The Art of Letting Go

M. C. Brightly

A Happy Ending’s Resort Series Novella

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my amazing mother who believed in me and made sure I stayed on track and got this book done on time.

A BIG thank you to Barbara Hoover for working your magic and making my book as wonderful as possible!

A special thank you to everyone who has supported me and my dream to be a writer. I’m beyond grateful to you all for seeing that age doesn’t determine when you can start chasing your dreams.

Tammi Hart, I can’t thank you enough for being such an awesome BETA reader and working so hard to help me make this story perfect!

I want to thank Colleen Hoover for writing so many amazing stories that are not only amazing and highly addictive but also inspiring. After reading Hopeless it has become my number one favorite novel, bumping The Fault in The Stars to #2 lol; it inspired me to write Hartley’s story. For that…thank you. I can’t wait to finally meet you one day and get my Colleen Hoover collection all signed.

Copyright & License Note Disclaimer

The Art of Letting Go

The Art of Letting Go is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

I do not own any of the name brands i.e converse, Hollister or Music, Lyrics, etc. that might appear in the story.

Copyright © 2017 Madison Cheyanne Wright

All Rights Reserved

Edited by: Barbara Hoover

Cover Design by: Danielle Jamie

Cover photo from www.Pexels.com

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Prologue

When I ‘divorced’ my parents at seventeen, I decided to move from Lanesboro, Minnesota to Arden, South Carolina to start my new life. With the help of a caseworker I was able to discover I had an aunt here in Arden, who was willing to take me in and give me a place to live while I went to community college.

After everything I’ve been through, Minnesota was the last place on earth I wanted to be. The idea of escaping the cold, blistering winters for warm and sunny beaches in South Carolina was a hell of a lot better.

You’re probably wondering why I divorced my parents rather than just sticking it out and finishing up high school there, then be on my way to an independent life, away from my mother and father.

Most people might think I was some rebellious child who didn’t want to have to be told what to do by mommy and daddy. But trust me, I would rather be living in a house with loving parents, who set rules, make me do my homework, and eat my vegetables, while trying to deal with normal teenage attitude and rebellious behavior.

Believe me, that was so not my life—not even close.

I divorced my so-called mom and dad—if they even deserve to be called that—because they were drug-addicted, abusive assholes who made my life a living hell.

Even when I think back to my earliest childhood memory, there are no happy memories. I’ve had to deal with abuse and neglect from the moment I entered this world.

My father was a ragging alcoholic, who couldn’t control his temper no matter how hard he tried. My mom was never home. My dad was too busy drinking himself into oblivion in front of the television to care. So, I spent my entire childhood alone, fending for myself. I used to watch the Matilda movie over and over again on the tiny television I had in my bedroom. Like Matilda, I always wished I’d one day be saved from a loveless home and get my happily ever after.

Sadly, that never happened.

Whenever my mother did finally come home, she would just lock herself in her room doing god only knows what. By the time I started high school things with my parents began to intensify. They went from pretending I didn’t exist, to then believing I was the reason for all of their problems. As they slipped further into addiction, my situation became worse.

The mental and physical abuse I was enduring on a daily basis, soon became apparent to teachers at my school. They noticed how withdrawn I was; how what little clothes I did have were ragged and didn’t fit properly. But it wasn’t until my father began to slip up and leave bruises in visible areas that something was finally done.

One day I was pulled from class and taken to the guidance counselor’s office where I met the school’s child therapist. Over the course of a week, they talked with me and jotted down details I gave them about my family life.

I guess even though it seemed like a little too late and the system failed me by not helping me sooner, it could’ve been worse. I could’ve been one of those kids who slipped through the cracks and never get the help they desperately need.

A few days after speaking with the councilor and therapist, I was greeted by a case worker from Child Protective Services, who informed me that I would not be returning home after school. I’d instead be going straight to a temporary foster home.

I was grateful to be placed in a nice home with an elderly couple who lived near my school. Things were going good; my grades were improving. Then everything changed. One day my case worker showed up at my foster parent’s home to inform me that I would be returning back to my parents.

I was in complete shock. I never in a million years thought I’d be going back there. But I was informed they had completed rehab, were attending narcotics and alcohol anonymous. They took parenting classes and were doing better. Both even holding down steady jobs for the last three months.

The thing is my parents could tell me they were better and all that shit, and preach to the world that they had received the wakeup call they needed when I was taken away from them. But I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes.

I was only back home maybe two months before things started going downhill again. They’d put on a show for the case worker every month when she came to check in on us and follow up. But slowly all the changes they had both made became a thing of the past as their old habits reared their ugly heads.

My father began drinking again, and my mother was gone all the time working, and then off somewhere scoring drugs after work.  Once she came home, she passed out and pretended that her life wasn’t a shit show all over again, since she had ‘worked so hard’ to move past her problems to better herself and her family.

I thought that the constant verbal abuse and beatings were the worst things I would ever go through. Boy was I ever so wrong.

After six months of me being home, and a few months shy of my seventeenth birthday, my life finally hit rock bottom. My dad was laid off and my mother’s drug habit was taking up what little money we had. If it wasn’t for the food stamps we received from the government, we would’ve starved. More than a few times we were close to having the power turned off, but somehow mom always managed to come up with the money just in time.

So many times, I wanted to speak up to our case worker, tell her that this happy family act my parents put on for them was nothing but a joke. But I knew it was a waste of time. I’d be removed long enough to get settled in somewhere before they were all better again, and I was back in this hell of a life all over again.

The only thing helping me through each day was knowing I only had one more year until I graduated and could get the hell out of that house and town.

I never thought in a million years my life could get any worse. Until the night my innocence was torn away from me.

I was sitting in my room trying to do homework and drown out the screaming match going on outside of my bedroom door with the radio sitting on my bed stand beside me.

Suddenly the screaming stopped as I heard the voice of someone else entering as the front door slammed shut with a loud thud, causing the entire house to shake. I thought maybe my mom or dad had left and I’d actually get to fall asleep without the sound of their argument pouring in through my bedroom wall. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. No, instead my worthless piece of shit parents were still there. No one had left, instead someone else arrived at our house. The second he appeared in my doorway I recognized him. I’d seen the man a few times come by when we were strapped for cash. He’d disappear with my mother into her bedroom and come out a few minutes later, would fill my dad’s hand with a stack of cash and then be on his way. I was sixteen, I was far from naive, so I knew exactly what was going on. My mother was sleeping with him for money. It was sickening to think my father not only approved of it but encouraged it.

I didn’t think they could sink any lower until that night.

That night the little piece of innocence I had left was stolen from me and I never once received a single ounce of remorse from either one of them. What I thought would be a onetime thing, turned into a weekly occurrence. The first time he raped me I fought back, and got a black eye and bruised jaw because of it. I learned quickly it was better to lie there, let my mind drift off to a safe place and wait for it to be over, rather than try to fight it.

Slowly I began to slip into a dark depression. I hated school because I had no friends. I couldn’t focus on the curriculum because of all the shit going on in my life, yet I got up every morning and went because it was my escape from the hell I was living. Even if it was only for a few hours.

Things got so bad that I became suicidal. The thought of living there for even another day, let alone one more year was too much. I would rather be dead than have to live one more day in the hell my parents had created for me.

I went into school one day, locked myself in a bathroom stall and downed an entire bottle of pills I’d stolen from my mother. I sat on the floor, propped against the door and slipped into what I thought would be the last sleep I’d ever take.

I guess a teacher discovered me in there while checking the bathroom for smokers after the bell rang. I awoke hours later in a hospital room, with a tube down my throat and monitors hooked up to my body.

The doctor said a few more minutes and I would’ve been dead. When I started to cry, they thought it was because I was relieved that I was still alive. In reality  I wept that day because I didn’t die. I wasn’t free. I was so close to escaping the pain and the abuse, only to fail.

All thanks to fricking smokers and teachers with nothing better to do than hunt them down and send them to detention.

I spent a week in the hospital recovering from my overdose. While there I was visited by my social worker, Mrs. Hart, who for the life of her couldn’t understand why I would try to kill myself rather than go to her for help. I had nothing left to lose, and knew there was no way in hell I was going to allow them to send me back to my parents’. So, I decided to tell her everything. She sat quietly, tears streaming from her eyes as she watched me cry while I unloaded everything on her. Along with the reasoning as to why I never asked for help.

My life finally changed for the better at that moment. Mrs. Hart promised me I’d never have to go back, and spent the next few hours sitting beside my bed, explaining the process of emancipation to me.

She agreed to help me become emancipated from my parents, if I promised to seek professional help with my depression and talk to a therapist about everything I’ve been through. So as soon as I was discharged from the hospital, I was admitted into a small rehab facility for teens. I lived there for six months, where I was homeschooled, attended therapy sessions daily, one on one with a psychiatrist, followed by group sessions with other teens like me each day.

The day I left the treatment center I set out on the path to gaining my freedom.

Mrs. Hart helped me get back into the same foster home I was in before. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were happy to have me back with them, but understood it was only temporary. They were simply a stepping stone toward my independence. Soon after moving back in with them, I earned my license, got a job at the small grocery store a few blocks away, and spent the next four months saving up every dime I made while working on graduating a year early.

By June, I had my diploma and enough money to travel to South Carolina to live with my aunt. The final step was getting legally divorced from my so-called parents. Thankfully they knew I was never coming back, and would sit in the foster care system for a few more months until I was legally released into the world as an adult. So, with little fight, they agreed to grant me my emancipation by signing the papers and finally giving me what I’d wanted for as long as I could remember.

Freedom.

Chapter One

“Hartley!” I wake up to someone screaming my name. Tumbling out of bed, I open my bedroom door to see my aunt August looking angry.

I glance at her with a smile, walk back over to my bed, and sit down.

“What’s up, Aunt August?” I ask her, laying my head back into my pillow and closing my eyes.

“Hartley, you know damn well what’s up, so you better get up and get dressed. You’ve been living here for almost a year now and still somehow forget to set your damn alarm for school. Just because it’s college and not high school doesn’t mean tardiness is allowed.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt August. I’ll get to it right now,” I say somewhat sarcastically, while rolling out of bed, walking over to her, and planting a kiss on her cheek. She just rolls her eyes and walks back out of my room and down the hall to the kitchen.

