-Alyse POV-

Amid the perfume of the early summer blooms in Raine and Toby's backyard, my body relaxes as the cool breeze of the summer evening whistles through the trees and washes over my body. The breeze picks up for a moment or two, wisping through my thin layers that helped protect me from the crazy summer heat just hours earlier, but now makes me almost shiver. The sun has only just started to set, casting a delicate painting of orange and yellow that the light blue sky dips into on the distant horizon.

Summer evenings at the Winter's house have always been a favorite of mine, ever since Raine and I were little. Marcus had bought a large, above ground pool the summer Toby turned 10 and ever since then our summers largely consisted of days filled with the sun soaking our skin and the scent of sunscreen being engraved in our memory.

"Lemonade coming right up," Toby announces as he slides the door from the kitchen shut and steps out onto the patio, a tray of lemonades in his hand for the rest of us.

He carefully steps over to where I sit on a pool lounge chair with my towel around my legs as a sort of blanket from the slight chill in the evening air. Or, maybe it's the sunburn on my skin that's making me react to the barely cool breeze. It was our first full day in the summer sun and my skin will be paying for it during the next few days. It's the last summer Toby and Gray have before they both head off to college, and the last summer Raine and I have before we become seniors in high school.

Toby passes out drinks to West and Raine, who are sitting side by side on the opposing lounge chair. West drapes a towel around Raine's shoulders, warming her up after her evening dip in the pool moments ago. The air is still hot, but without the sunlight beaming down on either of them or the breeze, the droplets of water on her skin turn into an array of goosebumps. His hand rests delicately on her mid-back, softly rubbing and she leans into him with a small smile.

They take two glasses from Toby's tray with a small thank you, and then he hands one to Gray who completes our semi-circle of seats on my right side. Gray reaches his hand out without lifting his head from its relaxed position, a large sun hat covering his face as he guesses where the straw is, spinning the cup with his eyes still shut in his moment of relaxation until he finds it, sipping with a small sigh of delight.

"Thanks, Toby," he mumbles, pulling the hat down to block out the last remaining moments of bright sunlight. "And good call Alyse on the lemonade."

The chair bounces slightly as Toby takes his spot next to me, a crinkle in the corner of his eye as he hands me the last glass with a smile. Before I take a sip, I hear Raine laugh and move my eyes to her in question.

She waves her hand, still laughing to the point where we all stop what we're doing to look at her funny. Toby narrows his eyes, zeroing in on West's hand that moved to be around her waist.

"Hands where I can see them, pal," he mutters.

I roll my eyes and lightly smack his leg. "They've been dating for, like, seven months. Let them be."

West scowls and lifts his hands, "It's not me. She just started to laugh."

"I'm sorry," she finally says, catching her breath. "I just remembered the time when we were kids and Toby put a spider in Alyse's lemonade and she drank half of it before she realized."

I instantly scowl and Toby awkwardly scratches his neck, smiling sheepishly at me. "It was all in good fun."

"That's not what I'd call fun for me. Really, Toby, and you wonder why I made you work so hard for me."

"Worth it."

"I'm worth you working to win me over or the spider was worth it?"

He pauses for a second, as if calculating the right answer. "Uh, both?"

"You need to spend more time with West," I mutter, sipping on my lemonade. "You still have a few things to learn from him."

"I meant you! You were-no. You are worth it!"

I just roll my eyes and wave a disregarding hand at him, but he sees the smile playing at my lips. So, he leans forward and kisses my cheek. "You're always worth it," he says softly.

I grin at him, "Better."

"So, this little romance between you two isn't from when you were kids, then?" West hums, smirking at the two of us.

"Just the opposite."

"They didn't like each other when they first met," Raine explains. "It was before I even knew Alyse."

"You didn't introduce them? I figured it was the classic 'best friend's brother' crush."

Gray sits up, leaning his weight on his elbow as he lifts his sunhat. "West doesn't know the famous Alby story?"

West smirks, "This ought to be good."

Toby chuckles and lounges back on the chair, his legs behind me as I stay seated on the side facing the others and he grins at me, fully knowing that I'm about to tell the tale and will need my room since I talk with my hands. Well...not literally, not since Raine got her voice back.

"Toby and I met when I was five and he was, what? Six? In a movie theater. Watching How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days..."

My mom had insisted on taking me to see her favorite movie; the aforementioned best rom-com of all time. Despite the movie coming out nearly 5 years prior in 2003, our local movie theater had it playing that one day, one time only. The theater used to have a monthly campaign where they would have a website poll for the community to vote on what movie, anywhere between 5 and 50 years old, to show on the first Saturday of the month. That month, the winning option happened to be the classic with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.

I was only five, perhaps much too young to watch, but my mom was unable to drag my dad to see it in theaters a second time and had decided I was the next best option. Ten minutes into the movie, I was distracted by a boy around my age stumbling through the row with a slew of apologies from his mother as they stepped over everyone to get to the only open seats in the theater.

My eyes were instantly drawn to the boy. He looked very confused when he glanced at the screen, his handsome face scrunching up when he saw Kate Hudson sitting in an office chair rather than whatever he assumed he had come to see. I covered up my face to hide my smile at his reaction, but I failed to hide a small giggle. He still heard it above the noise in the movie because his eyes flickered to me. Bright blue eyes stared back at me, filling with embarrassment, and his slightly chubby cheeks flushed red as he tugged on his mom's hand, trying to go back the way they came.

