Four letter word

41. Summer break. (Part 1)

A car drove under the grey sky. Drizzling rain hitting the windows. It was dark at 3pm and the road was almost empty. AJ was grateful for no traffic as she drove to her family's beach house. Her phone rang and she tried to find in her bag without taking her eyes of the road.

"What's up?" She said as she answered the call.

"Are we there yet?" Riley spoke on the other line.

"Do you see a house?"

"No"

"Then we're not there yet"

"Harsh..."

AJ smiled. This had been the fifth time Riley had called to ask that and it was starting to annoy her. Riley had decided to take her car as well and she was following AJ behind.

"How much longer?"

"Ah... like 15 minutes I think. It's not that far, why are you complaining?"

"Because I'm bored and alone. Don't hang up on me again, please" she whined on the other line.

"I will if you start singing that stupid song again" AJ giggled. They had been on the road for an hour now and Riley was getting fussy.

"It's a good song! and also I seriously need to pee"

They took the last turn until the beach house.

"Well you did drink a lot of coffee both before leaving the academy AND on the road so..." she said and heard Riley huff quietly. This made her chuckle. Riley turned out to be a little kid on the road. It kind of reminded AJ of Lindsey. She wondered if it was okay to call her already, but she cleared the thought away since there was no way Riley would accept being hung up on for the fifth time. She would call Lin once they got there. "Don't worry, we're almost there"

"So what are your mom and siblings like? I kinda got the idea from that phone call. They seemed nice. Is there anything I should know though?" Riley asked. Ah, an actual conversation to pass time instead of singing stupid songs the whole way.

"Nothing in particular... just don't mention my dad. She's still not fully over the divorce. As for my brothers, they're a bit annoying, but you have that in common so you'll be fine" she grinned.

"Hey!"

"Sorry" AJ smiled, "umm... what else is there? ...oh, they're all early birds so I apologise in advance if they wake you up in the mornings. By the end you'll probably turn into an early bird as well"

"Hah! Not possible. And don't worry about them waking me up. You could explode a whole bomb next to me and I still wouldn't wake up" she stated proudly, "oh, hey, I see the house! That's the one, right?"

"Yeah, it's not too big or anything-"

"Dude, it's perfect!" Excitement poured into her voice. They drove up to the house and parked behind it. Riley was the first to get out of the car and she went up and opened AJ's door, "you ready to have the best summer of your life?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked. AJ wondered what she had planned. She tried to get out of the car, but Riley only moved an inch away from the door. Their bodies slightly brushed against each other as AJ got out and stepped away from the other girl. She was hit with a sudden flashback of the night she went drinking with Riley and the situation they ended up in. Riley must have noticed the awkward expression on AJ face,

"Everything okay?"

Before AJ could answer, her brother, Tony came around the house to greet them. He ran up to AJ and hugged her, then stepped back and held out a hand for Riley to shake.

"Hi, I'm Tony"

"Riley" she shook the boy's hand and smiled.

"Nice to meet you" he said and turned back to AJ, "you look different... did you cut your hair?"