah.
Usually fathers joined the vacation as well, but Laurel had divorced her husband a little more than a year ago. He hadn't been there last summer so Caroline had no clue if he'd show this one. As for the Fishers father, Caroline was even more clueless. Sometimes he was there and others he wasn't, she never knew.
And this summer, Caroline's own father would only be able to join them for the 4th of July as he had to go write a column in Rome about its greatest landmarks. That was his job, just going around the world and writing about the places he saw. It was amazing and Caroline hoped that one day she could take on a similar lifestyle.
Her older sister (by barely 3 minutes) Maggie, or Mags, was much less fine with their father having to leave. He had promised to help her out with brainstorming ideas for college essays but had no choice but to leave for work. He promised to help when he got back, knowing how much she wanted help, but it wasn't the same.
Mags said that there was nothing special about her life. That she lives and grew up in Cousins and that was it, story over. Caroline disagreed, she thought there was a lot about her sister that was unique and that she could write about. Or even about Cousins, how every morning there was that moment where the sun would hit the water at the perfect angle and it looked like everything was glowing.
How the people made it their own job to know their neighbors and be their friends, ready to step up for each other if needed. Caroline saw a lot one could write about for college, but college was still so far that she didn't want to focus on it like her sister did.
But out of everything Caroline was excited for, she was most excited to see Jeremiah again. To be around the boy that made her heart flutter and cheeks rise in heat.
Caroline had always been in some type of love with Jeremiah Fisher for as long as she could remember. There wasn't a time where her heart didn't yearn for his. And a few times she thought that maybe, just maybe, his was beating just as hers was... but she could never fully tell.
