Your Voice Was The Soundtrack Of My Summer

Everyone was crammed inside of Patrick’s car. I was glad not to be crammed in the back with everyone else. Everyone was clueless on what Patrick had up his sleeve. But it was Becky who was being the most annoying. Asking Patrick throughout the whole ride, “are we there yet?” and other sorts of questions. At one point Joe had clamped her mouth shut with his hand, which only fueled the fire. “How about I ask you the questions instead?” She asked, no make that more or less, said to Joe. Now Joe had Becky spewing out questions to him. Poor Joe. Later on we pulled up at the mall.

“We’re here.”

“What’s the big deal Patrick?” Pete asked.

“Yeah we go to the mall all of the time.” Andy added.

“I have an idea on how to make the mall more fun.”

We all got out of the car and gathered around the back.

“Mall truth or dare.”

That sounded interesting. Everyone paid attention a little closer.

“How do we play?” Joe asked.

“Well let’s say you go into a store right? Lets say you see a shirt or something. You can pick a person to ask, ‘truth or dare,’ to and… yeah I think you get the point.”

“Oh that sounds like fun.” Becky said and we all agreed.

When we got into the mall Becky was heading straight for the toy store. We all followed. Becky and I separated us from the boys. She pulled me into the doll isle.

“Oh my God Piper I miss playing dolls with you when we were little.”

I looked at the dolls and picked up a Barbie doll.

“Oh no! I’m about to fall off the edge. Save me! Save me!”

“I’ll save you!” Becky had a Ken doll.

“Oh no!” Then I dropped it… Becky didn’t catch it though.

“Oh shit.”

“Ha I think one of her implants popped.”

That left us in a fit of laughter that had little kids and their parents staring at us. I rubbed underneath my eye, a streak of black eyeliner left on my finger.

“Oh my God Becky! You made my eyeliner run!”

I ran and picked up a light saber.

“You shall die!”

Becky quickly picked up one and poked me in the stomach. We battled in the isle. I saw Andy coming towards us with a little red wagon. Becky spun around and hit him in the head with her light saber.

“Ow!”

“Oh my God! Andy I’m so sorry!”

I didn’t even say anything I was bent over laughing.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on a Jedi like that!”

“Anyway… Becky… truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

Of course Becky picked dare.

“I dare you to get inside this wagon while I pull it through all of the isles making a scene.”

Becky got inside the wagon and Andy ran out of the isle. I went to go look for Patrick. He was looking at skateboards with Pete and Joe.

“What’s up fellows?”

“Not much…” Pete said.

“Where’s Becky?” Joe asked.

“Go look in one of the isles… you’ll find out.”

Patrick and Pete followed Joe. I picked up one of the skateboards and went after them. I watched as Andy was running with Becky in the wagon. Becky was screaming and trying to steer away from hitting the toys.

“Patrick, hold me up while I ride this bad boy.”

“Ok.”

Patrick held onto my hands as I slowly rode the skateboard.

“Aw come on! I want to go faster!”

Patrick started running making me go faster.

“I’m going to let go of you ok?”

“What?”

Then Patrick let me go. I went speeding down the isle screaming. Then I hit Andy who was coming around the corner. Everyone was laughing at us. Becky almost fell out of the wagon. One of the cashiers came over to see what was going on.

“I’m going to have to ask you to stop fooling around or I’m going to have to make you leave.”

“Sorry… we’re just going to go.” Andy said while rubbing his head.

I hit my leg when I crashed into Andy. It hurt but I over dramatized and limped out of the store.

“You ok Piper?” Patrick asked.

“No. Give me a ride.”

Patrick huffed when I jumped onto his back. I pointed to Victoria’s Secret when I saw it.

“Onward!”

I jumped off of Patrick’s back when we got there. A pink lacy thong caught my eye.

“Pete… truth or dare.”

“Dare.”

“Oh you should have said dare.” I said while swinging the thong on my finger.

“Oh no… what are you going to make me do?”

“I dare you to go up to someone that works here and ask them if they have one of these in your size.”

“No…”

“Come on! You have to.”

“She’s right dude.” Joe said.

Pete torn the thong out of my hand and walked away in a huff. We all watched and giggled as Pete asked one of the woman employee’s there. She looked at him oddly and walked away. Pete stood there and waited. A few minutes later the woman came back with the thong. And not only did she have the pink one but she also had it in another color. Pete came back and threw them at me.

“Happy?”

“Oh I’m delighted.”

“Now it’s my turn. I dare you…”

“Hey wait!” Patrick interrupted.

“What?”

“You just can’t dare her.”

“But…”

“Patrick’s right Pete.”

“Ugh, fine. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“See! Now I’m never going to get my revenge.”

“Just get it over with Pete.”

“Fine.”

Pete looked around the store. I started getting nervous as I saw some of the lingerie they have.

“What’s your bra size?”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Ugh.”

I went over to Pete and whispered it in his ear.

“You better not tell anyone.”

“32C!” Pete yelled.

“Pete! When you’re alone I’m going to kill you.”

“You have to catch me first.”

I ran after Pete throughout the mall. Apologizing to people I ran into along the way. Pete went into the back parking lot. He tripped over a stick and I jumped on top of him. We wrestled in the empty parking lot. Pete won when he got on top first.

