Girls in the Summertime

I like to move it, move it
She likes to move it, move it
He likes to move it, move it
You like to… MOVE IT!

My eyes flutter open calmly, but I momentarily let out a scream when I hear piercing shrieks prior to my consciousness.

All girls all over the world,
Original mad stuntman pon ya case man!
I love how all girls a move them body,
And when ya move ya body, and move it,
Nice and sweet and sexy, alright!

I turned to the source of the screams to see both Allison and Lucy tug fearfully onto their velvety sleeping bags. Both girls look exasperated and beyond shocked to wake up to the horrible music. I take it that their reactions are exceeding mine, but honestly, I am more used to this than they will ever be.

Speaking of this occurrence, I turn to the source of the music—recognizing that all-too-smug grin on that goofy-looking face. Sitting up from my bed, I glared at the figure by my bedroom door.

“Ronnie! What the hell, man?” I yelled, throwing both my hands up, obviously exasperated.

Of course the jerk face decided to ruin the morning of my first sleepover— first one since he returned from Princeton, New Jersey. I can’t believe the return of both my brothers are freaking the shit out of my best friends—well I can believe it, but I just don’t like the way they disrupted my sleepover with the girls.

Ronnie’s vibrant blue eyes gleamed in pure delight, a satisfied smile still glistening on his face. He picked his trusty radio up off the floor and wrapped his long arms around it.

“Good morning girls!” he exclaimed enthusiastically.

The two girls groaned.

“Good morning?” Allison shot back sarcastically.

“Whoa, you gotta chill, man!” Ronnie held his free hand up in defense.

It is normal for Ronnie to have the intention to wreck our girl time, because he has been doing it for as long as I remembered, but it is something that none of us has gotten used to—especially since Ronnie has been gone this whole year (and the year before that).

“I need my beauty sleep!” Lucy whined, rubbing her eyes.

“Nuh uh, you ain’t getting no beauty sleep, girl. It is against the law for you to be beautiful—especially if being ugly means that you won’t get a boyfriend,” Ronnie stuck her tongue out at my redhead best friend.

Lucy frowned at my older brother, folding both arms across her chest.

“Did you just admit that I’m beautiful?”

Allison sniggered and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the bickering pair.

“No,” Ronnie replied flatly, “but I surely do think that you are delusional.”

“Bitch, I’m fabulous!” Lucy retaliated.

Ronnie waved her off casually before averting his attention from her. His urgent blue eyes landed on me and I can sense a tint of seriousness in his eyes—and I immediately know that he is down for business… literally.

“Blake, Patrick is holding a call for you downstairs. The Dalkia Industries office has called asking for you, so I think you need to take that call,” his eyes gestured to the direction of our spiral staircase and it seems urgent.

Looking back at the girls and seeing their supportive gestures, I rolled out of bed and followed Ronnie out of my bedroom.

When I arrived to the living room, I turn on the crystal chandelier lights—which startled Patrick—and took the telephone from its face down position on the table. I looked up at Patrick and mouthed a word of gratitude to him. Beaming at me, he gestured toward our kitchen and disappeared to the general direction.

“Hello? This is Blake Grayson,” I said politely, with every intention of sounding professional.

“Miss Grayson, this is Beatrice Walters from the Human Resource office of the Dalkia Industries,” a woman spoke from the other end of the line, “Mr. Jacobs has requested for your company in the office today. He wants you to pay Dalkia Industries a visit and show you around.”

“Really?” I exclaimed and then I realized that I needed to contain myself.

“You can drop by the office any time today between 10:00 and 6:00 in the late afternoon,” Beatrice Walters informed.

“Great, thank you!”

“No problem, Miss Grayson!”

I hear a squeal from the direction of my bedroom and an idea flickered in my head.

“Miss Walters?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think it is alright for me to bring my friends along? I’m sure they would love to see the office too!”

“Sure, Miss Grayson, I don’t see that as a problem.”

“Great! Let Mr. Jacobs know that I will be there!”

“Have a good day, Miss Grayson!”

