You Are My Summer (The Cuttings #2) [In (Painstakingly Slow) Progress]

Chapter One

A/N: Before reading this chapter, please be sure to read the Prologue! It's the bone of the story and shapes Cole's character.

The female protagonist, Olivia -- played by the lovely Candice Swanepoel -- will be introduced in this chapter. Enjoy!

>>>><<<<

"Now, you know where to contact us if there's any trouble?"

I looked blankly at my mother, whose big brown eyes gazed back into my blue ones with worry. I softened, smiling slowly. "Yeah, Mom," I answered, "I do. I just can't believe you're shipping me off to England to stay with Aunt Mary and Uncle Eddie Dunster!

"Oh, pish!" she huffed, waving her hand in that way of hers. "Don't be so melodramatic, darling. You'll only be there for the summer."

"Two months, Mom. Two. And I got my melodramatic ways from you," I couldn't help but point out as I crossed my arms, smirking.

"You just made a rhyme."

I stuck out my tongue at her. "Served my point, though."

"You're still going to England!" Dad piped a few paces away from us, fixing the position of their own luggage on the cart. "The ticket wasn't cheap, honey," he added, not turning around.

I groaned. "I haven't seen them since I was seven. It's been eleven years!" Before anyone could get a word in, I pointed out rather huffily, "And you two are going to Bali without me!"

Dad acted ignorant while Mom bit her lip. They knew I'd never let them live this down. Normally, I'm not like this. I'm actually a sweet kid, but this time? Nope. Not when they both knew how crazy I was for the sun, sand, and ocean. I mean, seriously!

It was summer.

I glared at my mother's guilty eyes in accusation. I wanted to send telepathic messages like: you don't just whisk your daughter away to your birthplace while planning on doing some Baywatch moments with your husband!

"Oh!" Mom suddenly whined, drawing me into a tight hug that caught me off guard and nearly suffocated me. "Marcus, d'you think leaving Olivia is right?"

Dad turned around from overseeing our respective baggage, and raised his eyebrows at the sight of us. I was trying to wedge my head away from Mom's neck, gasping. His lips tilted at the corners. "It is, Milly. You coddle her too much." I squinted at him through the hollow of Mom's neck. "How will she survive college if you plan on breastfeeding her again?" he teased. His cornflower blue eyes, the same as mine, glinted in amusement at us as I tried to escape Mom's clutches.

Sure I thought it was crazy they'd go to Bali without me, but I was beginning to believe going to the boring countryside of England would be preferable to my mother's loving bosom nearing my face, even if she wasn't aware she was doing it.

People were starting to stare!

Honestly I love Mom, but this was getting a little too embarrassing.

Thankfully, Dad pried her hands away from me (even though he was laughing, the fiend), and called my brother, Oliver, who came around the front of the car, carrying his suitcase.

No, we weren't twins. Our parents just wanted our names to sound similar -- but we did kind of look closer to the twindom than any other siblings out there. We both had blond hair, like our parents, and tanned skin from surfing; we were tall and had the same cornflower blue eyes like Dad's. We didn't blame other people if they mistook us for twins, honestly. We even used to joke that we were.