Author’s Note: Before you start reading this story, please know it is slow in the beginning because I want you to meet the characters and find the meaning of the story. If you want a quick story, this isn’t a story for you.
~
As I wake up, I hear my fourteen year old daughter downstairs on the phone giggling and laughing. Then I look over at the time.
“What the fuck,” I say to myself as I look at the clock that says 8:30am.
I drag myself out of bed, put my hair up in a sloppy ponytail, then walk over to my husband and kiss him on the lips. I walk downstairs into the living room to find my daughter laying on the couch, on her laptop, on Facebook.
“What are you doing? Its 8:30 in the morning… On a Saturday!”
At first she doesn’t even look up. Then she realizes that I’m standing there. “Mom, can you go?” she asks.
“Jessica, get off the phone right now!”
Then she continues to ignore me, like usual, until finally in a fit of exasperation I grab the phone out of her hands and throw it to the floor.
“HEY! What was that for, Mom?”
“Who were you talking to and why are they so important that you are up at this time?”
“It was Sophia,” she says.
I never liked that girl, Sophia. I always thought she was a bad influence. She changed my little Jessie. Before middle school, my daughter LIKED talking to me and now I couldn’t get a word out of her edgewise. Trying to find out what was going on in her life was like trying to pull some teeth. Now she was always busy talking to Sophia and her other bratty friends all day long on the phone. Thanks to Sophia, my daughter is so called “Popular” at school and is into wearing heavy make-up and dressing like a slut.
“Why do you even care who I talk to anyway?” she asks as she rolls her eyes at me.
“Because! I’m your mother! Do you not remember that?” I scream in response to her audacious question. Then my husband walks downstairs.
“What are you two screaming about?”
“Mom hates me,” Jessie says. Then she starts crying and runs over to him.
She was always ‘Daddy’s little girl.’ Now whenever we don’t see eye to eye about something, she thinks she can get her way by dragging him into it and completely manipulating the situation. She knows this tactic will work because her father will never say no to her and she can do no wrong in his eyes. I guess he’s naïve when it comes to dealing with females, but I’m too shrewd to buy into her juvenile bullshit.
I finally got so annoyed that I just walked out of the room in the middle of their conversation. Trying to have a fulfilling relationship with Jess suddenly seemed like an impossible task. We just weren’t on the same wavelength anymore.
“Kourtney, come back,” my husband says to me as he lets go of Jessica and proceeds to follow me into the kitchen.
“Babe, talk to me.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Michael! You don’t understand! I’m always the bad guy and then she starts crying and she thinks she can turn you against me! Trust me, you don’t think it’s true but it is. And the sad part is it actually works.”
Before Michael could say anything else I turn and start to head upstairs. I could feel the tears swelling up in my eyes and I just wanted to be left alone. I didn’t even care anymore. I pulled the covers up under my chin and fell asleep in my bed. I woke up at 11am and found my husband standing right next to me on my side of the bed.
“Sweetie, are you awake?” he said as he kissed my forehead.
“Mhm, I’m awake.”
“Hon, I feel really bad about earlier. So does Jess.”
“Come on, you know our daughter. She’s just saying that.”
Then I saw her, standing in the doorway, holding breakfast. Then Michael kissed my lips and walked out of the room. Now it was just the two of us, Jessie and me, sitting alone together in my room.
“Mom… I know I’ve changed….and I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“It’s okay, I don’t love you any less.”
“The reason why I was up this morning is because this boy…wrote something about me on Facebook.”
“Oh really!” I said as I sipped my coffee. “Let’s do this — me and you will get our nails done and get something to eat and we can talk about this ‘Boy,'” I said.
Then Jess’s face lit up and she ran to go get ready. I got up and brushed my teeth, combed my hair, put on a Kolej Escort little makeup, and waited for Jess downstairs. I sat there for 15 minutes and started to get annoyed.
“Jess, are you almost done?” I yelled.
“Yeah.”
Five minutes later, she ran downstairs and she was wearing super short shorts that covered her butt by one inch, a tight blue long sleeve T-shirt, and for the first time no makeup.
“Ready?” I said.
“Yep.”
As we drove, we talked about girl things together for the first time since she was a little kid. Then we pulled in for some gas and I let her work the pump.
Then she said to me, “See that guy in the red truck?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“He’s sooo checking you out.” Then we both started laughing. It felt like the longest time since I had seen my daughter smile.
As we got our nails done we started talking about this “Boy.”
“So… What’s his name?” I asked her.
“Nick… Nick Welse.”
“Is he nice?”
“Yeah, better than most boys,” she said.
“So, what did he write about you?” I asked.
“He asked me out,” she said. Then she added, “He wants to know if I can see a movie tonight… Can I go?” she asked me.
“Sure, as long as he’s nice and won’t hurt you.”
“Thanks Mom,” she said and hugged me.
When we left, we couldn’t walk because our toes were wet. Then we pulled into the Red Robin. As we took our seats, Jess started freaking out.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
“Nick.”