“You too, Beatrice!”

I hung up the phone and notice the noise from my bedroom increase from its former volume. Raising my eyebrow in mild confusion, I rushed up the spiral staircase to get to the setting of this commotion. When I finally made it up to my room, I see Ronnie and my two best friends engaged in a pillow fight.

“Hey guys, how are you doing?” I yelled, halting the trio from their game.

Both girls look guilty but Ronnie just beamed at me delightfully.

“I’m doing great, Blake, thanks for asking!”

“Don’t mind me asking, big brother, but what the hell is this?”

“We’re having a pillow fight!”

Shaking my head, I finally gave in with a grin. Everyone started laughing afterwards. I joined Lucy and Allison on my bed, kicking my white sheets off the mattress.

“I was actually here to inform you all that Patrick is making English sausages for breakfast! Be down in a minute, okay?”

Allison scoffed.

“You know, adding English to sausages doesn’t really make the sausages English,” she clarified.

“Shut up, smartass,” Ronnie groaned.

“By the way, the correct term for Patrick’s newfound ethnicity is technically British. London residents prefer it that way, just so you know,” Allison winked at my brother.

Ronnie shook his head in defeat and left my bedroom.

“But English works too,” Allison murmured.

“Anyways, I miss Patrick’s cooking! He is such a beast, man! It’s been too long since I’ve had his food!” I squealed excitedly, glancing at my best friends with a goofy smile on my face.

The other girls made sounds of agreement.

“You know, Steven is so lucky to be able to eat Patrick-made meals every day!” Allison said.

“I think Mia is lucky too!” I added.

Lucy huffed.

“She is so lucky her boyfriend can cook like a boss!”

Smiling, I turned to her, completely understanding.

“Don’t fret, Lucy! I’m sure Chris can cook for you too!”

Saying that I love teasing Lucy would be an understatement.

“Shut it, Grayson” she muttered, standing up from the bed.

Allison chuckled, shaking her head at me.

When the three of us entered the kitchen, Patrick already placed four dozens of English sausages on a big dish. Ronnie is setting the table up in the dining room, which is not a common occurrence.

“Hey girls!” Patrick greeted, picking the plate up.

“Hi, Patrick!” I waved, “did you wake up early this morning?”

“If 6AM counts as early, then yeah, pretty much,” he said.

“Jetlag, my English brother?”

Shrugging, he turned to Lucy.

“Hey Luce, I’m sorry about yesterday. I knew it was a bad idea to leave the bathroom door unlocked when I was um… indecent.”

Lucy flushed, looking down at her feet.

“It’s fine, really,” but I knew she didn’t think it was.

Patrick gestured for us to head to the dining room and we did as we were told. But as we made our way to the dining table, I turned to Allison.

“I’d like to know why you were running away from Patrick’s half-naked form yesterday—since you guys are so close?” I recalled the moment Allison ran frightfully to the bathroom at the sight of half-naked Patrick.

Allison shrugged.

“I guarantee you that Steven is the only DeNeef who would ever see naked Patrick and act cool about it!”

We all sat down at the table; Ronnie and I on one side while Lucy, Allison, and Patrick sat on the other. Ronnie is the first to stick his fork through one of Patrick’s English sausages.

“You make it sound like there’s this love affair going on between the two,” Lucy laughed.

“Hey!” Patrick is offended.

“Well, if I am still accessing my Tumblr account obsessively, I would ship those two so hard!” Allison replied.

“Hey! I’m right here!” my oldest brother waved at Allison, irritated.

“I know! That’s the point!” Allison mimicked his motion.

“Besides, I have a girlfriend so you and your fan girl ship war thing can jump off the empire state building, for all I care!”

Honestly, Patrick will only threaten Allison in a joking manner, no one else. I have no idea why, but the two seems to have this connection thing that I have no way of understanding.

“You’re just mad that I’m going to tell my cousin that you’d go gay for him!”

“Be careful where you sleep, Miss DeNeef!”

Allison stuck her tongue out at Patrick and we all resumed to eating our breakfast.