I walk over to my bedside stand and pick up my phone to check the time; it’s 7:45 and my first class doesn’t start until 9:15. Quickly jumping in the shower, I get dressed in record time. I throw on a pair of black shorts and a My Chemical romance concert t-shirt with a pair of black and red Converse. I run the brush through my hair before pulling it back into a simple ponytail. Grabbing my messenger bag that’s sitting on the floor next to my bed, I stuff the books stacked on my desk inside,  along with my phone charger. Slinging the strap onto my shoulder, I speed walk down the hall into the kitchen, grab a chocolate chip granola bar out of the cupboard before snatching my car keys up and heading out the door.

Glancing back down at my phone as I jog to the driver’s side door of my car, I see it’s now 8:49 and it takes about ten minutes to get to my college parking lot. So I climb into my light-blue VW Beetle convertible and pull out of the driveway while praying I don’t get stuck behind any little old ladies doing five miles an hour along the way.

***

After sitting through three boring lectures that were each two hours long, I finally get to head to my job at Vinyl is Forever. It’s a small music store that specializes in selling vintage record players, along with CDs, and small trinkets like guitar pics, strings, drum sticks, sheet music, along with random items like headphones and phone chargers.

I look forward to going there every day just because music was such a big part of my childhood. I used it to comfort me or to drown out my parents’ current fight,  the lyrics just hiving so much meaning. My Chemical Romance, Twenty One Pilots, Panic! At The Disco and many other bands like them sing about things that matter to me, including real-life problems. Some of the bands and musicians other kids at school listen to only sing about sex, girls and drugs.

I walk in to Vinyl is Forever, and see Jordan. I guess you could call him my best friend. I first met him when I came in looking for a job about a week after I first moved here. He gave me the job on the spot. He said I didn’t need to have any experience; I only had to be able to do simple math and sort items alphabetically, along with having good people skills. But the number one thing I needed was a love for music, which was a given.

After about a month of working together we started getting closer and would text and hangout all the time. He introduced me to his friends, who I immediately clicked with and were so easy hanging out with. I could just relax and be myself. I’ve never had that before. Friends I could actually hang out with and have fun. Before I moved here fun was something I only read about or saw other people do. It feels amazing to finally have the life I’ve dreamt about.

“Hey, Hartley,” Jordan says, making me jump. “What were you thinking about? You seemed like you were off in another world.”

“Oh nothing. I just remembered something,” I tell him, walking behind the counter and clocking on.

“Okay, it’s been pretty slow today with it being Monday, so there’s not much to do,” he says dryly. This job is pretty boring, though being able to hang around the shop all day listening to the music as it fills the store from the built in sound system is great.

“All right. Well then I’ll just go dust off the records and sweep, if it stays slow I’ll do the windows.” Grabbing the Swiffer duster out from under the counter, I turn to face him, “Do you mind if I plug my phone into the sound system?” I ask, already knowing he’ll say yes, I walk across the black and white tiled floor over to the stereo that’s wired into the sound system.

“It’s a safe guess to say you would even if I said no, so knock yourself out.”

“Sarah Smiles” by Panic! At The Disco booms through the speakers, as I start cleaning. I reorganize the records and CDs and clean up the mess that is our sheet music area. People always dig into the piles, mixing up all the categories they’re organized neatly under.

My four-hour shift flies by and before I know it, it’s already time to call it a day and head home. After clocking out, I stay a little while longer and just hang out with Jordan to keep him company because the store is a ghost town today and he’ll be here alone until closing time at seven.

He asks me about school and my aunt, and all the normal stuff. After a while I check the time and tell him  I need to head home to my aunt. Giving him a quick hug, I head out.

I walk through the door and smell the amazing aroma of bacon. Toeing my shoes off by the door, I pad across the cool, hardwood floors into the kitchen to find my aunt standing by the stove, cooking.

Slipping my headphones off my head, I rest them around my neck, leaving the music to play. I can faintly hear “Polarize” by Twenty One Pilots coming through them and as I approach my aunt, who hears it too. Turning around with a wide, warm smile spread across her face she reaches out with her free arm and pulls me in for a half hug, while the other works on flipping the bacon.

“Hi, sweetie. How was work?” she asks, turning off the stove and piling the last of the bacon onto a plate.

“It was okay. Slow, but I kept myself busy so my shift went by pretty fast,” I reply, returning her warm smile before walking over to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water.

“I thought you weren’t going to be home from work until seven-thirty?” My aunt is a charge nurse at the nursing home here in town. She’s was supposed to be working from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. today, but it’s only 6:30 p.m. and she’s home.

“They let me go early. I was battling another one of those awful migraines, so they had my relief come in an hour early. On my way home I stopped to get some more headache medicine, and decided to swing by the pet store since it was nearby. I picked up a small bag of cat food, some crickets and mealworms for Niko and Lisa,” she tells me, pointing toward a clear plastic bag sitting on the floor beside the table.

“Thank you. Yell when dinner’s ready. If you need help with anything, since you’re not feeling well, just let me know.

Scooping the bag up off the floor, I swing it back and forth beside me as I make my way down the narrow hallway to my bedroom.

Pushing my bedroom door open, I head straight over to my hedgehogs’ cage and grab their food dishes. I fill both with little bits of cat food and some mealworms, before sliding them back into their cage.

I rub the tops of their heads to say hello, before relocking their cage and heading over to my desk to check my emails and get some school work done.

Dropping my messenger bag onto the floor, I plop down into my computer chair and fire up my laptop. Logging into my email, I scroll through checking the tiny box beside almost every single one of them to delete. I feel like ninety percent of emails are nothing but junk. A familiar email address catches my attention; it’s from my old foster family, the Browns. I haven’t spoken to them since I moved to South Carolina. I feel a smile form on my face as I open the message.

Dear Hartley,

Mr. Brown and I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you were doing okay. We moved to Endings, South Carolina about two months ago and are staying at a resort. The harsh Minnesota winters were getting to be too hard with my arthritis. We felt like retiring to Florida was too cliché as you young people would say. So instead we bought a cozy little two-bedroom cabin on a quaint little lake. I know you’re probably busy with your new life and college—which we hope is going well. We know you’re going to do great things with your life, but we were hoping since it’s only a short drive from where you’re living with your aunt that you’d be interested in coming for a visit. We miss you dearly. I’d love nothing more than to get to see you, catch up face to face rather than over an email or phone call. If you don’t want to, or are too busy, we completely understand. We know that you have a new life there and are trying to move forward, but we thought we would at least send you an email and see if it was something you’d consider.

Love, Mr. and Mrs. Brown

I jump up out of my chair, causing it to fall back onto the floor with a loud bang, scoop my laptop up off the desk, and run into the kitchen. The loud thud of my chair must’ve startled aunt August, because she was running out of the kitchen as I came running in almost causing us to collide into each other.

Her hands fly up to her chest, holding them against her heart, as she stares at me with a startled expression, as her eyes blink down at me. “Dear Lord, Hartley, you just about gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry.” I laugh as I try to calm my racing heart. “But I had to show you this!” I set my laptop down on the table pointing to the open email filling the screen. Peering over my shoulder, she reads the email out loud.

Finishing the last sentence of the email, she turns to me, propping herself against the back of the kitchen chair. “So do you want to go see them?” By the face-splitting smile spreading across my face, I don’t even have to bother saying a single word. She already knows my answer. But I scream enthusiastically anyways. “Yes! Oh my, God. I can’t wait to see them again. I haven’t talked to them in so long. I never really got a chance to thank them for everything that they did for me.”

Pulling the chair out, she sits down and I do the same, as the sudden feeling to sit overwhelms me. My head spins from the excitement filling it.

“Well, I’ll have to look at my schedule, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to get next week off if you want to go. Your finals are all this week, right? And then you start summer break?” she asks, unfolding herself from the chair, and walking back over to the stove to stir the scrambled eggs.

Nodding, I tell her, “Yup, I have a final tomorrow that I’m studying for tonight and then two more on Friday. Then I’m finished until we go back in August.”

“All right, well I’ll talk to my boss about getting my vacation put through for next week tomorrow. It shouldn’t be an issue, so if you want to email them back and let them know we’d love to come visit. We’ll get back to them with an exact date tomorrow.”

Jumping to my feet, I run across the kitchen, hugging her from behind as she sprinkles shredded cheese onto the eggs. “Thank you. Thank you! Thank you! I’m so excited. Ahhh…this is going to be the perfect way to celebrate the start of summer.” I shriek with excitement before releasing my aunt and retrieving my laptop from the kitchen table.

“Go email them back, then cleanup for dinner. It’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

Not wasting a single moment, I rush back to my room, scoop my chair up off the floor, and get to work replying to their email.

Mrs. Brown emails me back an hour later to tell me that they are so glad we’re going to visit them. My heart flutters in my chest at the thought of seeing them. I never had grandparents growing up, so the Browns are the closest thing I have to family besides Aunt August. I can’t wait for them to finally get to meet her. I know they’ll love her as much as I do. They were so worried when I told them I was moving to South Carolina. I think this trip will help set their worries at ease.

I send a quick text to Jordan to ask him for the next week off for the trip. Thankfully I have the world’s best boss, who texted me back right away to let me know it’s totally fine. He’ll just tell his sister to come down and help him out for the week.

After dinner I spend two hours studying for my finals this week. Once my eyes start to go cross from studying so hard, I climb into bed, turn on my favorite movie, Twilight, which I’ve probably watched well over a gazillion times, while looking up this Happy Ending’s Resort Mrs. Brown linked me to in her last email. Not long after starting the movie, my eyes flutter shut as I lose the battle with staying awake any longer, and drift off to sleep where I dream of cute sparkly vampires and cozy cabins on the lake.

Chapter Two

Thank God it’s Friday!

After the week I’ve had, I’m glad to know it’s the weekend. Jordan suggested we check out a party one of his friends is throwing tonight. So I texted my aunt, letting her know I’d probably be getting home late tonight because I’m going out with some friends. At first, she was on the fence about letting me go out, but as soon as I mentioned I was going with Jordan, she reluctantly gave in. She knows how stressful this week has been with finals from hell. I, for one, am in desperate need of letting loose and having some fun.

Pulling off the main road and onto a long winding dirt road, we approach a small parking lot that holds about ten other parked cars, and pull Jordan’s car into a spot before climbing out into the warm, summer night air. Laikynn, Grey and Raiden met Jordan and I after work to come with us. Spotting a group of guys playing an intense game of volleyball, the guys tell us they’ll come find us in a bit and jog toward the match going on.