Then I turned around, and saw him sitting with his mom and dad and who I imagined to be his younger sister.
“Go say ‘Hi,'” I said as I turned around.
“You think I should?”
“Come on, I’ll come with you,” I said as I got out of my seat.
We walked up to their table and Nick and Jessie both said hi to each other and I started talking to his parents. We ended up sitting together and Nick and Jess were talking just fine.
“So… Is it just you and Jess?” Nick’s mom Kathy said to me.
“Oh no, my husband Michael had to work today,” I said.
“What does your husband do?” Kathy asked in between bites of her french fries.
“He works for the NY Yankees. He’s a pitching coach,” I said.
“Wow!” she said.
“Do you work?” Nick’s dad Andrew said.
“Yes, well part-time. I’m a house nurse. I go to people’s houses if they have mentally challenged children and I take care of them while their parents are at work,” I said.
“That’s very nice. I could never do that,” Kathy said.
“My husband tells me I have a very good heart,” I said. Then I started laughing.
“Is Jess your only child?” Andrew asked.
“No, I have a boy in his first year of college.”
We talked some more until we were done with our food.
“Well I think it’s time to go,” I said.
We said goodbye and left. We got into the car and drove home. When we got home, Jess ran upstairs and started to get ready.
“Hi honey,” I said to Michael as I gave him a kiss. By then he had returned home from work.
“How was it?” he asked me.
“Good, Jess is going on a date tonight,” I said.
“Oh? With who?” he asked.
“A boy named Nick is taking her to the movies,” I said while looking at the mail.
“Says who?” he says. I could tell that he was starting to get mad because he was giving me the third degree.
“Me! She can’t be your little girl forever, Michael!” I said while I started giggling.
~
Later that night, Jess came home from the movies.
“Well, how’d it go?” I said.
“Good.”
Then she sat next to me on the couch and started to smile.
“What?” I asked.
“Mom, I think I love him,” she said as she laid back on the couch.
Shaking my head I said, “Maybe you have found your first love,” then I started laughing.
“Really?” she said.
“I was just joking, sweetie,” I said looking at her.
“Mom, was dad your first love?” she said as she turned on her laptop.
“My second. I met your father when I was 20.”
“Who was your first? Tell me.”
I put down my magazine and said, “Are you sure you want to hear this? It’s gonna be a long story…”
Jess put her laptop down and said, “Go ahead. I’m ready.”
Then the flashbacks started…
“Mom, Sincan Escort are you sure you’re okay? Your cheeks are turning red.”
“Me? Oh yeah, I’m fine. It all started the summer before college…”
~
I had just pulled up in the driveway of my Atlantic City beach house: 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, and 2 living rooms. Sounds like paradise, right?
Nothing close to that — every year I got dragged down to this stupid beach house with my 2 brothers and parents. As I walk into my room with a moving box in my hand, I dropped the box onto the ground, and plopped down onto my bed.
“Now that I’m 18, I can do whatever I want… So why am I here?” I think to myself.
I walk over to the window and stare out at the ocean. I watch the waves lapping up against the shore. It was calm, peaceful, and quiet. Then I think about why I hate it here so much, and I close the curtain over.
“How’s everything going?” my mother says.
“Good, I guess,” I say, not very convincingly.
“Why do you act this way every time we come here?”
“Mom, I have a right to,” I say while shutting the door on her.
The reason I hate this place so much is because when I was ten years old, my friend Abby and I were swimming in the ocean, and as we swam a shark came up behind us and bit her leg off. The moment was one I’ll never forget. The screaming. The blood. The sheer terror of watching someone you know get eaten alive right in front of you.
Abby was screaming and I started freaking out and the blood turned the blue water around us into a sea of red. I pulled her out of the water and the lifeguards came rushing over. In the time between driving from the beach to the hospital, my best friend lost too much blood and died. To this day, I swore I would never go into the water ever again.
“Kourtney, are you up there?” a familiar voice called to me from outside my window.
I smiled when I realized whose voice it was and ran over to the window.
“Yes, I’m here. Come up here,” I yelled out of my window.
A couple minutes later, James came running into the room, picked me up and twirled me around. Then we fell on the bed.
“I can’t believe you’re here!! I got so excited when my parents told me you were coming down for your last year,” he said as he sat up.
“Well, I didn’t really want to,” I said as I fixed my hair.
“Well if you didn’t come here on your own I would have picked you up from your house and brought you down here myself.”
James lived at the shore all year long because his parents worked at Trumps and Tropicana. James and I had been best friends ever since we were 6, and we treated each other like brother and sister. We had a crush on each other in the 7th grade, but it never worked out.
“I’ve missed you, Kourtney. I know what happened to Abby still affects you, but I think it’s time to move on,” he said.
Before I could answer, I heard two girls’ voices outside. I ran over to the window and saw my two best friends.
“Ashley and Brooke!!!” I shouted gleefully. “Hold on one sec you guys, I’ll be right down!”
