Chapter 1
Of course I couldn't resist the summer house and it was a week later Taylor, Anika and I were blasting down the road to Cousins. For my 17th Taylor and Anika had bought me a car, a navy blue convertible, so we were driving down, hood down, sun on our backs, laughing as we followed the familiar drive to the beach house.
Anika was coming down for the first two weeks, Taylor for the first month. I needed them to keep me strong on this trip. To make sure I didn't lose myself around the two boys that owned my heart. 'No Belly, they don't own your heart, not anymore.' I Thought to myself but I couldn't deny they'd always be a part of me whether I liked it or not.
After little time we'd arrived at the summer house. A sharp intake of breath crossed my lips and I wondered if I was going to be able to handle this, yes, I must. I would do it for Susannah and my mom. I also wondered how the boys would react to Taylor and Anika coming down. I knew neither of them had much time for Taylor but they could deal with her. Anika could be interesting, she had a calm personality and was an interesting character. I thought they may like her..
Whilst I had been pondering over this the boys had come out. They were standing by the open glass door waiting for me to make the move. Anika, being inquisitive as usual asked me, 'Iz, shall we go?' I watched Taylor frown for the billionth time at the name Iz but she didn't say anything, she knew I liked it. It seemed everyone was waiting for me to make the first move. Here goes nothing I thought to myself and opened the door to face the boys.
They were up by the doors and we were down by the car. To me it felt like a game of battleships, everyone plotting there next move till Taylor piped up, 'Oh come on Belly' and led us up the pathway to the house. When we reached the boys she sang out in a sing song voice 'Hiiii Jeremiah, Hiiii Conrad' but her greeting was lost as both of them past her walking toward me. Jere reached me first looking at me for permission before holding me in a massive bear hug. I felt the warmth in him carry through me and started to laugh wondering if maybe this could be okay after all. Conrad came next but stopped, just before me looking me up and down, a half smile spread across his lips as he pulled me into a more casual hug. Our eyes locked briefly but he looked away. I then made it my mission for the summer to make things okay with both of the boys.
While me and Conrad had been greeting each other, Jere had introduced himself to Anika. They were both smiling and I knew it had been the right decision to bring Anika down, she'd fit in perfectly. The same could not be said for Taylor. After the boys had ignored her presence she had marched our luggage into our room and started getting ready for a night out on the boardwalk. Typical Tay. As Anika and I were moving to head up the stairs too her, Conrad and Jere pulled Anika off to the side and whispered something to her. A knowing glint lit up all three of their eyes and a whoosh of jealousy ran through me. 'Why are they talking to her? They've known her all of five minutes, jeez!' A second later though they were surrounding me, Jere grabbed under my arms and Conrad grabbed my legs, Anika holding me up in the middle. I knew what was about to happen and started wriggling as much as I could until I knew I couldn't win. As we approached the pool I screamed before breathing in as they flung me into the water.
Splash! The water went everywhere and as I came up for breath I could see all of them in stitches.
'Not funny guys' I called out but then quickly had to move out the way as Jere's massive body came jumping in on me. There was an even bigger splash this time and the laughter between us was uncontrollable. It wasn't that it was that funny, it was just too good an opportunity to miss laughing together again. Conrad jumped in also leaving Anika on the side in the dry. I knew she wouldn't voluntarily jump in so I made it look like I was getting out to go back to the house before turning around suddenly and pushing her in. I jumped back into the pool and the four of us were happily swimming around, laughing, joking completely forgetting Taylor existed. It wasn't on purpose, it just didn't matter she wasn't there. That's when we saw smoke coming from the house.
Okay guys let me know what you think, if I should continue or not. Please review:)