“I think I see Sara over by the keg. Let’s go say hi.” Taking my hand in hers, Laikynn pulls me across the grassy field, over to a row of picnic tables that are filled with partygoers who are all sitting around listening to music and drinking from red solo cups.

It’s hot and humid so it isn’t long until we all decide to lose the clothes and opt for a swim in the lake rather than sitting on the picnic tables sweating our asses off.

Around nine o’ clock the sun finally begins to set, so Raiden and a few other guys get to work building a bonfire. We spend the next few hours sitting around the fire, telling cheesy ghost stories, talking about the bands we want to see this summer, and making way too many s’mores.

Throughout the night everyone enjoys one beer after another until the keg runs dry, while I stick to drinking water. After growing up with an alcoholic of a father and going through what I’ve had to at the hands of his addiction, I made a promise to myself never to touch the stuff. It doesn’t appeal to me, not one single bit.

By 2:00 a.m. the party starts to fade out, as everyone slowly begins to leave. Everyone’s trashed except me, because I’m the designated driver.

With a pretty blonde hanging off his arm, Raiden let us know he would be going home with her tonight and that we were okay to leave without him.

“This was such a fun night. I’m glad you decided to come out with us.” Jordan says, with a goofy grin plastered across his face, causing his perfect white teeth to sparkle in the bright moonlight that’s shining down on us.

Inhaling a deep breath, breathing in the warm, thick summer air that holds a hint of campfire, I smile to myself as I replay the night’s events in my mind. “I’m happy I came too. It was a lot of fun. Except, I think I may have gained five pounds after all of the s’mores I ate.”

Laikynn lets out a light giggle, as she stumbles up beside me, draping her arm around my shoulders and laying her head against me. “Those s’mores were pretty fuckin’ amazing. They were so worth going up a pants size, if I do say so myself.”

I feel her jump from surprise and squeals in my ear as the sound of Grey’s hand connecting with her butt fills the air around us. “Your ass still looks spec…spectac…ular,” Grey slurs out, before getting lost in a fit of laughter.

The drive home was very uneventful aside from Jordan hurling all over the side of the road. The man sure can drink with the best of them, but for him the rule always applies: What goes down always comes back up.

After dropping Laikynn and Grey off at their apartment, I head over to Vinyl is Forever. Parking alongside the curb, I climb out of the truck, jogging around to the passenger side to help Jordan out.

Draping his arm over my shoulder, I help him walk to the front door while trying to find the key to the door using the street light illuminating the sidewalk.

I relock the door, as I kick it shut with my Converse-covered foot, before helping Jordan walk toward the back of the store and the door leading to the stairwell that goes up to his apartment above the shop.

It took a lot of effort, but finally we made it to the top of the stairs and safely into his apartment, without falling down the stairs and breaking our necks. Flicking on the light beside the door, his small apartment comes into view.

It’s small, but it’s perfect for him; a small, one-bedroom apartment with a door leading straight into a little living room that’s connected to a tiny kitchen. The only thing dividing them is a short island, which has two mix-matched bar stools at it.

“Thank you, Hartley,” he whispers in a hushed tone, as I lead him through the doorway to his bedroom, and plop him onto his bed.

“You’re welcome. Now stay there. I’m going to grab you two aspirins and some water because you’re going to feel like a Mack truck hit you come tomorrow.”

We’ve done this enough times after a crazy night of partying for me to know exactly where to find everything. I grab the bottle of aspirin from his medicine cabinet before filling a tall glass with water in his kitchen. Walking back into his bedroom with the bottle in one hand and the glass of water in the other, my feet falter momentarily as my eyes land on Jordan, lying sprawled out on the bed, shirtless and passed out, lightly snoring.

The man is gorgeous. Even if we’re just friends, and will always be because let’s be honest, he sees me like his little sister. Not to mention he’s my boss and that would just spell disaster. I still can admire the glorious body that is made up of his spectacular pecs and washboard abs.

Setting the water next to him on his night stand, I grab a blanket off the chair in the corner of his room, roll him onto his side, which is not an easy task. The man is all muscle and feels like I’m trying to roll a massive boulder over. Finally on my third try, I get him onto his side and cover him up with the blanket before heading back out into the living room.

I’m too tired to attempt to drive home tonight, so I climb onto the small couch, grab the throw blanket folded along the back of it, and toss two throw pillows down to sleep on.

Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I send a quick text to my aunt letting her know I’ll be crashing here tonight. I milk the sympathy by telling her Jordan is throwing up and I don’t think it’s safe to leave him alone, that way she won’t try to insist I drive home instead of staying over.

Thankfully she texts right back, telling me she’s happy that we made it back to his place safely, and to tell Jordan she hopes he feels better.  Setting my phone onto the coffee table, I curl up on the couch, pulling the blanket snuggly under my chin, and drift off to sleep.

***

I wake up a little after eleven and check on Jordan. He’s still passed out and lying in the same position I left him in last night. I don’t want to leave him by himself if he’s not feeling good, so I decide to run to the store and grab some things to make breakfast. I come back at twelve-thirty and find that he’s still passed out.

Pulling out the contents from the grocery bags, I get to work making breakfast. I fry some bacon, because bacon is life and I can’t go a day without eating it, and set to work toasting some English muffins to go with our bacon and fried eggs.

Nothing is better for a hangover than eating greasy food, or so I’ve heard from Jordan one too many times. So I’m frying up some eggs in bacon grease for breakfast—well, brunch, I guess.

After everything’s done cooking, I make our plates, leaving them on the small island. Turning on the heels of my bare feet, I open then lean into the fridge, grabbing the small bottle of coffee creamer and setting it on the countertop beside the Keurig. I have music playing from my phone and I’m humming along to “Odd One” by Sick Puppies as I spin around to go wake up Jordan and let out a loud scream.

“Ahhh! Holy shit, Jordan! Don’t sneak up on me like that.” He’s standing behind me with a crooked smirk on his lips as I attempt to come down from the heart attack he just gave me.

“I thought you went home last night after dropping me off, but I guess not. I awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs and thought I was still drunk, because I thought there was no way that I was going to stumble out here and find breakfast prepared and on the table.

Hitting brew on the Keurig, I fill his mug first before preparing mine. Sliding his cup over to him, he wastes no time fixing it the way he likes it: one spoonful of sugar and a slash of cream.

“It was almost three by the time we got back here and I was way too tired to try and drive home. So, I crashed on the couch. I figured you’d be feeling like death when you woke up so I decided to make you the hangover cure,” I say, waving my hand like Vanna White showcasing his plate of eggs, bacon and toasted muffin.

We eat beside one another with neither of us saying much. Instead, we listen quietly to my music that’s playing on the counter from his iPod dock. Thankfully for Jordan, he doesn’t work on Saturdays. His sister, Amberly, always runs the store on the weekend so that Jordan can have somewhat of a social life. It’s a family-owned business. His father opened it up in the late seventies with his mother who’s a music teacher here at the local high school. Jordan manages it with the help of his sister, though she’s so busy with college that she doesn’t have the time to devote to it like her brother does. That’s how I got this job. Thankfully I met Amberly in English class and we bonded over our love of 90’s grunge music. Then one day she told me about the record store and how they were looking for someone to pick up a few hours each week.

The rest is history.

I’m cleaning up the plates, as the sink fills with bubbles when Jordan props his body up against the kitchen counter. Crossing his arms, he watches as I rinse the plates and get to work washing them. “You don’t have to do that you know.”

Glancing at him over my shoulder, I reply, “I know. But I want to. I’m the one who made the mess. The least I can do is clean it up. Plus, with the hangover you’re sporting I don’t imagine cleaning your apartment is number one on your list of things to do today.”

He lets out a deep chuckle, and says, “You got that right.” With a long sigh, runs his hand through his hair before opening his mouth to speak again. “Thanks again for doing this. It was really nice of you. Why don’t you take the day off? I’ll text Amberly, let her know to call Sam and see if he’ll come in if things get busy this afternoon. He’s been looking for more hours since his mother lost her job.”

Shrugging, I rinse of the last plate and set it in the strainer, and then grab the dish towel off the door of the oven to dry my hands. “All right. Thanks. I have a lot to get done before we head up to Endings on Monday, so I appreciate it.”

“No problem. Well, I’m going to jump in the shower. Try to wash the smell of campfire and stale beer from my body. Thanks again for breakfast. I feel better already.”

I give him a quick hug goodbye, pulling away I scrunch up my nose, “I second that idea. You reek,” I tease, before plucking my phone from the dock and grabbing my purse off the coffee table.

“Have fun on your trip! I can’t wait to see all the pics.”

Laughing, I toss my purse onto my shoulder and pull open the door to leave. “Believe me, my Facebook will be flooded with so many pictures you’ll be sick of seeing them by the time the end of the week rolls around.”

With that, I give him a small wave before bouncing down the stairs and out the back door and to my car.

I cannot wait for this trip!

When I get home I head to my room, I take Niko and Lisa out of their cage and bring them over to my bed for their daily exercise. I watch them as they try to run around and tackle each other. Once they’re tired, I pick them up, making sure not to touch their backs and carry them over to their cage and set them on their beds. I love them both so much because they’re just so innocent. They were one of the first things I bought with some of the leftover money from my old job. I’ve always wanted a pet but with my childhood being the way it was the closest thing to a pet I ever had was a stray cat that would wander around our yard. So when I moved in here and got settled, I talked to my aunt about it and she agreed that I deserved a pet. Later that day, she took me to a pet farm about an hour away and I picked out Niko and Lisa.

I walk back over to my bed and plop down, letting my body slowly sink into the mattress. I close my eyes and lay there for a while, just listening to the cars pass by. Twenty minutes later I hear the front door open and my aunt walk through the door. “Hartley, I’m home!” she yells to me from the kitchen. Getting up, I walk down the short narrow hall to the living room where I find my aunt sitting down on the couch.

“Hey Aunt August. How was work?” I ask, taking a seat next to her.

“It was fine nothing too exciting happened,” she says, leaning her head into the back of the couch.

“Well I guess that’s good,” I respond, giggling a little. “You’re not very good with small talk.”

“Yeah, well neither are you,” she says, looking at me and laughing. Standing up, she heads to the kitchen.

