When Evan Myers' summer fling with a girl is discovered by her parents, she is sent to spend her last year of high school states away with relatives in an attempt to 'set her straight'.
However, their plan ends up backfiring when she pursues a rela...
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IT ABSOLUTELY, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, WITHOUT A DOUBT, SUCKS TO BE ME, EVAN MYERS RIGHT NOW. At this moment in time, I'm on the train leaving my home state of New Jersey, and relocating to New York because my parents can't handle the fact that their daughter is a raging bisexual.
There's not much to this story besides the fact that it started in the summer, and it involves a girl. We met at this bonfire my best friend Luca invited me to close to the shore, and hit it off from there. She initiated conversation by telling me that the 1975 shirt I was wearing was really cool, and I told her that her sunglasses were pretty neat despite it being night time. We exchange numbers, and for the rest of the summer, she was the only person I would hang out with besides Luca.
Rhiannon, her name was. I looked up the meaning of her name on the drive back to my house: great queen, it told me, and I had no doubt about it. Luca had been talking a hole in my head the entire ride about how he saw me 'digging out' that 'hot blonde chick with the nice rack' at the party. I flicked the ashes of my cigarette at him and told him to shut up.
I didn't love her or anything, and she didn't love me either, it was a mere infatuation. We were at a mutual understanding that this, at most, would last for the rest of the summer until we'd have to go our separate ways. But for those two and a half months, she help my attention like no other. The way her tan skin looked in the sun, her gorgeous brown eyes, her blonde hair (that wasn't actually blonde, but naturally brown, but she looked amazing so it didn't matter), and the way she laughed as if what you had said was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. One thing I did love was how amazing her body looked, whether she was fully clothed or wore nothing at all.
Her parents were oblivious to her attraction to me and just girls in general, so I only came over when they weren't home or it was super late at night, and I had to sneak through her window; nineties movie style. She'd play mixtapes while we stayed up all night talking about anything and everything, then we'd spend the rest of the night making out, and if the mood was right, which it was more often than not, it went further. But she made me promise not to be loud so I wouldn't wake her parents, though that was more of a problem for her than it was for me.
In retrospect, it's definitely a summer I won't forget. I won't get cheesy or cliche and say it was the best one of my life, because it wasn't, but it wasn't definitely a contender. I'd been with about two other girls by this point, and she definitely had a more lasting effect than her competitors. There was just something about her. But, like all things, nothing good can last.
Towards the end of the summer, I got sloppy. Our relationship was winding down, and I wasn't being as cautious. It got to the point where she wouldn't let me come to her house anymore for our late night sessions because I would either cause too much noise whether it be laughing or talking, or start coming in through the front door instead of the window. So, instead, my room became the hot spot for the last two weeks.
Every night if we weren't out somewhere, we were in my room. She'd bring her mixtapes, I'd provide the alcohol. We were the fire that didn't want to burn out, even though we knew we'd have to extinguish soon. I might have got a little more attached than I had planned, and admittedly, so had she.
One night we had a few too many and did what we always did; make out nonstop. I made the careless mistake of not locking my door, because, well, I wasn't expecting my dad to come barging in and see me with no shirt on and my hands down some girl's underwear.
So, yeah, I get the lecture of a lifetime, and my 'relationship' with Rhiannon was forced to a halt. It didn't bother me as much as it would have a few weeks ago, but given we were in the last two weeks, I guess, in a way, I wasn't so concerned anymore since it was drawing to a close. My parents kept pushing the word 'phase' through my brain and that I was just 'confused about what I really wanted'. Despite me telling them that I was, in fact, bisexual, and have known about it for quite some time, confused was the furthest thing I was.
But they don't listen. And to make a long story short, I couldn't stay there anymore at the risk of being exposed to all things gay. They make plans to send me to live with my Aunt Jane and Uncle Peter who live in Queens, New York so I can finish the rest of the school there and 'get my act together'. No matter how hard I tried and how much I argued to stay, it just wasn't in the cards. I didn't want to spend too much time moping around and being upset because that would only make the experience worse for me. I started making rounds to say goodbye to my friends as well as Rhiannon despite our agreement.
"Sorry I got you in trouble with your parents." She said softly, her voice reminding me of velvet and honey, which only made the leaving process harder. We were in her bedroom sitting on the bed, reminding me of simpler times.
I merely shrugged. "Not your fault, it was mine. Don't beat yourself up about it."
She reached over to her nightstand and handed me a plastic CD case, the cover of it was decorated like all of the other mixtapes she ever made. But this one was different. There was a giant pink heart sticker with the word: 'Rhiannon' written neatly on it. There were also plenty of other stickers of smaller hearts and suns and ice cream cones, which I guess was an ode to summer.
"I know this was just a summer thing, but whenever you listen to this, I want you to think of me." She said before kissing me one final time.
When I touch down in New York, I'm greeted by my annoyingly nice aunt and uncle who couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they tell me, "It's been so long Evanna!" and "You're just as beautiful as the last time we saw you." This doesn't stop on the ride to the house, either, if not get worse with their abundant questions about my life, my friends, my grades, yadda yadda. However, what they don't ask me about is the girl I was messing around with for nearly two months, so that was nice.
"It's nothing special, honey." Aunt Jane says kindly as she leads me to the room I'll be staying in. When she opens the door, it doesn't take long for me to conclude she's right.
It's medium sized, with wooden floors and boringly plain walls. There's a full sized bed against the wall in the middle of the room with equally boring sheets. And on the far end of the room, there's a dresser with a mirror above it. That's it.
"You can decorate it however you want, sweetie. Posters, paintings, put a hole in it, whatever your heart desires." She tells me.
She leaves me to unpack and the first thing I do is pull out my computer. When I turn it on, I put the CD Rhiannon made me in the disk drive. I can hear the mechanics inside the computer working things out before a song begins to play. Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac.
