Summer Lovin

(Chapter 1.)
Welcome To Sunset View

(pg.1) It was the summer of 2023, I was sitting in the passenger seat while my dad was driving, chewing his spearmint gum louder than the Beatles playing on the radio. They where his favorite band he always told me "one day mari I will get to meet them you'll see" but since most of them were dead he meant he would be meeting the two members that were still alive, I would just nod and smile when he said that cause I never thought if he was actually serious or just joking. It's always been just me and dad ever since my mom died, I was 7 at the time, dad would always tell me she was the weirdest woman he had ever met but that's what he loved about her. She was a painter and they met at one of her art shows he was there walking around with his friends and he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen so he tried asking her out by buying one of her paintings she told him they weren't for sale and he confessed telling her he wanted a reason to ask her out and that's how they met. We'd been driving for so long I couldn't even keep track of anything at this point. My feet were sore and I was pretty hungry. "Hey can we stop for some food? I'm starving" I said.

(pg.2) "We're almost there mari can't you just wait a little longer?" "But daaaad if I wait any longer I think I'll pass out or even worse I'll die of hunger" I exaggerated. "I think you'll be ok, you know you're so dramatic sometimes". He said. I scoffed, turning my head to the window". "Good morning sunshine we're here". My dad said. Apparently I had fallen asleep which was a good thing cause if I was awake for the couple of hours that were left of the drive I would have kept complaining. Looking out the window I saw the sign "Sunset View California" . It felt like I was taken back through a Time Machine ever since we last came. I was 5 at the time and everything still looked the exact same. "Wow nothing changed huh?". my dad said."Yep not a thing". I said while smiling to myself. Even all the stores were still up and running. I pressed down on the window button to smell the fresh beach air. It even smelled the same and it felt amazing. It felt like home.

(pg.3)Passing through town we got to my grandparents beach house, I saw my grandma waving to us outside. As soon as dad parked the car I opened the door and started walking towards grandma. "Oh my, is that my Mari? You've grown up so beautifully dear" she said. "Haha thanks noni". I've always called her Noni since I was little. "Where's grandpa by the way?". "Oh he's outback with that old surfboard again I really don't understand why he even bothers with it". She said, I walked to the backyard where grandpa had his old surfboard shack. "Marina! I knew I heard your voice come here give your old grandpa a hug". I jogged over to hug grandpa. "How are you, Mari?" he said. "I'm fine grandpa, I see you're still working on the old surfboard huh?" "Yeah you know it's been in our family for generations. Each and every Winston has won a tournament with this board and I've won with it twice!" "Haha yeah grandpa I know, do they still even host the tournaments anymore?" "Yeah I'm pretty sure but last year they had to cancel due to the hurricane that almost knocked out the whole town" "oh my god yeah I remember that" I said.

(pg.4) Grandpa and I finished talking and then we headed inside. As I walked in a dog jumped on me making me fall back on the ground. "OH MY- wait Charlie?! I thought he was dead" I said, kind of shocked. " oh no honey haha surprisingly he is still kicking and pretty healthy as well". Charlie was Noni and Grandpa's dog. I remember dad telling me he had been around since mom was alive. Walking over to dad Charlie took some treats from him wagging his tail for some more. "Oh by the way honey your room is set up upstairs so you can just unpack your things now" dad said. I nodded while walking to the stairs and picking up my things.

(pg.5) Opening the door to my room I saw that it still looked the way it did when I last left it, the same lace curtains and seashell wallpaper, even my baby blanket was still there. I sighed, dropping my bag on the floor and plopping onto my bed. Ding!. "Hm? Oh I almost forgot I had my phone with me" I thought to myself. I took it out and checked the notification it was from Emma my best friend since childhood, my first time visiting sunset view I met her on the beach near my grandparents house she lived next door to us and we got along very well I remember when we would spend all day at the beach with her and her brother every summer. "Facetime!"She texted me. " Alright"I wrote back. I answered the phone and I was so excited to talk to her. "OMG Marii have you arrived yet?" she said. "Haha yeah we did a couple of minutes ago" "Girl you should totally come over I have so much to tell you!" "Ok I'll be there in a sec" I said smiling at her. "Okk cya there" she said. "Byeee". " I hung up the phone and got ready to go over to her place.