“Well this is awkward.”

“Get off of me!”

“No I think I rather like this.” He said as he lay on top of me.

“Get off you perv.”

“Your boobs are comfy.”

I pushed Pete off of me.

“Ow…”

“Come on we better get back to the others.”

I helped Pete up and walked back to the front entrance of the mall. I heard a car horn honk. I spun my head around and it was the others.

“Come on guys! We’re going to the beach… bon fucking fire!” Andy shouted.

I groaned as Pete and I slid into the back of the car with everyone else. Joe had taken the passengers seat.

“I tried to stop him Piper.” Patrick said faintly.

“That’s ok. But remember Joe. When you least expect it I will have my revenge.”

Joe stuck is tongue out at me in the rear view mirror. I did the same. We got to the beach before the sun started to set. Everyone made teams of two to go collect driftwood for our bonfire.

“Are you just going to watch me hold all of this wood by myself or are you going to give me a hand?”

“Well Piper you do look sexy doing it.”

Patrick took half of what I already had and started picking up some more.

“Kind of like a sexy lumberjack.”

“Ok then I’ll make sure I forget all of my hopes and dreams and become a lumberjack for you.”

“What are your hopes and dreams anyway, to take your sarcasm professionally? Like people that can’t use sarcasm can hire you and with a snap of their fingers you can throw sarcastic remarks at whomever they choose.”

“Oh watch out citizens of Chicago we have a comedian here.”

“But no seriously. What are your life plans?”

I glanced at Patrick then continued picking up driftwood.

“To be a rock star.” I said with a chuckle.

“Really?”

“No… to be honest I don’t know yet. I’m not one of those people that have their whole life planned out at like the age of ten.”

“Go with the flow I guess?”

“Sort of. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to really think about it.”

Patrick kissed me on the head.

“Well hopefully I’ll be part of your future.”

“I hope so too. And if not then I might have to kick your ass.”

“That sounds painful. Yet appealing.”

I lightly kicked Patrick in the ass.

“Perv.”

“Only when you’re around.”

“Right.”

I looked at the piles of driftwood Patrick and I had and then at the horizon. The sun was just about setting.

“I think we have enough wood. Let’s go find the others so we can get this fire going.”

When we got back to the others Pete and Joe were arranging the wood for the fire. Becky sat in the sand a good distance away and watched.

“Finally! It took you forever!” Joe complained.

“No it didn’t.”

Patrick and I sat our piled next to the already arranged mini teepee. Patrick helped Joe and Pete while I went to sit with Becky.

“Hey Piper.”

“Hi.”

“Are you ready for senior year?”

“Ready for it to be over.”

“It’s only just begun my friend.”

I looked down at my feet while I pushed the sand around. Becky was looking out at the water deep in thought.

“What about you? Are you ready?”

“Sort of. Ready to go out with a bang I guess.”

“Just don’t kill anyone.”

Becky leaned over and bumped into me.

“The mother fucking lighter isn’t working Joe!” I heard Patrick shout.

“Where is Andy, B?”

“He went to find a bush to take a whiz, P.”

“Don’t call me P ever again.”

“Ok.”

“Hey guys I found this old football.”

“You didn’t piss on it Andy did you?”

“No I didn’t Becky!”

After the boys got the fire lit we played football, three against three. One team was Pete, Patrick, and Andy. The other was Joe, Becky, and I. We didn’t win though in the end. I gave Patrick a congratulatory kiss.

“I can’t believe we lost.”

“Get over it Joe.”

I giggled when Becky pushed Joe in the sand. It had gotten dark and the only light came from our bonfire. Patrick tugged on my hand. I followed him. We walked a little bit far down the shore. Not enough to completely lose sight of the fire but enough so we could be alone.

“Well the summer is pretty much over.”

“I know.” I said as I rested my head on Patrick’s shoulder. I stared out at the pitch-black water savoring the moment.

“It was a pretty great summer though.”

“Yeah.”

“You seem distracted?”

“Yeah I guess I am.”

“Any particular reason why?”

“Not really. I guess I’m just thinking about the final year of school. We’ll all be growing up after this. Possibly growing apart.”

“Oh I doubt we’ll grow apart.”

“How do you know?

“Well honestly I don’t know. But I do know that good friends like this just don’t grow apart easily.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Patrick kissed my cheek.

“And I know I’m not going anywhere soon. I paid a lot of money for your ring. I’m going to be here until the very end. Or at least until you drop the ring down a drain washing dishes or something.”

I lightly punched Patrick’s arm and he laughed.

“For your information I don’t leave it on when I’m using the plumbing.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Patrick said as he lightly kissed my lips.

“I know. I’m not either.”

We kissed a few more times, completely unaware of anything going on. Then we were pushed into the water. I tried to adjust my vision in the dark as I helped Patrick up. I could tell by their laughs that it was Becky and Pete.

“You guys were getting a little heated. We thought you need a little cooling down.” Pete got out in between laughs. I looked down at my drenched clothes.

“I’m going to kill you Pete! Becky since you’re my best friend you only get a torturing.”

Becky and Pete ran away. Patrick and I ran after them and enjoyed our final minutes of the summer.