Chapter 8

I woke up to the usual intrusion of sunlight in my eyes. 

I glanced at my clock. It was already 7:50. 

Why didn’t anyone wake me?!

I jumped out of bed, swearing under my breath. 

I had to get out of the house before Aunt Audrey was up. I couldn’t face her alone. 

It was Friday, and Mark and I were still sticking to our plan of avoiding Aunt Audrey. 

I got dressed in a simple outfit, and was just about to leave my room when I remembered that it was the fourth of July. 

With a quiet groan, I pulled on my American Flag bikini, a pair of jean shorts, and a white t-shirt. 

My hair was somewhat curly, having been straightened yesterday, but the humidity over night had caused it to lose a bit of its flatness. 

I just put on a thin sports headband, keeping my hair back from my face. 

I quietly snuck out of my room, heading towards the back door. 

“Marley!” I heard Aunt Audrey yelled. 

I gasped, rushing out of the back door. 

I grabbed my flip flops as I took off running in the sand. 

“You’re late.” Chris raised his eyebrows as I got into the shop just as he flipped the open sign. 

“I know I’m sorry my alarm didn’t go off!” I sighed, already fanning myself off. “Holy shit it’s only been getting hotter every day.

Chris nodded with a laugh. “Well yea, it’s summer.” 

“Okay I just lived through a Michigan winter, my body isn’t used to temperatures above zero, let alone basically in the one hundreds.” I laughed, leaning against the counter. 

“And there goes your brother.” Chris laughed, pointing over my shoulder. 

“Why didn’t you wake me!” Mark yelled as he ran down the beach. 

“My alarm didn’t go off! I woke up like 5 minutes ago!” I yelled back. 

Mark didn’t reply as he ran towards his job, tucking in his shirt as he went. 

“I’m used to having 4 other people to depend on if my alarm fails.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. 

“Four?” Chris asked curiously. 

“Well yea for school if someone isn’t in the kitchen by the time everyone’s leaving for school, at least someone wakes them up.” I replied. “But now it’s just me and Mark and we’re always the ones left sleeping through our alarms.” 

“And how is your whole avoiding your aunt thing going?” Chris raised his eyebrows. 

“It’s fine.” I laughed. “She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. She’s not fit to be a mom.” I rolled my eyes, turning around as a customer walked up to the shack. 

“The usual?” I asked the woman who came here every morning right at 8:15. 

“Yes, thank you Marley.” She smiled, handing me exact change. 

“Coming right up.” Chris said happily from behind me. 

The rest of the day was extremely busy. According to Chris, it was always like this on the fourth of July. 

But by the time we closed, we were out of most of the fruit. 

I cleaned up while Chris wrote things down in a little notebook. 

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously. 

“Every special even that we have here, we have write down how much of each thing we use, so we make sure we have more than enough for the next time.” Chris told me, scribbling one more thing down before shutting the book and sliding it under the cash register. 

I just nodded, turning the key to lock the cash register.

“You’re done cleaning already?” Chris raised his eyebrows. 

“Well yea I’m a pro at it now.” I grinned, shrugging. “Plus, you took forever writing down all the data or whatever.” 

Chris grinned, and I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks as he stepped towards me. 

“Marley.” Mark suddenly said outside of the shack. 

I gasped, turning to face him. 

“What?” I laughed, wiping my hair off of my sweaty neck. 

“Aunt Audrey’s not home. We have to go home now if we want to call him.” Mark told me. 

“Oh shit right.” I nodded. “Chris are you going to the party tonight?” I asked as I walked out from behind the counter. 

“Absolutely.” 

“Great I’ll see you there!” I called over my shoulder as Mark and I ran to the house. 

“Are you sure we have time?” I asked quickly as he started dialing the phone. 

Mark nodded. “We’ll just do it quickly.” Mark said, putting it on speaker as he set it on the counter in front of us. 

“Come on come on pick up.” I hissed, tapping my fingers on the counter. 

“Hello?” Alex asked curiously. 

“Happy birthday!” Mark and I both cheered. 

“Hey! It’s the Terror Two!” Alex teased. 

“Excuse me?” Mark raised his eyebrows. 

“Sorry, sorry, it’s what dad used to call you guys when you were toddlers and fought constantly. And I think it fits the situation, seeing how awful you guys are being to Aunt Audrey.” Alex laughed. 

“Yea yea yea whatever, she deserves it.” I rolled my eyes. “She gave me two thousand points in one day.” 

“Lame.” Alex teased. 

“Anyways! Happy twenty second!” Mark said happily. 

“Thanks!” Alex laughed. 

“What are you doing to celebrate?” I asked. “Gonna get drunk?” 

“Uh, no. That was last year, Marley. I think Carson and I are just gonna stay in.” Alex shrugged. 

Mark and I both gasped. 

“Carson?!” I yelped. 

“Carson Calhoun?!” Mark exclaimed. 

“Uh…” Alex trailed off. 

“She’s in Michigan?! Since when!” Mark asked. 

“Tell her I said hi!” I added, a grin spreading across my face. 

“Yea she’s um, we’re in New York actually. I haven’t been home yet.” Alex replied awkwardly. 

“What? Why?” I frowned. 

“Long story.” Alex replied. “Look uh, I’ll talk to you guys later okay?” 

