Summer : Day 1
1864 Words
“Are we there yet?” Parker Gilmore whined, glancing out the passenger side window as the rain bounced off the glass.
“Ask me one more time and you’re walking to Country Lakes,” Penelope Gilmore warned her older brother as she drove the familiar roads to their childhood beach house.
“I love that place, but man does this ride suck,” he shrugged.
“It’s been two years, but it’s like nothing has changed,” Penny admitted.
“Yeah, you were too good for us the last few summers.” Parked laughed.
Penny rolled her eyes and focused on the road. It had been three years since she had been to the Country Lakes house with her brother and mother, and it had been three years since she had seen the Pattersons.
The Pattersons were lifelong family friends. Mrs. Patterson had been college roommates with their mother, and the two have been best friends since. Mr. Patterson was one of the kindest men Penny and Parker had ever met. After their parents divorce, he became a father figure to them. Every summer, both families traveled to the Country Lakes house. Mrs. Patterson had two boys, Luke and Sam. Luke was 6 years older than Penny, 27, the same age as Parker. Sam was 2 years older than Penny, making him 23, and the love of her life.
Love of her life might be a bit of a stretch, but ever since she can remember, she had had the biggest crush on him. No one knew, even Sam. At least, he didn’t know until her last time at the beach house.
--
“Penny, will you stop?” Sam pleaded, doing his best to catch up to her.
Penny felt the wet sand sinking beneath her feet with every step she took, but she had to get away.
“Go away!” Penny shouted, not even bothering to turn around.
“Penny, please?!” Sam called back.
Penny stopped in her tracks, “What?”
“Will you talk to me?” Sam pleaded again.
“You said plenty back there at the dinner table,” Penny spat, “I’m the annoying sister.”
“That isn’t what I meant, P,” he insisted, running a hand through his hair.
“Forget it, Sam. I misread all the flirting this summer apparently.” Penny breathed out. She had to get away from him as soon as possible.
Sam sighed, “No, Penny. You didn’t misread it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Something changed this summer, Penny. I don’t know what, but you were all I could think about.” Sam told her.
“You have some way of showing it,” Penny folded her arms across her chest.
“Penny, can we really even do this? We’ve known each other all our lives,” Sam reminded her.
Penny had heard enough and turned to walk away from him, but he caught her hand and pulled her close to him. The next thing she knew, his lips were crashing into hers.
Penny felt her stomach doing backflips as her hands got lost in Sam’s hair.
When they pulled away, Sam looked into her eyes and knew she was exactly what he wanted.
“What the hell was that?” Penny breathed.
“What I should’ve done the first night of summer,” Sam admitted to the girl.
“Samuel Henry Patterson, do you realize what you just did?” Penny asked, her mind going a million miles a minute.
“No, but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me, Penelope Hope Gilmore.” Sam chuckled.
“You just crossed the line we’ve been flirting with all summer. The one that straddles between friends and lovers,” Penny put her hand to her head. She felt a migraine coming.
Sam thought for a moment, “What if I don’t want to be on the friend side anymore? What would you say to that?”
“Sam, I think we need to think about this. We both go back to school tomorrow.” She reminded him.
“Then next summer, we do things the right way. And by then I’ll be done with school and you’ll only have a year left.” Sam decided, “Deal?”
Penny looked at the smiling boy in front of her. She had known him since the day she was born, and he was all she ever wanted.
“Deal.”
--
Penny shook her head slightly to rid her of her thoughts from two summers ago. It had been so long since she had seen Sam, and she was so nervous to see him again.
Last she heard was that him and his girlfriend had just ended things. They had dated for just about a year and a half. She was the reason Penny decided to take a summer internship last year in Los Angeles at a record label. But this year, she knew she had to face the music in Country Lakes.
An hour later, Penny pulled into the familiar driveway of the large beach house. She took a deep breath and got out of the car to help her brother with their bags.
“There’s my Penny Lane!” She her a voice call from the front door. It was Mrs. Patterson rushing to give her and her brother a hug.
“Oh, my beautiful girl. It is so good to see you!” She gushed, “And Parker, you are as handsome as ever.”
“Mrs. P, you are always a vision,” Parker told her.
“Let me get the boys to help you two!” She insisted, going back inside to find her sons.
A few seconds later, Luke walked out of the house.
“The Gilmores!” He cheered, hugging Penny in a bear hug like he always did.
“Hi Lukey!” She said as he set her down.
“Where’s Sam?” Parker asked, causing Penny’s heart to skip a beat.
“He’s somewhere in the house moping about Elizabeth,” Luke shrugged.
“That bad?” Parker asked, piling up a few bags on the ground.
“I think it’s good riddance, but you know the hopeless romantic he is.” Luke told his best friend.
