Chapters On A Page

The summer heat hadn't been completely overbearing though it was quickly becoming the middle of July. It was the humidity that was killer, drenching everything but the grass which was dying faster than it could grow. The past couple of weeks had been like living in a sauna, the air wet and sticky. I knew soon it was only going to get worse with the temperature ratcheting up along with it, if only for a short time. For now though, it seemed to be making the blackberry bushes interspersed in the trees at the end of the yard flourish. The branches hung heavy with the tiny, dark purple fruit and I had been itching to pick some the moment they were ripe. I had checked them the day before and I knew as Alex and I walked out back -large mixing bowls in hand to gather as much as we could- that I wouldn't be disappointed with them.

I stepped into the trees, making my way to the first bush in my line of sight and automatically began plucking berries off their stems. Each one made a satisfying and resounding clunk as they landed into the metal bowl secured in the crook of my arm. Thorns on the branches scratched lightly against my arm each time I leaned in farther, but the feeling was barely noticeable as I continued on. I hardly paid any attention to Alex a few feet away while he picked berries with half the vigor I was exerting. I was sure it was simply because I tended to get extra excited over little things like this and other people often couldn't reach my weird level. I kept a smile on my face and sauntered over to him when I had stripped the side of the bush I had been working on clean.

"You don't have any plans for the night?" I asked curiously, peeking at him out of the corner of my eye. I continued to pick berries as I let a silence fall on us before he answered, both because my bowl wasn't yet full and off course to appear nonchalant with my question. The fruit had formed a few solid layers at the bottom of the bowl, so they no longer made a sound as they fell atop of each other with every new addition. It was almost as if there was nothing in there, like they were disappearing before they could hit the bottom. I knew this was absolutely impossible, but I was tempted to check to make sure I had a good three dozen berries to clarify that my thought process wasn't proving to be true.

"Nah," Alex replied, breaking me from my reverie as I absentmindedly continued to reach out and mechanically drop fruit into my bowl. When I caught myself, I found I had thrown several unripe berries in with the good ones. I gave an internal sigh as I began to toss them to the ground. "I was just going to go home and take a nap until something interesting presented itself for the evening," he shrugged, glancing over at me tentatively. Before I could return his gaze though, he hurriedly faced the bush in front of us.

A question as to why this was formed on my lips and I was a second away from asking it when I stopped myself. Only I was almost positive that he had nothing to be unsure about as we stood together here in the thin woods behind my house. That didn't mean he didn't have a perfectly good reason to look away from me before our eyes could meet. Suddenly, this thought made me nervous. My palms broke out in a cold sweat much different from the kind sticking my hair to the back of my neck and my mouth went dry instantly. I had no explanation for any of this, but I was glad that none of it seemed to be obvious to anyone but me. My tongue like sandpaper, I cleared my throat in hopes of conjuring up some saliva to wet it. "Surely you're not the type of person that just waits around for something good to come along. You make your own fun," I reminded as if he didn't already know this piece of information about himself. He may not have been as popular as some of the other kids we went to school with surely were, but he didn't let that stop him from hanging out with anyone.

"Somedays I want to do nothing more than wait around for someone to get a hold of me," he admitted, not glimpsing at me timidly this time. He only stared straight ahead and continued to fill up the plastic bowl he was holding against his hip. I was glad he wasn't showing any signs of the boy that he really wasn't, even if the comment itself didn't sound like something I was used to from him. Without any sort of expression, it simply made it sound more confident and showed a more subtle side of him that I hadn't thought existed. Even though he couldn't see it, I smiled at him, one corner of my lips lifting up lightly while I looked his direction.

We carried on with our task in a comfortable silence, striding around to a couple more of the bushes before we had all we could carry. Side-by-side we made our way back to the house. I was barefoot -as I usually was during the summer when I didn't have to work- and my feet slid easily across the grass as we got closer to the steps. The grass between my toes felt right, reminding me that it was summer and that the season allowed me such small pleasures as picking blackberries like I used to do with Emma when I was little or traipsing around outside without any shoes because I wanted to. It was one of my favorite feelings in the world simply because it brought about so many memories that floated around my mind for hours. And now I was walking along with a friend I had made only a few weeks ago, adding a new memory to the bunch.

When we got up to the porch, I slid the back door open to let him go in first and then led him around the counter to the sink once inside. Before I could even set to looking for the colander to clean our haul, someone cackling loudly in the living room stopped me in my tracks. It was a laugh I recognized all too well, but I still took a moment to look back at Alex as if he could confirm to me who it was. When he simply shrugged as a response, I faced forward again and padded across the kitchen to the hallway. Coming to the first entrance to the living room, I turned into it and found one of my three best friends standing just inside the front door, leaning against the wall while talking to Kaylee who sat on the leather sofa. She was apparently telling a hilarious story, because he was still chuckling over whatever she was saying.

