Cruel Summer

Chapter One

Red Rose

I watched my mother cry into my Uncle Ben's arms as my father's casket was being buried into the ground.

The sun was shining yet it felt like a huge storm was going through Outerbanks. My brother Caleb stood beside me. He hasn't shed one tear today. Yet here I was, sobbing into my best friend's arms. I buried my head back into his chest.

"It's okay," JJ whispered as he rubbed my back, "I'm right here." His words made more tears fall from my eyes.

You read accidents like this in the paper but you never expect it to happen to the people you love most in the world, except I know my father's death wasn't an accident. I overheard Sheriff Peterkin talking to my mother. She said he was intoxicated while driving, drugs, and alcohol. My father doesn't do drugs or drink, he never has. Not after he saw what that stuff did to his father.

"Sam," Caleb tapped my shoulder. I let go of JJ and took the red rose out of my brother's hand. My mother and uncle went first. They stood beside the casket and threw the roses in. Caleb and I walked behind them, throwing our roses in as well. Everyone else who attended the funeral did the same thing. My father used to call me Rose all the time, they were his favorite flowers to give to my mother, but they had to be red. He said that they showed what real beauty was like.

Dirt started to fill the hole that he was lying in. I turned around and squinted my eyes shut.

***

It had been eight hours since the funeral. I sat on my bed, looking out my window. I watched the sun go down. The sky was orange and yellow, mixed with a little red. But that was all gone now, it turned pitch black yet I couldn't look away from it. The house felt bare, and empty, like it was missing something, and it was.

"Sammy?" my mother knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in," I said, not looking away from my window.

"Sammy I, I need to talk to you," she stuttered.

I looked at her. She looked pale, her eyes were all puffy, and she still had the dress on that she wore to the funeral.

I let out a soft, "Okay," as she sat beside me on my bed. She looked at me for a moment. I never realized what silence was until now. She wiped the small tears that fell from her eyes off her face.

"Your Uncle Ben and I have decided that," she stopped for a second, took my hand, and held it tight. "Honey, we're moving."

My mouth opened a little, and my ears started ringing. I couldn't have heard her correctly. "We're what?"

She took a deep breath. "After we got the call that your father passed a week ago Uncle Ben thought it was a good idea to start new."

I let go of her hand, "You decided that we were moving a week ago and decided to tell me now?"

"I-I didn't know how to," she cried.

"Why does Uncle Ben have a say in this?"

"Him and your father grew up in this house. It's hard for him, it's hard for me."

I stood up, "He doesn't even live here!" I shouted. The tears started to fall again.

"Samara please!" She stood up, "You have to understand."

"Understand what Mom? That you're taking my life away? What about my friends? What about JJ?" I put my left hand over my mouth, "I can't leave him!"

She whipped her tears, "I'm sorry sweetheart." She stepped closer to me but I backed up. "It's too hard to stay here without your father. We can get a better house, a bigger one, and not live on the cut anymore."

"Dad would want us to stay here."

"Your father always wanted to go Chicago-"

I cut her off, "-We're moving to Chicago?!"

She took a long deep breath. "We're leaving tomorrow morning," she whispered.

I looked at her with disappointment in my eyes as I shook my head. I took my jacket off the back of my door and stormed out.

My father's death wasn't an accident, and I'm going to prove it.