“What would you like for dinner? We can order a pizza, if you want,”

“Pizza sounds good,” I tell her, also standing up and heading over to the phone. I call the pizza place and order a buffalo chicken pizza and some wings. When we are done eating, we went straight to packing. I packed a couple outfits and toiletries, but my aunt literally packed the whole house.

Chapter Three

We loaded up the car and were on the road by 1:00 p.m. Being a Sunday, traffic is insane and a nightmare to deal with, especially on interstate 95, but we still make good time, arriving a little after four to Endings.

I can hardly contain my excitement as I turn onto the road leading to the resort. My legs shake at the realization that I’m about to see the Browns for the first time since moving to South Carolina really set.

We drove through winding dirt roads for what seemed like forever after taking the exit for Endings, South Carolina. The resort is nestled deep in the woods, right on a lake, about ten minutes from town and from the beach. I, for one, cannot wait to see the ocean finally.

I let out a shriek of excitement as a large sign appears ahead of us, which reads, ‘Welcome to The Happy Endings Resort.’ “We made it!” I giggle, my excitement bursting out of me, as I slowly pull up to the small welcome booth, with a sign that reads ‘Check in here.’

A middle-aged man named Edwin, who judging by his name tag is the Resort Manager, is sitting inside the tiny check-in booth, reading a wildlife magazine. He’s kind enough to point us into the right direction. Before we know it, we’re pulling up to a small, yet cozy-looking log cabin.

Right away I spot Mrs. Brown sitting on the porch in a wooden rocking chair, drinking a glass if sweet tea. Not wasting a single second, I put the car in park, jump out, and run up the stone filled driveway, climbing the steps up to the porch and meet Mrs. Brown on the top step.

“Hi, sweetie!” Mrs. Brown’s voice comes out soft, and filled with the same loving tone she’s always had with me. I’ve missed her so much. I’m pulled in for a big bear hug that causes the air to leave my lungs in whoosh.

A smile spreads across her face as her arms wrap around me, makes my entire body relax, from tension and stress of the car ride. The sound of a screen door creaking open before slamming shut, pulls my attention toward Mr. Brown, who walks up to us and joins in on the hug session going on in the middle of his porch.

They both look exactly how I remember them, only slightly older, with Mr. Brown sporting a little less hair than before, and Mrs. Brown looking like a brand new woman, now that she’s thirty pounds lighter. She told me that since moving here she’s been trying to eat healthier, and hikes daily, along with taking the small row boats that are for rent here out with Mr. Brown to do some fishing.

South Carolina is most definitely agreeing with them. They look happier than I’ve ever seen them, which in turn makes me happier than they will ever know. I care about them so much, hope to have them in my life for many years to come.

We spend the day catching up and hanging out around the cabin. It’s so peaceful being able to sit outside on the porch, watching the water as small waves gently roll into the shore, and seagulls fly about looking for their next meal.

Mrs. Brown whips us up a quick dinner, which is so delicious by the way I forgot how good Mrs. Brown was at cooking, before leaving us to go to Bingo with some friends at the Rec center. We were going to walk around and explore the resort, but decided instead to put that off until later. The humidity tonight is awful, so instead we opt to test out the lake and wait until the sun goes down a little before exploring the resort.

After spending a little over an hour down at the lake, we head back inside the cabin to unpack.

We’re unloading our last few items when Mr. and Mrs. Brown come strolling into the cabin, laughing loudly as they continue a conversation about Bess and Herbert, the couple they were going to bingo with tonight.

“So how’d you guys do? Win anything?” I ask, coming out of the small guest room.

“Not a thing. But we had fun. That’s all that matters,” Mrs. Brown says, dropping her purse onto the stand beside the front door, before padding across the wooden floor over to me. She pulls me in for another hug, “I can’t tell you enough how happy I am to have you here.”

Smiling, I give her a gentle squeeze back. “I’m happy you invited me. I’ve missed you two so much.

Patting my back, she pulls away slightly to look me in my eyes. “I am beyond proud of the young woman you’re becoming. To see you in college, having friends, and building a life for yourself. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for you.”

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for you and Mr. Brown. You two gave me the strength and courage to pick up the pieces and try to rebuild a better life for myself.”

Releasing me from her embrace, Mrs. Brown moves around me and toward the tiny kitchen beside the living room. “I don’t know about you, but I, for one, could go for a bedtime snack.” Opening the fridge, she pulls out a tray of homemade cream puffs.

We spend the next half hour eating cream puffs and listening to Mrs. Brown fill us in on all the juicy gossip she got from Bess while at bingo. This resort seems small, but like any place, it has its fair share of gossip and drama.

“I’m sorry to do this to you ladies, but we’re going to call it a night,” Mrs. Brown says while covering her third yawn in the last five minutes.

Saying goodnight, I give them both hugs, and watch as they disappear into their bedroom before shutting their door softly. I glance at the time on my phone and see it’s only 8:30 p.m. I have a few texts from Jordan, asking how things are going and a few from Laikynn wondering if there are any hotties at the resort.

I text Laikynn back quick.

Me: No hotties yet. But, in my defense I haven’t ventured away from the cabin yet.

Laikynn: Well what the hell are you waiting for? Get your butt out of that cabin and go explore this resort. There has to be some hotties around somewhere. They don’t have all these summer romance songs and movies for nothing. Your summer fling is out there waiting for you to find him. ;)

God. Rolling my eyes at her craziness, I text her back one more time.

Me: I doubt I’m going to have some epic summer love romance here at a campsite full of kids and old people. But, if you’d like to know I’m going to go out for a walk. I’ll keep you updated on the hotties tho, promise.

Aunt August is out on the porch enjoying the nice evening and reading a book. It’s a beautiful night; too nice for me to be sitting inside before nine o’clock.

Climbing to my feet, I pocket my phone, deciding to text Jordan when I get back, and push open the screen door, walking out onto the porch. The warm night air feels thick and hot, but there’s a slight breeze coming off the lake making it comfortable.

“I’m going to go for a walk around the resort, okay?” I tell Aunt August, as I flash her a smile and bounce down the stairs.

“Okay, just don’t stay out too long. I’m probably going to stay out here a while longer,” she says, glancing up the star-filled sky before bringing her attention back to the book resting on her lap.

“Okay, text me if you need me,” I tell her, walking toward the road.

After wandering around for a few minutes, I find my way to the pool. No one’s there except for a lifeguard, who looks around my age, sitting on the edge of the pool, looking at their phone. I open the gate and walk over to a lounge chair and I take my phone out of my back pocket to set it on the chair. I slip off my sandals, removing my tank top and shorts, revealing my sky-blue bikini. I throw my hair up into a ponytail and make my way over to the pool.

The lifeguard looks up at me, giving me a quick wave before looking back at his phone. Walking down the steps, I slowly submerge my body into the cool water. I do a lap across the pool, pushing off the wall, and swimming back to where I started from. Then I stop in the middle of the pool and roll onto my back, allowing my body to float on top of the water. The sun is almost completely set now, casting the horizon in an array of colors, while filing the sky with a blanket of twinkling stars. In the dark like this, the trees seem to be a hundred feet taller, almost touching the sky, blurring the line between where the sky stars and the trees end.

I love the feeling of being weightless. There’s something so relaxing about floating in a pool on a hot summer night. The hot humid air hitting my exposed skin, while the warm pool water laps against my body, cooling me at the same time as the summer air warms me up. I get lost in the sound of the water lapping up against the side of the pool, and the sounds of crickets in the woods, as I continue to float and connect constellations. I’m so lost in my own little world, that I practically jump out of my skin the second I feel someone dive into the pool, and float up beside me.

Flipping onto my stomach, I let out a startled gasp, as my eyes connect with the same eyes I met a few moments earlier.

“Hey, sorry if I startled you. I was melting up there and needed to cool off,” he says breathlessly, as he kicks his feet beneath him, trying to stay afloat beside me. “I’m Milo.”

“No biggy, at least now I know I have a strong heart,” I joke, before flashing him a shy smile. “I’m Hartley.” I swim backward toward the steps, trying to get myself to a safer location rather than the middle of a pool with a strange boy I don’t know.

Following me, he swims up beside me, climbs up onto the first step that is submerged under water, and sits on it.

“I haven’t seen you around before. Did you just move here or are you just staying for vacation?”

“I’m here visiting my grandparents with my aunt,” I tell him, half honestly. They are like grandparents to me. I really don’t feel like giving him my entire messed up life story.

Climbing to his feet, Milo stands in front of me, making me tilt my head up to look at him. I have to admit he’s pretty cute. Especially with the moon-lit sky illuminating him as he runs his hands through his wet, shaggy hair. I find myself growing more nervous every second I sit here with his eyes on mine.

“That’s cool,” he says, propping his hip against the metal railing along the stairs. “Who’s the old couple you’re staying with? I know just about everyone here. Besides any new campers checking in, but I just give it a day and I’m sure to know them by first name. With this weather, people can’t resist the pool, and everyone seems to be extra chatty when lying around the pool on a hot afternoon.”

“The Browns. They haven’t been living here that long. Maybe about a month or so,” I answer him.

“Oh, cool. I’ve seen them walking around here, but I’ve never formally met them. They’re not pool people.” He laughs.

We sit there for a couple seconds in awkward silence until I finally break it. “Well, I better get going before my aunt thinks I’ve been eaten by a bobcat or mountain lion,” I say, laughing a little.

Climbing out of the pool, he holds his hand out to help me. I stare at his hand for a few seconds before taking it awkwardly. I hurry out of the pool before yanking my hand away from his.

“It was nice meeting you, Hartley. I hope to see ya around,” he drawls, before giving me a playful smile.

“You too….” I stammer out, as a shiver slides down my spine with the air that hits my wet skin.

Grabbing a towel and wrapping it around myself, I pad across the wet tiles over to the bench where I left my things. Quickly drying myself off, I slip my shorts and sandals back on. I’m rubbing the towel over the ends of my hair, when I spot Milo approaching me out of the corner of my eye.

Turning to face him, I finally allow myself to really look at him for the first time. I mean really look at him. In the pool, I was so caught off guard, and felt so awkward in the dark with a guy I don’t know. I tried to avoid looking at him, but now standing under the pool lights, there’s no way I cannot see him. My eyes are drawn to him like a damn moth to the beautiful flickering flame of a camp fire.