"Murphy," I dragged out in way of greeting, mostly just to let him know that I was there since he was standing with his head down. As he looked up, I realized he was positioned that way because he had only been faking the laugh, playing along to make sure my sister was giggling as well. The two of them had always gotten along great; I often wondered who his best friend in my family really was.

"Hey!" he exclaimed when he noticed my presence, and gave a slight wave to Alex who had followed me from the other room. "I thought we were meeting at my house tonight," Murph said, jumping right into his reason for being here. Kaylee looked crestfallen for a moment, realizing that meant he probably wasn't going to be here much longer for the two of them to joke around. But the expression didn't last very long on her usually joyful face.

"Then why are you here…?" I countered, trailing off and making it sound less angry than it would have been coming from someone who wasn't happy to see him.

"Because my brothers are absolute dicks, that's why!" he shouted back as if that would get the picture across better than a normal speaking volume. He threw his hands up in an exasperated manner, stalking over to the stairs beside me to throw himself down. His family was the exact opposite of my own, but not in the sense that it was only him and his parents. Instead of girls, his parents had had four boys, including Murph. His eldest brother had moved out when Murph was still in elementary school, but he still had one a year older than him as well as the youngest who was a year younger than Lilah. The three of them fought constantly, brotherly love rarely ever coming into the picture for them. That was a huge reason his mother adored Nic, Gwen, and I. We were the daughters she had always longed for, and she treated us as such.

I made a face at him that showed my partial confusion, one eye half closed and my mouth wrinkled into a strange grimace, none of which he saw. "Do I even want to ask what they did this time, or is it another of those nose-breaking fights that's exciting to you guys to listen to but I won't really care much about?" I wondered, pacing closer to the banister to rest against it. He gave a grunt that told me that it wasn't exactly either but it wasn't something he wanted to talk about either. "Are we going out then? 'Cause I need to get ready if we're going to do anything that requires me to leave the house," I informed him, using my typical girl reminder that he probably never forgot.

Murph shook his head disdainfully, running his hands through his messy black hair as he lifted his head. "I'm broke now that Max… well, I'm just broke. So it's more like another movie night. Or TV. Whatever. I just want to chill out on your couch for as long as possible before my mom starts to think I was kidnapped," he replied, a longing look in his eyes as he gazed across the room at the love seat he almost always occupied. His eyes flicked to me, not hoping that I would understand, but knowing. The only thing holding me back from throwing my arms around him and jokingly crooning that it would be all right was Alex standing there in the doorway and guessing that Murph wouldn't enjoy looking emasculated.

I waved my arm out, gesturing for him to lead the way to the couch. Both him and Alex seemed giddy to get over there, hopping onto separate seats before I could even take three steps in that direction. Having been listening in to our conversation, Kaylee had moved from the leather couch to the chair nearer to the television. She handed me my phone as I passed her, figuring I would want to call Gwen and Nic since they still thought we were supposed to go to Murph's. My youngest sister was much more observant than I gave her credit for sometimes, and I thanked her with a smile we shared and a hug. Alex had seated himself on the end of the couch closest to the wall and I threw myself onto the other end, ignoring whatever was already blaring from the television as I lifted my phone to my ear.

It only took two minutes total to make sure both the girls were on their way. I snapped my phone shut and threw it on the coffee table as I sank farther down into the sofa. My head was nearly on the same level with the cushioned arm beside me, but my legs were still bent and pulled close to me, on an angle that pointed toward the back of the couch. It took a moment for my eyes to fully focus on the television that the boys had commandeered and were flipping through channels on. They didn't spend more than ten seconds on any one channel and if it was on a commercial, it was changed even quicker. I didn't have a lot of chances to actually give input on what we should watch even if I had wanted to, but something caught my eye that would probably be impossible for me to miss.

"Hey, Buffy's on! Why are we not watching it?" I questioned seriously, shifting my legs just enough to see Alex sitting only a couple feet away from me. He rolled his head lazily on his neck to face me, giving me a look that included pressing his lips together yet pushing them out and lowering his brow to cover his eyes significantly. It was one that asked me if I was for real without having to use any real words. "Come on!" I yelled, forcing myself not to use an imploring tone. Sometimes it was hard to remind myself that I was no longer a child begging my mother to let me watch my favorite show when she thought I was far too young for it. I stretched my feet out and pressed them against his leg, giving him a small push that I was hoping would make him turn it back to the channel he had passed.

"Ew, get your dirty feet off of me!" he demanded, but the laugh escaping passed his lips didn't do much to convince me he was serious. As if I was reaching for it, he switched the remote to his other hand, the one closer to Murph than to me. "We're gonna watch man shows and eat all the chips in the house. I'd say we'd drink all the beer, too. But your mom's home and that would be inappropriate," he claimed, chuckling because even he couldn't be that flippant about it.

