The summer we turned thirteen (Re-releasing 2025)

Chapter fourteen: Just a little insane

James

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"Ready to head to the beach?"

Evan asked as I walked onto my front porch, where he'd been waiting for me.

Much to his and my surprise, late in the afternoon on the first Monday of summer vacation, Farrah invited the two of us to meet her and a few others at the beach for a bike race. Since she said she'd also invited Harlee, I decided to come along. I needed to see Harlee as soon as possible and try to make amends.

Hopefully, she would at least hear me out.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I told him as I put my key in the keyhole and locked the door.

My dad had spent Sunday with me, my mom, and Lizzie; then, he had to take his Monday morning flight to his next business venture. We hadn't gotten much time together, but that was nothing new. Mom was at work, and Lizzie was downtown with Karissa leaving me to hang out on my own for the day. I felt a bit saddened at how spread out my family and I were, but that was nothing new either. At least I had my friends to keep me company.

One of them anyway.

Evan and I hopped on our bikes and rode to the beach together.

The weather was perfectly mild as to be expected for the first week of June. Glaring sunlight radiated from the sky above us. Cars whizzed by us as we pedaled towards the beach with a slight breeze whipping at our backs.

We arrived a little earlier than the others, so we kicked our shoes off and splashed our feet in the water for a few minutes before everyone else got there.

Initially, Evan wanted us to get in the water to cool us off from the ride there, but my aquaphobia wasn't having it.

Evan crunched some sand between his toes, then rinsed them off in the water and turned to me.

"Are you going to try and talk to Harlee?" he asked, eyes hopeful.

Farrah had seemed to have forgotten all about Saturday, given how quickly she invited us to hang out with her again, but I knew that with Harlee, we would not be so lucky.

I gave Evan a determined nod and told him,

"That's the plan. If we can just talk today, I plan to say sorry. Not just for Saturday, for everything."

"Sounds like you're really sorry. Do you ever plan to tell her why you stopped being friends with her? Heck, are you even going to tell me?"

Farrah, Hyland, and Amy showed up just as he finished asking that, and I darted off towards them, feeling grateful for the save.

"Hey," I said, skidding to a stop before them.

"Hi, James." Hyland smiled at me.

I smiled back, feeling relieved she didn't seem to still be angry with me.

Evan walked up behind me. "Hey." He waved cautiously. "You don't still hate us after Saturday?"

Farrah put a hand over her heart and gasped at him.

"Hate you? Evan, I could never hate you. I was disappointed at the fact you sided with James after how he treated Harlee, which I hope he will apologize for today." She stared daggers at me as she finished her sentence.

"I plan to do just that," I told her.

She folded her arms and continued, "You better; That's the only reason I invited you today. Because you need to say, you're sorry to my friend."