Summer Break

Chapter Ten.

"Ben?" I asked, his voice had changed so much I didn't recognise it was him.

"Charlotte? Is that you?" He asked. I nodded even though he couldn't see me.

"Yeah, it's me." I smiled.

"What's up baby cuz'?" He sang.

I chuckled slightly. "You still living in Miami?"

"Sure am." I could hear the smile in his voice, I didn't even know that was possible but whatever.

"Great, well I'm actually in Miami now. I was going to go over to yours, you know, catch up." I shrugged.

"That'd be great, Lottie but I'm actually in California at the moment." He said, sadly.

"Are you serious!" I exclaimed out loud, not realising I still had the phone up to my ear. I got some weird looks off tourists so I just stuck my tongue out at them and they looked away in disgust.

"Wait, is something wrong? Did you need a place to stay?" He asked, clearly concerned.

"Yeah, something's happened and I just left the hotel. I couldn't stay there anymore, Ben. Would you mind if I stayed at yours for a few days?" I asked.

"No! Of course not, Charlotte. The woman next door has got a key for the house. Just tell her you're a relative and she should give it to you. I'll ring or text her in a minute to tell her that you're going to be there soon. Okay?" He explained.

"Thank you so much Ben." I grinned from ear to ear. "So when are you back in town?" I asked as I began walking in the direction of my cousins house. It wasn't far away because I can remember it being a 5 minute walk away from the beach. I dragged my suitcase along the pavement and crosse the roads.

"I'm back in Miami in 3 days." Ben said. "Hopefully I can see you before you go back to Tampa. We barely see each other anymore."

"I know but ever since you got your dream job, you had to sacrifice some things and one of those things was seeing your most amazing, awesome, best-cousin-in-the-world cousin." I joked and continued walking down the pavement.

"Oh yeah. What a shame." He jokes back. "So how's Ricky and Austin?" He asks. Ricky and Austin are my brothers. Did I mention them? I can't remember but here's a little bio. Ricky is the eldest and has brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin. He's really nice and very athletic. Austin is older than me but obviously younger than Ricky. Austin has dirty blonde hair, dark blue eyes and fair skin. Austin is also nice but he can be kind of argumentative that really got on my nerves. He also has a short temper but doesn't like to admit it. He's probably the dirtiest out of all three of us and he still lives at home. Ricky is 23, Austin is 21 and I'm 16 (in case you forgot.).

"They're great, I suppose." I shrugged and turned a corner which led me to a shorter street. "Anyways, I best be letting you contact that woman because I don't think I'm far away from your house, Ben."

"Okay. Well I'll check up on you later, okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, okay." I smiled and we both said goodbye before we both put the phone down. I crossed the road and turned on to a smaller street. My surroundings became more recognisable and I knew I was approaching his house soon. I checked the time on my phone. 14:32 PM: it read.

I looked up as I turned into my cousins street. I looked at all the houses and memories flooded back from when we was younger and we used to race each other to the beach. Back when Ben's house was his parents, obviously. Unfortunately, Ben's mother passed away due to lung failure. Over time, Uncle Mark (Ben's Dad) grew more and more depressed and he shut himself out from the rest of the world. He died last year due to old age. Besides his sister, we're the only family Ben has. I looked at Ben's house before walking over to his neighbours door.