Kids in Love

Somehow, despite the feeling of Kali’s knee in my back and the awkward angle my leg is falling off the bed at, I wake up with a smile. Last night’s events vaguely replayed themselves in my dreams, although with more kisses and a pig in a tutu. Kali flips over next to me, taking all the covers with her and I roll my eyes, looking past her to check the time. 10:00 am. I never get to sleep in this late; my body usually wakes me up as soon as the sun rises. I frown as I realize I’ll have to skip yoga today.

Sitting up, I do a quick stretch, already knowing I won’t be able to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. I’m heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and shower when I notice that Fisher’s door is closed. I take a peek down the stairs; her backpack is still at the landing. I groan and roll my eyes, feeling more like a mother than an older sister as I decide to burst in her room.

The door hits the wall with a muffled thud. Fisher is lying in her bed, looking more like a toddler than a teenager. There is drool all over her pillow and the moose she sleeps with, Nemo, is falling out of her arms. I see her alarm clock on the floor, unplugged from the wall and nearly face palm myself. I walk over to the bed and start to shake my little sister, trying to wake her up.

“Get up, Fish.” My sleepy voice sounding more than annoyed as I dodge the flying stuffed animal she haphazardly throws at my head.

“Go ‘way.” She mumbles into her pillow after turning away from me. I surely didn’t sign up for this.

I grab her covers off of her, throwing them carelessly to the floor. Fisher sits right up, shivering in her tank top and pajama shorts. I guess she forgot we cranked the air conditioner up last night before bed. The look on her face could stun a lesser person but after living with her pretty much her whole life, I just scoff.

“Fisher, seriously, you can’t just not go to school, okay?”

“Nobody’s here to make me go.”

“Um, hi, my name is Allie.” I sit down next to her, sticking my hand out for her to shake. “Not sure if you forgot but I dropped everything to come take care of you this summer.”

The heated look on her face disappears as she turns on the puppy eyes. Nope. Not happening. I stand up, grabbing the covers off the floor and throwing them in her direction.

“Get ready, I’ll take you.” I said as I leave the room.

By the time I get back from dropping Fisher off—it ended up taking longer than expected because the pretentious secretary didn’t want to sign Fisher’s late slip—my stomach is growling loud enough that I can hear it over the sound of the other cars whizzing by on the street. Hopefully Kali’s up, maybe we’ll go get some breakfast. I did enough cooking yesterday to last me the whole week. No more cooking for a while.

I hop out of my mom’s Mercedes—Fisher begged me to take her to school in it, too embarrassed to ride in my “ugly truck”—and walk in the house, barely registering that I left the door unlocked again. I walk slowly up the stairs in an attempt to avoid being winded by the time I reach the top. It’s always a lost cause because as I reach the top I’m breathing heavy and wondering who thought stairs were a good idea. Kali walks out of my room as I’m leaning on the railing at the landing, catching my breath.

“Are you serious?”

“Yoga doesn’t exactly keep me in great shape, it’s not like its cardio.” I take two deep breaths and I’m almost back to normal. “Wanna go get breakfast?”

“You should start running with me.” She walks back into my room and I make a face. She knows I hate running. “Breakfast, yes. Waffle House?”

I walk in the room behind her and sit on the bed while she goes through the few items of clothing in my closet. She looks over at me and I nod with a cheesy grin and a thumbs up. I will never turn down a trip to Waffle House. My stomach rumbles again at the thought of the greasy steak sandwich I’m going to be eating soon. Kali quickly grabs an old high school drama club tee shirt and her shorts from yesterday to change into. I’m pretty sure that was her shirt; I was never in drama club.

Within moments we’re in my pickup truck with the windows down, letting the wind mess our hair up as we sing along to the songs on whatever CD I left in the car before I left for school. As I pull into the parking lot my stomach rumbles at that quiet moment when a song is changing to another song. I try to keep a straight face but as soon as I look over at Kali, I lose it. Her hand is covering her mouth, fighting to keep the giggles in. I start laughing, Kali joining in soon after. I lay my head on the steering wheel, taking deep breaths as I try to calm my giggles. This is what I miss the most at school. I don’t have something like this in California. Makes me rethink my whole ‘I-Want-To-Go-To-School-On-The-Other-Side-Of-The-Country’ thing.

We’re seated quicker than I expect, the small diner not as packed as usual. There’s a new waitress but everything else is the same. The same yellow and black colors, the same slightly sticky menus, the same red booths that don’t match anything else. I don’t know why I keep expecting things to be so different. A year really isn’t a long time. The waitress gets our order a few minutes after we sit down. The restaurant is uncharacteristically quiet, causing me to zone out, staring down at the menu that doubles as a placemat.