Just then they heard the front door open and Sam Patterson walked out.
“Hey buddy!” Parker said, giving him a hug.
“Hey man, you look good!” Sam admitted after he pulled away from Parker. He turned to see the girl he had known since she was born, and he couldn’t help but smile.
“Hi Sammy,” Penny said, letting her own smile creep over her face.
“Hi PigPenn,” he chuckled, hugging her too. She breathed in his familiar smell and felt her knees go weak.
“It’s so good to see you,” Penny admitted, “Both of you.”
“We were happy to hear you weren’t too good for us this summer,” Luke chuckled, “Miss Record Label.”
“That ride was awful. Where’s the alcohol?” Parker whined, carrying bags into the house.
“You slept the whole way!” Penny reminded him.
The Patterson boys laughed.
“Same old Gilmores, always arguing,” Sam told his brother.
The weather had cleared up and was finally sunny. Penny and Parker got settled in their rooms, and shortly Penny could hear the boys in the backyard in the pool. She decided to change into a one piece pink bathing suit that had cut outs on the sides.
Penny took a deep breath. Sam looked better than she remembered, even if he was nursing a broken heart.
She made her way through the kitchen, grabbing a beer for herself, and joined her brother and the Pattersons by the pool.
“When is your mom joining us?” Luke asked.
“Next week, when school finishes,” Parker told him.
“What about your dad?” Penny asked.
“He should be here tomorrow,” Sam told her.
“Are you all done with school, Penny?” Luke asked, taking a sip of his beer.
“Yup! Graduation was last weekend,” she told him, sitting on the edge of the pool and letting her legs go in the water.
“When does the job hunt start?” Sam asked.
“Last weekend,” Penny laughed.
“And what about you, Parky? How long til the big day?” Luke asked.
“29 days,” Parker laughed.
Parker was engaged to his high school sweetheart, Emma. The two were even getting married in Country Lakes in less than a month.
“And when is the better half joining?” Sam asked his best friend.
“She’s driving up with mom next week,” Penny told him.
“What about you, Penny? Any guys?” Luke asked, taking another sip of his beer.
“Not really,” Penny shrugged, “There was one in LA but he’s on the other side of the country now.”
“Won’t be that far if you land that job,” Parker reminded her.
Penny immediately shot her brother a death glare.
“What job?” Sam asked.
“Penny applied to be a record producer. She got experience last year and worked on some boy band’s new album she won’t tell me who it was.” Parker told him.
“Penelope! That’s amazing!” Luke told her, sitting up on the lawn chair.
“It’s not going to happen,” she admitted, “They want people to have like 10 years experience. I only have 3 months.”
“Penny, no one knows music like you. You’ll get it.” Parker assured his baby sister.
“Do you guys want to go get some pizza?” Luke asked.
“I’m okay,” Penny shrugged.
“I’m starving!” Parker told him, getting up to join his friend.
“Sam?” Luke asked.
“You guys go, I’ll catch up.” Sam admitted.
Luke and Parker left through the backyard to go to the boardwalk that was a few minutes away.
“You never called,” Sam told her.
“You didn’t either, Sammy.” Penny reminded him, suddenly growing self conscious.
“I didn’t think you wanted to hear from me,” he shrugged, looking at the pavement of the pool desk.
“You were in a relationship, Sam. What was I supposed to think?” She asked.
“I’m sorry. I see now it was a mistake.” Sam got up from his lawn chair and sat next to Penny, putting his legs in the pool water too, “I thought it was just going to be a fling, but then when you didn’t come last summer I thought you weren’t interested anymore.”
“It’s really good to see you, Sammy.” Penny sighed, “I just don’t want two summers ago to complicate things now and us being friends.”
“Do you want to be just friends, Penny?” Sam asked, looking at the girl next to him.
She was as beautiful as ever, her light brown hair sweeping her face in beach waves. He could see the tattoo she got on the boardwalk three summers ago just above her rib in the swimsuit she was wearing.
“I don’t know, Sam. Things are a lot more complicated now.” Penny reminded the boy.
"Complicated was the distance. Complicated was our past relationships." Sam said, motioning from him to her, "Right now this isn't complicated."
Sam wasn't wrong. The outside world was nonexistent in Country Lakes. But what would happen when summer was over?
"Just give me some time to think?" Penny asked.
Before Penny could say anything else, Sam crashed his lips to hers. Suddenly, she was back on that beach 2 years ago, swept away in Sam Patterson. Her stomach did a few back flips before he pulled away.
“I understand,” he whispered, giving her another quick peck before getting up to go find his brother and friend on the board walk.
This boy was going to give her a migraine all summer, wasn’t he?
- Writer
