Cruel Summer

1. Fever Dream High

I look through the car window as the small town passes us by, so many memories attached to those places. The ice cream place we always go at the last night of summer break, the small store where Karen bought me the necklace I'm wearing right now, but none of those compared to the beach house. Karen's beach house is where we spend our summer every year since I can remember and this year is not different. I look away from the window to change radio stations as my brother drives us to the house, and as I do so a Taylor Swift song starts to play and I can't help but sing along.

 " Oh, it's new, the shape of your body
It's blue, the feeling I've got
And it's ooh, whoa oh
It's a cruel summer..."

 " Shut up! You're going to wake up mom." Zayn says looking at our mom, who's sleeping in the back seat.

 " I'm already awake." Mom says sitting down.

 " And I screamed for whatever it's worth
I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?" I keep singing just to annoy him.

 " So, Mila, are you excited to see Shawn?" Mom asks in a teasing way as I roll my eyes.

 " Why would she be excited about seeing Shawn?" Zayn asks curiously.

 " You're so oblivious." She says making him look at me.

 " What is that suppose to mean?" He still looks a little confused.

 " They kissed a bunch of times last summer." She says in a teasing tone.

 " What?? You and Shawn? There's no way!" He says in a disbelief tone. I don't say anything so I guess he has his answer. " Just don't keep your expectations too high, you know he's a player."

 I know he's right. Zayn and Shawn are best friends since we were little kids, so he knows what he's talking about. The thing is I've always had a small crush on Shawn, so when he seemed to finally see me as a girl and not his best friend's annoying sister there was no way I was going to say no.

 " I still think you two would make a cute couple and I'm not the only one. Karen thinks so too." Mom says when the car finally stops.

 " Please don't say anything in front of him, mom." I ask her with pleading eyes but she just opens the door and gets out.

 I get out too and when I close the door I see him in the driveway taking their suitcases out of the trunk. I think I froze for a moment because he definitely has been working out, but when he turns around and see us he has that smile on his face. Damn, that smile will be the death of me. He sees me staring and suddenly his smile is bigger than it was before, making me blush. I didn't know I missed him this much, but I guess that's what I'm used to: only seeing him during summer. Before I can do anything I see Aaliyah running to me, so I hug her tight.

 " Milaaaa! I missed you!" She says squeezing my body and I can see Shawn laughing from the corner of my eyes.

 " Me too, Liyah, but you're suffocating me." I say laughing.

 She finally pulls away and I can see she's taller than last summer. She's twelve now, which means she's six years younger than Shawn, both him and my brother are eighteen, while I'm seventeen.

 I see Karen coming out of the house and hugging my mom, they're been best friends since college and made the promise to raise their kids together. That didn't happen exactly like they planned, since they ended up living in different cities but they still managed to bring us here every summer. When we were younger our dads would come too, but my parents got divorced when I was ten and Mr. Mendes started to make excuses not to come.