Ever since we got our licenses in tenth grade we made Waffle House our Saturday tradition. Every Saturday morning we would secretly wake up early or stay up late to pig out on our favorite breakfast treats. My mom hates the place; she just about had a fit when she caught me sneaking back into the house with leftovers one morning. Kali clears her throat. I look up and she has an eyebrow raised like she’s waiting for an answer.

“So?”

I shake my head and yawn. “What?”

“You’re hopeless.” She said with a grin. “I asked if you had a dress in mind for the gala.”

“I was just going to wear one of my old dresses.”

The shock on Kali’s face is lost on me as my sandwich and side of home fries are placed in front of me. My stomach growls at the sight. I immediately reach for the ketchup, planning on dousing the potatoes before Kali grabs it out of my hand. The smile slides off my face quickly as I look at her with an eyebrow raised.

“You should go to the bathroom.”

I look at her like she’s crazy and, as if on cue, my stomach let out another growl. “I should eat, before I die.”

“Kali!” An all too familiar voice calls out and I nearly choke on the bite of sandwich in my mouth. A cold sweat forms on my forehead and I blink hard a few times, trying to convince myself that the voice is just an illusion. “Oh, hey Allie May.”

It’s not an illusion. I look up and Jared is standing next to our table, two of his friends flanking his sides as they leer down at us. I snatch the ketchup back out of Kali’s hand before drowning my potatoes in the substance. I don’t want to deal with this. Fisher’s party was a different story. He was drunk and I was taken by surprise. There was no way for him to say anything rude at the party. He is, fortunately for me, the happiest drunk I’ve ever met.

“Lookin good, Allie Newton. California’s treatin you well, I see.” Tyler Wesley has been the bane of my existence ever since he dunked my whole head in the pond behind our elementary school when we were nine. At least he didn’t try to toss me in completely. I probably would have died with how dark and nasty it was (and probably still is). I take an exaggerated bite of my sandwich, following it with some potatoes, filling up my mouth to avoid saying anything I will regret later.

“Dude.” Jared said, giving Tyler a dirty look. “Sorry about him, Al. You know how he is.”

I nod sarcastically before rolling my eyes. Just when I start thinking I miss home I get this reality check. Lovely.

“Can you go?” Part of me is upset with how long it takes Kali to interject but most of me is happy that she does. Lord knows I’m not doing anything more than just eating my breakfast. They will walk all over me all day long if I let them. And, for some reason, I always do.

“Just wanted to make sure you two beautiful ladies are attending the Winston’s shin-dig on the fifth?” Dalton Moore always had the deepest voice. Ever since middle school you could tell when he was coming down the hallway because he had the loudest laugh and I’m pretty sure he was the only boy in our grade that had hit puberty at that point (or puberty had hit him; he was over six feet tall and had a full beard by the time he was 15). People made fun of his voice until he started hanging out with Jared Owens, Tyler Wesley, and Derek Winston—which is around the same time he made the varsity football team.

“Now, Dalty, why would you ask a question you already know the answer to?” Kali said as she leans forward and flutters her eyelashes a few times. Everyone knows Dalton’s had a crush on Kali since we were in middle school. She never hesitates to use that to her advantage.

“That’s not very nice, Kali.”

“You know I don’t care.” She winks at him before sitting back in the booth.

This conversation is giving me high school flashbacks and I don’t like where they’re trying to take me.

“Tsk, tsk. Just trying to catch up with my favorite Newton sister.”

I sit up straight immediately, my eyes darting up to look at Jared. My lips purse and jaw clenches while my fists ball up on the table. “The only Newton sister, as far as you’re concerned.”

“But I love Fish—”

“Let that be the last time her name comes out of your mouth.” The words fly out of my mouth before I give myself time to process them. What does he want with a 17 year old, anyway?

“Let’s go, bros. My work here is done.” He winks at me and laughs as if I’d just told him a joke. My appetite is gone, leaving nausea in its wake. This is not what I needed this morning. I take a deep breath and grab the fork I dropped on the table a few minutes ago.

“I was thinking we could go shopping today, then.” Kali said as soon as they left. I scratch the back of my neck and tilt my head to look at her. Are we just going to ignore that whole conversation? Did that not just happen? Am I dreaming? What a nightmare. I shake my head and slide my plates away. I can’t say that I’m surprised, though. Kali’s known to ignore things that she doesn’t like.

