My best friend's brother and my brother's best friend (2016)

Freedom starts ... now!

*Picture of Dani*

"Okay, so number two down ... a Peninsula that's also a James Michener book." I furrow my eyebrows and glance up at my mother who intently grips the steering wheel, I can tell that her mind is working at one hundred miles an hour as she puts on a calm exterior. Like a swan who puts on a graceful show but really, is flapping about manically under the water.

"I don't know why you insist on doing these crosswords when you are just bad at general knowledge!" I laugh tossing the newspaper onto the dashboard and pulling my knees up under my chin, clutching on to my bare feet; I hate travelling in shoes and no matter what my mum says I refuse to wear those hideous crocs.

"Just like I don't know why you made us drive all the way from London to Cornwall when a train would have been so much more comfy!" My older brother pipes up from the back seat where he had been sulking for the last five hours. He did have a point though, I think, turning to look at my mum.

"Hey would you both stop complaining? Driving down to your aunt Al's, doing impossible word searches and fighting over the last Dunkin' Donut is our family tradition. As is spending your summer in Cornwall." She pauses for a second, "and it was Iberia by the way thank you very much!"

She was right, ever since I could remember me, mum and my brother Jeremy would pile our bulging suitcases into her, now beat up, silver ford focus, play with travel uno or word searches and argue all the way to visit my Aunt Al's in Cornwall. Even when me and Jeremy were still in school and only had six weeks for summer; our time was spent there.

Al wasn't my real aunt, her and my mum had met in Uni as flat mates and been best friends since, even when my mum took a job in Cambridge and Al inherited her parent's house by the beach in Cornwall; thus giving birth to our summer tradition. Al also had two children, Cara was the same age as me and my best friend in the whole world. We only saw each other every summer and then New Years when they came to stay with us in Cambridge but we spoke every day. She was my rock, sister from another mister, I could tell her anything and we had a sort of physic communication ability with each other; handy when we lived so far apart. Then there was Eli ... well.

Eli. I felt the butterflies stir just thinking of his name. He was the same age as Jeremy, both just having finished their first year at University. I had known him my whole life, there was even a point when us four kids would take baths together. I guess when you become a teenager and learn what sex is and your hormones start raging, I guess that was when I became irrevocably invested in him.

It didn't matter though, he was my best friend's brother and my brother's best friend. Getting involved in something like that would be too messy. That is, if it were possible that Eli would ever look at me as more than his little sister's dorky friend who he had a laugh with twice a year. We were close sure, but in a you-are-practically-my-sister kind of way. I just had to accept that it would forever be my fantasy.

"Hey, dolly-daydream wake up! We're nearly here." I jump as my brother pelts me with skittles from the back seat, disturbing me from my annual pre-meeting preparations with Eli. I hadn't seen him since last summer as him and my brother had gone to New York for New Years.

"Alright," I swat at him laughing "a tap on the shoulder would have served just fine too you know!"
"Yeah but what would be the fun in that?" He grins from behind me but I barely hear is words as we move down the long winding driveway up to the Carver's old manor that was located on a cliff right by the blustery beach.

"Thank God!" My mum exasperates as we pull up the familiar driveway "I was beginning to think I would be stuck in this car with you two morons forever," she laughs rubbing her temples.

Closing my eyes and trying to block out my mum and brother's bickering, I take a deep breath. Maybe this summer will be different and even though what I need is a carefree summer to forget about lingering responsibilities and worries before Uni begins, I know that a small part of me will always hope that one day Eli will see me as more than an unrelated sister. Well you never know, I have 65 days and counting and my freedom starts now.

Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to vote, share and comment. Will continue the story within the next couple of days, please vote will encourage me to write quicker if I know people are reading. Thank you! ☺️