Summer Ended with a Storm - 2. Chapter 2

“Rise and shine, Dylan. We’re going to the diner to have breakfast.”

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at grampa standing over me. I sat up in bed, rubbed my eyes and got up.

“I usually just have cereal in the morning.” I said, scratching my bare stomach.

“Well not anymore. I always have breakfast at Lucy’s Diner and you’re gonna join me. What kind of a breakfast is cereal anyway. You need a nice nutritious breakfast. A good omelet should do you good.”

“Whatever, I’ll get ready.” I said.

“Besides, you’ve got some yard work to do. A good hearty breakfast will help you.”

“Whoop,” I said with an eyebrow arched.

I took a shower and put some jeans on and threw on an old Zeppelin t-shirt.

“Oh, not that band again. I got enough of them when your father was growing up.”

“Dad liked Zeppelin?!”

Grampa laughed. “He worked for nickels an hour just to buy their records. I surely wasn’t going to buy them for him.” Grampa and I got into his car and started towards the diner. “Do you have your driver’s license?”

“Yes, I do actually.” I said.

“Well, when you start work at the store, you can use my car to get there, but for nothing else.”

I didn’t answer. I just looked out of the window. Grampa parked in front of the diner. We walked in a there were a few people in there. We sat and an old woman came and gave us menus. Her face lit up when she saw my grampa.

“Hello, John.” she said, smiling.

“Hello Lucy.”

“What would you like?”

“A couple of orange juices to start us off.” said grampa.

“Okay,” she said and turned back around and left.

“Grampa, she’s seriously into you.”

“What?”

“She likes you.”

“I should be saying the same to you.” said grampa.

“What do you mean?”

Grampa motioned behind me and there was Amanda, with her family, having breakfast. She smiled at me. It was that smile. Great. I turned around.

“Right, well, Amanda and I are just friends.” I said.

“That look on her face says otherwise.” said grampa.

I smiled and looked up. Lucy was back with out juices.

“What would you boys like to eat?” she asked.

“My grandson here is going to have the supreme omelet and I’m going to have the bacon and eggs.”

“Would you like white or wheat toast?” she asked grampa.

“Wheat, please Lucy.”

“Okay, I’ll be right up with that order.”

Grampa and I ate and we left. When we got back to his house, he had me change into some work clothes.

“Okay, I need you to mow, fertilize, and then water both the front and back yards. Then, I need you to trim all of the bushes front and back yards and on the side of the house.”

“Great,” I said.

“Get to work.” he said.

I normally wouldn’t mind this kind of work, but it was like 1000 degrees outside. So, I got to work before it got hotter.

By the time I finished mowing the front lawn, I was drenched in sweat, so, I took off my shirt. I started to walk around with the fertilizer. Then, I noticed that Amanda and some of her friends were standing there looking at me. I put down the fertilizer and walked over to them. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my shirt then put it on my shoulder.

“Hey, Amanda.” I said.

“Hey, sorry to bother you. We just came over to see if you wanted to come to the lake with us.”

“Oh, sorry about leaving your towel yesterday. I had to leave in a hurry.” I said.

“That’s fine. Andy told me what you did. I think that it was really sweet of you to do that. And…I’m sorry about Blake. He’s had a chip on his shoulder ever since I broke up with him.”

“It’s cool. I used to handle bigger guys than him at home.” I said. “Well, I’m sorta busy so I can’t go to the lake right now but maybe later.”

“Well, church is later, you won’t be able to go then.”

“Well maybe another time then.” I said.

As they walked back to Amanda’s car I could hear her whisper to her friends to stop staring. I smiled and got back to my work.

About an two hours later, I was finished. I went back inside and plopped myself onto the couch. Grampa was in the kitchen drinking iced tea.

“Come in here and get some tea, Dylan.” Grampa called.

I got up and walked to the kitchen. I sat down next to him, grabbed a glass and poured me some tea. I took a big gulp.

“Church is in an hour. You should get yourself cleaned up.” said grampa.

I’ll spare you the Church details. I won’t put you through Hell, so to speak. Anyway, after church, the entire congregation, they well, congregated outside the church. It was a sort of barbeque. There was food and drinks and stuff like that.

I was introduced to practically everyone there except for the small children. One person I knew that I didn’t see was this Nick person. I asked Norm about him when I saw him.

“Oh, Nick couldn’t come today. He’s out of town with his mother. I don’t know where.” said Norm. “Don’t worry. You’ll get to meet him at work.”

“Hey, are people allowed to take swims in the lake at night?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, you’re allowed to, but it’s not the norm for kids out here.” said grampa.

“Do you think I can take a swim tonight grampa?” I asked.

“Sure, I suggest that you take someone with you. You shouldn’t go alone.”

“Maybe I’ll take Andy.”

“Yeah, that’s swell. He’s over there with his mother. You should go talk to her. She probably still wants to thank you for what you did.”

I walked over Andy and his mother.

“Oh, hey.” said Andy and then he turned to his mom. “Mom, this is Dylan.”

“Oh my goodness, it’s so nice to meet the boy who helped my boy.”

