Best Day

I wake up with the covers tangled around my feet. It was the middle of the summer and hot as hell every night. I get up out of bed and rub my eyes. I walk downstairs to find my mom talking to him. She has a cup of coffee and he a bowl of cereal. They stop talking and look at me, my mom smiling and giving me a wink.

He gets up and goes into the kitchen. I know he's going to make me my favorite, granola with vanilla Greek yogurt. He walks back in and gives me the bowl along with a cup of orange juice. I thank him and eat in silence, until my mom decides to break it.

"What are you guys going to do today?" She asks.

"I think were going to go over to Kendrick Road on the bikes," I say.

"Sounds good, but you better go soon. You know how hot it gets over there during the day."

We walk up the stairs and get changed in different rooms. I pull on a fringe bandeau top and black bottoms; my favorite bathing suit. Over the top, I put on jean shorts and a loose white tank top. I walk downstairs and put on her Nike FreeRun 5.0's while I wait for him. Once he comes downstairs, we both walk outside to the bike shack in the backyard. We pull out the bikes and ride down the driveway and out into the street.

It feels great. We're not wearing helmets, and my long, chocolate brown hair is flowing behind her. It's about a ten minute bike ride to my grandparents house, so I wait up for him since he's not used to biking up and down hills for ten minutes straight.

When we get there, the private road is covered in dusty rocks.

"I'll warn you, my cousins are pretty crazy," I say. "Especially the young ones."

He laughs and follows me inside.

"Hi Lauren!" My younger cousins crowd around my knees and I pick up the smallest one. "You're... Piper, right?" I ask, only teasing. She giggles and I set her down. When I look up, my grandmother is standing there washing hat hands on a dish towel.

"Lauren!" She yells. "Who's this?" she asks, motioning to my boyfriend.

"This is my, uh, friend, Connor," I say, censoring my wording around my young cousins, "if you know what I mean," I add with a smile.

She smiles back and welcomes us into the kitchen and sets before us a huge lunch of fish and salad. We eat as I introduce Connor to my older cousins, who all respect him, but I know as soon as we leave they will be laughing about us all day.

We finish up and put our plates in the sink. I say goodbye to my grandmother just as my grandfather comes in.

"Who's this?" He bellows in his weathered Italian accent.

"Papa, this is my boyfriend Connor." I say carefully.

Papa reaches out his hand and gruffly shakes Connors, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Very nice to meet you sir. You have a wonderful granddaughter," Connor says.

With that we leave, but I turn around and catch my grandfather giving me the a-okay sign and I smile and run out the door.

"Grab your bike, we're going to the beach." I say to Connor.

He grabs his bike and follows you down the half mile of gravel. I'm used to it by now, but he takes it very slowly, scared he'll slip on the sandy rocks.

"What's the matter, scared you'll fall?" I call back to him. I hear him laugh, knowing he's shaking his head and pedaling a little faster to keep up with me.

We arrive at our small, secret, private beach and throw our bikes to the side. I run down ahead of Connor and set down my towel and bag. He walks up behind me and we sit down together.