The Summer I Met The Girl

twenty

Seasons start to shift quickly on campus. The warm wind turns to a cold breeze, and the snow chases October into November.

The team is undefeated headed into Thanksgiving and Matt feels like he should be on cloud 9, but instead he feels empty. His whole life just feels like an empty screen at the movie theatre, everyone anxiously awaiting the show. He feels like everyone is staring at him, waiting for him to do something amazing and he doesn't have it in him to perform.

His last conversation with Bethany threw him for a loop. He knew that they couldn't be friends, they'd never been friends, not really. They screw around while they're both single and then as soon as one of them gets into a relationship, they bail. But Matt never imagined one of them falling, or both of them.

Henry is visiting for the weekend before Thanksgiving so they can all drive up to Cousins together on Tuesday.

Crew, Henry, Landon, Jason and Matt are sitting in the family room of their house, trying to figure out what to do that night.

Landon twirls a pocket knife between his fingers, "Let's just go to the bars."

Jason rolls his eyes, "They'll be empty, dude. Everyone went home."

Matt rubs his forehead, "We could throw a party here."

Crew raises his eyebrows, "You really want to risk that during the season?"

Matt sighs, Crew makes a good point. If he gets caught, it could mean the end of his undefeated season.

Henry throws his head back against the couch, "We could get tattoos."

Matt laughs, "That would be quite a bonding experience."

"Okay so we're back to going to the bars," Landon says, his tone laced with boredom.

Jason stands up, "I'm going to drive home tonight. Sorry fellas, this is boring as shit. I'll see you guys in a week."

Crew sighs, "We could drive up to the beach house. Mom and Dad won't be up there yet."

Henry perks up, "I'd be down. Throw a party when we get up there?"

"I can call Mallory on the way," Matt says quickly. "Landon?"

Landon hesitates for a minute, "Can I crash there for a few nights?"

"Of course."

"Sweet, I don't want my parents to know I'm ditching classes next week."

Crew stands up, "I'm going to go pack quick and grab roadtrip food. I'll be back here in 2 hours."

"Deal."

Landon and Crew leave, so Henry and Matt play video games for a while. Landon shows up almost exactly two hours later, but Crew doesn't. After another hour, Matt starts to get annoyed.

"He isn't answering," Henry mutters. They've tried his phone at least 20 times.

"Fuck this, let's go." Matt grabs his keys and bolts towards his car.

"Where?" Landon asks, jumping in the backseat.

"We're going to go to his house and pick up his sorry ass."

Matt drives directly to Crew's house. He shares it with 3 other basketball players and they never hang out here. But Crew's car is in the driveway.

"At least we know he made it home," Henry mumbles as they pull in.

The three of them rush to the front door and barge in.

"Crew?" Matt yells.

Henry and Landon both do the same. They're walking around the house when Matt hears footsteps down the stairs.