Ashlan.

“What’re yeh doin’ tomorrow?” Suzan asked, flicking through one of my grand-mère’s old French novels. Every time she came upon a word she’d never heard of, her face would scrunch up, causing her nose to raise, her eyebrows to almost meet, and her eyes to form slits. I figured she didn’t know most of the words, seeing as she’d do that often, and ask me an occasional question here and there.

“I don’t know. What’s tomorrow?”

“July 4th,” she replied, her face once again scrunching. “Wha’s crépuscule mean?”

“It means sunset. Oh and I’ll be having a cookout,” I told her, referring to her question. She gazed at me oddly for a minute.

“Why?” Her eyebrows knitted together as she continued staring blankly at the French novel. I continued to change the channels on the TV, being unsatisfied. They didn’t have a lot of the channels that I watched back home, much to my disappointment.

“It’s a holiday…for me at least.”

“Oh yeah. Almost forgot that yeh’re American.” I nodded silently.

“Are yeh gonna invite meh to yehr little barbeque, or wha’?” Suzan proceeded to ask with a smirk on her face. I smiled at her before nodding.

“Sure. You can bring Curtis too if you want.” She nodded, a small smile on her face.

When tomorrow rolled by, my mother and grandmother busied about trying to get everything ready and together. My aunt Felicia and her family, along with the Keans and Suzan and Curtis were scheduled to come at about 1. They probably thought that we were crazy to celebrate an American holiday in Europe. Though, we probably were, but we didn’t care.

When my mother zipped by me in the kitchen to get the food that she had prepared and bring it outside, I knew that I should help.

I set up the lawn chairs around the pool and then proceeded to put tables up with my grand-mère.

By the time we were done, and my mom was cleaning the grill, I heard the obnoxious sound of a group of rowdy kids.

My mother and I shared a confused glance before I went to investigate. I walked over to the gate, slowly peeking over it to find Suzan, Becky, Matt Nicholls, Oliver, Curtis, Lynn, Lee, Tom and three other girls I didn’t know. I shot Suzan a glare when our eyes made contact and she smiled sheepishly at me.

“Curtis invited them!” she said defending herself. I rolled my eyes, unlocking the gate to let them in. They pilled in slowly, saying variations of hello to me as they passed by.

“Ashy, honey. I thought you said it was just Suzan, Curtis and Mathew that were coming…” my mom said as she eyed the group of colorful, pierced kids.

I gave her a guilty smile. “Sorry,” I mumbled. I didn’t want to tell her that Suzan had brought them all without telling me, seeing as she wasn’t really fond of Suzan to begin with.

“The more the merrier!” my grand-mère exclaimed, smiling and moving to engulf Suzan in a hug. She, on the other hand, adored Suzan.

“Veegs comin’? So tha’s why ‘e couldn’ hang,” Curtis said, happy that he had put two and two together.

“Why don’t you introduce us to your friends, Ashlan?” my grandmother said, a big smile on her face. She always loved meeting new people.

“Um, this is Curtis, Lee, Becky, Lynn, Matt Nicholls, Oliver, Tom…and I don’t know those three,” I said quietly, avoiding the gazes of the other three girls.

“Oh, I’m Lizz, this is Danica and Tyler,” one of them said. I studied them, from their piercings to their hair and outfits.

“Est-ce que c'est Oliver de qui vous et Suzan parlez toujours?”* my grandmother whispered to me, her eyes curiously watching Oliver. I nodded, a faint blush coming to my cheeks. Instead of saying anything else, she just nodded.

Clapping her hands, she smiled at the group. “I hope you brought your bathing suits, ‘cause Ashy’s uncle likes to throw people in,” she said.

A few minutes had passed before the Keans and my cousins had arrived. I was utterly relieved seeing as I was just awkwardly standing there as everyone else conversed.

Mathew walked in, followed by everyone else, but I paid no attention to any of them but him. I smiled at him before walking over and wrapping him in a hug. My mother smiled at him before greeting everyone else.

“Did you bring your bathing suit?” I asked, walking over to where everyone else was still seated. He nodded, slowly slipping his hand into mine. I smiled to myself and continued to stare straight.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed Oliver watching us intently.

//

Halfway through the cookout, almost everyone was thrown into the pool at least once. Although, I did happen to get thrown in four times, three of those times by Oliver, Mathew, Matt and Curtis. It surprised me that it had to take 4 of them to even get me near the pool.

One of those times, I had successfully managed to pull all four of them down with me. I hadn’t noticed that Tom had been talking pictures the whole time until he requested a picture of me with Becky. Of course I accepted; I loved taking pictures.

Tom had even managed to get a picture of me and Oliver jumping into the pool with my legs wrapped around his and my arms tightly around his neck.

The day had been fun and I had even managed to get to know the three other girls that I didn’t know. I found out that Tyler is Matt’s sister, Danica is Matt’s girl friend, and Lizz is a friend of Lynn’s.

Of course I had to stop Suzan and Curtis from doing inappropriate stuff on my couch with my family and Mathew’s in the kitchen.

After a few people had left via their parents, the remaining few – Suzan, Curtis, Lynn, Oliver and Lee – joined me, my mother and grand-mère in going out to eat for dinner. Even though it was an informal outing, I still decided on wearing a semi-formal dress my dad had bought me. It reminded me of my dad so much that I never wanted to think of the day that I’d outgrow this dress.

“Do yeh guys do this every 4th of July?” Suzan asked, talking a bite of her broccoli. I nodded.

“My dad started it one year, and I guess we never stopped,” I told them, a small smile on my face. We’d been doing this ever since I was three. It had always been a favorite past time of mine.

When everyone broke off into their own little conversations – Suzan with Curtis, Lynn with Lee and my mother with my grandmother – Oliver turned to me. He smiled lightly at me and I returned the gesture. His smile soon turned nervous though.

“I hope yeh don’ get upset by this, but where’s yehr dad?” My smile instantly dropped, and I looked down at my fiddling hands.

My heart race accelerated, and memories tortured my mind.

“Um…he’s far away,” I replied quietly. Oliver gave me a confused stare.

“'E’s in America?”

“Sure…” I replied, a small smile on my face. To tell you the truth, I had no idea why I was actually smiling. This wasn’t something I’d normally smile about.

“Oh. Yehr parents divorced?” I shook my head.

“No. They’re just…not together anymore.”

“So they separated?”

“Not quite.”

//

When everyone except for Suzan and Oliver had finally left, we decided to sit and watch Finding Nemo – my all time favorite movie. I didn’t fail to notice Oliver’s hand snaking around my waist, but I did nothing to stop it. I actually…liked the feeling. I gave me butterflies and made my skin burn in a good way.