Blame It On the Beach

Chapter Eighteen

"Should I wear this?" I ask Quinn when she appears in my doorway, already dressed in a pair of jean shorts and an off-the-shoulder white shirt.

"Why do you have so many rompers?" she asks, looking at the black and white tribal print romper I'm wearing.

I shrug. "I just like them."

"But yeah, you should wear that," Quinn says. "I like it."

I look at my reflection. "Do I look ok?" I ask her, starting to get a little nervous.

Quinn rolls her eyes. "After 45 minutes of getting ready, I should hope so," she says. "Yes, you look really pretty," she adds, seeing my glare in the mirror.

"Alright, let's go downstairs then, I think my mom's ready," I say, grabbing my phone, and we head down the stairs to meet my mom in the living room. She looks up, seeing us, and turns her computer off and stands up.

"Isn't it nice to have new neighbors?" Mom says, grabbing her house keys from the dining room table. "I'm excited for this dinner."

"Yeah," I agree, and we walk towards the front door. "The couple that lived in that house before was so dull."

My mom lightly smacks my arm, as Quinn chuckles. "Emilia!" Mom says. "Don't say that, Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons were nice people."

"They were, like, 70," I say. "Although she did make really good brownies."

"Oh, yeah, I remember she brought us a batch as a going-away present last year," Quinn says. "Those were great."

"You girls are mean," my mom says, and Quinn and I shrug as we start walking the small distance between our two houses.

My mom rings the doorbell once we stand in front of the Ferrises' house, and as I look out at the sky above the trees, slowly getting darker as the sun sets, I feel a schoolgirl-typical excitement at seeing Milo.

Mr. Ferris opens the door, and we greet him as we all walk inside. They're almost fully moved in, with all the furniture set up, but there are still some boxes in the corner that are still opened.

"Thanks so much for coming!" Mrs. Ferris says when she sees us, giving us all hugs and a whiff of her fruity perfume. "Dinner should be ready in a few."

"Thanks for having us!" my mom replies. She looks around the living room, where we're standing. "The house looks great."

"Yeah, it was a bit of work to unpack and we still haven't even finished, but we're happy with how it turned out," Mrs. Ferris says. Her eyes go to the staircase. "Boys! Get your butts down here, your guests are here." She smiles at us. "Sorry about that."

"Coming!" I hear Milo's voice calling from upstairs, and after a few seconds he appears, wearing a long sleeved grey shirt, and my heart skips a beat as he smiles at all of us. Adam runs down a second later.

"Hi Milo," my mom says, smiling warmly at him. "And hi there, Adam."

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Marshall," Milo says, smiling that crooked smile and I swear my mom almost blushes.

"How about everyone takes a seat at the dining table, and I'll bring dinner out?" Mrs. Ferris says, and we all head over to the table.

"Can we help with anything?" My mom asks, but Mrs. Ferris quickly waves her off, telling her it's fine. She walks into the kitchen, and her husband follows her.

"Hey," Milo says to me, as we sit next to each other at the table, which is clad in a fancy white lace tablecloth.

"Hi," I say, trying to act casual but feeling like I'm losing my breath. "Did you get a haircut?" I ask, noticing that his hair is cropped more closely. Quinn sits across from me, with Adam next to her.