Spellbound

Part 4

Lera

Our afternoon runs smoothly, with lot's of smiles and laughs. My mom seems to be relaxing a lot more, which is a good thing. She deserves a break. 

We've spent all day on the beach, soaking up the sun and working on our tans. This is finally starting to feel like a real summer. A summer of laziness. A summer of hope, and beauty in the day-to-day life.

The sun's only slightly dipped when we begin to eat dinner. We've gone real summer stereotype tonight, beachside barbeque, big bowls of salad and ice-cream for dessert. I'm seated between Kat and Fern on our outdoor table, with Christian sitting opposite from me. He threw me another smirk when we sat down, as I internally groaned. Since then I've tried ignoring him, although he keeps trying to grab my attention, either by making stupid faces or kicking my shin from underneath the table. 

He's always done this. I don't get it. Surely he could have found someone else to annoy in all the years I've known him for. 

After we finish our dinner, we all just hangout again for the rest of the night. Apparently, some of our neighbors around the other side of the cliff always set off fireworks on the first night of summer (heavily cliché, I know), so we were staying up until it eventually happened. Even Fern, who was starting to tire at 8pm, was determined to stay up with the rest of us. We play cards, sing songs, and bask in each others company. For the first time in a few months, I finally feel like I'm apart of a real family, like I'm home. Even Christian can't dampen my mood. 

By 10, everyone's getting a little restless. The fireworks don't starts until 10:45, and everyone's getting tired from the long day of excitement. Well, I'm not tired. I feel alive. I feel like I'm walking on a cloud, like everything in the world is going right.

The parents all stand from the kitchen table, and begin to stretch their muscles. My mom turns towards me, and with a sigh, says,

"Honey, there's a storage cupboard around the side of the house with some deck chairs in it, do you think you could grab some for the 3 of us? It's unlocked", she gestures to the adults at the table.

I flash her a smile and make my way towards the side of the house. I find the shed, and yank open the door, and turn on the small, dim overhead light. Where could they be? Towels, floaties, no chairs. Chairs, chairs, chairs... OH MY GOD IM GOING TO GET MURDERED SOMONE IS TOUCHING MY SHOULDER I AM GOING TO BE MURDERED IM TOO YOUNG TO DIE AHHHHHH!!!

I flip my head around quickly to meet my intruder only to be met with... a slightly scarier face than I anticipated. Oh wait, that's just Christian. 

"CHRISTIAN! Don't sneak up on me! I thought I was going to be killed!" I yell at him, as he doubles over laughing. 

"Look dreamy, I know we're moving fast, but screaming my name already? I didn't take you for the type." he retorts, raising an annoying eyebrow at me.

"Ew, you're disgusting! Anyway, what are you doing here, apart from scaring me to death?"

He makes an obvious motion with his arms, before stating with a dull tone

"Getting chairs?"

I roll my eyes, again. I seem to do that more often when he's around, coincidentally.

"Well, you can just go back, because I am perfectly capable of carrying these chairs back by myself."

He scoffs at my response.

"Sure, sparky, you can't even find them to start with."

"First of all, I am a very capable woman, and we women don't need the likes of you and your kind telling us how we should be doing things. Secondly, I was trying to find the chairs, before I was rudely interrupted, by YOU!"