I notice that he has a perfect body; its muscular, but not scary body builder muscular. More nicely toned in all the right places. Like his biceps and perfectly flat stomach, which is sporting a fantastic six pack that is glistening at the moment under the lights, thanks to his quick dip in the pool with me a few moments ago.

His skin is a dark tan color, which I’m guessing is from sitting poolside everyday lifeguarding. His hair looks brown in this lighting, but I think I see little streaks of blonde all over his head, which I’m guessing is once again from being around the water and sun all day.

His eyes are a vibrant color of green. I noticed them in the pool when he startled the life out of me. I was momentarily lost in his gaze, just like I am right now.

I snap out of my trance when I hear my name being yelled. “Hartley! Are you okay? You’ve been staring at me, not hearing a single thing I’ve said, all while looking like you were somewhere else completely,” he says laughing.

“I was not staring at you!” I say in my defense, even though I was clearly staring at him.

“It’s fine, I know I have an awesome body. It’s been known to leave more than a few girls speechless.” He flashes a flirty smirk my way, before lifting his arms to flex.

“Oh my God.” I can’t help but roll my eyes and laugh.

“I’ll ask you again, since it seems you were having trouble hearing me the last time,” he teases, before continuing. “Do you want me to walk you back to your cabin? I wouldn’t want any bobcats eating you,” he asks me, mocking my aunt.

“Sure,” I answer, leaning my body against the metal fencing surrounding the pool area.

He dries off his legs and upper body before throwing on a skin-tight t-shirt and sandals. As he walks toward me, he passes the lifeguard stand and jumps up, grabbing another piece of clothing. He hands it to me, as we start to walk down the road that leads to the cabins. Glancing down at the item he placed in my hand, I notice that the item he gave me is a black and white Endings high school sweatshirt.

Glancing at me, he nods toward the sweater in my hand. “I gave it to you to put on, your whole body is shaking,” he tells me, turning his head to look back at the path in front of us.

I forgot how cold I was thanks to Mr. Muscles over here short-circuiting my brain. Slipping the sweater over my head, I feel my body warming up.

Once we reach the cabin, I stop at the bottom of the stairs, and stare awkwardly up at him while hugging my arms to my chest. “Well, this is it. Thanks again for walking with me.”

“No problem. Have a good night. I’ll see you around.”

We say goodnight, and I hurry up the stairs and inside. Needing to wash the pool water and chlorine from my hair and skin, I decide to take a quick shower before bed. As I undress, I realize I never gave Milo his hoodie back. Hugging it to my chest, I inhale deeply, the scent of his cologne and sunscreen filling my nose, and I close my eyes letting the last half hour replay in my mind.

I guess I answered Laikynn back too soon earlier, because there most certainly was a hottie at this resort. Judging by the butterflies in the pit of my stomach as I breathe in the scent of his sweater, I think it’s safe to say, I have a slight crush on this mysterious lifeguard.

After brushing my teeth, I sweep my damp hair into a messy bun on top of my head, and make my way through the tiny cabin toward the guest room I’m sharing with aunt August. She’s already fast asleep in her bed, as I climb in my twin bed directly beside hers.

I decide to send Jordan a text before I go to sleep to make sure my hedgehogs are doing okay. I put off texting him earlier when I was messaging Laikynn back.

Me: Hey! How are Lisa and Niko doing?

Jordan: Hey, they’re doing fine. I did everything you said to do and when I left your house they were sleeping in their cage.

Me: Okay thanks again for keeping an eye on them while I’m gone.

Jordan: Np, how’s your trip going so far?

Me: It’s great it was so nice to see my foster parents again and my aunt seems to really like them so I guess that’s good. But we didn’t do much today other than just catch up with each other and swim a little, but tomorrow were all going to just hang out at the pool.

Jordan: Cool! I’m glad you guys are having a great time make sure to send pics lol.

Jordan: I’m going to get some sleep, miss you… see you Saturday. Stay safe, okay?

Me: Goodnight, miss you too! I will <3

Jordan: lol goodnight

Chapter Four

I wake up to the smell of bacon and jump out of bed then run to the kitchen. My aunt and Mrs. Brown are making plates, and Mr. Brown is sitting at the table reading the newspaper. I make my way over to the drawer where they keep their utensils, grab four forks and set them at each seat. I walk over to where they’re making the plates and take the one that has the crispiest pieces of bacon on it, then stride back over to the table.

“I hope the bacons is crispy enough for you, Hartley. I remember how much you loved your crispy bacon,” Mrs. Brown says, turning her head to look at me and give me smile.

I pick up a piece and take a bite. My eyes widen because once again I forget how good Mrs. Brown is at cooking. “Oh my God! This is delicious, thank you. And yes, it’s definitely crispy enough,” I tell both my aunt and her, which makes them laugh.

“Okay, good,” Mrs. Brown replies, turning her head back to the counter.

After we all finished our food, I washed the dishes. Mrs. Brown asks me what I want to do today, and I quickly to reply I’d like to go to the pool. They assume it’s because it’s close to eighty already this morning. But the truth is, I’m hoping to see Milo again.

Heading into the guest room, I dig through the drawers I unpacked all of my things into. Pulling out a black and purple bikini and a pair of jean shorts, I slip everything on in record time, before grabbing my Reckless Serenade concert t-shirt off the bed, slipping it over my head. Sliding my feet into my black flip-flops, I grab my bottle of sunscreen from my nightstand, tossing it into my bag along with my sunglasses. Grabbing one more thing, Milo’s sweatshirt, I stuff it into my pool bag and head back out everyone. They’re all sitting outside on the deck, waiting for me when I push open the screen door, and slip my sunglasses on to shield my eyes from the blazing-hot sun.

“Well, everyone, let’s all pile into the golf cart. It’s hotter than Hades out here. There’s no way I’m walking in this heat.

I help aunt August carry the tiny cooler full of water down to the gold cart before climbing in beside her in the back bench seat, while Mr. and Mrs. Brown climb into the front, starting the golf cart up.

It only takes us about two minutes to get to the pool in the Brown’s golf cart. We park in a small parking lot next to the pool area. The pool is surprisingly empty except for one girl who’s sunbathing and Milo who’s sitting in the lifeguard chair. I’m guessing everyone else is either sleeping in or out enjoying the lake this morning.

Opening the gate, I hold it open for the Browns and my aunt, who go over to a set of lounge chairs and sit down. My aunt sets her towel down on her chair and a bag, which includes sunscreen, tanning lotion, and whatever else she has in stuffed inside, and heads toward the pool. She uses her foam pool noodle to float around the pool and tan.

Setting my bag down beside my aunt’s, I dig Milo’s sweater out of it before walking over to his lifeguard stand to return it to him.

“Hey! Catch!” I shout, as I tilt my head back, gazing through my sunglasses up at Milo, who’s wearing cargo shorts and a tank top that says Lifeguard across the chest. Tossing his sweater up at him, he reaches out with one hand and catches it.

“Thanks,” he says, looking down at me and flashes me a blinding-white smile.

“No problem,” I tell him, as I start to walk toward the pool. I hardly know him, yet every time I see, talk to, or even allow my mind to wander to thoughts of him, I get butterflies in my stomach.

But I need to snap out of it. No matter what Laikynn says, I can’t have some meaningless summer fling with a random hot guy. That’s not who I am.

I can’t like this guy. I have a life back home that I need to focus on.

I see my aunt floating in the middle of the pool and quietly climb in, trying not to make too much noise. I swim toward her and when I’m almost next to her, I go under the water and grab the floaty she’s laying on and tip it over. I hear her scream and I pop up from under the water and start laughing hysterically. When she emerges from the water, she just glares at me. I can’t stop laughing until I find myself under the water because she took my legs out from underneath me. I come back up and notice that everyone’s staring at us. The Browns are chuckling, the sunbather is giving us a disapproving look, and Milo is just smirking at me. I swim away from my aunt and get out of the pool so I can get a floaty to sunbathe on.

We stay at the pool for hours before we all start to get hungry. Finding a picnic table, Mrs. Brown grabs the picnic basket out of the golf cart and we all sit down to eat and talk for a while. After we put everything away, the Browns excuse themselves to go to their friend’s house. My aunt mentions she wants to go into town and explore Endings. She asks me if I want to go, but I tell her I want to stay here and tan a bit longer.

I walk back to the pool, lie down on one of the lounge chairs, and take out my phone to listen to music. I put on my head phones and hit shuffle on my playlist. Panic! At The Disco’s cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” starts playing as I closed my eyes. I could listen to Brendon Urie all day and never grow tired of listening or staring at him. Smirking to myself, I picture my phone’s background in my mind of Brendon on stage, shirtless, wearing tight leather pants.

I lie there in peace for about half an hour before I feel something cold and wet hit my leg. My eyes shoot open as I whip my head over my shoulder to find Milo grinning at me from in the edge of the pool. I pause my music, take off my head phones, and climb up from my lounge chair and walk over to the side of the pool. I flash him an impish grin before jumping in, splashing him in the face with a massive wave of water. After wiping the water from his face he starts laughing and it’s one of the sexiest laughs I’ve ever heard. It sends those stupid butterflies fluttering in the pit of my belly again.

I swim away from him toward the other side of the pool, but notice that he’s swimming straight for me. In a failed attempt to get away, I try to swim faster than him and make it to the edge of the pool before he reaches me. I guess part of being a lifeguard is being a fast swimmer, because it only took him three strokes to catch up to me.  My back presses against the cool pool wall, as he floats up in front of me. His green eyes twinkle in the sunlight as he flashes another blinding smile down at me, as his arms cage me in, coming to rest on either side of me and his hands grip the edge of the pool.

His face is so close to mine that our faces almost touch. I look up at him and stare into his eyes, afraid to blink because I might bat an eyelid and find myself waking up from this crazy dream. The entire world around us fades away as I find myself lost in his gaze.

Is he going to kiss me?

Do I want him to kiss me?

His left hand leaves the pool wall as he moves it toward my face. His fingers lightly touches my face making me jump slightly, and my heart begins to race in my rest.

Oh my God. He’s most certainly going to kiss me….

I nervously lick my lips, trying to calm my racing heart and will my shaking hands to chill the hell out. Sensing my nervousness, as fast as Milo’s lips are moving toward mine, he’s suddenly pulling them away from me. I reach out, grabbing his arm as his hand begins to leave my face in a desperate attempt to try and save this moment.