“Yeah, whatever. I need to go get my eyebrows done, anyway.”

Nothing I could have said would have excited Kali more than that statement.

“Let’s get our nails done!”

I sign the check in a daze as Kali drops a few bills on the table for the tip. I feel like I’m being stared at as we get up to walk out. We’re walking past Jared’s table when it goes silent. Some things will never change.

Our favorite nail salon is busy for being just before noon on a Thursday. There are a few ladies sitting in pink armchairs waiting to get their nails done when we walk in. Kali checks us in, opting for pedicures and eyebrow waxing, instead of manicures. The wait is just long enough for me to check my phone for any missed messages. It always looks like I ignore people because I keep my phone on silent all the time.

I quickly clear the few Instagram and Snapchat notifications that I have, focusing more on the text message that I received an hour ago.



It would be better if she kept ignoring me, honest. It’s been a month, what’s a few more? I purse my lips, typing up two messages, quickly sending them back to back.





I toss my phone back into the depths of my satchel, huffing as Amanda The Receptionist calls my name. I suffer through my eyebrow waxing before I go get my pedicure. Kali is already sitting down with her feet in the water. At least I can blame my tears on the wax. Wouldn’t be the first time.

I sit down in the chair next to Kali, turning on the back massager and relaxing down into the seat immediately. A moment later I shift, slipping my feet into the warm water and grab the first magazine on the stack next to me. It’s been a while since I’ve looked at one and I can’t remember when they started getting so dark. I shrug as I flip through the pages, looking at the cool high fashion pictures.

“What do you think about Niall?”

“He looks like a baby.” I don’t hesitate to murmur as I continue reading an article about the latest trends for summer. Kali scoffs causing me to look over at her.

“Okay but like, Al you didn’t see the sex eyes he was giving me all night! I had to keep reminding myself that there were other people in the room.” She starts fanning herself and her eyes flash before she turns away. “I would’ve let him do me on your couch so hard.”

“Well that’s cute.” I said sarcastically, sending her a tight smile before returning to the article.

“Yeah, well, Liam reminds me of Mr. Wrinkles when he smiles.”

I bark out a laugh, my head tilts back so far that it’s getting in on the back massage. I shake my head furiously at her. “I will never be able to unsee that.” I’m still laughing when I go back to flip through the magazine.

For the moment I forget about Jared and Tyler and Dalton. I forget about Emma Hawley and Stella Winston and her stupid dad’s stupid gala. I forget about my momma and I forget that I’m home. In this moment, I’m alone. There’s no Kali, no little sisters, no parents—not even any new, cute neighbors. Just me, enjoying my day with no stress.

“Fisher said to tell you to answer the phone.”

I knew that wouldn’t last. I can only guess as to what it is that she wants. Grabbing my bag off of the floor, I start searching for my phone. I have two missed calls and a text message. I open the message and immediately raise an eyebrow.







I don’t even want to wonder what she’s upset about this time. Fisher and mom have huge fights all the time because their personalities so similar. I toss my phone back in my bag and sit back to try to enjoy the rest of my pedicure and finish reading this stupid magazine. Hopefully without any more distractions.

We’ve been to three stores and haven’t found any cute dresses. It is almost three when we walk into the fourth store, one that specializes in prom dresses. One look in the window and I can already tell that we’re not going to find anything here.

I see a few dresses I think are okay, but none that really pop. Whatever I’m going to wear to this party I want to be able to say I love it. I want to be the most beautiful person in the room. Or, you know, at least look better than Stella and Emma. That’s the goal.

“How can I convince you that we need to go to New York for the weekend?” Kali said as she thumbs through a rack of dresses, a bored look on her face. “These are so ugly.”

“What, you don’t like this?” I said, a serious look on my face (not exactly the easiest at that moment) as I hold up a short purple dress covered in rhinestones. Kali pretends to gag and I laugh. It’s like I never left. Like the last year never happened. All of the recent confusion and this morning’s events aside, this is nice.

We look through a few more racks before calling it a day. It’s almost time for me to pick Fisher up and she can’t fit in the truck if Kali is there, so I drop her off at the DeLuca estate. Never ceases to amaze me how luxurious her parents’ house is. Ours is all wood and paneling and wainscoting and theirs is all marble and gold and mirrors.

By the time I leave the DeLuca’s its 3:20. There’s no time for me to switch cars, so I head to Charleston Day School in my truck. Fisher’s going to hate me for this. The line of cars in front of the school isn’t as long as usual but it’s definitely longer than I expect. Didn’t think so many people would fail considering how expensive this school is (and how hard it is to get into).