Mark and I exchanged looks as the phone went dead. 

“That was weird.” We both said at the same time. 

“Call James, see what’s up.” I said, pointing to the phone. 

But just as Mark was about to dial, we heard the front door open. 

Mark quickly put the phone back in the holder, and we ran for our lives out of the house. 

“Mark? Marley?” I heard Aunt Audrey ask as we took off running down the beach, laughing uncontrollably. 

~*~*~

“So do you think it was Aunt Audrey who hijacked our alarms this morning?” Mark asked as we walked in the direction of the bonfire. 

“What? No.” I laughed, shaking my head. 

“Really? I mean when I woke up, it was 8 o clock, and my alarm was on the coffee table. I always leave it on the ground so I don’t have to look up when it goes off. And the alarm was plain off, which I’d never do.” Mark replied. 

“Huh.” I shrugged. “Wait a minute…” 

Mark nodded, knowing what I was getting to. 

“That means she’s playing dirty right back!” I exclaimed, my eyes widening. 

“Exactly.” Mark said. “We’ve got a war on our hands.” 

“Think we should step up our game?” I grinned, getting excited. 

“Absolutely. But tonight, I want to get drunk, I want to hook up with Hannah, and I want to not think about Nicole at all.” Mark said as we approached the party. 

“Amen to that.” I agreed with a nod.

~*~*~

“I think… I think we should go swimming!” I announced, holding up my beer. 

“Not while you’re drunk.” Chris said, pulling me back down onto his lap. 

I nodded, blinking a few times. 

“Yes that seems like a good idea.” I laughed, my brain fuzzy. 

I really wanted to go swimming though. 

“Remember when we went swimming in the… The Bahamas.” Mark said to me, leaning forwards. Hannah giggled, nearly falling off of his lap. She was nearly as drunk as he was.

“I remember, I remember.” I nodded, taking another sip of my beer. 

“I think you’ve had enough.” Chris said softly to me, trying to take the beer away. 

“Hey! It’s a party! You get drunk at parties.” I said, standing up from his lap. 

I stumbled a little bit before sitting down on the bench next to Mark. 

“Where’s Wesley?” I asked Mark, looking around for my brother. 

“Probably with Grace somewhere.” Mark slurred as Hannah got up from his lap.

I nodded. But then I frowned. 

“Wait a minute if Grace is here where’s Nicole?” I asked my brother. “And where’s Logan?”

“They’re not here… They’re in Michigan… Probably hooking up with, with other people.” Mark laughed, his eyes extremely bloodshot. 

“No, no Logan wouldn’t cheat on me. He loves me.” I pouted, crossing my arms. 

“You guys aren’t dating!” Mark said loudly, leaning towards me. “Come here I have a secret.” 

I leaned towards my brother. “He doesn’t love you. Nicole doesn’t love me. Love is fake.” Mark whispered loudly in my ear. 

“Love is bullshit.” I agreed. 

“They’re actually kind of amusing like this.” I heard Chris say to Nick. 

“Think they’ve had too much?” Nick replied nervously. 

“No, no I think they’re okay. They look like they can hold their alcohol pretty well.” Chris said. 

“We should get home.” I announced, grabbing Mark’s shoulder as I stood up. “Jane will get mad…” 

“Jane isn’t here.” Mark reminded me as he stood up too. 

“Oh, the wicked witch will get mad then.” I giggled, making Mark laugh too. 

“Compared to her, Jane is actually nice.” Mark hiccuped, turning to walk back down the beach. 

“Should we let them go alone?” Someone asked. 

“We’re fine!” I called over my shoulder, a giggle escaping my lips as Mark stumbled over his own feet. 

We managed to make it back to the house in one piece, both of us laughing and giggling about random things. 

I kicked off my shoes, reaching to push open the screen door. 

My face smacked against the wooden frame, the door not budging. 

“Idiot.” Mark laughed, stumbling forwards. He tried to open it himself, but it didn’t move. 

“It’s locked.” I frowned, my vision blurry as I tried to see what was going on. 

“No, Jane doesn’t lock doors.” Mark shook his head. 

“Not Jane, it’s Audrey.” I scolded my brother, weakly poking his arm. 

“Whatever… I’m tired.” He said as he sat down in one of the porch chairs. 

“Let’s just… Let’s just rest and then we’ll deal with it.” I suggested, sitting down in the chair across from him. 

Within seconds, I was fast asleep. 

~*~*~

I woke up to the loudest, most painful noise I’d ever heard. 

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling like I was going to throw up from the headache pounding my skull. 

“Shut the hell up!” Mark yelled, sitting up in his chair. 

I winced, my back killing me from the awkward position I’d slept in. 

“Oh don’t mind me! Just cleaning my pots!” Aunt Audrey yelled, continuing to bang the pots against the wooden fence of the porch. 

I slowly pushed myself up, the world spinning. 

Apparently Aunt Audrey took after her brother when it came to torturing hungover teenagers…

Mark and I used each other for support as we got ourselves inside. I was slightly hungover, yet I still felt sort of drunk. 

I groaned, leaning against Mark as I heard the loud music playing throughout the house. 

“Breakfast is ready!” Our lovely Aunt said happily. 

I just shook my head, using the wall for support as I stumbled down the hallway to my room. 

Again, sleep would be my cure for this awful hangover…