Shaking his head, Milo lets out a light chuckle before dipping his entire body under the water. I watch as a million bubbles float to the surface from his mouth. Letting out a frustrated groan, I dip myself under the water too, opening my eyes to find he’s staring at me too. I raise my hands up in front of me, silently asking him what’s going on?

Reaching out he takes my hands into his before resurfacing above the water. “I gotta go back to my chair.” Releasing my hands, he brings his hand back up to my cheek, gently stroking the beads of water sliding down my cheek with his thumb. The gesture makes my breath catch in my chest, as a warmth sparks from his thumb and straight to my heart.

Turning away from me, he swims toward the stairs, but stops before climbing out of the pool and turns back to me. “Meet me here tonight at ten.” That’s all he says before turning back around and climbing out of the water.

The remainder of my time at the pool Milo didn’t speak two words to me. Stopping into the arcade a few minutes after our moment in the pool, I grab a Gatorade and a bag of chips. I wasn’t really hungry, but I needed to get away from him for a few minutes. The pool filled with people as the day went on, I didn’t miss the number of young girls and even older women who flocked to the area Milo was sitting at. I have no right to be jealous. I mean I don’t even know the guy. So, I have no reason to be jealous over a few bimbos vying for his attention.

The Browns are already home cooking dinner when I stroll in a little after six-thirty. Not long after I returned to the cabin, my aunt pulls up and comes in with arms full of souvenirs she found while in town.

 It’s still light out when dinner is ready, so we decide to eat on the porch. After supper, we gather around the picnic table outside beside a cozy fire and play Mrs. Brown’s favorite game, YAHTZEE! She used to make us play that game for hours on the weekends when I lived with her.

Finally around eight-thirty the Browns say their goodnights and head to bed. I’m too nervous to simply sit on the couch and watch TV with aunt August, so I change into my running shorts, sneakers, and tank top to go for a quick run around the resort. It’s the perfect time to go since the sun’s setting. Nothing helps me clear my head and destress like a good run. Plus it’ll be a good excuse to go back to the pool later. So I can cool off before bed.

 A little over an hour later, I’m rounding the corner back to the Brown’s place. Jogging up the stairs and into the house, I head inside to change. I find aunt August in bed reading as I enter the bedroom and toe off my sneakers.

“How was your run?” she asks, peering over the book at me.

Bending over to peel my socks off, I toss them next to my sneakers. “Great. But now I’m all sweaty, so I’m going to head up to the pool for a quick swim to cool off. Then I’ll be back.”

She gives me a skeptical look but only says, “All right. Just don’t stay gone too late,” before going back to reading.

Retrieving my swim suit from the clothes line outside, I head into the bathroom to change quickly before heading back up the winding dirt roads to the pool.

Milo’s already in the pool, and wanting to surprise him, I quietly slip through the gate and strip down to my swimsuit. His back is to me as he pops up out of the water. Breaking into a full-on sprint, I run toward the pool and jump in, splashing a gigantic wave of water onto Milo that knocks him back under the water. When he resurfaces he looks at me and gives me a devilish smirk before lunging at me and pulling me under as well. We fool around like this for a little while, playfully trying to drown each other, with me finding myself climbing onto his back more than a few times and wrapping my arms around his neck as I try and fail to dunk him, but he successfully dunks me each time.

Finally with us both spent and out of breath, we call a truce as we swim to the steps of the pool. The same spot we were last night when all I wanted was to get away from him as fast as I could. Tonight, I’m wishing time would slow down so that this night wouldn’t have to end so quickly.

I can’t believe that I’m falling for a boy I know nothing about other than he lives here, he’s a lifeguard, and his name is Milo. Besides that I know absolutely nothing about him.

Biting my lip, I rest my hands under my chin as I shyly turn my head toward him. My heart skips a beat in my chest when our eyes lock.

“Tell me about yourself,” I blurt out at him out of nowhere, which takes him a little by surprise. But the smile on his lips never falters. Leaning a little closer to me, he takes a deep breath before slowly licking his lips, which makes me wonder if he’s a good kisser. I’ve never kissed anyone before, so I have no idea how the heck I am. What if I suck at kissing?

God, this is all so new and terrifying.

He begins to speak, pulling me from the thoughts swirling in my head.

“Well my full name is Milo Kent Joseph. I’ve lived here my whole life with my parents. I went to Endings elementary, middle and high school, I’m an only child. I have three cats named Bob, Ray and Mikey, and two turtles named Gerard and Frank. My parents are Jessica and Roger Joseph, and my favorite color is blue. I like pop punk, rock, metal, emo and goth music even though I don’t dress like I do other than wearing band shirts sometimes, and that’s about it,” he says, leaning his back against the step behind him. “Okay, now you have to tell me about yourself.”

“Okay.” I respond. “My full name is Hartley Rose Ruslan. I used to live in Minnesota with my parents, who were really bad people and did some really bad things. The family I’m visiting right now aren’t really my grandparents. They were actually my foster family, and they helped me divorce my parents when I was seventeen. When I turned eighteen and finished high school, I moved out of the Brown’s home and to South Carolina to go to college. I started living with my aunt, who I didn’t know existed until after my mother wrote me a letter from prison a few months after I became emancipated. She claimed that she’d been clean for six months, and was seeing a therapist at her women’s prison and was doing better. She claimed she didn’t want me to be alone with no family, so she gave me the name of her sister, who she hadn’t spoken to in ten years. I was so young I guess I forgot about her. But the second she flew to Minnesota to meet me, it was as if she’d been in my life forever. We just clicked. She’s amazing and does everything she can to help me move past the things from my past and focus on my future. Oh, and I don’t have as many pets as you do, but I do have two pet hedgehogs named Niko and Lisa. Last, I work with my best friend at a music store that his father owns. And that’s about it,” I tell him, shrugging.

His eyes widen slightly, which I was fully expecting. It’s a lot to take in. “Oh, sorry if I’m being nosey, but why did you divorce your parents? What did they do that was that bad?” he asks me.

I suddenly feel really overwhelmed from talking about my past, even if it wasn’t in detail, though I’m not going to cry. I have to be strong even if my parents can’t see me. I don’t want them to know that they’ve made me weak, so I just decide to tell Milo everything.

Straightening my back, I let out a long shaky breath, and close my eyes for a moment to get my head on straight. I feel Milo’s hand take mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. Opening my eyes, I force a smile and take the leap.

“I don’t really like telling this story, especially to people I just met. But you seem trustworthy, so here it goes. Since I was born I’ve had to deal with abuse and neglect. My father was an alcoholic and my mother was an addict. They abused me both physically and mentally. In elementary school, teachers started noticing bruises all over my arms, legs and face, and had me talk to a school therapist and a social worker, who later got me put into foster care. That’s how I met the Browns. But once my life started going good again, my parents found a way to get me back. They claimed to be better and ready to give me the loving home I deserved. I went back, thinking maybe it would really happen. I’d finally get the home I’d always dreamt of with a loving mother and father.  But that isn’t what happened, sadly. Things were okay for a couple months because both of my parents kept their word and stayed clean, both even had jobs. We had a woman from child protective services come by weekly to check on me. Then everything started going downhill again after my parents began fighting regularly, and they started using alcohol and drugs again. The visits with our social worker had started to be just once a month after the first six months went okay. So my parents made my life a living hell every single day, aside from that one day a month. That’s when they’d put on the act they needed to in order to keep me. I know now they never really wanted me. They wanted the things they got because of me. At first it was things like help with housing and food. But it then turned to something much worse.”

I wipe away a tear that escapes from my eye against my will. I inhale a shaky breath as I try to find the strength to continue.

Milo’s hand finds my cheek, and his thumb slides across the spot still damp from my tear. “You don’t have to tell me anymore if you don’t want to. The last thing I wanted tonight was to make you cry.”

Shaking my head, I lift my eyes to look at him. The empathy in his eyes and the true feeling of caring about me are overwhelming. We’re complete strangers, but he cares more about how I feel than my own two parents ever have.

“I want to continue. I need to let the pain and anger go. The only way for me to do that is to tell the story. Taking the power from them and giving it back to myself.”

“All right.” He brings the hand he’s holding up to his mouth and presses a soft kiss to my knuckles. “You’re so strong, Hartley. You’re right, they don’t hold any power of you. If telling me will help you, then by all means, continue.”

Dropping my gaze back to the water, I watch it splash against my legs, zeroing in on the thin, shiny strips on the inside of my thighs. The scars from the cuts I inflicted on myself when I was at my lowest point. Pointing to my legs, I indicate the tiny scars that are almost unnoticeable unless they’re highlighted. “These are scars from cutting myself. I hit a very low point in my life where I wanted to die. My mother had lost her job, my father only worked odd jobs here and there, so money was tight. My mother would do anything to get her next fix. Even resorting to selling herself in order to get that next hit. But then one day, her dealer came by the house and that was the day everything changed.” I squeeze my eyes shut and force the disgusting pig’s face back into the darkest part of my brain, locked away in a safe place so he can’t hurt me anymore. “He decided that my mother wasn’t good enough anymore. Instead of finding another way to buy her drugs, my mother gave me to him. She allowed her drug dealer to rape me all in the name of getting high. It happened twice before I said I couldn’t do it anymore. I stole a bottle of my mother’s sleeping pills and took them in the bathroom at school. The only reason I’m alive today is because a teacher found me and called 911. Had I been left in that bathroom stall any longer and I would be dead right now. After that I went into a special program to help me deal with my depression and the trauma I experienced. After I completed the program, I was able to go back to the Browns. They helped me get emancipated and helped me find my aunt. Which is how I’m here with you today,” I finish, feeling a weight lifted off my chest. The only other person I’ve ever opened up to like this is Jordan. I’ve wanted to tell Laikynn so many times, but I’m too afraid it’d change who she is with me. I can’t live with people looking at me like I’m this wounded person. Damaged and needing sympathy. I just want to live the normal life I’ve always dreamed of, where people look at me as nothing more than just who I am.

Look at me and see Hartley.

Not a victim.

Not someone who needs to be treated like she’s fragile. I want to be normal and explore the world, chase my dreams and be the girl I dreamt about being every night while living in that nightmare.