Mrs. Roark was a tall thin woman with Andy’s same color hair, but hers was down passed her shoulders in a ponytail. She wore a light colored sundress.

“Mom,” Andy complained. He seemed embarrassed. “I told you it wasn’t a big deal.”

“It really wasn’t.” I reassured her.

“But it was. Blake and his friends have been giving Andrew a hard time for years. They’ve finally left him alone.”

“Look, I just came over to say that I was gonna go over to the lake tonight and have a swim. I wanted to know if Andy wanted to come.”

“Aw cool, please mom?”

“Well, since you’re going with Dylan, I don’t see why it’s a problem.”

“Cool,” I said. “I’ll probably be at your place around ten okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, cool. I’ll see you then.” said Andy with a smile. We slapped hands and I left.

* * *

“Grampa, I’m walking over to Andy’s now.”

Grampa was resting in his bedroom.

“Okay, don’t be out too late. You have to be at work tomorrow morning at ten.”

“Cool, see you later.”

I walked outside and a night heat hit my body. A light breeze hit me. I started walking down the street. The mile I had to walk to Andy’s took about half an hour. I knocked his door lightly. I didn’t want to wake anyone who might be asleep. Andy came out quietly.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing, you got everything?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

We started walking. We talked about the music we liked, movies we liked. Suddenly, Andy changed the subject.

“So, let’s talk about something more interesting. Have you talked to Amanda Ryan anymore?”

“Not really. I saw her earlier today but it was only for a few minutes. Why?”

“Dude, she’s totally into you. So…I kind of talked to her about it since you wouldn’t.”

“Andy, what the fuck did you do?” I asked.

“I invited her to come swimming with us.”

“You did what?! I can’t believe this. You shouldn’t have done that, Andy. You have no idea what my circumstances are.”

“Look, you’re single, she’s single. She likes you and you like her right?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what man. You should totally go for it.”

I was really tempted to just tell him, but he seemed to be one of my only friends here in Meek and I didn’t want to mess with that, even though it seemed to be the right time.

“Look, I like Amanda, but…just as a friend.”

“Yeah, but it can always turn into more. You can start out as friends.”

I decided to just humor him. I didn’t want to make it too obvious to him that I didn’t like girls.

When we got to the lake, Amanda was there waiting for us, with her friend Judith. I’m guessing that she was there to keep Andy company.

“Sup guys?” said Judith.

“Hey,” said Andy.

“So, let’s get wet.” said Amanda.

I took my shirt off and I started towards the lake. Amanda walked beside me. I looked at her, and she looked back and smiled. We walked into the lake slowly. The cool water felt extremely calming. The four of us swam calmly in lake. The reflection of the moon on the lake was the only light that we had.

“So, every have night swims over in New York?” asked Amanda.

“Oh yeah, all the time. Never in a lake though. I used to sneak into the community pool. This is way better.”

Amanda pushed a little water at me.

“Hey!” I said laughing. I pushed some water back at her. She laughed and we started take turns splashing eater at each other. Before I knew it, she was a nose away from me, staring into my eyes. I couldn’t stand it. So, I swam away.

“Hey,” she swam and caught up to me. “Does my breath stink or something?”

“No, no your breath is fine.”

“Then why won’t you kiss me.”

“Look, Amanda, I like you, but…I’m only gonna be here for a few months and then it’s back to New York. I don’t want to anyone to get hurt.”

She got closer to me again. “I want to kiss you so bad.” she said.

I looked over to Andy and Judith. They were splashing around on the other side of the lake. I took the back of Amanda’s head and pulled her to me. Our lips touched and broke, touched and broke about three times. It was the first time that I’d ever kissed anyone.

“I-I need to get back to my grandfather’s.”

“I can give you a ride.” said Amanda.

“No…I can walk.” I said. “Andy! I’m gonna get going. Are you gonna stay or go?!”

“I’ll be right there!” He answered.

I got out and Amanda followed me. She rubbed her hand up and down my arm.

“I had a great time.” she said, her green eyes looking big and dark in the moonlight.

“Me too. I’m afraid I’ve to go tomorrow. I’ve got work in the morning.”

“Let’s go.” Andy came up behind me.

We started our walk. I had my t-shirt over my shoulder and my shoes on without socks.

“So, how did things go with Amanda?”

“We kissed.” I stated bluntly.

“Oh shit!” Andy started jumping up and down. “You kissed Amanda Ryan?”

“Yeah, she wanted to. I felt bad so, I did it.”

“Dude, you’re so frickin’ lucky.” said Andy. “So many guys have had a thing for Amanda, but Blake is the only one that could ever win her heart.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I said.

“What are you talking about?” asked Andy.

“If Amanda does fall for me, I won’t be able to give her what she wants.”

“Dude, you can’t worry about that shit. You just gotta go for it. It’s Amanda frickin’ Ryan.”

“We can talk more about this tomorrow when I get off of work.”

“When do you get off?”

“Six” I said.

“Cool, I’ll meet you at the store when you get off then.”

“How’d you know that I was working at the store?” I asked.

“Small town,” Andy stated.

“Right,” I said wanting to laugh.

“Well see ya.” said Andy and he went inside his house.