Fisher isn’t hard to spot but, then again, neither am I in this thing. As I roll to the front of the line I see her eyes bug and jaw drop. There’s just no pleasing that girl.

“At least I didn’t make you walk home.” I tell her when she reluctantly hops in the cab, buckling her seatbelt as I turn the music up and speed off, disregarding the security guard and the speed bumps. I just want to be home. Maybe I’ll lay in the sand for a while, that always makes me feel better.

As soon as the car stops in the driveway Fisher jumps out, running up the porch steps and straight into the house. I roll my eyes at her dramatics. She must have picked that up from Kali. I follow her straight into the kitchen.

“So?”

“So, what?” The amount of attitude in her voice is astonishing. She’s sitting on the counter, eating grapes straight out of the bag, without washing them first—I can’t help but think about what our mom would say if she were here—and drinking one of my fizzy fruit punch sodas from Walmart.

“What’s up with you and mom this time?”

“This time? When is something not wrong with me and mom.” She mumbles and bites a grape in half, throwing the other half in the garbage. “These taste like shit.”

“Can you just talk to me?” I can tell when Fisher is trying to stall. She’s not very good at it.

“She wants me to start doing pageants seriously.” She rolls her eyes and looks over at me. “Oh and she said I should look into schools in New York or Los Angeles because, you know, she thinks that would be best for my ‘modeling career.’”

I could only nod. I know exactly what she’s going through. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to be 17 and just not have to worry about letting momma down like y—.”

I bite my lip hard enough to draw blood. It’s like she forgot who she’s talking to. “I’ve done enough of that for the both of us, haven’t I?”

“I just want to travel and fall in love and take pictures of everything.” She whispers. The look on her face pains me. It’s hard not being able to be yourself at school but you should always be able to be yourself around family.

“How about you come visit during your school breaks this year?”

I swear her eyes light up. She hops off the counter and grabs me in a hug. “That would be amazing, Allie! I love you. Oh my God, I have to tell Harper!”

She runs out and I’m standing alone in the kitchen grinning like a maniac. At least one good thing happened today.

I can’t sleep. I tried drinking a glass of milk. I counted sheep for a while before I got bored. I’ve been tossing and turning for the better part of an hour. I flip through Instagram, make my way through Twitter and reluctantly check my Facebook before putting my phone back on the charger. I’m staring at the ceiling, willing my body to get tired, when my phone lights up. I grab it off the charger greedily, glad for the distraction.



The loud laugh takes over my body before I can stop it. I quickly program Liam’s number in my phone before responding.



I scramble out from under the covers, put a pair of leggings on over my boy shorts and grab a hoodie before swiping my phone off the bed.



I grin and try to calmly walk down the stairs but end up bounding down the last few. I run through the moonlit house towards the back door (but not before stopping in the kitchen to get some snacks), grabbing a set of keys and locking the door before running out towards the shoreline. Liam’s already there, a blanket set up a few feet away from where the waves are crashing. He jumps when I sit down next to him.

“Payback!” I said, smirking at him.

“That’s not very nice.”

I just grin and shrug. “I’m not a very nice person.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

The look on my face said it all. It was quiet for a while. I was quickly mesmerized by the waves. The way they moved, the way they foam at the end and how close they are to the blanket—I love it all. My favorite thing is the way that the night’s sky and the ocean blend together. I could stare out into the ocean all night. I move the chips and beer onto the blanket so that I can cross my legs under me to warm up my toes and, in turn, I snap myself out of my daydream.

“Welcome back.”

I shake my head at Liam, trying hard to hide the smile that’s dying to sneak onto my face at the sound of his voice. “Yeah, yeah.”

“What’s your middle name?” He turns to face me and I giggle at how out of the blue the question is but I don’t hesitate to turn to face him, too. I can enjoy the way his eyes light up when he smiles that crinkly smile of his better at this angle.

“Louise.”

“Allie May Louise. That’s beautiful.” He reaches over and grabs one of my hands, entwining our fingers and squeezing lightly.

I’m blushing and looking down at my lap. “It was my Grand Momma’s name…what’s yours?”

“Liam James. Kind of a mouthful, innit?”

“Well I wasn’t going to say anything, but…” I smirk at him cutely (or, you know, hopefully it looks cute).

He bumps the inside of my elbow with his hand and my arm gives out, making me fall sideways on the blanket. I gasp exaggeratedly and look over at him with lips pursed. I grab some sand in my hand and toss it at him. His eyebrows raise and his jaw drops as he surveys the damage. There’s sand all over his sweatpants and sweater.

