I'll Meet You in the Summer

dos - ice cream is paradise on a hot summer day

Dos

The sunlight pouring into the room woke me up. Unlike girls in movies who woke up with perfect make up and hair I woke up looking like a zombie who hadn't eaten in a month. I didn't even need a mirror to know that I looked horrifying.

It was so bright that it my eyes minutes to adjust and when they finally did, I pulled my phone from the charger and looked at the time.

It was 10:30 and I was still half asleep I guess the plane ride really did drain my energy.

After dragging myself out of bed I pulled on a pair of baby blue Hollister shorts and a floral tank top and left my room. I'll unpack later, right now I need my energy, and that meant food.

But when I got to the kitchen I found a note taped to the fridge door.

Honey, I didn't want to wake you but I had to go down to the diner. You can either come down for some food or make some toast upstairs. If I were you I would eat upstairs, it's way too crowded down here. Love, mom.

Wow, she wants to make the decision for me again.

Any other day I would do exactly the opposite of what my parents suggest but today I was just far too lazy to go downstairs to eat and I just needed some peace and quiet for myself. I opened the fridge, grabbed two slices of bread and popped them into the toaster. Then I poured myself some cold milk and gulped half of it down.

"Mmm," the cold milk made my throat a lot less dry and moistened it. I felt a lot better already.

While the toaster continued to do it's work I walked to the window and looked outside, the weather was so...sunny. I haven't seen such weather since...well, last summer. It was a perfect day for a solo beach trip.

After wolfing down the slices of toasts, I changed so that I was wearing my bikini underneath. I pulled my hair into a messy bun and washed my face so I didn't look as hideous and more presentable. Then I layered myself with sunscreen, and when I say layers, I mean layers because I've been very prone to ultraviolet rays and I get burnt very easily. It's quite annoying. Getting a tan for me was as difficult as getting a tan wearing a thick winter jacket.

I grabbed my sketchpad and my bag, which I stuffed with all the beach essentials and my phone.

Then I left the apartment and headed down the stairs. I don't think I walked five steps outside before the all the noise and commotion from the diner traveled into my ears. It's eleven in the morning, what are people doing in the diner? I would expect the busiest time of the day to be evening time, I guess I was wrong.

My mom was making an ice cream cone when I walked in, she had on rollerblades and was wearing a red apron with the words Kora's Diner on it, and so was every other employee in the room.

"Oh hey, you're up, did you get a good night's sleep?" she passed the ice cream to the customer that was waiting by the counter and turned to talk to me.

"Yeah, I'm still a little jetlagged though," I explained, "there's so many people here!"

"Trust me Alice, this is definitely not one of the busiest mornings we've had," she chuckled a little, "there are mornings when people line up just to get the famous triple deluxe ice cream cone,"

I nearly choked, "what?"

"It seems like there's a lot of people, but there really aren't," she smiled at the new customer that was approaching the ice cream counter. "Sorry sweetie, can't talk for too long, have fun and dinner is at six,"

I nodded and began to make my way towards the exit when something, or rather, someone caught my eye.

He was sitting in the seat closest to the aisle and had one hand on the chocolate sundae in front of him and the other in his pocket. His three friends were sitting all in the same booth and were all chattering amongst themselves, nobody noticed me, except him. He was staring at me without even looking away, it wasn't like some creepy glare, but rather a nice look that I would give to anyone who I found intriguing but I doubt that's why he was looking, I probably have something on my face, so I reached up and wiped my face as subtly as I could, hoping he wouldn't notice, but of course I failed miserably. He chuckled a little and went back and joined in on their conversations.