The Summer I Met The Girl

three

"Bethany and I are hooking up again," Matt says, not diverting his eyes from the road.

"What?" Crew snaps his head to look at Matt.

They're on their way up to Cousins for the weekend, and Matt couldn't be more excited. He wants to see his parents, his siblings and his cousins more than anything right now.

"It just sort of happened a few nights ago,"

Crew chuckles, "So you're movin on?"

Matt smirks, "Yes."

"Good for you, man. I'm glad." Crew looks out the window.

Matt leans his head back against the headrest, "How do you do it?"

"Do what?" Crew turns back to Matt.

"Make being in a relationship so easy."

Crew scoffs, "It's not easy, Matt. Katie and I work hard to make our relationship work."

"We were raised in the same house, how is it possible that you can be in a committed relationship and I'm a commitment phob?"

"Maybe it's my stellar DNA that you don't have," Crew says sarcastically.

Matt chuckles. He's always appreciated Crew's lightheartedness about his biological parents. Both screw-ups, both in jail.

"Maybe," Matt says with a smile.

"I don't know. Maybe mom & dad's relationship just had a different affect on us. For me, it showed me what I wanted, maybe for you, it was too much pressure to live up to."

"I feel like a failure. I haven't even told them Carly and I broke up," Matt says quietly.

"You're not a failure. You're a 21 year old."

"You and Katie seem to have it all figured out though, and you're both 21."

Crew shrugs, "It's not about me and Katie. You can't keep comparing yourself to us."

"I guess."

"Are you going to tell them why you guys broke up?" Crew asks gently.

"Dad's going to murder me."

"Probably," Crew says.

The conversation ends there, and Matt has a pit in his stomach knowing if he tells his parents, he'll be a major disappointment.

Cars already line the driveway of the house. It's going to be packed this weekend, the whole family is coming up for the first real summer weekend. They'll clean the pool and get new water dumped in, they'll clean surfboards and test out waves. Their mom will dust every room and make sure all the sheets are clean. Dad and Uncle Jere will do a major grocery shop, filling the fridge with beer and the pantry with snacks. Aunt Hailey and Aunt Shay will go into town and pick out new beach towels for all the kids. It's one of Matt's favorite weekends of the year, everything feels new and fresh and summer is so close he can taste it.

He'll come up at the end of school with his siblings, and they'll spend a full week just the 4 of them. It's something they've only started doing in the last 6 years, when their parents finally decided they could be at the house alone.

The 4 of them will surf and stay up late. They'll have a few parties with some of the local kids they know, they'll play volleyball and swim in the pool. And then the cousins come up; Steven & Shayla's girl, Mallory and Cassidy, and Jeremiah and Hailey's boys, Mason, Grant and Jude.

Matt climbs out of the car, feeling the stress in his body start to dissipate. The air is salty and smells like the ocean. There's a light breeze that ruffles the trees. Matt grins, he's home.