Swipe Right

Chapter 2: Welcome Home

She walked into her house. “Mom? Dad?” Lochlyn dropped her bags off at her bedroom door before moving through the house. It was a nice size house but only had one main floor there was a loft that she had used as a playroom as a kid. She saw her parents sitting in their deck chairs outside. She smiled and opened the sliding glass door. “Hey!” Her mom smiled and getting up out of her seat. Lochlyn had missed her parents. Yes, they just saw her last weekend but that wasn’t actually seeing them. That was them coming over to just grab her stuff.

“Hey mama.” She said giving her mom a tight hug. Her mom kissed the top of her head and pulled back. “Bridge traffic?” Mom asked giving a knowing look. Lochlyn laughed and nodded moving over to her dad. Who of course didn’t even get out of his chair. So Lochlyn went and sat right in his lap. “Hey daddy.” She kissed his forehead. “Hey baby.” He smiled and then ruffled his daughter’s hair.

Lochlyn did have to admit if she had won the lottery with anything it had to be parents. They weren’t perfect by any means because honestly who is? But they loved her and supported her that’s what really mattered. “Missed you.” Her dad said before pinching her leg. “Now get off me.” Lochlyn rolled her eyes and popped up anyway.

“I’m going to go put all my stuff away. What are we doing for dinner?” She asked heading towards the sliding door. Her parents looked back and forth between and then shrugged.

“Uh your choice?” Her dad smiled grabbing his drink from the table. Lochlyn couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “The Shack?” She asked shrugging her shoulders. It wasn’t her favorite restaurant, but it was the only one on the water. Her parents agreed and her mom instantly called to make sure they had seating. Since it was the only restaurant on the water, and it was May it would be dicey. Lochlyn was feeling like watching the sun set over the Bay tonight.

She left her parents and headed upstairs to unpack. It didn’t take her very long, but it was rather annoying. Lochlyn never minded packing and putting things in boxes. It was the unloading and unpacking that always got her every single time. She absolutely hated it. When she finished, she came out of her room all changed out of her driving outfit and actually looking presentable. Her parents were in the kitchen talking.

“You ready?” They asked her and Lochlyn nodded. “Yeah come on. I’m starving.” Together they went to her parent’s car and headed to The Shack. It wasn’t a big restaurant, but it was decent size. It had a bar in the middle with tables all around. They also had a covered deck that had a bar to the right for extra summer mingling. It was the number one hot spot for all summer drinking and partying. Lucky for them it wasn’t live music night. They were able to get a table with little effort.

On their way to their table Lochlyn’s dad, Jared was stopped by every single person like it was a high school reunion. That’s what you got when you lived in a small town. Everyone who lived here knew her entire family and everything about her. Lochlyn and her mother, Tara left her father talking to a friend and made it to their table. Loch’s friend Jason was their server. He had just gotten back from college a few weeks before her.

“I thought you were taking summer classes?” She asked him tilting her head up to see him better. “Yeah I decided I earned way too much money here over the summer.” He shrugged slipping his pen back into his pocket. It was true that you could make bank working at any of the restaurants over the summer. Luckily Lochlyn had the same job since she before she was actually legal to work. Her family owned Shore Adventures. It was a small store that offered surfing lessons, kayak tours, boat tours, and bike rental. She had learned to surf when she was 7 or 8. She couldn’t really remember. It seemed like she had surfed all her life.

So she spent her summer teaching tourists how to surf, or kayak. Her dad use to let her run the boat tours out to the islands but one time she accidentally left someone ended that real quick. She remembered to do head counts after that. He still didn’t trust her. Her mom ran the money and the store front. They had a small little store front in town near the beach. She absolutely loved it. Plus with the amount of tip money she earned she didn’t have to take a job during the school year.

Dinner went by fast but that was okay. Lochlyn was tired. Driving always made her sleepy no matter if it was 1 hour or 6. It took Jared just as long to leave the restaurant as it did to get to their table. Lochlyn and her mom were already in the car waiting by the time he got out. “You know Jared. You could find someone to talk to anywhere.” Her mom smiled at him.

“Yes Tara I could, I take that as a compliment.” He sent her a smile and drove them home. Her parents always made her smile. She had never seen two people so absolutely in love before. There was no way she would ever be able to find a relationship this perfect, would she? Lochlyn shook her head. It only took 10 minutes to drive back home. She decided she was going to lay out and do some star gazing before it was time for bed. She missed seeing the stars. Just about everything was different in the city especially the sky.

Lochlyn pulled out her phone and opened the app Timber. It was this new app that all her friends had been downloading. You swiped left if you didn’t like the person and right if you did. All Lochlyn had done so far was download the app. She had been on the app KayCupid before, but she never put her whole body in the picture. She decided that this time she was not only going to put her whole body in pictures, but she was also going to be more realistic with her swipes. She was not going to swipe right to anyone who was like her ex at all. No stupid hot boys who were not going to be interested in her anyway.

Lochlyn finished uploading her last picture and typing out that horrible bio they made you right and hit finish. Now she could start swiping. It was going to a good summer. She was sure of it.