Not Another Summer Love Story

Chapter 17 - Closer

My mother left on a Wednesday. I remember the day well because I had my favourite substitute teacher that afternoon and so I skipped home with my elbow hooked around Maisie's while we talked about ponies or Barbie dolls or something. She asked if I could come over to play. I told her I'd ask my parents.

And Dad opened the door and told me we needed to have a talk. He was crying. I thought someone was dead or sick but instead he was just heartbroken because that afternoon she'd packed up her belongings in her suitcases and hadn't left us a note.

It took her a few days to contact Dad and tell him she was filing for a divorce. I mean, it made sense. They'd married at eighteen, had me at nineteen. Everything happened fast, so everything ended fast.

It was also a Wednesday when my university acceptance letter arrived in our rusty metal letterbox. Like I'd expected, I had a position at the uni I'd selected in Perth. Also where my mother lives, and also exactly where everyone expected me to go. But it was also the closest university to my father, and Maisie was studying graphic design at an institution not much further away than I'd be. I shook off my doubts and put on a smile to tell my dad.

We had organised a beach meet up that Wednesday. We hadn't actually had one for a while because everyone seemed to be busy, or away visiting relatives each weekend. It was a blessing and a curse, because I knew we'd all have our letters today, and while some were bound to be ecstatic with their status for this year there'd also be disappointment in the air. At least no matter the mood, we'd all be up for alcohol.

In fact, I was the supplier for the evening. I had acquired the large old esky and had the job of carting it down to the beach side. It had a handle and wheels, so I was going well at my own pace along the bumpy footpath. I had only been walking five minutes or so when a bright red Porsche pulled up beside me, a slender bronzed arm resting outside of the window.

"Want a lift?" Lottie asked.

I gave her a grateful smile and she stepped out of the car to help me bring the esky into her boot. She looked remarkable in a lacy white cover-up with some expensive looking bathers underneath. I took a seat in the front beside her and sighed in relief beneath the air-conditioning. Her car smelled like lilacs and her speakers blasted some kind of instrumental piece. There was a strange air of awkwardness in the car that I felt might be eliminated with chatter.

"Thanks for this," I said. "I guess you're having a quiet one tonight if you're taking your car?"

She nodded. "Alastair and I had rock-paper-scissors as to who was going to be designated driver. Our parents said one of us had to, they aren't a fan of us walking home past midnight."

"Oh, that makes sense. I guess Leeds would be really busy. Here we never really question walking around late."

"Yeah, it's a quite absurd concept to them. Speaking of my parents, I heard Alastair had you over the other night?"

I gulped. I wasn't sure what made me feel weird about it, but something did. "Yeah, it was nice."

"I'm sure it wasn't." She gave an elegantly breathless laugh as she pulled up as close as she could to the beach steps. "But you're pretty brave going. He was really mad at me leaving him to be with them alone. They're pretty brutal, but I'm sure they toned it down with someone else there."

"Kind of." I shrugged.

"You should probably know that they assume you and Al are a couple." She gave me a pointed look, some of her chestnut curls falling onto her cheek. "It would probably give him a hand if you just went along with that."