"But you're forgetting that it's my house, full of nothing but women. Pretty sure estrogen overrules testosterone two-to-one. Three-to-one, soon enough," I pointed out smugly as I pushed myself to sit up. I rolled my legs under me until I was kneeling on the middle cushion, closer to him now.

A playful look swam in his dark eyes and he stretched his other arm out even farther away from me, only a step away from lifting it above his head. "Are you saying that I should turn it back simply because you're the queen of the castle, so to speak?" he asked me, giving me a pointed look that dared me to answer him and prove him right.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure mom is the queen of the castle, no matter how we're talking here," Murph chipped in, causing Alex to turn his way for a moment and holding his attention for me. I took the opportunity to lunge at Alex and try for the remote so I could finally get my way. At the last minute, he realized what I was doing and caught me around the waist, causing me to land awkwardly in his lap. Murph chortled at the two of us from his place on the love seat out of harm's way, just waiting to see which one of us won and how long it would take. I suspected it had more to do with not wanting to have to live through too much of QVC, since that's what the TV had gotten left on, than it did with rooting for either one of us. "As Val would say, you're probably not going to be five-by-five after this if she doesn't get to that remote," he alleged, giving a small shrug that let us know that he still wasn't going to interfere.

"So that's where you got it, huh?" Alex asked teasingly, still keeping a firm grip on my waist so that I couldn't wiggle away back to where I had started.

I lifted myself up on my elbows, inadvertently digging them into his leg underneath me. "I don't know if I appreciate this," I stated, ignoring his comment while I craned my neck to look back at him.

"Well, I certainly don't," Nic's voice came from behind us. "And since poor Kaylee here can do nothing but shake her head, I'm sure she's just as disgraced."

"I don't even know what disgraced means," Kay responded with the light laugh I always associated with her. I lifted myself up then as carefully as I could since I was no longer being locked down, leaning back on the middle cushion slightly contorted and blowing hair out of my face. "I do think they're idiots though, if that helps," she said, looking up at Nic who was leaning over the back of the chair she had stretched her small body out on. At her words, the both of them broke out into a chorus of more giggles, growing even louder because Gwen joined in from where she stood leaning against the couch.

"You guys… are terrible," I told them, failing to come up with a better insult simply because it just wasn't in me to want to insult anybody today. I sat up right then, pulling my feet out from under me and sitting up until I was able to cross my legs in front of me. "Why don't you guys just sit down! Christ," I exclaimed exasperatedly as if I had been trying to get them to settle down for an hour. I pat the space next to me harder than needed, and beckoned for one of my friends to come sit down next to me. Nic gave a dramatic sigh but replaced it with a smile as she obliged and swung herself over the arm of the couch to bounce into the seat beside me. Gwen had seemingly disappeared, causing me to look around for her. But with a shout from Alex on my other side, I realized that she had snuck around the back of the couch to retrieve the remote he and I had been fighting over just a moment ago.

Beyond satisfied, she settled in next to Murph and navigated back to the channel I had suggested we watch. Wordlessly, she shoved the remote into the cushion she was sitting on and draped her legs over the side so that Murph wouldn't try to steal it back. This worked, because the six of us sat there without another argument about it and without anyone attempting to go as far as I had to get the remote back. We didn't sit in silence, but talked animatedly about what we were watching, commenting on anything we saw fit and exclaiming in elation when something happened that we approved of. I sat comfortably between one of my very best friends and the boy who was quickly joining that group in my mind. As the night grew dark and late, my head found his shoulder and I yawned while we continued in to another episode of the show that I could watch forever. It was still a couple more of them before someone declared that it was probably time that they should get going. A quick glance at the clock told me that it was already passed three, while one at a slumbering Kaylee told me it was way passed a proper time to go to sleep.

I stood up and stretched with my four friends, letting another yawn escape before my arms fell back to my sides. Sleepily, everyone else moved to the door to shove their feet into their shoes before heading outside. I followed, crossing my arms over my chest in an expression of how tired I had just realized I was. "I'll talk to you guys later," I announced, watching them as they gathered themselves enough to leave.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Alex asked from among the group, the end of it falling into a wide yawn. He ruffled the back of his hair, something I noticed was a habit of his.

"Work, then my dad's for a couple days," I replied, rolling my eyes at the thought of having to spend time with him cramped into his apartment. "I think I'd rather have anything else to do," I admitted, mumbling it though so that Nic couldn't hear so she couldn't go off on one of her rants about how my dad wasn't causing any problems anymore.

Alex nodded and turned slowly to follow my friends out the door. "I'll call you then," he promised, and gave me a smirk before he shut the door behind the four of them.