That Long Summer

Chapter 1

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Fia Kincaid's infectious laugh rang across the garden, blurring out the thumping music.

Senior year had just ended, so naturally there was a huge house-party. The place was massive, there were no adults, and the supply of alcohol was seemingly endless. The party was already a hit.

Fia's beauty was like a magnet. Everyone around her were like moths to a flame, watching her and hoping to hear something incredibly interesting slip from her lips.

Across the garden stood David Lawrence and his cousin Mark.

"I can't believe you dragged me to this." David muttered and drank the rest of his whiskey in one gulp.

David had just finished college, and - despite only being a few years older than everyone here - he felt this whole situation was extremely immature.

Mark (who was well-used to his cousin's dark moods) responded encouragingly. "Lighten up, man! There's plenty of hot girls here." He stretched his arm up around David and went on, smiling widely. Mark had the temperament of a Labrador. "And the woman of every man's dreams, standing just over there - Fia Kincaid."

David heard his cousin talk about Fia Kincaid before and knew right away which girl she had to be. He looked across the garden at the girl with the huge glittering dark eyes. The girl who seemed to be glowing, the one who seemed to relish the attention as she told a very animated story.

Then, she called loudly (apparently to the whole party), "Oh really? Won't I?!" She tipped the rest of the drink in her red cup back and then dropped the cup. Fia kicked off her Nike's and smirked.

Mark nudged David excitedly. "There's a bet that she won't jump in the pool, because last time she broke her ankle."

"Does she jump in the pool often?" David responded with a straight face, his eyes still firmly fixed on her.

"At every party that has a pool she will jump in it." Mark said this as if it was an amazing achievement.

"God, you think she likes the attention?" David asked sarcastically and smiled darkly to himself.

Fia was grinning widely. She had straight white teeth that were a bit too big for her little face, but this feature only added to her beauty.

"Pay up losers!" Fia called and then proceeded to jump in the lit up pool fully-clothed.

Half of the party cheered while the other half cursed.

"Brilliant." Mark grinned and clapped. "Way to go Fia!" He called, still clapping.

David grimaced at his younger cousin and then turned his attentions back to Fia. She was swimming over to the edge and then climbed out of the pool gracefully. Her dark brown hair was slicked back now and her clothes were stuck to her body. None of this, or the many spectators seemed to phase her. David couldn't help but notice that the more attention she received, the bigger she smiled.

Truthfully the pool was freezing - but Fia loved to prove people wrong, so she simply slapped on a smile to hide how much she was shivering. And anyway, so what she broke her ankle once? That was only because she jumped into a tiny pool in the shallow end when she was black-out drunk.