Sixteenth Summer

Library

    Several days later, as I was helping out mom with the dishes, I heard grandma and dad talking. It seems as if they are trying to prove each other wrong because I could hear what they were talking about.

    "How do you send messages with those cellphones you all carry? How can you even see if the person managed to receive it?" my grandma asked my dad. In return, I heard my dad sigh for the nth time.

    "You just type in the message and press send. It's that easy, and for the receiving part, the receiver gets a notification on their phone and reads your message. How is that so hard to understand?! It is way faster to talk that way than through snail mail!" my dad answered her, exasperated.

    They had been at it for a while now. My mom just laughs at them because they are so stubborn when it comes to being right. Like mother, like son. I was feeling annoyed and that's because I wasn't even part of the conversation. I had just wiped the last plate dry when I heard my phone go off. I didn't even bother to check who it when I answered.

    "Hello?" I said.

    "Hey," the person answered. The person's voice was husky and rich, and that surprised me the most. I usually had no reason to use my phone over the course of the two weeks I have been here.

    "Uh, who is this?" I replied feeling nervous since it had been a while since I have talked to anybody over the phone. Anti-socialness at its best.

    The person just laughed and I suddenly recognized the voice.

    "Ash?" I asked. He went silent after that.

    "I thought you would have not taken as long to recognize me, love."

    I stilled at that. He would always call me that whenever it was between the two of us. It had been so long since I last heard it. However, I wasn't going to let all that time separated going to waste if I was suddenly awkward with him.

    "It has been awhile Ash," I replied with a teasing undertone to my voice. Suddenly, I felt as if my day was made by him just calling me that. I smiled and went through the back door so I wouldn't disturb my parents and grandma.

    "I know, love. Want to go to the library with me later today? I have work in a bit, but afterwards we could meet up."

    "Sure! At what time?"

    "I'll call you," he said fondly. Of course, I thought, it was always him calling me at last minute to do things. I thought that he wasn't like that anymore, but I guess I was wrong. He hanged up because he had to go to work and I went back inside.

    "Who was it?" my mom asked.

    "Ash," I said and she just nodded while smiling at me. I smiled at her because I knew what she was thinking and I nodded my head to show her that it wasn't what she was thinking. She just raised her eyebrow in an uh-huh motion and went back to the living room while laughing.

    Really mom?  I thought while smiling fondly. I went back upstairs and went to go organize my stuff in my room. Ever since we got here I have just had my stuff strewn over anything and all over the place. It was embarrassing since Ash saw the mess I had. I just hope that it was dark enough to hide all the mess last time.

    I saw that I had brought my school backpack and went through it to take out what I didn't need anymore. A lot of notes between Lissette, my best friend, and I, picture print-outs from the field trip we took to Paris, and the usual school stuff. No more sophomore drama from high school for now. I just hope that next year won't be as stressful as this past one, but that won't happen.

    I threw out the papers to the recycling box my grandma has in the hallway and went back to fix my room. I began by putting all the clothes in a bin to wash later and then I took everything off my dressers to dust them. Even though my grandma had been cleaning my room while I was back home, it still was dusty in the places my grandma didn't dust because of the height. I wasn't going to put my grandma at risk of getting injured just because I wanted this room super clean.

    Then, I put everything back in the way I wanted them in and turned to the bookshelf. It was clean because my grandma would always say that books were to be respected. I just put in some stuff that I had moved from my desk. For the rest of the time, I just spent it playing with the stuff that I didn't know inhabited my room. I think everyone does that every time they clean their rooms. I know I'm not the only weird one.

    It was about 5:30 pm when I heard my phone ring. I saw that it was Ash. I smiled and answered.

    "Can you make it in 5 minutes to the library?"

    "Yeah, let me just get ready and I'll see you in a bit."

    I was already pulling on a cardigan over as I made my way out. I let my parents know where I was going before I got my purse and started to walk into town. The library was about 5 minutes away from my grandparent's cottage.

    I got inside and was met with the smell of new pages and books. I took a deep breath before I walked over to our usual spot. I saw that he had his nose deep into a book and smiled at him. When you see him from afar, you would not think that he would be a bookworm considering he started to get more built and his wide shoulders give him an intimidating look.

    I got to the table and sat in front of him as quietly as I could without disturbing him. He noticed my presence and looked up briefly at me before going back to reading. I just rested my chin into my hand while staring at him. He grinned and I knew that he was trying to rile me up by ignoring me, but that has never worked on me, save for one occasion.

    I raised my eyebrow at him before turning to go look for a book. I got up and went to the farthest bookshelf from Ash. I knew that me taking a while will get him impatient, but whatever. It was his fault anyway for doing that.

    I was already on my way back to the table when I didn't see him sitting where he was a while ago. I began to get suspicious and looked around me for him. I got a feeling that he was going to scare me or something, so I began to speed walk as best as I can without giving myself away. I was about 5 feet away from our table when somebody grabbed my arm and pulled me into one of the bookshelves. I let out a gasp, but it would have been a scream if I was anywhere else.

    I looked up at the person and I saw that it was Ash. I narrowed my eyes at him while trying to calm myself down. My heartbeat was all over the place and I was trying to control my breathing from the fright. He was silently laughing and I just slapped his chest while pushing him away. I wanted to be mad, but I knew that I couldn't because Ash is just like that. You could never be mad at him.

    After that, we went back to our spot and he just grabbed my stuff while walking out. I stared at him confused before he beckoned me to follow him. The rest of the day was spent with him being silly and us having a good time. He dropped me off and I ran up to me room. I couldn't keep the smile from my face. I felt like a high school girl with her first crush, but that's what I am. A high school girl in love for the first time, well not really for the first time since I've had a major crush on Ash ever since we were like 5 years old. Okay, not that young, but it's been a while.