The Perfect Summer

Chapter 2: It's time to go

    “C’mon Ali! Hurry up,” Serena whined from the bottom of the stairs. Serena had gradually made herself at home – in my home. She generally roamed around, and constantly walked through the door.

    Right now, she was busy trying to get me to hurry up. I had forgotten that we were going shopping today and had also conveniently gone back to sleep when she tried to phone me. Well, I was a little more than surprised when her head popped out of my bedroom door. And the look on Serena’s face when she saw me lying comfortably in bed was not a good one.

   I groaned at the site of the town. The place was filled with busy lives, and little children sucking on lollipops that their parents had handed to them – just to keep them quiet for a little while.

    “C’mon Ali you have to get this dress it would suit you perfectly." Serena insisted. "Please? I'll even buy it for you?" She offered.

   "No," I replied. We were at the dress section of this kind of posh shop, when Serena had caught the eye of a bright yellow dress attached to a skirt with a high-low hemline. It was gorgeous, and I was extremely tempted to give in to her demands, but pulled away. I had already caved in and bought five dresses – I couldn’t afford to blow my budget anymore. Much to my surprise, Serena let it go.

   When we got back outside, the air was humid since it was way past midday. It was a rare sunny day in London, and it set up my mood perfectly for the summer vacation I was about to embark on.

   "Serena let’s go eat,” I suggested, but it sounded more like a demand.

    “You and your food - God knows how you stay so skinny," Serena replied. Fast metabolism, I thought, but stayed silent instead as I headed towards the nearest takeout shop I could find.

   “Can I please have a Burger with chips and a Pepsi?” I asked politely. The man nodded as he wrote it down, and Serena ordered a small portion of chips with onion rings.

   As soon as the man was out of site, Serena got out her compact mirror to check her reflection. Serena was always checking up on her make-up, or snidely looking at herself through shop windows. Right now, she checked up on her natural make-up look. She didn’t need the make-up to look pretty. It sounds quite cheesy, but she really didn’t. I was silently glad that she at least didn’t cake herself in heavy make-up. There was a short faze she went through, which I swiftly brought her out of.

   "Thank you," Serena said to the waiter as the food arrived, putting away her mirror. The man stared at her for a while, like there was sunshine radiating out of her.

   Once he was out of ears shot I told Serena, “well he liked you…a lot." Serena smirked.

    "He’s alright. But he’s not really my type.” I stared at her in shock. He was no model, but he was pretty good-looking and seemed nice. But then again, nice-looking people aren’t always nice. “I think he would suit you,” she hissed, giggling.

    "Me? Yeah as if," I replied, truthfully.

   "You really need to give yourself more credit," she replied back.

    I sighed. Maybe I did, but it was hard when Serena was around. Maybe if I was with someone else he would have given me the time of day, but it was Serena. And she was gorgeous and lovely, who wouldn’t ignore me if they saw her walking down the street?

     We went around a few more shops, and we saw James at the mall so we got into a deep conversation with him. James was in my history class, he was kind of a nerd but he was really sweet, when James first met Serena he thought she was a popular kid and that she was going to bully him, but when he found out that she wasn't a bully he developed a huge crush on her. I once asked Serena if she would ever go out with him but she said that she liked him as a friend and wouldn't ever want to ruin that.

   We had been at the mall for hours now, and I was starting to get tired so we decided to go home, I was about to get out of Serena's car which was parked in my driveway when she told me she had a present for me. I was really confused, but then she handed me a black and white bag, I looked at her then slowly opened the bag, inside was the yellow dress, I was shocked to say the least, I looked up at Serena surprised.

   "No, Serena you didn't...you know I don't like taking presents" I remarked, baffled.

  "I know, but its our summer together, I had to get you something nice, and plus that dress is hot," She replied "Really, its nothing!"

   After that I said goodbye and thank you about twenty times before finally getting out of the car. My mum was in the living room watching The hills, yeah my mum was cool like that!

     She shouted when she needed to, but other than that she trusted me. As I walked in, she asked me what I had bought. "What did you buy honny? Let me see." My mum was a doctor so she gave me budgets, but they were also pretty hefty budgets. I showed her the five dresses, the one with pink and orange flowery designs, a white strapless one, a fancy light blue dress, a rosy pink one and the maxi dress, I also showed her the sandals I had bought with the gift card grandma had given me for my birthday and my blue and white bikini. Then I finally showed her the yellow dress that Serena had given to me.

    "Ooh... They’re so pretty honey. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, I thought you would freak out that you had to get a summer job when you went on vacation, but it’s really not affecting you is it? We just want to teach you about working hard," she said.

    "I know Mum, and I don't mind, but seriously mum thank you so much," I said as I gave her a hug to show her how grateful I was.

    "Oh that’s okay... wanna watch some TV with me?" She asked.

   "Yep, of course. Be right back, I’m just going to put these upstairs," I said holding up the shopping bags as I began to walk up the stairs. I was leaving for the summer tomorrow and I couldn’t wait.