Destroying Laural : The Rewritten Chapters & The Reimagined Plot.

1. was any of it true.

Oklahoma was where I found my definite peace.

Driving through the rolling hills of push green, or the beautiful dying colors of Fall, on our way to one of two destinations, both held a distinct feeling. It was like traveling to where your heart was meant to be.

It felt real. Final. Meaningful.

Starting in late May, Oklahoma summers were harsh, you not only had one-hundred degree weather that some years bled into October and November, but also the thickest humidity known to man. The memories though, they were worth the sweat and exhaustion on those late summer and fall nights. Not to forget the sunsets, Oklahoma sunsets were worth everything.

For me and my brother Dan, every summer break started the same. Camping by the lake with random friends, s'mores every other night, just about, from March to December, because Oklahoma didn't get snow until January or February, if at all. And our family camped every two weeks for the rest of the year.

Deer camp was much of the same, camping, s'mores and lots of blankets, deer hunting in the morning and evenings but spending most afternoons together for lunch. Mom made dad come in to eat at least, and as we got older she had to make us all do the same.

The weather didn't cool off until well after October, some evenings and mornings would be cool, but it didn't actually get cold until December, and usually Christmas was spent at the river fishing for Crappie or Bass with my great memaw.

Summers are extra special, the feeling and memories reside in my mind, and the best parts of summer, the one thing that was always constant through our summers spent by the lake in the sun and rain and storms, was camping every summer and fall with the Wall's. The best family friends we could have asked for.

Uncle Derek and my dad had been friends since childhood, my mother and he met their senior year - that's how mom and dad met - and soon after they grew up, camping became a tradition, his parents, younger brother James who was Dan's age, sister Stacey, and all her and Derek's kids would meet us at the pavilion every year during summer break, and then again in the fall for deer camp odd years here and there.

In the heat of summer, usually the first few days of 100 degree weather in June, we spent our days on our boats in the middle of the water, with the jet skis and tubes following along, the nights consisted of horse shoes, that later upgraded to corn hole, that got super competitive as us kids got older, with our campers surrounding the medium sized pavilion at the lake closest to my family, (because that's where everyone grew up besides my mom), doors facing each other, and toys, bikes, chairs, and chalk scattered over every inch of concrete.

We fished every day, and in the evenings skinned crappie, cooked it, and made some of the best memories a person could dream of.

Nicholas was 3 years older than me, and the summer I realized I loved him, I can still recall every detail. I was nine, in my dripping wet one-piece bathing suit, just jumped from the little pool mom and dad brought along so we were all more manageable during our breaks from the lake. I remember Nick's voice, the smell of pancakes his Mimi cooked for everyone that morning lingering. Dan and him had just taken the Jet Ski's out for a ride, his sister's and cousin, who were all just a tad bit younger than me running around with my old and new baby dolls in their hands, his sister Sawyer was sitting down brushing one's hair. But it was Nick that stood out to me. Smiling with water dripping off his hair, he and Dan standing there planning to make his Papa take them out for a round on the tube soon, my stomach full of butterflies.

Later that evening he, Sawyer, Josie (his other sister), and Heather his cousin (Derek's daughter), all got back from looking for deer with their Mimi and Pop while mom and dad made us take a break by cooling off in the camper for 30 minutes, not that it really was much cooler, the air conditioning didn't really do the job when it was that hot.

Nick handed me a popsicle, and sat by me outside in one of the many double seater lawn chairs we brought along with us, under the pavilion, James and Dan taking off to fish off a dock somewhere.

"You are getting better at playing Softball,
My dad said you're superstar potential." He said smiling at me, with his popsicle in his hand, grabbing his old phone out of his pocket and said "say cheese!" Snapping a picture of us in the chair together with our green and blue popsicles, sweaty and waterlogged from a full day out on the lake.

It was just an old flip phone handed down from his mom so he could document his trip.

I still have that picture in a frame, with the grainy blotches and all.

But after a week, or a few depending on how long everyone could get off work, we would all go back home and I would be left in a state of reeling. Always looking forward to the next time I could see them, be with them.

Some times we would make trips to recitals and soccer games, graduations and Christmas plays. But mostly, when we were younger, we just had summer together.

When I turned twelve we started camping for deer camp every year, instead of every great once-in-a-while, and having Thanksgiving together. Mom joked and called it Best-Friends-giving. She was wild and fun, and Nick's mom Stacey and her were good friends, so when I spent the day with her on my thirteenth birthday and started my period, she made everything better. She was my best friend.

I was fourteen when Dan and James graduated highschool, and Nick a year later. They all three left us for the city, together, to take on Norman at Oklahoma University. Nick played baseball for OU, James worked towards a medical degree, and Dan worked towards becoming an airplane pilot, which he didn't decide until later on in his college career.

On my seventeenth birthday my parents sent me to Norman to watch Nick play a really exciting game against Florida State. That day, the story of us started, when the Sooners won, Nicholas Wall ran right up to me, kissing me deeply in front of the whole stadium of cheering Oklahoma Sooners fans.

Nicholas then surprised me with a whole weekend itinerary full of fun places, like blackout bowling and party hopping out in Norman, with Dan and their friends.

Life was so good then. Sweet and innocent, and blissfully monumental.

Nick and I were always meant to be, I always believed that, I still do in the deep depths of my soul.

But somehow when he changed his mind about me, he seemed to forget that. And in the midst of forgetting that, he also forgot me.