Chapter 20

"What are you doing?" Chris laughed as he got back from getting us lunch.

It was extremely busy today, which Chris said was normal for August, so we were staying open during lunch and would just eat back here.

"Summer homework." I replied, trying to focus on the book I was reading.

"Ah the joys of high school." Chris laughed, handing me a hotdog. "What book?"

"It's for my history class." I mumbled, putting down the hotdog without taking a bite so I could continue writing my notes in the notebook.

"Well do you have to do that now?" Chris frowned, leaning against the counter.

"School starts in 23 days. And I still have to read two books for my english class and write an essay on both." I replied. "Sh." I added, glancing up at him.

Chris sighed, beginning to take the order of our next customer.

I feel bad to say that I didn't do much actual work for the rest of the day, and was mostly captivated by the large amount of work that I had to do.

Mark and I were both buckling down for these last two weeks and really trying to show our dad that we'd 'changed' or whatever. It was total bullshit but if he thought we'd changed then we wouldn't be grounded when we started school again. So what better way to prove our achievements by completing summer homework early?

Mark and I were dead set on going completely back to normal when we got home. No more stupid ass rules. No more working. No more being grounded.

Sure I loved my dad and everything but Mark and I both knew we'd be going right back to the way we were before we left.

I was convinced that Logan and I would get together again, Mark and Nicole would be back together, and everything would go back to normal.

It had to be that way. Because that's the normal.
All three Ryders would be in relationships next year and there's no changing that.

"Care to help me clean up or are you going to sit there all dazed in thought?" Chris laughed, wrapping his arms around my shoulders.

I gasped, jumping slightly at the sudden contact.

"Sorry sorry I'll help." I grinned, standing up from the stool. I gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to help put all of the fruit into the cooler from the fridge.

"When did we start keeping the fruit in the fridge rather than the buckets?" I asked, glancing over at Chris.

He shrugged. "It just sort of happens that way every year. It gets too hot for the ice coolers to be out so much so the fruit just goes in with the dairy." Chris laughed, standing behind me as he helped move the fruit.

"Would you like to hang out before dinner?" Chris asked hopefully once we were finished with all the closing up.

I sighed, collecting my books and notebooks into a pile.

"I would love to, but I need to finish this book and start outlining my essay." I said, giving Chris an apologetic look.

"I feel like you're a nerd at school." Chris laughed, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh far from it." Mark laughed, suddenly appearing by my side as I walked out from behind the counter.

"Really? With her obsession over summer homework?" Chris teased, giving me a wink.

"Yea well at the end of last year Marley was too busy hooking up with her boyfriend to give a damn about school." Mark teased me, nudging my shoulder.

"Oh says the one who was practically attached to Nicole." I rolled my eyes at my brother.

"Oh come on you were so much worse than I was." Mark rolled his eyes.

"I still got an unweighted 4.0." I replied, giving him a look as we started walking back to the house.

It wasn't until I was seated on the couch, my notebook on my lap as I outlined my essay, that I realized that I'd forgotten to say goodbye to Chris.

"What?" Mark asked me with a frown when he noticed that I suddenly stopped writing.

"Nothing, nothing." I sighed, standing up from the couch.

"Ready to go to dinner?" Mark asked curiously.

"Yea yea I guess." I frowned, glancing at the phone. "Just let me call someone."

Mark rolled his eyes, looking back down at his book.

I grabbed the phone and dialed Nicole's number.

"Hello?" She asked on the third ring.

"Hey! It's me!" I said happily. "I kind of wanted to talk about something and-"

"Great good to know bye." Nicole rolled her eyes before hanging up.

I gasped, frowning as I looked down at the phone.

"Bitch..." I muttered, dialing her number again.

"What Marley." Nicole snapped. "You know you could've called before the summer and not after two damn months of silence."

"Hey! Hey don't be rude." I frowned. "I haven't had a phone!"

"Then what is the reason for your unwanted phone call?" Nicole rolled her eyes.

"I felt like saying hi to my best friend." I said harshly. "You know you could be a little bit nicer."

"If you're calling me for a damn problem that you're having, then I don't want to hear about it." Nicole snapped.

"It's not for a damn problem!" I exclaimed. "Is it so wrong for a girl to want to talk to her best friend?!"

"You don't have that right anymore!" Nicole yelled. "You've ditched me all summer! Both of you!"

"Oh hey do not group me in with Mark!" I yelled, actually getting upset.

"Why not! The two of you just dumped me and ran off with other people!" Nicole yelled.

"No we didn't!" I yelled. "We were forced to come down here!"

Mark raised his eyebrows at me and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You could've at least called!" Nicole yelled.

"I'm not the one who broke up with you don't get mad at me!" I yelled.

"Who's on the phone?" I heard someone ask in the background.

"Marley Ryder..." Nicole said awkwardly to someone else.

"Who are you with?" I frowned, my voice dropping.

"Oh it's just Jenny." Nicole mumbled.

"Jenny? The girl Logan's seeing?" I asked in shock.

"Maybe." Nicole laughed.

"You bitch!"

"Oh and like you aren't friends with any of the girls that Mark is sleeping with!" Nicole yelled.

"No! I made three friends this summer!" I yelled. "One of them is dating someone and the other two have no interest whatsoever in my annoying brother!" I yelled.

"Hey!" Mark frowned, throwing a pillow at me.

I glared at him while Nicole started getting all upset.

"I don't need you to tell me about your brother's damn relationship!" Nicole yelled.

