The Perfect Summer

Chapter 3: Hitting the road

I resisted the urges to jump up and down, and scream 'freedom; at the top of my lungs for the whole world, and the aliens in outer space to hear.

Instead I hugged my mum tightly – in fact she was hugging me so tightly that I was scared that she wouldn't let go. She was acting like I was being deployed to Afghanistan, rather than just heading a few hours away. "Now Sweetie, take care and call me as soon as you get there," my mum said, engulfing me in tight hug for the third time. I was actually getting scared that she was going to burst into tears.

My dad had just put my last suitcase into the sleek black Maserati and had now spread his arms out to hug me too. We embraced each other until I started getting a little embarrassed about how important this was to them. Luckily, I was saved by my brother Adam who jumped on us all like a wild animal...the hug soon felt like a strangling after that.

"I'm gonna miss you sis," he told me, much to my surprise.

"I'm gonna miss you too big bro," I replied truthfully.

"Love you, bye," I called out as I started walking out of the door.

"Wait honey, take a cereal bar, you barely ate anything at breakfast you were so excited, and take another one for Serena," my mum yelled running to the kitchen as my brother groaned (I was taking his snacks). She took her merry time coming back to me.

 "Thanks mum, love you," I said as I finally escaped my chaotic family.

"Hey Ali," Serena greeted me as I walked in. "They do know you're only going for the summer right?" she laughed and I did too.

"yeah..." I replied unsure.

"Ahh...I'm so excited!" Serena suddenly shouted startling me.

"Me too," I replied with the same amount of enthusiasm.

The journey was about seven hours long, so we were setting off at 1PM planning to get there by sunset. I was ecstatic to see the beach house; I had heard great things about it. I got a stack of CD's from a cabinet in the car and started flicking through them all, and finally chose Taylor Swift's album Speak now and placed it in the stereo. Immediately sparks fly came on. Serena and I sang along for about two hours non stop, we were screaming at the top of our lungs. I rolled the window down and random strangers in cars were staring at us like we had just come back from a mental asylum, after a while I slowly drifted off to a dreamless sleep with the window still wide open.

I don't know what time it was when I woke up but we had stopped off at a petrol station.

Serena jumped back in to the car. "How long have I been asleep?" I asked her.

"A very long time, we're almost there. Just another hour to go," Serena replied.

"I have been asleep for that long?" I asked confused.

"Yep," Serena replied simply.

                                  ♛     ♛     ♛

An hour later we were driving down the highway when I saw the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. The town looked magical - something out of a story book. The beach was huge, although there was only a few teenagers there at this time, the sea was a perfect crystal blue colour and I couldn't wait to go swimming in it, and then there was the sky, it was the most perfect coloured sky I had ever seen, the sun was just setting and different shades of yellow/ red/ purple and pink covered the sky as I stared at it in awe.

Serena parked her car to the side of a row full of big beach houses and a small fish and chip shop. "C'mon Ali, you think this is good, wait till you see the beach house, be prepared to be wowed!" she said smiling brightly. She had been here once or twice before with her family, she had told me it wasn't the same as going with your friends because there were some things you just couldn't do when your family was around. Staring at guys for a prolonged amount of time being one of them.

We walked in through the door on the porch which overlooked the beautiful beach and went inside through the glass tinted door. I was speechless; the beach house was unlike anything I had seen before. The first room was the living room, it was completely white with bits of green and some blue artwork on the walls but apart from that it was mostly white, the sofas were jade white next to them were glass tables at the side with red roses, there was one big green tinted table in the middle and a furry rug. There was also a big white plasma screen tv and behind the living room there was a kitchen.

We went around the whole house, me staring at everything in awe. In total there were eight room, the living room, the kitchen, and three bathrooms along with three giant bedrooms.

My bedroom had a king sized bed in the room. and there was also a window sill with pretty little ornaments on it. There were also a lot of other furnishings like the 2 bean bag chairs at the foot of my bed and on top of that I had my very own bathroom!

At that moment Serena walked through the door. "Come on, marvel later we have to go outside to the porch and watch the sunset," she burst eagerly. I dropped my duffel bag onto the bed and went out to the porch with her, and she was right of course it was beautiful, I turned my head to the left and saw another street, there were shops, small shops but they were pretty, I could just about see that there was a cake shop, a cafe and an ice-cream shop and on the concrete some teenage boys were skateboarding, while doing tricks... they were very good.

"That's Leo, the guy I was telling you about, isn't he fit" Serena said staring in the same direction.

"Yeah" I replied vaguely...but it was true he was good looking - very good looking from what I could see from our spot at the porch. 

Suddenly I turned to Serena. "To an unforgettable summer," I said

"To an unforgettable summer," Serena replied. "Now let's go to sleep, I want to show you around tomorrow, and plus I need my beauty sleep," Serena joked, because even though Serena is unbelievably beautiful, she does not sleep much...at all, and every time I force her to sleep she comes out with the same excuse, 'What, I'm an insomniac, it's not my fault'...good ol' Serena.

I laughed, those were some words I never thought I would hear, "Come on, let's go inside" I said pulling her along with me as it had now gone quite chilly and I was exhausted, even though I knew that it was going to be impossible for me to go to sleep, that night I finally did fall asleep to the sound of the waves.