Holden Peters expects nothing exciting to happen during the summer before his final year of high school. But in a spontaneous act of bravery, he saves his pretty next door neighbour from drowning and is deemed as a local hero.
Thanks to his newfound...
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I had forgotten the sole purpose of going over to Flo's house until she pulled out a vintage polaroid camera from freaking nowhere and snapped a photo of me and my 'what?' face. When the photograph came out, she shook it and handed it over. It took a while for the image to develop but when the colour finally bled onto the film, I realised my 'what?' face was really a 'what should I kill you with?' face.
Flo continued to take photos all the way through breakfast. Beth didn't complain about the use of technology at the table because it was more of a casual meal than formal. But eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she couldn't resist asking the questions we had all been wondering.
"So, Flo, what exactly are you taking photos of again?" Beth asked, slicing a triangle off one of her pancakes. The question could have been addressed in an offensive or accusing manner, but Beth was so...motherly that it sounded genuinely curious and innocent.
"Reminiscences," she answered.
A silence fell upon the table. The easy clattering of cutlery against plates and pouring of juice seemed to dim until we all sat there awkwardly.
"Reminiscences?" Jace repeated, scoffing in disapproval.
"Memories," Flo explained in an aw-you're-so-stupid kind of voice which definitely earned her badass points and only made me like her even more. "I like to timeline things so I can remember them. Some things in life are too precious to forget."
"I'm developing a serious lady crush on you," Tess said, easily slicing through the tension by announcing her teasing affection.
George raised his eyebrows at his sister but didn't say anything.
Dad ignored Tess' declaration and reached across the table to grab the syrup. As he drowned his breakfast in sugary goodness, he said, "Have you seen much of town?"
"There isn't much of it to begin with," Jace muttered under his breath.
"Ignore him, Flo," Dad said. "There's plenty of excitement going around this town. Just last week, a teenaged boy rescued a drowning girl."
Flo looked up from her breakfast and we exchanged a quick glance.
"Oh, yes," Beth said, joining the conversation. "I read about that in the paper the other day. I wonder who it was."
"Looks like we have a local hero who wants to stay anonymous." Dad looked at me when he spoke, causing me to feel exposed and raw.
There was no way he knew. No freaking way.
Tess seemed to pick up on my distress from across the table because she rolled up the last pancake on her plate and scraped back her chair, using her free hand to capture the sticky and buttery substance that oozed from the opened side of her breakfast. Quinton didn't even have to ask what was going on. He just grabbed an extra pancake from the centre of the table, rolled it up and ate it in two giant bites.
