Summer Love

Chapter 5: Emily

Sarah: It was warming up fast in Sennen Cove. Even the people at the beach started drying up from the sand. It was late June and Louis and I sat in the Hideout as I was now coming to know it. My hair was pulled into a pony tail that ended up with the back hairs sticking to my neck. One thing about a place by the ocean for the summer, it was always humid.

Louis was sitting with his legs stretched out over the couch and I sat, curled up in my usual ball formation. We were playing a game Louis had invented called Truth. The game was pretty much truth or dare without the dare. It was pretty much invented because we were too lazy to carry out a dare. "Okay my turn," I said to Louis.

"Okay fire away," he said.

"How many girlfriends have you had in the past year?" I asked.

"987," Louis said. I pretended to drop my jaw. "No, um, one and a half," he said.

"And a half?" I asked. I was starting to become genuinely worried for his sanity.

"That one didn't last long enought to be considered a whole girlfriend," he explained. I nodded. "Okay my turn," he said, thinking for a second, "Okay I've got it."

"Alright," I said.

"Why are you so guarded. Or what are you so guarded about?" Louis asked.

"That two questions," I said.

"Not really," he said. I started to protest before he said, "Just answer it."

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath, "I had a friend named Emily. We had been best friends for about as long as I could remember. One night we went to this party. Our parents had told us to be back by midnight. So we went, had a good time-"

"Oh no," Louis said, "You found out she was seeing your boyfriend."

"No," I said, "Don't interupt. Anyway so we were on our way home and we had lost track of time. So we decided to cut through this bad part of town as a short cut. We went down this ally. We were that worried about getting home. Well I saw this man up ahead. I, being the paranoid person I am, hid and tried to tell Emily but she just kept walking, knowing we had to get home.The guys saw her started to, um, touch her. When she noticed what he was doing, that it wasn't just a playfull flirt, she punched him. He got mad and brought out a gun. He shot my best friend right in front of my face."

"Oh my gosh!" Louis said. I could feel a tear starting to roll down my cheek.

"After he was gone I ran up to see if I could help her. She had been shot perfectly in the chest," Emily! It made scense for me to hear the scream this time, "There was blood all over and my best friend was dead. Just like that."

"How did you deal with that?" Louis asked, putting his arms around me.

"I didn't," I said." After the trial, which wasn't long, I felt so lost. Emily had always been there to sit with me at lunch or to help my social standing, or to sit next to me in class. Now she wasn't there at all. Onee day my mom caught me in the bathroom, drilling a ballpoint pen into my wrist and watching the blood, becasue the physical pain was worse than the emotional. The next day the house was for sale and we had booked this place."

"Oh my gosh. Sarah, I'm so sorry," Louis said. I put my head on his chest, sobbing. I had never ost it like this in front of a guy.

"I still have nightmares every night. I sometimes think I'm never going to forget that night," I said, deciding to let it all go. Louis wasn't a direct link to my parents and he had this atmosphere I had the feeling I could trust.

Louis: That's when I got my idea. Sarah sitting there, sobbing into my chest. I mean I was so used to girls crying it was second nature to just comfort them and figure out a way to make them happy. So this idea was perfect. "I have an idea," I said. Sarah looked up at me and wipped her eyes. She nodded. "This summer I am going to make you forget. I mean I'll never be able to make you forget her entirely but I can make you forget her for a few minutes each day. If I can do that this summer, I'll walk away a hero," I explained. I saw Sarah grin just slightly.

"You think?" she asked.

"I hope," I said. Sarah smiled.

"Thank you. And I'm sorry about that little break down. I don't really talk about it much because my mom always gets scared when I start. And my dad doesn't like when my mom worries. So it kinda all came out at once," Sarah babbled.

"I have four sisters. I get it. And I can't imagine losing a best friend," I said, reaching out and wiping a tear away.

"Thank you, though," Sarah said, putting her head on my chest. I smiled and hugged her. I would make those tears go away.