Summer Love

By sunset we had emptied the truck completely with the help of Max's new friends. I didn't get to hear their names when Max introduced them because I had Blink-182 blasting in my ears at the time.

"Alright, I'm going to drop the truck off with your mom," dad said as he locked back up the truck.

"Okay, see you in a bit,"

Dad drove off in the truck and mom followed behind in the rental car. I watched their tail lights disappear and walked back inside where Max was sitting on the couch with his new friends.

"Why don't you start taking your stuff upstairs?" I asked him and picked up a box with my name on it.

"I'll do it later,"

I shrugged and started taking my stuff upstairs. Soon my empty room started to become cluttered with piles of boxes. I turned around and nearly had a heart attack when I saw Dimple Boy standing directly behind me with a box of mine in his hands. I placed my hand on my chest and let out a puff of air.

"Sorry," he chuckled.

"It's okay," I said and swept my bangs away from my eye.

"What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be downstairs with your friends?"

"You looked like you needed help," he shrugged and I just noticed that he still had my box in his hands.

"Oh, I'll take that," I said and grabbed the box, putting it on top of another one. "Thanks-" I was going to say his name, too bad I didn't know it.

"Matt," he grinned, showing off his dimples again. I went to shake his hand, but instead he pulled me into a tight hug. I awkwardly patted his back and pulled away.

"What's your name by the way? I know the names of everyone else in your family,"

"It's J.D,"

"J.D?" he had a grin on his face.

"It's the initials of my first and middle name," I shrugged.

"Oh, that makes sense,"

"Yeah, uh, well, I have to get the rest of my stuff," I scratched the back of my head.

"I'll help you,"

"Okay, thanks," I said and walked out of my room and downstairs.

I handed Matt a box and grabbed one before leading him upstairs.

"So, where did you guys move from?" he asked.

"Colorado,"

"Whoa, this must be a major change for you,"

"It definitely is, I'm not used to palm trees yet,"

"Yeah, you'll actually still be able to go swimming during winter," he chuckled.

"I look forward to it," I shyly grinned at him.

His hazel eyes sparkled with excitement and I looked down, making sure my hair covered my heated face.

"What are you guys planning on sleeping on tonight?" Matt asked as he put down the last of my boxes.

"For tonight we're gonna sleep on some air mattresses and tomorrow we'll put together the beds and start unpacking,"

"Okay, if you guys need help, just ask myself and the guys. You'll always see us hanging out in Brian's garage across the street,"

"Thanks, I'm sure Max will find his way over there to bother you guys," I rolled my eyes and saw headlights in the driveway.

"I guess I'll be going now,"

"Alright, thanks for your help." I followed him downstairs ans saw mom and dad walk in with two boxes of pizza.

"Alright! Food!" Max cheered and snatched the food and ran into the kitchen.

"See you later Max," the guys said and waved to me.

"See you tomorrow," Matt smiled.

"Bye,"

I shut the door behind him and turned around to see mom smirking at me.

"He's cute," she grinned.

"I know,"

She chuckled and patted my shoulder before walking to the kitchen with me trailing behind. I quickly ate my pizza before Max could eat all of it and announced that I was off to take a shower. I walked into my cluttered room and made my way over to my suitcase. I took out some pajamas and a towel and went into the bathroom. I took a quick shower and when I walked back in my room I saw dad blowing up my mattress.

"Thanks dad," I said and shoved boxes on the side so I could have more room to walk.

"No problem," he said and finished blowing up my bed. "Good night," he kissed my forehead and shut the door behind him.

I fished out a blanket and pillow from inside of a box and laid down on my bed with it. I turned to the wall and my eyes shut once my head hit the pillow.

xxx

The next morning I woke up to pounding coming from the front door. I groaned and got up from the floor and walked downstairs. I rubbed my eyes and opened the front door to see Max standing outside with a McDonald's bag in his hand.

"Where did you get that from?" I yawned and scratched my head as I shut the door behind him.

"Well, I was the only one up with dad this morning when our car got shipped in, so I went with him to pick up breakfast and when he came back home mom was up and I went with them to take back the rental car and they just dropped me back home," he explained.

"So where are they now?"

"They went shopping for a table and chairs for the kitchen,"

I walked back out to go back to sleep when Max called after me. "I also invited the guys to come back over," he said.

"When?" I groaned, not in the mood to see anyone until I got a couple more hours of sleep. Just then the doorbell rang and I mumbled curses under my breath when Max told me to answer the door.

I opened the front door and saw Matt and the rest of the guys from yesterday standing on the doorstep.