“I take it back. You are the meanest person I’ve ever met.” He said as he grabs a handful of sand and throws it at me in retaliation. I throw some back and next thing you know we’re both covered in sand and he’s lying on top of me. Now, it’s one thing to throw sand back and forth and another thing entirely to end up on top of someone on the beach. We’re quiet again. Not sure if there’s anything we can say in this moment. Everything I’m thinking about would ruin it.

Liam and I are in a pretty heavy staring contest. He’s holding himself up, almost hovering over me, in a way that made his arms look almost good enough to eat. That just makes me want to know what the rest of his body looks like. There’s a part of me that just wants to touch him all over but, unfortunately, I have to remind that part that this is not the time for that.

He clears his throat and blinks suddenly, rolling off to the side and mutters apologies. I crawl over to the blanket and grab a beer, opening it and taking a few sips before offering one to Liam. He takes it with a nod.

“So why here?”

“Hm?”

“For the summer, why’d you guys choose to come here, of all places?”

He shrugs. “We wanted to go somewhere hot where there wouldn’t be many people. Just to spend time together as friends.”

“Oops.” I said with a giggle from behind the hand covering my mouth.

Liam shakes his head quickly. “No, no. The lads actually encouraged me to talk to you…”

There was a grimace on his face, like he’d just tasted something sour, or like he said something he wish he hadn’t.

I smirk. “Is that right?”

“Louis wanted me to talk to you the first time I saw you…”

There goes that look again. It was a look that I had, unknowingly, seen him sport before. His words are odd and I tilt my head to the side, thinking about what they might mean. That’s when it clicks.

“You’re that dude!” He looks at me with a blank expression. “The guy from the window a few nights ago!”

This time his cheeks become so red that I’m sure if I touch one my finger would sting because of how hot it is. He reluctantly nods. “That was me.”

“Why didn’t I realize sooner? Oh, man, this makes so much sense.”

“Louis had a good laugh about that.”

“So did I. Creep.” I wink at him and struggle to hide the surprise from my face. I have never winked at someone in my life, much less a grown man. I’m starting to feel more and more like Kali with every passing moment.

“So now that you know my big secret, I think it’s only fair if you tell me one of yours.”

I almost laugh. I have no idea what to tell him. There are so many secrets I could tell him, and yet, a majority of those Kali doesn’t even know. It’s too soon for most of them; I better just start small.

“I used to be in beauty pageants.”

“I’m not surprised.”

The laugh that escapes me makes my head tilt back and head shake. “You are ridiculous, sir.”

“When did you stop?”

“It was just before I turned 12.”

“Was it something you hated?” I shrug and shake my head no. “Why quit, then?”

“I hate getting all dolled up.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “Actually, no, I just wanted to do new things, you know? I wanted to devote more time to guitar and violin and being around ocean-related things.”

“You play the guitar?”

“Not very well. I quit to keep playing violin.”

“I’m sensing a pattern.”

I gasp and playfully hit him on the shoulder. “I just don’t like to waste time on things that I like when I can do things that I love.”

“Like what?”

We’re getting in too deep. I never had conversations like this with Jared. Not at the beginning, not in the middle, and certainly not at the end. By now I’m pretty good at deflecting questions I don’t want to answer.

“Like throwing sand at guys that I like.”

That’s the complete opposite of where I want to go with this conversation. I can feel my cheeks heat up and immediately cover my face with my hands before laying my head down on my knees. Liam tries to move my head back up off my knees but I’m having none of that. I didn’t mean for that to come out quite like that. Although I’m sure it’s not exactly a secret, its weird hearing it out loud.

He moves to sit next to me, tossing one of his arms around my shoulders. I smell his cologne and I can feel how warm his hand is as it rubs up and down my arm. I feel goose bumps erupt on my skin.

“Well don’t quit on me just yet.”

“This is kind of embarrassing.” The whisper is further muffled by my hands.

“It would be embarrassing if I didn’t like you back.”

My head pops up and I blink rapidly and my eyebrows raise and eyes widen all at the same time as I turn my head to look over at him for confirmation. “Seriously?”

He shakes his head and smirks, pulling me closer into his side. His sweater is so thin I can feel the contours of his side. I’m not ready for this. This whole situation is almost more than I can handle. I lay my head down on his shoulder and he places a kiss on the top of my head. I grin and lift my head to place a kiss on his jaw. I briefly notice his jaw clench before I lay my head back down. I smirk. I think that’s a yes.