"you're so going to pay for that!" Talea screams. I aim for her again with the hose and she falls to the ground laughing. "Aren't you going to get me back?""You got that right" Talea jumps up chasing me around the yard with a wet sponge and hits me right in the back. I stumble down laughing while Talea walks towards me. "Told you", she says. "Girls, girls, what are you two doing?!" My mom comes outside leaning on the porch rail. She got diagnosed from breast cancer 8 months ago. The doctors said she has rare tumor that is untreatable with the information they have now, which means we won't have very long with her. "We're just playing mom" I say playfully as my mom smiles back. "Alright well how about you two get changed and we'll go to that restaurant we like." Me and Talea look at eachother and nod as we quickly head back and rinse off the soap on the car. When I got back to my room, I quickly changed into a t-shirt and shorts, and then headed to the car that my mom was already waiting in. "Talea will be out in a minute" I say. The car is silent. My mom looks at me placing one hand on my leg as a tear falls from my eye. " I know you're going to leave us soon mom." I say softly. "Jamie, don't worry about me. There's no way I'll leave you, Malea, and your father." "You don't know that mom" I say stumbling on my words. She slides her gentle hands across my cheek wiping my slow tears away. "Are we going?" Talea says as she gets in the car.
CHAPTER 2
It's the second week of Summer break and I chose to spend it laying in bed watching re-runs of Full House like any other lazy 16 year old. I've been really down lately. Not just because of my mom's death coming closer day by day but because of everything that's going on around me. My best friends hate each other over something as stupid as a guy getting in between them. And now, I heard the city is tearing down a park that's close to my house that I've been going to since as long as I could remember. They're turning it into a grocery store that's not needed whatsoever because there's another one a mile down the road. My doorbell rings and I go downstairs to answer it because I'm the only one home. "Jamie guess what!" Maggie says. "What is it Mags." I reply. "Well a new guy from California is moving in that house!" she says as she points to the house for sale across the street. "Why would he want to move from California to Florida?" "Jamie, stop asking questions! "I bet he's a cutie!" she says as she walks in the door. We walk upstairs to my room and I plop on my bed. "Jamie, what's wrong? You've been in a really shitty mood lately." She says. "Nothing's wrong okay!" I say defensively. There's a long pause in the room. "You're my best friend but God you're really rude sometimes" I say with a grin wiping up on my face. I lay back with my arm under my head and stare at the fan above me, until a really loud truck comes near the house. Maggie and I run to the window and see a moving truck back up into the driveway across the street. "Let's go say hey!" Maggie says. "Noooo" I reply. "Why not? You haven't dated anyone since you and -- "Where'd you get dating from?! I thought you wanted to just go there to say hey. I'm not going to just start dating someone who's name I don't even know!" I interrupted. "His name is Shawn Butler. Now let's go!" She grabs my arm and pulls me downstairs."Okay! I'll go but don't pull me Mags. You know I don't like that." We walk across the street and ring the bell. A tall blonde - almost brown haired teenager answers the door. "Hey" he says. Maggie doesn't say a word. "Uh I live across the street and just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood!" I say unsurely. "Thank you!" he says with a smile on his face. "Well I'll let you unpack, but if you or your family need anything, just come by my house" I say stuttering at my words as I point to my house" "Will do, and wait it would help to know you're name" He replies charmingly. " I'm Jamie and this is Maggie" I reply. "Well thanks again Jamie" I smile back and grab Maggie's arm as I walk back to the house. "What the fuck Maggie! I had to do all the talking!" "It seemed to me that you two hit it off pretty well back there" she says. "How would you know, you were frozen the entire time. He was kinda cute though" I say quietly. "Cute? More like Sexy!"
CHAPTER 3
It is now August and not many things have changed since the first day Shawn moved in. We saw each other sometimes while getting the mail or taking the trash out but nothing serious between us changed. My mom's been getting worse though. She's now at the hospital while Dad, Talea, and I check up on her day to day hoping the doctor will walk through the door with a cure. "What are you going to wear Jamie?" Emily asks. "I don't know. "Well it's Maggie's 17th birthday so please work with me here. "I'm sorry Ems. The thing going on with my mom is going through my head every day now. "I know it's hard but can you please cheer up for just tonight? Mags and I are finally how we used to be." She says. "Alright." As Emily picked out a dress for me to wear, Jamie walked in looking stunning for her big party. "Jamie guess who's coming tonight!" She says with a big smile. "Mags I don't know. Tell me!" I say excitingly. "Shawn!" I don't say anything for a moment. I guess it's a good thing so I can finally start to talk to him. "Great!" I reply. When we get to Maggie's house, we help out getting the last of the party set up until Shawn comes in. I freeze, because he looks extremely handsome and he smiles directly at me. Emily bumps her elbow into me which pushes me towards him falling. Shawn catches my fall. I look up in his beautiful blue eyes and pause for a second. "Hey Shawn" I say nervously. He laughs."Good thing I came, or you would of fell right down" He says in a cute tone which only makes me blush even more. By now more people have come in and started to drink like any other average teenage party. I never realized how many girls were all on Shawn until now. He was surrounded by slutty girls trying to make a move on him while I tried to turn away because it bothered me a little bit. "Do I like Shawn?" I asked myself. "No, don't be stupid Jamie. He's with all those other girls and you'll never have a chance with him anyway." My conscience gets in my head as I walk away from Shawn. I walk upstairs to Maggie's room where I could get some quiet time because of the loud music and drunk teenagers who are downstairs. The door opens. It's Shawn. "Hey" he says. "That's how you start all your conversations don't you pretty boy." "He chuckles a little bit and sits next to me on the bed. "Shouldn't you be with all those girls downstairs climbing all over you?" I say. "Those girls are annoying. Plus, each girls' breaths smell like beer and desperation." he says in his relaxing cute voice." He managed to get me to laugh. I stare at my feet with the high heels Emily picked out for me. "I really like you Jamie." he says after he places his warm hand on my knee. I look in his eyes and get lost in the deep blue of them, just like the ocean. He wraps his arm around my back and I do the same just around his stomach almost like a hug. I can feel his warm abs that are very calming as I place my head on his shoulder until my phone rings. It's my sister. She never calls unless it's an emergency. Mom.