“Hey Ronnie, can you drop me and the girls off at Dalkia Industries at 10:30?” I turned to my side.

Ronnie made a sound of affirmative.

“What?” Allison exclaimed.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you guys! The head of the HR office wants me to drop by today and I am allowed to bring you guys with me!” I announced.

“Aww man, do we get a say in this?” Lucy feigned disappointment, but I know that she is only teasing me—maybe to get me back for my remarks about Clumsy Chris.

“Well, you can tell your new friends at Manhattan Music School that you have entered the big blue building of the infamous Dalkia Industries! You know, for bragging rights and all?”

Lucy frowned at the mention of making new friends in college. It is a subject we have all avoided since graduation. We did not want to talk about our upcoming college life. The three of us will be separated with Lucy going to Manhattan, New York for the music school, Allison going to San Francisco, California for the Academy of Art University, and me going to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Things will definitely be different from this point on and I’m not sure if our friendship can survive through college.

But I will not voice out my thoughts and concerns, since this last summer is too precious to waste negative thoughts on.



After Ronnie dropped us off at the Dalkia Industries, the three of us approached the front desk of the building and we were escorted up the elevator to the HR office.

Up at the HR office, Beatrice Walters met up with us, greeting us with politeness. Miss Walters is a receptionist, as she introduced herself. She talked about the products made by the company as well as the history of this particular building. This is the main base of the Dalkia Industries as the founder had lived in Miami for most of his life, but now he is dead and gone.

Beatrice continued on about the company when I feel the absolute need to run to the bathroom and pee. As helpless as ever, I turned to Lucy who raised an eyebrow at me.

“I have to piss really, really badly” I whispered to her.

She snorted loudly, stealing the attention of Miss Walter and Allison.

“Are you okay, miss?” Beatrice asked Lucy.

The redhead smirked at me, winking.

“I’m fine, but Blake, she really needs to pi—“

“—urinate!” I finished quickly.

Beatrice smiled at me kindly, pointing to her left.

“The bathroom is all the way across that hall, we will wait for you here,” she said.

Muttering a rushed sentence of gratitude, I made a beeline toward the left hallway. I sprinted frantically in my skin-tight leather pants and five inch heels, aiming for the door of heaven at the end. If I end up wetting my pants, I will cry. It would be so unprofessional, to urinate in my own trousers on the first day in the office.

I was stressing out so much that I nearly disregarded a figure that suddenly appeared from the office cubicle on the side. Even in five inch heels, I run pretty fast. I am the top woman athlete in my former high school and running track is my absolute passion. So I had to stop myself from the sprint before running the guy over.

When I halted my movements, I tripped over my heels, and unfortunately, falling right on the guy. The man in a nice shirt and tie caught me just as I was about to nastily knock us both over.

“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, shaking my head furiously.

“Hey, it’s fine, really,” the guy replied, “it’s not every day for me to get run over by a pretty lady—especially at work.”

I raised my eyebrows, prepared to ask the guy about what his wife would think, when I properly glanced at the man. My eyes dilated and I nearly gasped.

The guy is a young guy, not a middle aged guy who is probably married. He is not just a young guy, he is a handsome guy! His features are more on the feminine side, and I don’t know if that is my type or not, but who cares?

His features are sharp and a bit stony, but his warm brown eyes told me otherwise. I noticed his very skinny nose and freakishly thin lips, but I looked away from the latter as quickly as I can.

“Well, I really have to pee, uh… urinate, I mean,” I shake my head at my idiotic behavior.

The hot business guy laughed at me, gesturing toward the direction of the bathroom.

“You don’t have to pretend to be smart if you are not,” he joked.

I laughed along because he is cute.

“I don’t want to keep you from the restroom, so go on ahead. I have to go get a file from my boss anyways,” he said.

Waving at me, he walked toward the direction I ran from. I stared after his departing figure and wondered if he just made fun of me teasingly or intentionally.

But God, if every guy in the office looked like that, I’m going to really love working this summer!

I have to pee.