Summer Days to An End

Chapter I.

It was nearing six when the sun began to make its slow descent into the horizon on that fateful summer day. The light sea breeze blew aimlessly across the sandy shore of the beach, ruffling the grains of sand that sat on its surface.

Indeed, there is no better place to be than here, thought Selah as she followed Lo's path along the shoreline.

"How much farther?" She called out to her, growing mildly impatient of walking barefoot in the warm sand.

"Relax, we're almost there. They should be waiting for us on the other side of that rock." Lo responded as she pointed to a rock formation just a few meters in front of them, as moments later they passed it in order to see what lay behind.

Sitting in the sand in front of them were the last few of their group, Leo, Finn, and Miyo. All eager to hear about each other's plans for what lay ahead after summer.

"Great, now that we're all here, we can finally get started." Finn began as Selah and Lo took their seats in the sand as well, placing their sandals next to themselves and resting their feet in the sand.

"One question though, you guys all got back your college admissions letters, right?" Miyo questioned, and everyone gave a nod.

"Then let's start with that: did we all get our first choice?" She continued in her soft voice, to which the group was well accustomed to hearing. Having been close friends for over four years, the five of them had always made the effort to stick together in their school years, that was, until now. Soon enough, they would all realize just how different things were going to be in a mere three months.

"Finn, you said your first choice was Cavendish in England, how did that turn out?" Said Leo, laying back in the sand as he glanced over to Finn.

"Surprisingly enough, I got accepted, and not only that, Selah did too." His eyes met Selah's as she managed to give a small smile, which although looked genuine, came off as slightly half-hearted.

"Cavendish? England? Wait, what are you guys talking about? Selah, I thought you had Hastings here in Florida as your first choice, since you thought that Cavendish would be a long shot." Lo interjected with a puzzled look on her face. All eyes turned to Selah at this remark, as the first signs of a group-wide separation were beginning to make themselves known.

"Well, I did, but I had Cavendish as my second choice. Honestly, I was somewhat hoping that I wouldn't make it into Cavendish so that if it came down to it I would have an excuse to stay here, but my parents and I agreed that it would be a waste to pass up the chance of traveling abroad like that." She explained, and although they all understood what she meant, her words mildly stung them; Lo the most out of all.

"Don't look so down about it, at least you'll have me with you when you go." Finn's attempt to change the mood lightened the atmosphere, as small as the effect was.

"Miyo, what about you? You said you tried for a school in Japan." Leo's attempt to keep the conversation moving proved just as effective.

"Yeah, my mom wanted me to find a school there to make up for all the years I spent away from home, and it turned out well. At the beginning of September, I'll be off to Takamoto University of Japan!" Miyo's cheerful response indicated just how little she recognized that the conversation was coming to a halt.

"So this is it, huh?" Lo's rhetorical question came off as more of a statement as all eyes turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Selah asked in return.

"I mean this is where our friendship comes to its close. Three of you are running off to continents thousands of miles away, and only two of us are staying here. Not like that matters much, seeing as Leiden and Hastings aren't that close either." She reiterated, though it wasn't entirely necessary, seeing as the entire group knew exactly what she meant, it was the pain of saying it out loud that was too hard for them to bear.

"Isn't that what we've always wanted, though? To finally have the chance to make our own decisions as to where we go with our lives? I mean, not that we all just abandon each other, but to be able to explore what's out there for all of us." Leo stated, wiping away flecks of sand on his shirt.

"I guess so, but what happens after we're all finished with school years later? What, we take another four years to catch up on all the things we missed out on in each other's lives? It doesn't seem right." Lo's voice grew tenser as she continued, and at this the group reminded silent to think about her words. Deep down, they all knew she was right: to have stayed together through all of middle school and high school only to break up during college and never to speak of it seemed an evident waste of time in all of their eyes. However, this itself wasn't the problem, the problem lay in what they were going to do to stop this from happening.

For a few moments the silence drew on, and as the evening eventually grew dimmer, the piercing silence was finally broken.

"Well then, we simply don't let our time together go to waste. Every chance we get, we should be together, to make sure that our memories last." Finn started.

"How so? It's not like we'll be able to make ample time to talk or to see each other, since we'll be too busy with work and a lot of other things." Selah joined in as the others remained dormant.

"Easy: we take this summer as our own. Forget any family trips or plans that we have for the summer, and dedicate these three months to just the five of us doing as we please with what we have." Finn elaborated, his eyes trailing over to meet Lo's as if to ask if she had anything to share, seeing as she was the one who started the debate.

"I like that, and honestly I think it would be for the best. The last time I went anywhere mildly interesting for the summer was at least three years ago." Miyo added whilst blowing her short brown hair out of her face, as Leo nodded in agreement to her remark.

"Well that leaves one more person; Lo, what do you think about it?" Selah turned to Lo in question, as she lifted her dark blue eyes to gaze into the center of their circle.

"You know what, I'm in, but on one condition: our first hangout has to be a movie night at my place. By that time my step-mom will be too drunk to care about whatever I'm doing." She said with a laugh as they all joined in on the merriment, which would soon make up the rest of their three months together.