It’s not until I feel Milo release my hand and wrap his arm around my body, hugging me against his chest that I realize that I’m crying.

We climb out of the pool and dry off, with Milo giving me his sweater to wear again because he must sense it’s comforting for me. I slip it over my head and feel a sense of calm wash over me as the scent of him envelopes my body.

I don’t want to go back to the cabin yet, so after locking up the pool area Milo walks over to one of the picnic areas and starts a fire in one of the pits. We sit in front of the fire for a while just talking. He asks if there were any other scars anywhere on my body besides the ones on my thighs. Thankfully because I never cut too deep, and aunt August got me a really good skin care set for scars and stretch marks, they’re faded enough to not be noticeable, helping me live a normal life without odd stares and questions.

Pulling up my sleeves, I point out the few faded scars that reach from my wrist to the crease of my left elbow.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that shit, Hartley,” he says with sadness lacing his voice. Wrapping his arm around me he once again pulls me in to him, affectionately stroking my damp hair. It surprises me how comfortable I feel with him. My body which usually goes on high alert around men, surprisingly feels relaxed, sitting here with him as he holds me in his arms.

I’m not used to men touching me, besides Jordan and our close group of friends. They all know my need for personal space and respect that. There’s just something about Milo, a connection we can’t deny. When I’m with him, I feel a sense of calm wash over me.    

It has my head spinning and my heart racing.

There’s no doubt about it. I’m officially falling for this guy.

Chapter Five

I wake up the next morning to my aunt shaking me. I try to roll over and tell her that I want to sleep a little longer, but she tells me no and yanks me out of bed.

“What do you want?!” I ask her, trying not to flip out.

“Get up. Everyone is already up and ready to go,” she tells me, walking over to the dresser in between our beds, grabbing my beach bag and stuffing a bunch of shit into it.

“Go where?!” I ask, standing up from the floor.

“My God, do you forget everything?” she asks, laughing. “We told you yesterday that were going to the beach today.”

“Oh yeah,” I say, chuckling to myself.

    I walk over to where she’s standing and open up one of the drawers, grabbing a pair of shorts and baggy Simple Plan t-shirt that I took from Jordan when I stayed at his house one night, and head to the bathroom to get changed.

It takes about twenty minutes to get to the ocean, but drive was worth it. There’s hardly anyone on the beach, and the water is crystal clear. The Browns sit in beach chairs under an enormous beach umbrella, while me and my aunt swim. We only stay in the water for a half hour until I run out screaming, because it felt like something was burning my whole body. My aunt follows behind me as I jump up and down in the sand, trying to figure out what’s wrong. About thirty seconds later, I find a slimy sting type thing wrapped around my arm and after ripping it off and chucking it, Mr. Brown tells me that I must have been swimming through jellyfish. So after that incident we went home. I cried the whole way back, the stings hurt so bad, but luckily when we got to the cabin, Mrs. Brown found a small bottle of pure lavender and told me to rub it wherever it hurt. About two minutes after letting it sit on my skin, I felt better.

I tell my aunt and the Browns that I was never going in the ocean ever again. That I would only ever swim in pools, lakes and ponds from now on. They laugh at me and tell me I was being overdramatic, but I don’t care. By the end of the day, the stings stop hurting and I decide to go to the pool. Tonight was bingo at the rec center again, and my aunt wants to go with the Browns. I don’t feel like sitting by myself. Milo’s in the pool once again when I get there, though this time he sees me coming, so I can’t attack him again. Judging by the solid blue board shorts he’s wearing, and a girl I don’t recognize sitting in the lifeguard chair, I think it’s a safe bet to say that Milo finally has a day off.

I can’t help but feel giddy at the idea of him hanging around the pool on his day off just on the off chance I’d come by.

My cheeks hurt from the smile that spreads across my face as I walk up to greet him. “Hey!” I yell over the sound of kids playing in the pool, giving him a small wave, before getting to work stripping down to my bathing suit and jumping into the cool water.

“Hey, stranger. Where did you go today? I thought for sure I’d find you here soaking up the sun and floating around the pool, seeing as it’s almost a hundred degrees out.”

“The Browns took me and my aunt to see the ocean earlier today, but we didn’t stay for long because I got stung by jellyfish,” I tell him, swimming a little deeper into the water toward him.

“Ow.” He chuckles.

“It is not funny. It really hurt.” I pop my bottom lip out, pouting a little.

“It is kinda funny. I can’t believe the Browns didn’t tell you it was jellyfish season,” he says, trying to keep a straight face.

“Seriously?! I can’t believe this. I’m so done,” I huff under my breath. I flash him a smile, letting him know I’m not really mad at him. Instead, I’m enjoying our light banter. Deciding to give up on the whole jellyfish conversation, I start to swim the rest of the way across the pool.

Milo follows me over to where I’m swimming, and we just float in complete silence. It isn’t an awkward silence and it feels comfortable until Milo brings his feet down to touch the bottom of the pool floor. I do the same and tilt my head up a little to look at him. I want to kiss him so bad, but I don’t know if he feels the same as I do, and if he doesn’t, I don’t want to ruin the friendship we have. Then again, he keeps finding ways to touch me and I always catch him looking at me.

I only have a few more days left before I go home. I don’t want to leave here with any regrets or wondering what-if. I’ve played it safe with boys I liked my entire life. I’m done spending every moment overthinking everything. For once I’m going to simply live in the moment.

Before I can chicken out and decide to go back to being the shy Hartley I’ve been all my life, sitting around, waiting for the guy to finally make the first move. Reaching up, I wrap my arms around his neck, and stand up on my tiptoes to reach his mouth. He towers over me by a good four or five inches, as I inch my mouth closer to his, I can feel my legs begin to shake beneath me. My heart is fluttering faster than a humming bird’s wings in my chest.

I can’t believe I’m really doing this!

Pushing through the fear, I lean up further onto my toes and crash my lips against his.

Within seconds, one hand is wrapping around my body pulling me against his chest, while the other cups the back of my head pressing my lips closer into his. My body begins to float on the water as my legs rise to the surface and wrap around his waist. We stay in that exact position for what feels like forever just kissing, completely zoning out the entire world around us.

“Wow” is all Milo says when we finally stop kissing and decide to come up for air.

“What? Was the kiss bad? I’m sorry for jumping on you like that. It’s not something I would usually do. But I kinda like you and I thought you liked….”

Milo stops me mid-sentence with his lips. He lets out a low growl as he stands still for a moment with just our lips pressed together and our sharp, quick, breaths filling the space between us. When he pulls away and locks his beautiful green eyes onto mine, he shifts slightly.

His tone serious, he says, “Trust me, the kiss was amazing. I’m glad you did it, because I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since the first night I saw you walk through that gate. I just didn’t have the balls to do it.” He’s sheepish after this admission and runs his hand through his hair.

I give him a shy smile. “What are we going to do?” I ask him. At his confused look, I add, “About this whole situation.” I emphasize motioning my hands between us.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to go on a couple dates….” he starts to say, but I cut him off.

“No, not about that. I mean, I’m only going to be here for two more days and you’re one of the first boys I’ve ever liked or kissed. I don’t think I can just kiss you and leave two days later never to see you again,” I confess, grabbing the side of the pool wall, and climbing out of the chilly water.

Milo climbs up next to me and drapes an arm over my shoulder. “We’ll just have to make the best out of those two days, Hartley, and if it’s meant to be I’m sure we will find a way to be together,” he tells me confidently, before grabbing my hand and standing up.

After drying off, Milo walks me back to the cabin so I can get dry clothes. I ask him to wait on the porch while I run inside and throw on clothes. When I leave my room, I find him sitting at the kitchen table talking to my aunt August. Milo sees me exiting my room and gives me a quick smile before finishing what he was saying to my aunt.

My aunt looks at me once I enter the kitchen. “Hey Hartley! Milo here was just telling me about how you guys met when we first got here.”

“Yeah, I met him the first night I went to the pool,” I say, giving her a small smile before walking over to stand next to Milo.

“That explains why you always want to be at the pool,” she teases, laughing.

Milo chuckles with her before speaking. “Well you see, Mrs. August, I wanted to ask you if it would be okay for me to take Hartley out on a date tomorrow?”

“As long as you guys stay safe, I don’t see why not,” she replies, giving him a slight nod.

Milo grabs my hand from where it’s resting on the table next to him and gives it a small squeeze. I look at him and smile. I can’t believe my aunt is letting me go out with a boy she hardly knows. I mean, I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal but she is very overprotective when it comes to these things.  

Chapter six

It’s five by the time I start getting ready for my date with Milo. He didn’t tell me where we were going or what we were doing. All he said was that we were going into town.

By six I’m dressed in a purple and black floral dress and my black and white converse, sitting on the porch, waiting for Milo to pick me up. As soon as I hear a vehicle coming up the road, I rush out of my seat and open the porch door and run down the steps. I can see Milo smiling at me from his truck. Parking, he hops out of the truck and walks over to me, wrapping an arm around my waist and pecks me on the lips. I jump at his touch. I’m still trying to get used to people touching me without me knowing that it’s going to happen, but I understand I need to get used to it. I can’t go my whole life avoiding people or allowing myself to accept affection.

“You look stunning,” he says, backing up so he can get a better look at me.

I can feel myself blushing. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” I answer, giving him a wink and walking toward his truck.

Milo runs ahead and opens the truck door for me. After I jump in, he closes the door and walks over to the driver’s side and climbs in. He looks my way and flashes me a quick smile before starting the truck.

We park at a small market in town and decide to walk. Milo takes my hand as we head up the main stretch. We stop at a stand and both order a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream and chocolate chips sprinkles, drizzled with chocolate syrup.

Once we’re walking again, I ask him, “So, can you tell me what we’re doing now?”

“All I can tell you is that it might hurt a little, but I already told your aunt and she’s fine with it,” he tells me, squeezing my hand slightly.

“What do you mean it might hur—” I’m cut off when I notice we’ve stopped walking and are standing in front of a tattoo shop.

I look up at the sign flashing neon colors above my head and read the name After Dusk Tattoo Shop.

“You want me to get a tattoo on our first date?!” I ask him. My eyes open so wide, they’re probably the size of the moon.

“You don’t have to get a tattoo, but I figured it would be a good stepping stone into your new life. Kinda showing that you’re trying to let go of your past,” he responds, pulling me toward the door.