"Good morning," Matt said.

I mumbled a 'good morning' and he chuckled.

"I'm guessing you're not a morning person?"

"No," I yawned and covered my mouth. "Max! Your friends are here," I called out and left the door open for them to walk in.

I started walking back to the stairs and I felt someone looking at my ass as I walked away. I glanced back and saw that it was Matt. I shook my head and went back upstairs to my room and fell asleep again.

A few hours later I felt someone shaking me and I swatted them away. The shaking continued and I shoved the person away and wrapped myself tighter into the blanket.

"J.D, wake up it's one in the afternoon already," Max said.

"Go away,"

"No, get up so you can help us fix the stuff downstairs,"

"Fine," I groaned and rolled over. I got up and Max left while I took out something to wear. I grabbed my stuff and went into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later I walked out of the bathroom and downstairs where everyone was.

"You finally decided to shower?" Max asked.

I gave him the middle finger and shuffled into the kitchen where a breakfast sandwich was sitting on the counter for me. I warmed it up in the microwave, took it out, and started eating. I finished eating and threw out the wrapper before starting to put away stuff for the kitchen.

I opened a box and sighed when I saw that it was mom's figurines for the kitchen, which meant that I had to climb up and put them on top of the cabinets. I the box on top of the counter and climbed up. I started lining the cabinets with the figurines and I finally got down to the last one when I saw that I didn't have enough room to move over. I stretched as far as I could and I got the statue in its place, but I ended up losing my footing at the same time. I shrieked as I felt myself fall backwards off the counter.

I closed my eyes and waited for the impact of the floor, but instead I felt someone arms holding me up. I slowly opened my eyes and looked up to see a boy with bright green eyes holding me up just a few inches off the ground. He hoisted me into an upright position and I straightened out my clothes.

"Thanks a lot," I smiled.

"No problem, it's a good thing Max sent me in here to see if you needed any help," he chuckled.

"I knew he was good for something," I joked.

The boy laughed and I crossed my arms.

"I'm Zack by the way," he said.

"Hey, I'm J.D," I said and shook his hand.

"J.D? You mean like the drink?" he asked.

"The drink?"

"Yeah, Jack Daniels,"

"Oh, no, it's just the initials of my first and middle name,"

"Oh okay, but it's still cool that you have the nickname of J.D," he said and started handing me some dishes out of a box while I put them up.

"What is that anyway?" I asked as I shoved the stack of plates to the back of the cabinet.

"What's what?"

"J.D,"

Zack stopped moving and looked at me with wide eyes. "You don't know what Jack Daniels is?" he asked, completely astonished.

I sheepishly shook my head and he ran out the kitchen. "What's wrong? What did I say?" I asked him in a worried voice.

"Guys! She doesn't know what Jack Daniels is!" Zack shrieked.

A chorus of 'what' came out and everyone looked at me, including Max.

"J.D, you don't know what Jack Daniels is?" Max asked.

"How do you know what that is?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

He gave me a sheepish grin and went back to unpacking stuff.

"Jack Daniels is the best alcoholic drink ever created," Zack explained.

"Oh, no wonder I don't know it, I don't drink," I said.

"You've got to be kidding me," Matt said.

"Nope,"

Matt came over and slung an arm on my shoulder. I secretly inhaled his cologne and welcomed the scent that kept traveling up my nose.

"J.D, we have to get you to drink at least once," Matt said.

"Yeah, you can come drinking with us one night when our girlfriends are with us," the tallest one with crazy hair smiled.

Girlfriends?!

"Oh, you guys have girlfriends?" I weakly asked.

"Yeah, well except Matt," the last guy with short hair said.

I let out a sigh of relief when I heard the news. "Sure, just give me a couple of days notice so I can prepare myself to act like an idiot when I get drunk," I chuckled.

"Fair enough," Zack said.

The tall guy called Matt over and he took his arm off my shoulder and walked away. My eyes followed his moving figure and I snapped out of it once Zack suggested that we finish up in the kitchen. We went back to putting away dishes, not saying a word to each other.

"He broke up with his girl a while back," Zack broke the silence.

"Who?"

"Matt," he grinned.

"Oh, okay," I said.

"It's okay to tell me that you have a crush on Matt, I won't tell anyone,"

"I don't have a crush on him, I just got here yesterday," I scoffed.

"Okay, whatever you say," he grinned and went back to putting up cups.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept my head down. I barely know Zack, but if he can read me like an open book, then how obvious were my feelings to Matt?