A Summer to Remember

“Andrea I love that color,” Julie said, as Andrea was finishing up the last coat of nail polish on her fingernails.

I glanced up from my own bright pink nails to look up at Andrea’s. They were an emerald green…the exact color of James’ eyes. I felt a pang of sorrow wash through me. It must have shown on my face because the next thing I knew I was surrounded by Julie, Andrea and Margaret.

“Danielle, what’s wrong?” Margaret asked. They were all looking at me, each face filled with concern.

“James broke up with me,” I said breaking the silence.

“Aw I’m sorry Dani,” Andrea told me as she pulled me into a comforting hug.

“That sucks,” Margaret said, “Why’d he break up with you?”

“He said he’s had enough of this town and that he’s already to leave it behind…and that includes me.”

“What a dick. James doesn’t realize how lucky he was to have you Dani. First off you would never date someone as insensitive as James or controlling. He took advantage of you all the time and normally you don’t even give guys like that a second glance, but you gave him a chance and he blew it. It’s his loss. You’re way better without him,” Julie said. This was the thing I loved must about Julie. She was strong, had amazing courage and always told us exactly what she thought. That’s one of the reasons why Julie and I are super close. We’re sort of a tag team she’s got my back I got hers. “ What you really need honey, is a girls night.”

Then everything seemed to happen simultaneously, Julie pulled me off my knees and gave me a lime green boa while Margaret cranked up the music. Andrea ran upstairs to get some popcorn and ice cream.

“You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine. You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life.” Julie and I screamed along with the music.

“See that girl, watch that scene, diggin’ the dancing queen.” Andrea and Margaret sang on the top of their lungs.

Once the song ended we started playing karaoke revolution on Jake’s PS2. It may seem a little kidish, but this was the way we spent the first sleepover of the summer since 3rd grade. Just because we were high school graduates didn’t mean we were going around breaking our childhood traditions.

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Around 1:30 in the morning we decided to do some prank phone calls. (A tradition we added back at the end of 7th grade.) I grabbed my cell as Andrea, Julie and Margaret formed at circle in the middle of my basement. We made up a game to make the pranks more fun. One person starts with the phone and scrolls through the contacts then another person randomly says stop. Whoever it stops on is the person we call. As the phone is ringing we pass it in a circle. When someone on the other end answers the phone, whoever has the phone in her hand has to talk.

“Stop!” Andrea shouted at me.

“Mark Graham,” I told them. I pressed *69 the dial and quickly threw my phone at Margaret. On the third ring he answered.

“Hello?”

“Tú es atractivo.” Julie screamed into the phone. A burst of laughter came out of our mouths.

“What? I don’t know what you are saying.” Mark was clearly dumbfounded.

“Tú es atractivo” Julie said once more.

“I don’t speak Spanish,” Mark told her. His voice was full of frustration. It only made us laugh harder.

“¡No hablas español!” Julie shouted into the phone. She sounded so upset that we could do nothing but giggle at her false emotion.

“Huh?” Was Marks only response.

“Ay ay ay!” Julie yelled into the phone. Then promptly hung up because she couldn’t contain her laughter any longer. We laughed until tear came sliding down our faces. Once we had all calmed down Margaret spoke, “He may not be the smartest person I know, but his body definitively makes up for it.”

“Yeah,” Andrea agreed, “but his eyes are the best thing about him. They are the most gorgeous chocolate brown I have ever seen.”

“Omigosh! I totally forgot to tell you guys.” I gasped suddenly remembering the pair of eyes I saw earlier this afternoon. “As I was leaving Jake’s car today I saw the most beautiful blue eyes ever!”

“Oooo, who do they belong to?” Julie asked me.

I sighed, “I don’t know… I saw them as I was leaving. I didn’t even know anyone was in the car until I was leaving that’s how quiet it was.

“Or maybe your sobs had drown out the all noise they were making…” Andrea suggested. I picked up the pillow next to me and threw it straight at her head.

“Thanks,” I said in my most sarcastic voice. “I wish I could see them again, they were as blue as the ocean.”

“Girl, you better find out who this boy is because as far as I can tell you’re already falling for him.” Julie said.

“Well she does love the ocean,” Margaret added.

“Maybe Jake will bring him over tomorrow for breakfast.” I told them.

“Oh yeah, you’re parents always make you guys have Saturday breakfast together.” Andrea said.

"I knew one day my parents weird rules would pay off for something." I said as my eyes fluttered shut before I drifted into a peaceful sleep.