Summer Vacation

Chapter 1

1

My mother is forever telling me to bake brownies, and now I understand why. Brownies are the single most delicious things on earth. They’re warm and delicious and chocolaty and go with almost everything. They are the perfect dessert and you can never go wrong with baking brownies. Also they fill a house with the warm smell of chocolate. They are just the perfect dessert. And Tyrell loves them.

I smiled wider thinking about him. Tyrell has always been the one guy to make me feel special. His voice is the only one that can make me weak in the knees, and make me heart run a marathon. His touch has always made me forget what I was thinking and his kisses will forever make me forget everything but him.

I met him through Erica. For her fourteenth birthday party she had a cookout. She invited me and so I went. What I didn’t know was that it would be a big cookout. A lot of kids from school were there and so were her family and their friends and her friends from church. Everyone was there. In middle school though, I was always the shy girl. So when I saw everyone there I naturally blended into the background.

Tyrell was there because Erica had a cousin who was friends with his brother. Needless to say, he felt as out of place as I did. I had seen him a couple times before last year when we went to school together, but I had never really met him. I knew he had girls falling over him most of the time though, and I think that’s why I never approached him. I figured, ‘why bother’; I didn’t want to just be another name he didn’t remember.

So when he approached me I was kind of surprised. The cookout was at a shelter at the park and I was watching the little kids play on the playground. He sat down on the picnic bench beside me and asked me how I was doing and everything. We had a pleasant conversation and were chatting regular when I noticed that he was really nervous. When I asked him why, he told me that he had been nervous to come over here because he had seen me with my friends before and I looked unapproachable. I laughed lightly and I told him how I had been afraid to say anything to him before in school last year.

We spent the whole cookout talking together. We paused every now and again to go eat something or walk around the park or play with the little kids, but we spent most of it hanging out. When it was time to go he asked if he could call me so that we could hang out again. He was nervous when he asked and I was so surprised. There I was in middle school, the eighth grade, and this fifteen year old, ninth grader was nervous asking for my number. I couldn’t help but giggle and give him my number.

But the best part of the story is that he did call. And when he did, I saw that he’s a lot more than just a handsome face. He’s a good guy with a big heart. He loves little kids and wants to be an elementary school teacher. He loves his family and takes care of the people who are close to him and does everything in his power not to lose them. And I’ve seen him with his mom and cousins, he treats girls right. He’s a real gentleman.

I finished the thought just as I heard a car pull up the driveway. I smiled to myself and finished scraping the bowl of mix as I heard him come into the house.

“Shay? Where you at baby?” He called out.

I called back to him, “I’m in the kitchen Ty,” before I leaned over to put the mix in the oven. It was then that he decided to walk into the kitchen.

“Damn baby. You really know how to treat a man.” He said walking over to me.

I laughed, “And how have I done this exactly?” I asked moving out of his reach to grab the timer off the island. I set it for forty-five minutes and set it by the oven. I felt his arms slide around me as I set the timer down.

“Because you’re making me brownies and wearing something I’m dying to get off of you. How did I get such a wonderful, thoughtful girlfriend?” He asked kissing my shoulder.