Summer's Never Looked The Same

The soft whispers of my father's voice wakes me up from my deep slumber.

"Ava... Ava, wake up." He whispers, shaking my shoulder lightly. "You need to get up."

I mumble the first thing that comes to my mind. "School is out, though."

"I know. But you have to get up. It's really important." His voice is different. He sounds sad and something else, but I can't place it. I turn on the lamp on my bedside table as he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

After awhile of waking myself up, I get dressed slowly as I try to think of what's happening. But I can't think of anything with how tired I am.

I walk down the hall and down the stairs, looking around the first level of the house until I see my dad, and his friends, sitting in the living room. Steve-O, Bam, Chris, Ehren, Wee-Man, and Dave are here. But Ryan isn't, which peaks my curiosity as to why isn't here with everyone else. Before I say anything, I analyze everyone's expressions. Bam looks like he has been crying. Tears are welled up in his eyes and his face is extremely red, his eyes practically swollen shut. Everyone else looks heartbroken and upset.

"What happened?" I ask instantly, feeling like my heart is going to drop.

My dad, Johnny Knoxville, studies my expression before starting. "Ryan and Zachary died this morning. They were in a car accident."

I blink once and just stare at him. I can't move my legs and my hands start to shake. Tears fall rapidly, even though I'm not crying yet. I feel a knife go through my heart. I wait for him to say more, but he sees that I obviously won't be able to take much more news. Those few sentences are already acting like a sledgehammer to my insides.

Automatically, I turn and stumble out of the room like I'm drunk. I eye the back door of the house and push against it onto the porch. It's cold, raining, and a little misty. It's enough to tell me that it's early in the morning.

My tears fall at the same speed of the rain. The last time I had talked to Ryan was last night when he had called me. His friends had been doing something that I can't remember, seeing as it was 1:30 in the morning and Ryan had woken me up, so I was groggy during half the phone call.

I remember at one point, when we were about to hang up, I said "Don't drink and drive!" as a joke. He had had one beer from what he told me, and I don't know if he had anymore after our phone call. But I'm beginning to think that he did.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look up to see Dad. He pulls me into a tight, one-armed hug.

Accidentally, I blurt out, "Please stopping joking with me." Realizing what I said, I feel really bad. I really hope they are just pulling a cruel prank on me and Ryan is actually hiding out front. But deep down, I know that he is actually gone and I can already feel it breaking me down slowly. Now I feel like a bitch, acting as if death is a joke, in which it obviously isn't.

He just stares down at me with a pained look. Without saying a word, he pulls me into his chest and holds me tightly.

"It's going to be okay, Ava. We'll all help each other get through this. I promise." He says, kissing the top of my head.

I absorb his words slowly and close my eyes, the pressure on my heart increasing at the thought of what everything will be like now.