Every Summer

Chapter 1

I closed my book as I finished reading the last page, looking out the window to find that we made it to the small town that I've learned to love, Pawleys Island. We were right next to Myrtle Beach but it had more of that actual town feel to it; rather than a tourist feel which is exactly what Myrtle Beach feels like.

I take out my earbuds and wrap them around my phone, rolling down the window to enjoy the smell of salt through my nose. I would never get over this smell.

"Well Bill, you never could handle small things like this, could you?" I rolled my eyes and looked over to my mom who was on the phone with my dad, arguing about who knows what. It seems that's all they do anymore. They did divorce when I was nine but since they run a home renovation business together, they didn't feel it was necessary to stop working together. Work was the only reason they talked. The divorce was kind of ugly, considering my dad cheated on my mom with another man. It made things very awkward in the family but I've learned to love his husband, Matthew. My mom, however, hates him and blames him for turning my father gay. Little does she know that that is not how it works but I wouldn't be the one to tell her.

Since the divorce, my mom has always focused on work and rarely had time for me. I did live with my mom and only saw my dad one weekend out of the month that I got to choose. After I turned 18, I hung out at my dad's a lot, watching football games with Matthew while my dad worked. We started to bond a lot more and now I feel like he's another dad to me.

"No Bill, we discussed the finances already. We can't put in a second fireplace. First of all, it wouldn't look right in that amount of space and second of all, where would we get the money for it?" I heard my dad argue back and my mom huffed and hung up.

"Going with the second fireplace?" I decided to break the ice.

"Nope." She kept her eyes on the road. As we drove, I saw the house we recently bought and came up here for in February. That is the third house we bought here in five years. We made a fortune on renting out the first house then decided on the second. When we kept getting multiple people on waiting lists, we decided to buy a third one. Since we bought it, my mom kept coming up to renovate the place while I was at school. It wasn't completely done but the second house was a lot worse so we decided to live in the second one for the summer while fixing them both up. It seems we never have a problem with the first one and I would rather stay in that one but it was being rented out most of the summer.

"When do I get to see the blue house?" I asked, referring to the third house because it was painted blue on the outside.

"Tomorrow. I have a meeting with some people about renovating the gray house tonight at the country club. That reminds me, when do you start your job?" She pulled into the driveway of the gray house (second house) and got out of the car without caring to hear my answer which was good because she wouldn't want to hear that I wasn't doing the job this summer. I wanted to focus on having the best summer ever. Not like every summer I've had in previous years. I've worked at the country club since I was 15 and then I would help my mom renovate but that's all I did. I didn't get to party or hang out with my friends if I had the chance to make any which I didn't.

I got my bags and brought them in to see that the house was in need of a total repair. "What happened to this place?" I set my bags down on the sand covered floor.

"I don't know and I'm not happy about it." My mom took out her phone and called someone, yelling at them about the house. I went upstairs to find it not as bad as the downstairs but still needing some repairs.

I got into my room, the one I always take when I'm here, to find a pair of shorts on the floor and a suitcase open wide against the wall. Was someone staying here? In my room?