Days of Summer

“That was soooooo…” Frankie trailed off his ‘o’s’, making me laugh at him before he finished his really long sentence. “Awesome. Let’s go on it again!” he said excitedly while grabbing my arm and pulling me back towards the line entrance.

“How about we get something to eat. I’m a little hungry. Then we can go on it again.” I compromised with him and he smiled up at me while letting go of my hand and turning his direction towards a food stand while Nick and Kevin, walking next to Big Rob, followed us.

“So…can I ask you something big brother of mine?” he asked with a little laugh while I laughed too.

“Hey! Who said you could use my line?” I fake yelled at him while laughing as I gave him a little noogie while he laughed somewhat before I stopped and returned to what we were previously talking about.

“Whatcha wanna know?”

“Well…that girl you were telling me about yesterday…” he trailed off while getting in line at the end while a few people looked at us with smiles coming onto their faces.

That heart wrenching feeling came back to me along with my stomach eating itself as he continued on with his question.

“What was her name?”

“Can I get your autograph?” a random girl came up to me and asked and what really shocked me was for a brief second, I saw her.

“Sure.” Kevin’s said from somewhere behind me, snapping me out of my trance, as he grabbed the napkin from the girl.

I shook my head quickly to try and get her off my mind and quickly signed the napkin, only to followed by more napkins and pieces of paper and somebody’s shirt before Big Rob told them we were done for now.

We ordered our food and waited, semi patiently for it, before grabbing a seat and digging into our grub.

“Anyone want my tomato?” Kevin asked while holding it up for someone to grab it while he looked like he was about gag.

“Oh come on man. It’s a vegetable.” Nick said back to him, while laughing somewhat before grabbing a fry and shoving it into his mouth.

“No it’s not. It’s a fruit.” Kevin said back to him in a matter of fact tone while I laughed somewhat before saying, “But you didn’t know it was one until like a month ago. What’s so bad about it now?”

“Because it’s a fruit now. So does anyone want it or no?” he replied back to me while I laughed and shook my head before digging into my own burger.

Everyone else laughed at his absurd reasoning for his sudden dislike for tomatoes before he set it on an unused napkin before taking a bite into his tomato-less burger.

“So Joe…are you gonna answer my question?” Frankie’s voice sounded after he finished chewing his bite of burger while my stomach clenched again.

I closed my eyes and tried to lessen the heart wrenching feeling in my chest and sighed before opening them and looking to my left where he was seated.

“Allie.” was all I said before taking a fry and putting it into my mouth while I watched Kevin stop mid chew from hearing her name again.

“Who’s Allie?” Nick asked and once I looked over at him with a stern look he seemed to understand that it must’ve had something to do with my year of ‘Un Joe-like behavior.’

“How did you meet her?” Frankie asked.

Man, this kid is full of questions.

“At a cl-park last summer.” I said, and then looked over at Nick and mouthed the word, “club” to him before taking another bite, hoping that the more that I ate, I would somehow fill the hole that was slowly but surely making itself deeper in the middle of my chest.

“Joe you don’t have to do this.” Kevin said to me when he saw me open up my mouth to further explain.

“I think I need to Kevin. People always say it’s better to talk about it then let it swell up inside you. And maybe that’s what I need to do to get over this whole thing.”

I had been thinking about it last night. Trying to decide if opening up and telling at least Nick what happened last summer, it would help me get over her. Even though I didn’t think it would be possible for it to help, I thought more about it and came to the conclusion that Nick needed to understand why I was the way I was for the last year. And since Frankie was so eager to want to know to, I’d have to fudge up the actual truth for his sake and then tell Nick later.

“Well…it started when…”

“Garbo, buddy. How could you do this too me? This was supposed to be boys night. No ladies allowed! You totally just sold me out man!” I whined into the phone.

Yes, I knew I was whiny but still, it was boys night! It’s was supposed to be just him and I doing crazy things since it was officially summertime!

“I’m sorry man, but Mel really wants to see me tonight. Says it’s really important. I gotta go. Talk to you later man. Sorry again.” and with that he hung up his phone, making me hang up too and toss it onto my bed while I stomped my feet.

“Fine…if he doesn’t want to hang out with me…then I’ll take someone else.” I mumbled to myself as I tapped my finger against my lips to try and figure out the perfect candidate to accompany me on my boys night.

Nick? Naw. He’s too serious, plus, he can’t get into any of the clubs we were planning on going to tonight. Which leaves… “Kevin!” I yelled his name as he walked past my door and spilling some of his diet coke onto him from my outburst.

“What the heck Joe?” he yelled as he looked down at his shirt and shook his head out of anger.

“Nick’s gonna kill you for drinking one of his cokes.” I stated with a smirk on my face.

It’s like stealing candy from Frankie.

“Don’t be so frickin’ loud. These walls aren’t sound proof you know!” he whisper yelled at me and then hurriedly made his way into my room, shutting and locking the door behind him.

“Nick was coming.” he stated quietly as I looked at him confused as to why he locked the door.

“Well, I’m hear to help. Since Nick is going to be out to kill you, how about you and I go out and have some brother bonding time?” I suggested while taking a seat on my bed and putting my hands behind my head, waiting for him to grab the bait that I was dangling right in front of him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be hanging with Garbo tonight?” he asked me and my smirk instantly fell from my face for a few seconds.

“Yeah…but you’re my brother. Defiantly in a time of need. So I’ll help you out instead of going out with him.” I stated with a smirk again on my face.

Smooth.

“That does sound appealing right now. But I have to go change my shirt thanks to you. Here.” he said, and ran over to me and my bed, handing me Nick’s can of diet coke.“I can’t take it out there with him out there. He’ll know it was me.” he answered my unasked question.

I nodded my head and quickly put it next to computer, out of the line of sight from my door as he unlocked it and slowly crept back to his room.

I poked my head out of my room, seeing Nick wasn’t anywhere in the hall, grabbed the can and ran down the stairs towards the kitchen.Once I found a pen and a sticky note I wrote, “Kevin did it.” and stuck it on the can before putting it into the fridge.

“All ready to go. Let’s roll.” Kevin said and then let out a small chuckle from his little rhyme he just said while he grabbed his keys from the hook next to the door and opened it up, stepping into the crisp, fresh, California air.

“Let’s go club it up!” I yelled from excitement as I jumped slightly on Kevin’s back before taking off towards his car that was parked in the driveway.

“I mean..we went to the park.” I covered up quickly for Frankie’s sake.

“That was you that wrote that note?! And after I decided to go out with you?! You sold me out!” Kevin exclaimed while throwing down his half eaten burger out of anger.

“Oh come on Kevin. It was a year ago and plus, Frankie wasn’t even home at the point in time and I don’t drink Coke. He would’ve found out anyways.” I said as I laughed slightly while shrugging my shoulders.

I heard Kevin scoff at my excuse while Nick laughed lightly and Big Rob was talking on the phone to someone and Frankie looked up at me.

“And then what? You guys left and you met her?” he asked me, his eyes big and round wanting to know more information.

“Yeah. We left. We met. And then…” I trailed off, looking up at the sky and taking in a deep breath.

“I made the biggest mistake of my life.” I finished softly.

“ What did you do?” Nick and Frankie asked me in interested unison while Kevin shook his head somewhat while finishing up his burger.

“I fell in love.”