Summer for Suckers

1.)

A knock on your bedroom door makes you set your book down beside you on your bed, sitting up and saying "Come in!" while you swing your legs off the side of your bed, already getting up and moving to the door when Gabe comes through, laughing and pulling you into a bear hug. He's slightly sweaty, most likely from hauling his large duffel from his car into the house in the summer heat, but you hug him back all the same, face squished against his chest.

"Hey Guppy." He says. The childhood nickname makes you cringe, but because you haven't seen him for four months you allow it just this once. When you part, he takes an appreciative look around your room that your dad recently redid. He got rid of the baby pink paint and replaced it with a nice ivory, coupled with a new ivory bed frame, new ivory sheets and duvet, and you had taken away your childhood and high school posters, replacing it with one large white and gold tapestry on your large wall, hanging polaroids and other pictures on another wall with string and clothespins.

"It suits you," Gabe says. "Now that you've grown up, I guess."

"Dad wanted it to feel like a college dorm," you say, "but without the communal bathrooms and shitty central air and heat."

You decided that you'd be attending your local university, a school that was less than an hour away and would allow you to commute. You graduated about three weeks ago, so your dad took the liberty of remodeling your room to accommodate the change. He also redid Gabe's room, and pretty much every bedroom in the house.

"Did you see-"

"Yes." Gabe cuts you off, his tone indicating that he didn't really appreciate the royal blue walls of his room, which you figured he wouldn't. Anything that wasn't Boston University Red was a no go. His Terrier pride ran deep. "It's atrocious, but it doesn't matter. Did they get to Aruba okay?"

You nod, taking a step out into the hallway and looking over the railing, down at the open living room. Shawn is hauling all of his and Gabe's luggage into the room - Gabe making him do all the work as usual - and you give him a little wave. "They got in two days ago. Mom loves it, Dad's happy to just relax and work on the beach instead of in his office. Their typical second honeymoon routine."

Gabe hums, and you both watch Shawn haul the last of their belongings in. You and Gabe were alone in the house this summer, as it had been every summer since Gabe graduated high school. Your parents would go to Aruba and spend the entire summer there, celebrating their marriage and leave the two of you to your own devices, leaving enough money behind to last until they got back. Not that you and Gabe didn't have jobs of your own, but more that they wanted to be sure you had emergency funds.

This summer was going to be slightly different, what with Shawn staying with you and Gabe for the duration of it. Shawn had lived with you before as well during a summer way back when. His family often went to London in the summer to visit his mother's relatives, but this year Shawn opted out of going. He didn't feel like being in Europe any longer, having just been abroad the entirety of this past school year.

He insisted he come home and spend time with you and Gabe - as if Gabe wasn't with him abroad - and his parents agreed, your parents also agreeing because they love Shawn - he's like the second son they never had, and they wouldn't dare tell him no.

Shawn can feel your eyes on him and looks up at the two of you, holding his arms open as if to say "what the fuck." He laughs to show he's not really mad, then says "You two just watching me work? Not even gonna offer help?"

"No." You and Gabe say simultaneously. You give Shawn a playful smile and he responds with one of his own.

"You're strong enough for the both of us." Gabe tells him, shooting him a wink.