Endless Summer/ ✔️

All My Love

"We've been dating for almost two months and now you want to talk about this?" I asked, annoyed. Daniel scoffed and gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. "Daniel, I'm serious. Look, I promise nothing ever happened with him."

"Why are you getting mad? I was just asking if Jonah had taken advantage of you or you did something with him. As your boyfriend, I have a right to know." I snapped my head back towards him and glared.

"You don't have a right to know anything, Daniel. If I want you to know something, I'll tell you."

"Okay, you can get your underwear out of a wad now. I was just putting my opinion out there but apparently with you, I am not entitled to an opinion," Daniel muttered. I didn't know if he actually had the right to know about Jonah and I but he wasn't involved in it so why would I tell him?

"Screw you. Yeah, he saw things you have seen but that doesn't matter. That's it. Can we stop talking about this now?" I admitted. Daniel tensed up and shifted in his seat. "I don't know why you care about that. You were more naughty than I will ever be." His head snapped in my direction.

"How do you know about all of that?" He swallowed roughly.

"So it's true?" I waited for a reply but got silence. "The boys dished all about your dirty habits the other morning at your house. Don't worry, I could totally understand."

"How could you ever understand? You're nothing but pure and innocent," he replied. I smirked and twirled a few strands of hair around my fingers.

"I can understand," I whispered as I leaned over. "If you want to show me how." I whispered. Nervously, Daniel pushed himself up against the door and cleared his throat and a smirk found its way to my mouth, I looked out of the window and realized the beauty my home had given. The sandy beaches with crystal blue water, tall buildings that stood out at night and the hospitality. It would always be home to me.

***

I stretched my legs and yawned, letting the truck door slam. "A few more hours and we will be home," Daniel assured as he put his arm around my shoulders. "Think you can make it?"

"I don't see how she could," Lauren interrupted. "She's only focused on the food that's waiting inside this wonderful restaurant." I smiled at Lauren and reached for the door handle. Instantly, the smell of food hit the bottom of my empty stomach. For the last ten hours, we had been alternating between driving back to California. We stopped for the night, a total of three times since we left Florida. This road trip, was taking a toll on all of our bodies and I doubt we would want to do anything major once we got home.

As we waited on the food to arrive, Lauren leaned into Zach and sighed. "We should try something new for the rest of the way home," Lauren suggested. "You and I should switch places."

"Why would we do that?" I asked.

"I don't know," Lauren shrugged. "I just thought maybe if we had other things to talk about with other people, we wouldn't be so tired and bored." I looked at Zach and grew a smile. That could work. Zach and I had never really talked and this could be the chance we needed. Once we got back to Los Angeles, he would go back to being busy with music and Lauren, whilst I focused on college.

We ate in silence, little laughs escaping our throats as we talked about random things. Zach inhaled a piece of his hamburger and left us all in tears as he doubled over in pain. I was beginning to realize why Lauren had instantly fell for him. He was hilarious and had so many embarrassing stories to tell about him and his family.

I was also seeing how easily he fell in love with Lauren. He looked at her like she was the most priceless thing in the world and he wanted to protect her. He was right, however. Lauren had been my first best friend. She cared for me when my father first got deployed and we would spend nights up in the treehouse that lived in my backyard, talking about all of the possibilities our life would give. Visiting Los Angeles was one of them and now, we were moving down there to get our lives started. We had always wanted to do everything together. From trying out for the cheerleading squad, to going to the hottest high school parties and being two of the popular girls in high school.

Lauren always had my back. One year, I was having the worst two weeks of my life. My father had just left again and I emotionally fell apart. She held my hair back when I got sick and didn't want to go to school. Then again, there was everything with Bryce. He had busted up my lip because he got angry and Lauren was the one to help me cover it up and lie to those who asked. Lauren was the kind of friend everyone needed.

I grew up in a house full of money and everything that you could bring to question, had money as the answer. My mother had worked extremely hard to become the successful doctor she was and my father joined the military when he was sixteen and upset at his drunk father. They had come from two different backgrounds and made it work for the only daughter they would ever have. They suffered tremendous loss when my older brother passed away in a collision, yet somehow, managed to make their lives great.

It took us another eight hours to get home and once we did, I felt so good, I could have kissed the ground. But I didn't. Zach had called the other boys and asked them to meet us at the house to help unpack.

Jack danced around in one of the aprons that he had pulled from a box. "Do I look pretty yet?" He laughed. I grabbed the nearest pillow from the couch and chunked it at him, earning a playful glare. "I take that as a no," he spit. I looked at the mess we had made in the living room. Boxes sat around, things hanging out and around them and each person had their own boxes through.

"Maya, who is this?" Corbyn asked. I did a double take at the paper he held in his hands before I jumped to my feet. In his hands, sat a photo of two children. They couldn't have been no more than a few weeks old.

"I don't know, Corbyn. Can I see that?" I asked, taking the picture from him. I flipped the photo over and struggled to read the names. "I was one of those children but I don't know who the other one is." Zach took the picture and held it close to his eyes. He let out a small gasp.

"Maya, according to this picture, you had a sister. The other name says Maddie. Did you know about this?" He explained. I froze with a lump forming at the bottom of my throat. I had a sister that no one told me about? I took the picture back into my hand, running my thumb over the worn corners.

"I'll be back," I excused myself. Quickly, I grabbed my phone and made my way into our office. "Mom? Corbyn was going through some of my boxes and he found a picture of me and another girl. Do you know anything about that?" I asked, leaning back into the desk chair.

"I thought I got rid of all of those pictures," mom sighed down the phone. "Yes, Maya, there was another one of you. Would you like to know the story?"