"I'm not! You brought it up!" I yelled, walking across the floor in frustration.

"Why's she yelling?" Chris asked Mark as he walked into the house.

"Long story." Mark laughed as Chris sat down where I had been before calling Nicole.

"Well you brought up Jenny!" Nicole yelled.

"No I didn't! You're the one hanging out with her!" I screamed. "You're so ungrateful! I'm supposed to be your best friend!"

"Well she's been here for me when you were off sleeping with random guys!" Nicole yelled. "Grace told me all about your rebound guy!"

"He's not a rebound guy dammit!" I yelled. "I'm sure you have already slept with half of the football team!"

Nicole gasped. "You take that back!"

"It's probably true!" I yelled.

"So how's your book?" Chris asked, trying to make conversation. But both of them ended up listening to the conversation.

"Well you probably slept with every single guy on that beach!" Nicole yelled.

"Try one guy!" I yelled.

"I don't care who you've slept with!" Nicole screamed.

"Stop being so bitchy!" I exclaimed, sitting down on the couch.

"Fine. What were you calling me about." Nicole snapped. "I'll listen."

"I was calling to say hi and ask how you were." I said harshly.

"I'm fine, thanks. How are you." Nicole grumbled.

"I'm fine." I mumbled, crossing my arms as I held the phone in between my chin and shoulder.

"So who's this guy you've been hanging out with?" Nicole asked.

"It's nothing serious." I said softly. "Nothing like..."

"Yea I get it." Nicole nodded. "The guys said you were pretty happy."

"I mean yea it's not too bad here." I shrugged, looking down at my lap. "I miss home though."

"Two more weeks?" Nicole asked.

"Two more weeks."

"Do you think he'll still... Do you think he'll still love me?" Nicole whispered.

I glanced up at Mark, who was looking down at his book.

"I don't know honey." I said softly. "It's all really complicated."

Nicole sighed.

"But I've got to go to dinner now." I added. "I'll see you when I come home?"

"Yea sorry I was such a bitch."

"Sorry I didn't call."

"Bye." Nicole said softly before hanging up.

"Let's go eat I'm starving." I grinned, setting down the phone.

"So how's Nicole?" Mark asked, nonchalantly.

"Sleeping with the entire football team probably." I gave him a sarcastic smile.

Mark glared at me, shoving my shoulder as we walked out of the house.

"Oh you know you love me." I giggled, looping my arm with Chris's.

"So you guys ready to party tonight?" Chris asked happily.

"A party? For what?" I laughed, looking up at him.

"His going away party. The twins set it all up." Mark replied with a smile.

I felt the smile fade from my face. "You're leaving?" I raised my eyebrows at Chris.

"Well yea, I leave for school tomorrow morning." Chris replied, glancing down at me.

"Oh, oh..." I frowned, glancing down at the ground. "I didn't know it was so soon."

~*~*~

"What are you doing over here all alone?" Chris asked, sitting down on the sand next to me.

"Oh you know, just bored." I mumbled, looking down at my bottle of water.

"You're not drinking?" Chris raised his eyebrows.

"Nah not tonight." I shook my head. "You either?" I asked, glancing at the water in his hand.

"I figured it would be kind of a jerk move to get drunk at my own party you know?" Chris laughed. "Why aren't you?"

"I'm going home in two weeks, if I get in trouble then I might as well never expect to have any freedom." I shrugged.

"Ah." Chris nodded. "Hey do you want to go somewhere?"

"Where?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh I dunno, a certain cliff that we went to at the beginning of the summer?" Chris said with a grin.

"Come on." He smiled, taking my hand.

I happily stood up and followed him away from the party.

"Those things are pretty boring anyways." Chris told me.

I laughed, agreeing with him.

We were silent for the drive, I was too busy looking at him, thinking what it would be like when he wasn't here anymore.

"What are you thinking about?" Chris asked, parking the car.

"Just how I'm going to fail at singlehandedly running the smoothie place." I laughed, my heart jumping as he reached across to take my hands into his.

"You'll be fine." Chris said softly, giving me a smile.

"I'm gonna miss you... I didn't realize this was coming so soon." I frowned.

"Well hey it's just like two weeks and then you'll be home with your fancy little popularity." Chris laughed, playing with my fingers.

"Well yea but that doesn't mean that I won't miss you." I said softly.

"Come here." Chris said, reaching down to push his seat back more from the steering wheel.

I sighed, climbing across so that I was seated in his lap.

"Can I just say, that since I met you, I've done things that were so out of the ordinary for me... I mean I was always Marley Ryder, the girl with all of the brothers who was protected like a hawk. But now this summer I've... I went cliff diving, I snuck out on a regular basis, I got a job, I made new friends, I worked with my shirt off all day which my father would murder me for if that was at home... And I met you." I laughed, resting my hands on his shoulders.

"This summer was pretty great." Chris nodded in agreement. "I'm really glad I met you."

I sighed, sliding my fingers into his hair.

"If you're ever in New York, call me." Chris grinned. "You know, assuming you get your phone back and everything."

I laughed, shaking my head. "Oh trust me, the second Mark and I start school again and our dear mother needs us to do chores for her, she'll give us everything back." I smirked, leaning back against the steering wheel.

The horn went off, causing me to scream and jerk forwards.

Chris started laughing, resting his hands on my hips.

"Only you, only you." Chris laughed, pulling me close to him.

I let out a laugh, resting my forehead against his.

This summer didn't turn out too bad after all...