A Summer to Remember

Chapter 3 - An Encounter

Chapter 3 - An Encounter

I pulled onto the highway and pushed a little more on the accelerator as I felt my blonde hair start to whip around in the wind. I loved the feeling of my hair blowing around when I drove fast. It made me feel free and it reminded me of the joys of summer. As I drove further down the highway toward the mall's exit I reminisced in the fun memories I had last summer with my friends before I met Luke. We spent days driving in my jeep to the beach, blasting our favorite music like Good Girl by Carrie Underwood, Lights by Ellie Golding, and What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction. Music was something we all loved and it was great because each of us had a wide variety of what we liked so we always found new songs we loved.

When we got to the beach we'd grab all our stuff and spot out a place to lay out near the hot life guards or other attractive guys we noticed. Sometimes we'd spike up a conversation with a few guys and end up exchanging numbers. It was a lot of fun, but most of the guys turned out to just be looking for more than a friend, if you know what I mean. After we were done at the beach we would drive back to one of our houses and hang out around a bonfire or just chill inside watching movies with a bunch of sweet treats. Those memories were great and I hoped this summer would consist of the same, minus the boys.

Soon, I found myself pulling into a parking spot at the mall near where Olympia Sports was. I walked into the mall and headed to the bathroom to change into my work uniform. I always arrive a little earlier so I have time to change since I wouldn't want to change at school. I walked into a stall and slipped off my jean shorts to put on khaki ones. I changed my shoes to white sneakers and pulled off my floral top and put on a navy blue polo. I walked out of the stall with my bag, trying to pin my name tag onto my shirt. I finally got it on as I walked into the fastly becoming crowded mall.

I got to Olympia Sports where I spoke to my boss about where I was working today and he set me up behind the cash register. This was probably my favorite job to do in the store since inventory was incredibly boring and walking around helping people and fixing racks got tiring. Although I always got a few upset customers at the register, I knew how to handle them easily. Depending on their situation I could either give them a discount on something or add a small item into their purchase for free.

I sat behind the register for the first half hour without any customers, reading through a Seventeen magazine. I loved looking at the new trends that were edgy but chic at the same time. I even try pulling some of them off, but I usually end up not liking how they look on me. I always had a problem with my body. It was something I was sure that I'd never really get over. I hated how I looked in almost everything and I always felt extremely insecure in bathing suits. I know I'm not fat, but I'm just unhappy with my body. A few years back I was bulimic and didn't tell anyone. No one found out until about last year when I told some of my close friends about it. At that time I had stopped, but I always know how many calories are in what I eat and I tend to work out frequently even though I do soccer and basketball.

I heard a customer come in so I looked up and saw a father and son walk in. I was guessing they were looking for baseball equipment since they both wore yankee's caps. The dad was pretty tall, he had to be at least 6'2 and the boy looked to be about 9 or 10 years old. They walked up to the counter and the father asked, "Where can I find baseball bats and gloves? My son here is going to start playing on a summer league pretty soon." "If you walk to the back and look to your right there should be baseball bats against the wall and then down the last isle right by them should be a variety of gloves," I replied with a polite smile. "Thank you," the boy said. "Of course. Good luck with playing baseball, I'm sure you'll do great!" I said as they walked towards the back of the store. I glanced at my watch and it was only 3:15. Still had another hour and 45 minutes.