That Wild Summer

2

My summer started like any other one. That was with my group of friends sitting in our usual spot. My group of friends was small, there were 5 of us, and we were loyal. We were always there for each other. We may have fought sometimes, but we always made up afterward. We were the outsiders of our town and we stuck together like family.

We had a hangout place-well, more of a treehouse-on the outside of town by a small lake. When we were 10, we built it over the course of a year with the help of my older brother Micheal, and his friends, of course. The treehouse had a balcony about 24 x 5, and we had a secret compartment for hiding stuff like cigarettes, money, and a first aid kit. When it rained or our parents wanted to see what we were doing. Spoiler alert: We were never up to anything good. But what do you expect, we're a bunch of teenagers with no adult supervision.

The treehouse was one story, like a ranch house. It had two windows that you could look out from and a small hole in the floor that you could get in through. To prevent anyone from coming up, there was a table that was moveable to open the "door to the treehouse." There was also a lock on both the inside and the outside that only two people had the key to: Johnathan and me.

The tree house smelled like old books from my collection, candy from Alexander's not-so-secret stash, and old cigarettes from most of them, including me. The treehouse was warm, but it could get cold at night, so there were a couple of blankets and two pillows for anyone who stayed the night, which happened quite often for Johnathan and me.