She sat right down though, eyes glued to the screen as she hushed him and made him take the spot right next to me. Rather than focus on the movie in front of me, I was entranced by the boy. He was the only little boy in the theater, almost the only boy in general. The only others were husbands and boyfriends who's significant others dragged them along, maybe with the promise to see whatever movie this boy clearly thought was playing.

The boy caught me not so subtly looking at him and huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he scowled straight ahead.

"This is not Kung Fu Panda," he mumbled under his breath, quickly being shushed by his mom. "I didn't know I was coming to watch some chick flick," he said quieter, directed to no one in particular, but I knew it was meant for me to hear.

We both stayed silent for the duration of the movie. I paid attention, but I don't think he did. His shoes seemed much more interesting to him than Andie Anderson falling in love with Benjamin Barry.

Once the movie ended and the theater erupted into middle-aged women's cheers, he was quick to stand up and tug on his mom's hand with urgency to leave. But I stood too, and I caught his attention.

"Wasn't that movie good?" I grinned a smile with two missing teeth.

He looked at me for a moment, not answering.

"I'm Alyse," I offered, hoping to get some form of a response.

"And I was never here."

Then, he was able to tug on his mom's hand hard enough to leave.

I huffed the same way he had when he sat down at the start of the movie and crossed my own arms across my chest, lips pursed in annoyance.

"It was good to meet you too," I said to no one, with the full amount of attitude that a five year old girl can muster.

I assumed I'd never see the rude boy again, and frankly I didn't want to. Couldn't he see what a classic that movie had been?

A year passed and I finished kindergarten, but that year hadn't mattered much to me. I hadn't made many friends until first grade, when I met Raine Winter. She instantly became my best friend. There was a sadness about her at the beginning of the year, a sadness that a girl her age shouldn't have had. But it didn't take me long to pull her out of her shell. Once I did, she and I were inseparable.

The day I went to her house for our first play date was the day I first saw that boy again. With my mom in the car finishing up a business call, watching me carefully to make sure I got inside safely, I knocked on the door of the address Raine had given me that day at school (with the help of our teacher explaining what an address is).

Raine didn't answer. That boy did. It was the first time I had seen him since he rudely exited the movie theater without introducing himself, but it didn't take me more than a second to place how I knew him. I think I smiled when I saw him, a different pair of teeth missing this time. Once again, my smile was not reciprocated. Rather, it was met with a deep scowl.

He could have been perfect. He was very cute after all, with light brown hair that sat in a messy mop on his head and was already tall for our age. He stood with more authority than any other boy in my first grade class, so I assumed he was at least in second grade. He could have been perfect. But then he opened his mouth.

"Why are you here?" He hissed, going to swing the door closed. He only left it open a crack, eyes darting along the street behind me to make sure there was no one to see.

"For a playdate," I stated strongly, trying to appear older, like my mom on her business calls.

"I don't want to play with you, go away!"

"I'm not here for you."

"Good, then leave!"

"No! Why are you being mean to me?" I whined. "You're cute but you're mean. That's not fair!"

"Because you saw me watch a girlie movie and now you're following me!"

"I'm not following you!"

"Yeah, because you're leaving!"

Then he shut the door all the way.

"Toby? Who's at the door?" A booming voice called out from inside the house. Then loud footsteps resonated behind the door and it swung all the way open.

"Oh," the tall man said, blinking down at me. "You must be Alyse. Your mom called me earlier, Raine couldn't wait for you to come over!" He said with a big smile, waving to my mom who smiled through the car window before beginning to back out of the driveway.

"Alyse!" Raine shouted, running down the steps as I walked through the front door, sending Toby a smug look. Well, looking at him with my tongue stuck out.

He just huffed and rolled his eyes, kicking at the floor.

"Toby, this is Alyse! My best friend from class!" Raine said, grinning at him. "That's my older brother, Toby,"

"I know him-"

"No. She does not."

"Yes, I do. I saw him at the movies-"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I have never seen you before."

"You sat next to me when we were watching-"

"No!"

I gritted my teeth together at his constant denial of ever seeing me before. My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at him, my nose scrunched in annoyance. Why did this boy have to be my best friend's brother? He glared back at me, arms crossed over the dinosaur on his shirt, his bright blue eyes almost daring me to say something else. He looked like he was even on the verge of smiling, as if he was enjoying getting such a reaction out of me.

So, I opened my mouth to set the record straight, but Raine spoke up before me.

"He does kind of look like Scott Cameron from class, but Toby is a year older, silly! You don't know him." Raine interrupted, unaware or uncaring of our clear disdain for one another. "Come on, I have a Barbie house in my room that's much better than the one in Mrs. Pierce's class!"

As I let Raine drag me up the steps at the mention of Barbie's, I glanced back down the stairs at Toby. He stood there, staring at me with that same, smug almost-smile, and vowed that I would never be friends with Raine's older brother.

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Thank you to The Summer I Turned Pretty for theinspiration, add the new Prime series to your summer watch-list!