Dear Diary,
It's been a full day since I had sent Vanessa a message with no reply. Even before then, I was getting short replies from her.
Sorry at work, will call later. Or, Dinner with Jon, I'll text you tonight.
I missed her so bad by this point, I wished we could have just one normal conversation. I kept looking at the last message I sent her, wondering if maybe she'd replied without me noticing.
"Are you dating Calvin?" Claudia asks me, sitting on an un-made bed and watching TV.
I put my phone back into my apron pocket and then continue disinfecting the tub. We had come to an un-said mutual agreement that I could clean the way I wanted to, and she was happy to accept as long as I did all the work, and didn't tell Calvin that she was getting paid to basically watch TV all day. It seemed she had even gotten so used to my presence, that she replaced some of her grunts and frowns with substandard conversation.
"Why?" I answer from the bathroom.
"I see you guys giggling at the counter. And Calvin needs a girl. He's always working, it's so sad."
"He doesn't seem sad."
"You should give him a chance. He's cute, no?"
"First of all," I say coming out of the bathroom and leaning on the door jam to look at her, "I've never seen Calvin giggle in my life. And second, just no."
"Why not?"
"Because... He thinks of me as an annoying 19 year old."
"And you think of him as...?"
"An annoying 25 year old." I hope I'm right in assuming Claudia doesn't know me well enough to tell I'm desperately trying to hide my true feelings.
"What do your ages have to do with anything?" She asks.
"Nothing I guess. But I'm sure he thinks I'm just a kid. I mean, I didn't graduate high school that long ago."
"You should make your move at the wedding." She continues.
"No."
"Too cliche?"
"Look, even if I did think that he was slightly cute, I'm not going to start some sort of relationship just before going home." Claudia scoffs at this, but I choose to assume it was directed at the TV.
"Doesn't anyone have the guts to tell you that your uncles not coming back?" I'm not caught off guard with Claudia anymore, I'm too used to her blunt ways.
"They hint at it. No one quite comes out and says it like that."
"Well he's not."
"Right." I agree sarcastically, not wanting her to continue.
"You're waisting your time, and you're waisting your summer waiting for someone who's not coming. Come on."
"You just don't know him. He always comes back. He leaves all the time, and then he comes back."
"Yeah but you're 19."
"Meaning?"
She sighs, rolls her eyes and turns off the TV, as if I was the one forcing her into this conversation.
"The last time your uncle left you were probably still in high school. Right?"
"I guess."
"Now you're old enough to fend for yourself. And didn't you say he usually left you at home?"
YOU ARE READING
That One Summer
Teen FictionJane was raised by her free spirited uncle, but when he moves to Paris she is forced to live with her grandpa for the summer in a small town where she finds romance and secrets to her past that she never knew were there.
