The Summer of Now and Forever

Chapter 1

Dakota

My feet dangled off the dock and into the cool water, pale sand floating off my toes like a cloud in the water.

The sun was hidden somewhere in the sky. The clouds acted as a curtain for the blue sky, and I am the audience, waiting for the big reveal.

My skin was a fading golden color that was barely visible anymore, since my family's trip to Hawaii was a few months ago and I had not gotten much sun recently. I was hoping that I would get a tan here, but so far the results were not so good.

I clicked my phone on and stared at the glowing screen. Blank.

I sighed. My sister was supposed to be texting me back by now. After all, I had texted her three days earlier.

I left my Spider-Man t-shirt on over my bathing suit and rolled up my jeans, not quite ready to be half naked while the wind was cold.

"Come inside!" My mom yelled to me. I couldn't see her but I knew that she was wearing a rather impatient expression on her face. She had been calling me for a couple minutes already. "Right now!"

I push myself up off the dock, being careful to not get splinters. This dock was about a million years old.

The cabin was over air conditioned and greeted me with a rather bitter breeze as I walked inside.

"Mom, it's, like, fifty degrees outside. Why is the air conditioning on?" I ask, sitting at the counter and resting my chin in the palm of my hand.

She rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face. "It's seventy seven, not fifty, and it's supposed to be in the nineties tomorrow."

I watched as she squirted mustard onto two sandwiches.

"That's good," I mumble, "it's too cold to get in the water right now."

"Your just being dramatic," she replies. "Would you go get your dad, he was just saying how hungry he was."

"Sure," I answer simply, hopping off the stool and heading towards the door.

Dad was stretched out on a lawn chair in the back lawn, he was wearing his shorts he wears camping and a polo shirt.

"Lunch is ready," I tell him and he leans up, stretching.

He follows me inside and I sit back at my original spot at the counter.

"It's great to be back here," my dad chirps and takes a seat next to me. "It's a good thing they let me work from here instead at the office. I would have gone insane sitting in that cubicle while you ladies were here partying."

Mom and I exchange a look. "Partying?" I ask.

He grins. "Well, you know what I mean."

There is a small silence between the three of us, but not in an awkward way.

The birds outside are chirping and the sound of water lapping against the dock is a song that can only be heard at Angle Lake.

"So what are we going to do while we're here?" I ask.

My mom shifts her salad around on her plate. She had been on a diet for about three weeks and in those twenty one days, I had confirmed that I would continue exercising and not turn to eating leaves.

"The same things that you did when you were little and used to come here," dad answers, his mouth full.

"I think I'm a little too big to fit in the kitty pool, dad."

He smiles but I can see sadness hidden in his hazel eyes. "You're right."

I turn my head and stare out at the lake, a small sliver of sun had broken through the clouds and was glinting off the water.

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of things to do this summer," mom answers. She is looking at me, her head cocked to the side, her brown curls falling across her shoulders.

"Yeah." I say blankly.