“But I don’t even know what kind of tattoo I want,” I tell him.

“It’s fine. The guy that owns the shop is a friend of mine. I called him earlier and he has some ideas picked out for you to look at, if you can’t think of anything you want,” he reassures me.

I don’t argue about it anymore, because this is actually a really cool idea. Getting a tattoo could help move my life in a better direction. We talk to the owner whose name is Cyber, who is pretty muscular and has tattoos on him from head to toe, with a couple piercings on his face. Overall he seems like a pretty nice guy. We speak for a little bit about the pain of tattoos, and then we look at some photos of tattoos that he thought I’d like from what Milo has told him about me. I end up picking a black and white arrow tattoo, with a semi-colon within a lotus flower in the center of it. I picked the tattoo because the arrow is a way of showing that I’m moving in a new direction and not looking back. The semi-colon represents the fact that my story’s not over yet. I decided to add in the lotus flower because I once read that it grows in muddy water and rises above the surface to bloom with remarkable beauty. At night, the flower closes and sinks underwater and at dawn, it rises and opens again. Untouched by the mud’s impurity, the lotus symbolizes the pureness of heart and mind, and signifies long life, health, honor, and good luck. I can’t help but see myself in a way as the beautiful lotus flower. Even though it’s coming from a place dark and not pretty…it grows, and blossoms into something strong and beautiful.

Cyber and Milo both think the tattoo I chose is great, so Cyber brought me over to his station and told me to sit down in the black chair. I decide to get the tattoo done on my inner forearm where my scars are.

After wiping down my arm and setting his tools out, he starts the tattoo. It didn’t hurt that much, other than around my wrist, but after twenty minutes my arm goes numb and I can hardly feel it. The whole tattoo took about an hour and a half to finish. It was definitely worth everything in the end, because it turned out absolutely amazing. Milo ended up paying two hundred dollars for the tattoo. I told him I wanted to pay for it myself, but he insisted that he pay for it, because getting the tattoo was his idea. I ended up tipping Cyber a hundred dollars, so I wouldn’t feel as bad for letting Milo pay for my tattoo.

After leaving the tattoo place, we stop at a small Italian restaurant and share a homemade cheese pizza before heading back to the resort.

Chapter Seven

Today’s my last full day at the resort and, to be honest, it’s pretty depressing because I don’t want to leave. Not just because of Milo, but I’m really going to miss the Browns. It feels like I just got to the resort yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I want to go home because of my friends, my job, and my pets, but I feel like I need to stay here and give mine and Milo’s relationship a better chance.

I don’t know what to do. I mean summer break is only a month away, so I could probably come and stay with them for the summer. But I don’t want to leave my aunt alone, and I would have to figure something out about my job. Also, I wouldn’t be able to hang out with my friends, unless I go back home and visit, or if I invite them down. I guess I’ll just have to talk to my aunt about it later.

I spend the whole day with Milo, walking around the resort, swimming, and hanging out at his house. I meet his pets, who are all very cute—and yes, I did pick up on the My Chemical Romance reference he made with the names. I ended up staying at his place for dinner and most of the night, before he walked me home.

After we kiss goodnight, I run inside the cabin and find my aunt August and the Browns sitting at the kitchen table, playing cards. I sit next to Mr. Brown who looks up quickly and gives me a smile, before dropping his head to look back at his cards. I clear my throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Is there something you want to say, Hartley?” Mrs. Brown asks me, setting down her cards.

“I kinda wanted to ask you all something,” I say, fiddling with my fingers that are twisted in my lap. “I wanted to ask, if it would be okay if I spent my summer break here? I know that I have a job and responsibilities at home, but I don’t want to leave the resort quite yet, and I want to try and make mine and Milo’s relationship work. Maybe I could bring Niko and Lisa with me so I would be able to take care of them. I would still drive home every few days to see you and my friends.”

The Browns look ecstatic at my proposal, and when I look at my aunt she surprisingly does too.

“Of course you can stay here for the summer, if you really want to. I mean you’re a grown woman. As long as you hang out with people other than Milo and the Browns,” my aunt admonishes, still smiling.

After telling everyone I wanted to stay at the resort for the summer, we end up watching a movie. I voted for Twilight, but my aunt said she was sick of watching it. So we watched my second favorite movie The Lovely Bones. It’s really late by the time the movie ends, so we all say goodnight and hear to our rooms. I sent Jordan a text to check up on Niko and Lisa, and just to see how he’s doing.

Me: Hey!

Jordan: Hey! I’m so excited for my best friend to get back home :) work has been so boring without you.

Me: I can’t wait to see you either. I have so much to tell you and Laikynn!

Jordan: What happened??!

Me: You have to promise not to tell Laikynn, she will literally kill me if you hear this before she does lol

Jordan: Ok I won’t tell her, I pinky promise

Me: omg you’re such a dork sometimes lol, but anyways I met a guy at the resort and we’ve been hanging out since the first night I got here and some things happened and we went on a date. I GOT A TATTOO!! But we aren’t officially bf and gf yet.

Jordan: WHAT THINGS HAPPENED HARTLEY???!!

Me: Calm down Jordan we kissed a little it’s no big deal don’t worry

Jordan: I have a right to fucking worry Hartley you are my best friend and Ik what you’ve been through with your parents and I’m sorry if I want to make sure your safe and not putting yourself in dangerous situations with some guy you hardly know!

I know Jordan is just trying to protect me, and I love him for that, but I feel like this is the only way to help me get over my past. He needs to understand that I’ve also worked with my therapist, Ilene, for two years to be able to do things like kiss a guy and not feel in danger.

Me: Ik you’re just trying to look out for me but I need to do this to help me. I can’t just stay anti-social hermit for the rest of my life and end up a crazy cat lady, but trust me Jordan I’m safe. I trust Milo he knows about my past and he respects me and the things I’ve been through. I love you Jordan and I appreciate EVERYTHING that you’ve done for me since I moved in with my aunt and I just need you to trust me.

Jordan: I trust you Hartley I really do it’s “Milo” I don’t trust. I don’t give a shit if Ik him or not but you can’t just automatically trust this guy ik you’re not like this Hartley because every time you finish one of those romance books you always tell me how you find it a little creepy how the women fall in love and trust these men as soon as they say hello to them.

Jordan: I want you to get some sleep and you can tell me more about this Milo guy when you get home. Ily Hartley text me in the morning before you head home.

Me: okay ilyt I’ll see you tomorrow tell Grey and Raiden that I said hi.

Jordan: Will do ttyl Hartley.

Well, that did not go as good as I thought it would, but, oh well, that’s just Jordan being Jordan. He’s so overprotective, and I kind of like it. I’ve never had anybody worry about me this much, other than the Browns and my aunt. Since he knows everything that’s happened to me, I understand were he’s coming from when he gets this worked up. I’ll just talk to him more tomorrow, once he lets the news of me having an almost boyfriend sink in.

I wake up the next morning at 8:30 to finish packing and eat a quick breakfast, before heading to the pool to find Milo.  As soon as I walk through the gate, Milos sees me and his face brightens.

“Hey love!” he says, jumping down from the lifeguard stand. I can’t help but blush a little when I hear him call me that.

“Hi!” I greet cheerily, standing on my tiptoes, and pecking him on the lips. Looking up at him, I smile. “Guess what?”

“What?” he responds, grabbing my hand and walking over to the side of the pool, then sitting down.

“It’s nothing too big or anything, but I’m coming back to stay at the resort in like two weeks for the whole summer,” I announce, trying to hide my excitement

He whips his head toward me, his eyes looking like they could pop out of his head. “Are you serious?!!” he exclaims, grabbing both my hands and staring at me, waiting for my answer. I can’t hide my smile anymore.

“Yes, I’m serious. It’s all set up. Once I finish up the two weeks I’m scheduled at the record store, I’m packing up my stuff and coming back to the resort. I have to talk it over with Jordan—give him a chance to hire someone part time for the summer to replace me. But as soon as that’s all squared away I’ll load up my car and head down here for the summer. The only catch is I have to drive back home once a week. I made a promise to my Aunt that I would drive up and visit her, because she’s going to be all by herself. I’m also going to hang out with my friends from back home while I’m there, but you can come with me to visit them if you want on the days you don’t work. I’m sure my friends and my aunt will also be able to find time to come here and hang out,” I tell him, taking out my phone to check the time. I have about three hours left until we have to leave.

“I can’t even explain how happy I am right now, Hartley. This is literally the best news I’ve heard in a long time,” he says, before bending his head down and letting our lips meet.

We spend the next two and a half hours talking about my friends and all the things we’re going to do once I get back. He tells me how he doesn’t think he can make it two weeks without seeing me. When the time comes for me to get going, he asks me to wait while he calls someone. Then he looks at me and smirks.

“I called in the other lifeguard to take my place, so I can walk you back to the cabin and wave goodbye when you drive off,” he informs me, grabbing my hand.

We try to walk as slow as we can back to the cabin, trying to savor our last few minutes together, before I leave for half a month. But it seems like we get back to the cabin in a matter of seconds, and before I now it, I’m hugging the Browns and telling them I’ll be back soon. Then I’m kissing Milo goodbye.

I joke and tell him to try not flirt with any other girls while I’m gone. He shakes his head and reassures me that if he did that, I could punch him in the face for being stupid.

“Trust me, if you flirted with any other girl and I found out, you’d have bigger problems than me punching you in the face,” I tease, trying not to laugh.

“And what would those problems be, my love?” he asks, tilting his head to the right a little.

“You would have to deal with Jordan,” I tell him, and I can hear my aunt laughing behind me.

“She’s right, Milo. Jordan is very overprotective when it comes to Hartley, and if he heard that you even laid a finger on her in a way she didn’t like, you wouldn’t have any fingers or body parts left,” she agrees. I feel like she’s trying to prove a point, so I give her a quick glare before turning back to Milo.

“Even though she’s right, I don’t think we’re going to have any problems,” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling his head toward me, so that I could give him one last kiss goodbye. Heading to the car, I climb in and stick my head out the window to wave goodbye, until all I can see is the dust coming up off the road.

This has officially been, the best summer of my life.

The End <3

The Happy Endings Resort Series 

Check out the other novellas in the Happy Endings Resort Series by following this link:

https://thehersseries.blogspot.com/ & LIKE us on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/The-Happy-Endings-Resort-Series-793762117371160/