(pg.6)I was honestly kind of nervous because I remembered her brother was there and we haven't seen each other in a couple of years since he left 2 years ago to visit his dad in New York. Emma's parents were divorced and their mom got custody of them, they preferred living in sunset view anyways since Emma never liked the cold and neither did Tyler from what I remember. I went to the bathroom to touch up some of my lipgloss. I stared at myself in the mirror for a while and kept trying to think of ways to do my hair but I just figured having it down would be ok since it would take too much time anyways to do anything with it. I changed into my Jean shorts and my weezer shirt. They were one of my favorite bands. I had a whole playlist on Spotify just dedicated to their songs. After that I slipped on my sandals and I went over to Emma's.

(pg.7)When I got there I knocked on the door waiting for someone to answer but nobody did I thought maybe I knocked too lightly, so I tried knocking again but a bit louder this time, someone opened it and at the door was Tyler or at least I think it was, he changed A LOT and when I mean a lot I mean he got taller and way more attractive. He was my first real crush when I actually even knew what it meant to even have one, I think I was 10 at the time and he was 12, but I always thought he was the one for me, I never had the courage to tell him or anything it was just something I kept to myself, and of course I would never be able to tell Emma it would be too weird and I feel like it would freak her out a bit. "Mari, is that you? He said. My mind was blank for a second before it came back to me who was right in front of me "Oh! Uh hey yeah it's me haha" I said awkwardly. "Well are you gonna come in or?" "Oh yeah! Uh sorry about that" "No worries um Emma's in the kitchen by the way". I walked inside heading into the kitchen and right when I walked in I saw Emma leaning against the island and talking to her mom. "OMG Mariii you're here!" She said running over to me.

(pg.8) We hugged for a while and then we took a seat on the island. " Hey Mari how have you been sweetie?" Emma's mom said. "I'm good thanks Rene," I said with a smile. "Oh my god Mari you won't believe what happened this year, C'mon let's go talk outside" she said while pulling my arm and taking me outside. We sat on the terrace. Back and forth we talked for what seemed like hours but I missed my best friend so I didn't care. "Oh! Also there's a bonfire going down at the beach tonight you should totally come like everyone is gonna be there". Emma said. "Oh I don't know" "Aww c'mon Mari pleaseeee just this once? I sighed. "Fine I'll come but you owe me" "Haha alright" So we started getting ready for the party which I was kind of excited to go to since it was my first time getting to experience something like this.(pg.9) I followed Emma to her room and we started getting ready for the party, with Taylor swift playing in the background we went through a bunch of different things to wear. "Mari you should definitely wear my white dress it totally compliments your eyes" "Oh I don't know it's kind of slutty looking no offense" "Omg Marii that's the whole point c'mon just try it on you'll look amazing" "Oh alright" I sighed. When I was done trying on the dress I went to check myself in the mirror and honestly I couldn't recognize myself but in a good way I felt like things were actually about to change for once, maybe this year is going to be the summer I've always dreamed of having. "OMG you look so hot!" Emma said. "Thanks Emma" "of course Mari" she said. "Ok so are you ready to partyyy!" "Surprisingly...yes! haha".

(CHAPTER 2.)
The Party

After getting ready we walked to the beach, and there it was the bonfire, not a lot of people were there but I was still pretty nervous. "Ok so I'm gonna go get us some drinks and you just wait for me here ok?" "Yeah uh ok" I said awkwardly. While waiting for Emma I saw some people dancing and some others sitting around the fire and then I saw Tyler, there he was talking to some girls. I couldn't tell who they were since it was kind of dim where he was but I felt  kind of jealous. All of a sudden someone came up to me. It was this guy. He looked pretty friendly but I wasn't sure. " Hey, are you Emma's friend?" He said. "Yeah I am why?" "Oh well I think we met last summer? We all went swimming together, remember?" " Um no sorry" I said. "Uhh ok well I was the guy who was freaking out over the jellyfish?" "Ohh! Yes haha I remember that you're Zach Right?" "Yeah haha" "I definitely remember that day you were really freaked out it was pretty funny" I said smiling. "Yep and pretty embarrassing" he said. "So what brings you to Sunset?" "Oh well me and my dad have come here every summer so yeah" "Ohhh really? I've never seen you around" he said. "Well maybe you don't look around enough" I said sarcastically. "Haha fair enough". "Hey, do you want to get out of here?" "Get out of here" I thought. Where would we go and what would we do if I like this boy? So many thoughts were running through my mind but maybe it was nothing I thought. "Oh uh I don't-" Taylor interrupted "Okk haha I'm so sorry I took long with the drinks there was this guy and-" "Omgg Zach?! Is that you man?" "Oh yeah hey Emma" "I see you're talking to my bestie over here she is totally cute right?"