"Hunter!" I shouted teasingly as we ran around the back yard. We were playing tag and I wasn't going to be it. Hunter was my best friend. He was only 1 month older than me and he always made sure to rub it in that he would be six before I was.
"Lillian!" Hunter yelled. "I give up. You win. Can we go get some ice cream?"
This is what we did with our days. Play tag. Eat ice cream or something. And then watch something on tv. We spent all of our time together.
Just then my mom opened the door.
"Hunter, your dad is here."
"Five more minutes?" he said.
"Not today." my mom replied.
"Aww." Hunter said his shoulders slumping. "Well, bye Lilly."
I never saw him again. My parents made the decision of keeping the fact that my best friend was moving to Los Angeles. We lived in Virginia.
I never forgot about him. I made new friends in the small school in our small town. But I never did forget. I had a picture of us on my bookshelf. We both had our faces covered in chocolate cake and frosting. I still wonder how he was doing. Of course I looked him up on Facebook and Instagram and all of that but I didn't find anything.
"Lillian Lucille Renmark!" I heard my mom yell. "You get down here right now!"
Crap.
She went all middle name on me.
I got up and went down stairs to the kitchen where my mom was making dinner.
There I found my pregnant mom making spaghetti while holding my 2 year old brother Dylan and yelling at my 8 year old twin sisters Kaylee and Lucy. My older brother Louis wasn't anywhere to be seen. Yeah, I have a lot of siblings.
"Yes?" I said.
"Get the house cleaned up before tomorrow night please we have company coming for dinner." she said.
"Um okay."
Since when did we ever have company?
"Yes, I know we don't normally have company." my mom said reading my thoughts. "It's something your father set up."
"That doesn't clear anything up but I'll clean the house."
Cleaning. On my last week of summer. What a joy.
We ate dinner and then I went up stairs to finish my summer reading. Yes I did wait until the last week. Don't judge me. But I couldn't focus. Why would my dad have company? Who was it going to be? I guess I'll just have to wait and find out. I could always ask my dad, I know. He wouldn't tell me though. So I'll just have to wait until this mystery diner and find out.
I spent the next day dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and moping and any other kind of cleaning you could imagine.
I was home alone with Louis who was no help.
"Hey Louis." I said to him while he was watching football.
No answer.
"Louis."
Nothing.
I went over and stood in front of the tv.
"Louis." I said waving my arms around.
"Would you get out of the way." he said bitterly.
"Would you help me?"
He looked around.
"It looks like you're doing fine."
I rolled my eyes and walked away.
Well, I tried.
I decided that the house was decent and went up stairs to pick out an outfit.
I opened my closet and stepped in. I had three really nice outfits that would fit this occasion to chose from.
My purple dress.
It had long sleeves made out of black lace. The same black lace covered the entire dark purple dress.
Then I had a red dress that was short sleeved. It had a brown belt that went around the middle.
And the third dress was a yellow floral maxi dress that I put with a jean jacket.
I stared at the three dresses for a long time. Diner was at 7 and I finally decided on the red dress at 6:30. Then I hurried to the bathroom an did my make up. Then I put my hair into a French braid that went around from the left side of my head and down my right shoulder.
I heard the door bell ring.
Well time to meet these mystery people.
I walked out of the bathroom and joined my older brother and the foot of the stairs.
"Who is it?" I whispered.
"I don't know." Louis said. "Dad hasn't opened the door."
"Everyone better be on their best behavior. Especially you, Lillian." my dad said to us opening the door.
Thats me. The 16 year trouble maker who spent so much time in detention I'm friends with the teacher.
"Harrison!" my dad said to the man in the doorway. "Lydia! It's so nice to see you again. I'm so happy you could make it. Did you bring your son?"
"Yes we did he's taking his sweet time getting stuff out of the car." Lydia said. She looked around. "Oh my. You certainly had a lot of kids while we were in Los Angeles."
Los Angeles?
Just then and boy about my age walked through the door. He had dark, curly hair and dark blue eyes. He was wearing a v-neck t-shirt that made his muscles very visible. He was completely gorgeous.
"Hunter." my dad said. "You've grown."
I think my jaw dropped about five feet.