“I’ll catch up with you later,” James said. “I know you’ll want to have some ‘girl time’ to catch up with your friends. It’s really good to see you. I’ll be at the beach in case you want to meet up later.”
I gave James a hug and said goodbye. “Thanks for cheering me up,” I said, and then he left. I rushed down the stairs in a whirl of exhilaration. I was so excited to see my friends!
When I got downstairs, they hugged me and told me that this was gonna be the best summer ever. Ashley didn’t live in AC, she just stayed at a beach house during the summer. She and I went to the same school so we were best friends. Brooke lived there all year long like James, and her parents both taught at the high school.
“I can’t believe that this is our last summer here,” Ashley said.
“We are not talking about that,” Brooke said while still jumping up and down.
We chatted over how our last year of school went, college, boys, and other girl stuff.
“Let’s go to the beach!” Brooke said.
“But, I’m so tried,” I said while unpacking the rest of my stuff.
“The boys are gonna be there…” Ashley said.
“I already saw James.”
“What about, Tommy, Andrew, and Blake?? Yenimahalle Escort You didn’t see them,” Ashley said.
Before I could say anything, Brooke said, “She doesn’t have to, all she needs is her lover James.”
“Knock it off,” I said.
“Come on, you guys love each other.”
“Whatever, are we going to the beach or not?” I asked.
We all got ready. I put on a simple red string bikini that made my butt look good and made my C cup boobs look even better. Brooke put on a blue string bikini with PINK written on the butt. Ashley had on a purple string bikini with black polka dots.
“We look hot,” Ashley said.
We all started laughing and then we walked downstairs and grabbed 3 water bottles and three towels. Then we grabbed two more because Ashley and Brooke planned on going in the water and they didn’t like sharing the same towel. When we got to the beach, we saw all the boys.
“Hey babe,” Ashley said to Blake while she kissed him hello. Brooke walked over to Andrew and Tommy and hugged them both. James walked over to me and started talking to me.
“Wanna come in the water?” he said as he reached out his hand.
“Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m dead serious. It’s been how many years now, Kourtney?”
I hesitated for a moment or two; finally I took his hand and walked in with him. As we got further out, I started remembering everything as if it had just happened yesterday. I closed my eyes and felt the water rise up and down, and I started freaking out.
“I can’t do it,” I said as I started walking back towards the sand.
“Yes, you can,” James said. James picked me up and dropped me back in the water.
“I need… to get out,” I yelled as he held me down.
“Calm down, Kourtney. I’m not going to let anybody harm you.” His voice was very soothing and reassuring and he put my hair behind my ear. Then he bent down and gently kissed me on the cheek.
“I’m sorry, I just had to do that,” he said as he got up.
Everyone started gathering around us. James helped me up and Brooke and Ashley came running over towards me.
“Kourtney, did he just kiss you?” Ashley asked.
“I guess,” I said still partially in shock.
“Hey, girls! Party tonight at my place,” Tommy said.
As we walked off the beach, my heart was in so many different places all at once. I couldn’t possibly forget the tragedy of Abby’s death, though I knew I had to move on with my life and leave the past where it belonged. On top of it all, my childhood best friend James had kissed me romantically on the cheek, and he was giving me the strength I needed to carry on.
I knew in my heart that I wanted James, but at the same time the pain and the heartache my ex boyfriend had caused me was still fresh in my mind, and I was a little bit afraid of having my heart broken again. Still I knew that it was time to leave the past behind me. I was determined in my mind not to keep repeating the same mistakes twice. I was a big jumbled up ball of mixed emotions and confusion. All I knew was that tonight was going to be different.
When 7:00 came around, I started walking to Tommy’s house, in my mini-skirt and red skin-tight shirt. I walked up to his doorstep, took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Tommy’s sister Nicole opened the door.
“Hey, Kourtney,” Nicole said greeting me with a hug.
“Hi, Nicole! Are you staying for the party?”
“Nah, I’m going out with my boyfriend. Have fun.”
“See ya,” I said as she walked over to her boyfriend’s car.
I walked in and said hi to everyone. We were all having a good time dancing, partying, and drinking Tommy’s parents’ beer. I was really trying to forget about earlier, but I couldn’t. James walked over to me and whispered in my ear.
“Follow me.”
As he walked through the crowd, I followed close behind him, and slowly started to move past everyone else at the party until the two of us were left standing alone outside. I looked around and noticed he was standing by the pool.
“James?” I asked him.
“Kourtney, can we talk?”
“Sure,” I said.
“After I kissed you, I felt something for you… something different.”
“Me too,” I said.
We both looked at each other. I looked into his eyes and fell in love with him.
“James,” I whispered in his ear.
“Yes?”
“Touch me,” I said.
He backed away and walked back inside.
“What did you just do, Kourtney!” I thought to myself.
I ran back inside and saw James walk out the front door.
~
BEEP
“Mom, tell me more!” Jess said.
“I will. Just let me get the food out of the oven,” I said.
“OK. But hurry!”
~
Part 2 coming soon