Summer lark

Chapter twenty seven Carmella

 Growing up I always listened to country music, I grew up in Maine so it was just bound to happen. Then in fifth grade I branched out and listened to some rap. Which, worst faze I ever went through, I hate rap. Then in sixth grade I went back to country. Then in seventh grade I finally found my genre, alternative and pop, maybe a few punk and mental thrown in there. I can never seem to have a favorite song though. I like Goth Babe a lot, but I also like One Direction, The Lumineers, Mumford & Son, and Of Monsters and Men.

—

"What do you guys want to do?"

"Rena, for the tenth time, SHUT UP." Ocean says.

"I'm bored." Rena says carrying the d.

"I don't know what to tell you, go down the slide or something."

"What do you even do in this town?"

"Not much, usually hang around the water."

"You must get bored of that."

"We do, which is why we come here. Or we go to the drive-in movie theater and watch a movie. But they always show the same movies so it gets kind of repetitive."

"What movies do they show?"

"Teen beach movie one and two. All the High School Musicals, and the Camp Rock movies."

"You're joking." I say with a gasp.

"Nope."

"We have to go see one of them, Eden and I used to be addicted to watching those movies and listening to the soundtracks."

"I think we can make that happen."

"Race you to the monkey bars." Clara says to me before she gets up. I get up and chase after her, though she did have quite the head start.

"Not fair, you had a head start." I say reach the bars last.

"You snooze, you lose." She shrugs.

We all start climbing on the structure, going down the slide, doing the monkey bar, swinging, playing tic tac toe

"Who wants to go on the teeter totter with me?" I hollar running to it.

"I will." Royal says jogging to the thing. I sit down first then he sits down immediately putting me in the air.

"This is comfy." He says laying his legs out.

"Royal, put me down, this isn't how you teeter."

"Fine." He says springs his legs up making my seat hit the ground with a thud then sending me right back up again because Royal weighs too damn much.

"Asshole." I mutter.

"What was that, Apple?"

"I said asshole."

"What? I didn't even do anything, you told me we weren't teetering, so I went up and you went down then you went right back up again because you don't weigh enough to keep me up."

"Smartass."

"What was that?"

"Oh, just shut up."

"You remind me a lot of Charlie." I say with a sigh.

"How so?"

"Always picking and joking, silly, easy laughter. I don't know, you just do."

"I don't know if that's a compliment or not?"

"In some ways it is, in others it's not."

"Ah,"

"Well, I hope to meet this Charlie someday."

"I hope you don't, he's a rich asshole now, I meant you remind me a lot of him when he was a teenager, not much anymore."

"You bring him up a lot." Royal says stating the obvious.

"Yeah, it sucks sometimes. I'll be having so much fun then I'll catch a glimpse of someone who looks like him or the person I'm with says something that reminds me of him, and it'll make me think of our childhood and just make me sad."

"Like an old cut that just doesn't seem to want to go away."

"Yeah, like an old cut."

"Want to do the monkey bars?"

"I can barely do them. I don't have much upper body strength, it's mostly my legs."

"I know, have you seen how much mussel your calves have?"

"Yeah, they're pretty strong."

"I'll say."

"Monkey bars?"

"Sure, let's go."

—

"Guys, I swear to fucking all things holy, if you don't shut up, I will get out of this bed and slap each one of you." I say pissed. For the last hour I have been trying to go to sleep, it's four am. I am grumpy and sleep deprived, I slept like shit the night before so I had gotten up at five. And Ocean, Rena, Eden, and Clara, can't seem to stuff a sock in it and go to sleep. They keep making random noises making them all start laughing. Clara makes a sound that honestly sounds like a dying donkey and they all break out into a laugh.

"That's it, I'm leaving." I grab my pillow and my little blanket and walk over to Royals.