That SummerA Story by Kendra KleinLittle did I know, however, that that summer would be forever burned into my brain. That summer I met the love of my life.I
hate the Fourth of July. It
was the summer of 2014, I was 18 years old and had just graduated high school.
The last thing I wanted to do was spend the summer at the marina with my
family, but I was forced to go. My family is fortunate enough to own a lake
house, and we spend most of our summer there. It was fun when I was a child,
but now, spending that much time with my family is just too much. Little did I
know, however, that that summer would be forever burned into my brain. That
summer I met the love of my life. …………. My
name is Kristina Annabelle Lovelace. I am 18, I live in North Carolina, and I
plan to get as far away from here as possible when I’m older. I’m your average
height of 5’5, with long dark brown hair. My skin is sun kissed and my muscles
are toned. I like to take care of my appearance. I’ve been told that my green
eyes can pierce a soul with one simple look, and that my smile can light up the
night. My parents say I’m a rebel, a trouble maker, but I’m simply just a girl
trying to find her place in this big, big world ……………. We arrived at our lake house two weeks after my high
school graduation, on a Sunday in early May. I hop out of the car as soon as we
get there, exhausted from riding in the van with my two younger siblings for
four hours. I use my key to unlock the house and go straight to my room,
throwing myself down on the bed. “No, Kristina, you have to come get your stuff,” my
mother says with an annoyed tone. I roll my eyes as she orders me about, and slowly pull
myself to my feet. As I am walking to the car my two little brothers, Aaden and
Caleb, run around my legs. Aaden is five and Caleb is seven. “Why don’t the brats have to do anything?” I whine to my
mom as I reached the car. “They are just children. You are an adult,” she says in a
sophisticated voice. I roll my eyes again and grab my suitcase out of the
trunk. I have a lot of stuff at the house already, but there were a few things
I wanted to bring. I
had reentered my room, and was about to close the door when my mom calls out to
me: “Dinner will be at six o’clock!” “Not
eating,” I reply, closing the door. I
drop to the floor and reach my hand under my bed in search for the box that
I’ve had ever since I was ten. My fingers close around the metal handle and I
pull it out from under the bed, brushing off the dust that has accumulated on
it. I open the latch and smile. Close to the amount of 3,000 green bills stare
up at me. I snatch a few and shove them in my pocket. I head over to my window,
hoist it open, and crawl out. ……………. I
reach the board walk and smile at the sound of the boat engines in the water. I
breathe in deeply; fish, water, sunscreen, sand, bug spray, and food. Food.
That’s what I came here for. I walk along the boardwalk and look at each food
place carefully, even though I know them all by heart. No matter how much I
didn’t want to come here, I did miss the simplicity of this place. I finally
make my decision and walk into a local burger joint and grab myself a seat at
the bar. “Kris, baby. You’re back!” a familiar voice says
cheerfully. I look up from my menu and smile at Susan, who has been a
family friend for years. She has always been like an aunt to me. “You work here now?” I ask her, looking over her
ridiculous waitress uniform. “Yes, baby. Had to pick up an extra job on the side,” she
says, wiping her hands on her apron. We small talk for a while and then she takes my order. As
I wait for my food, I hear a large group of girls giggle loudly, and I casually
spin around in my bar seat to see what’s going on. I see that it’s just a bunch
of teenage girls being loud and obnoxious, and I’m about to turn back when one
girl locks eyes with me. She has the perfectly curled blonde hair and tan skin.
Her blue eyes shine brightly in the sun. She smiles at me, and for some reason,
my face grows warm. I avert my eyes quickly, but find myself wanting to look at
her again. I look back up, but she has put her attention on her friends once
again. I face forward once I hear a plate set down in front of
me and I look at my food but no longer find myself hungry. Something happened
inside of me when I looked at that girl, but I can’t explain it. I ask Susan
for a to-go box, pay her, and make my way out of the joint and back onto the
boardwalk. As I’m making my way down to the beach, I hear a voice
behind me. “Hey, wait up!” I turn my head, and the blonde is jogging after me. I
stop and turn to face her. “Hi, I’m Bailey! You must be new here,” she says, holding
out her hand. I place my box on the top of the railing and grab her
hand, shaking it lightly, not used to teenagers making this gesture. “I’m Kristina…and no actually. I’m not really new. My
family lives here during the summer,” I explain. “Well, how cool is that? I actually just moved here at
the end of last summer. Those girls in there are my friends from school. You
looked kind of lonely sitting up there all by yourself, so I figured I’d come
say hi!” she exclaims. I look her over. She’s petite, with hair about the same
length as mine. I’d say she’s about 5’2, and a tiny little thing. Her baby blue
eyes just add to her all over adorableness. “Oh, no, that’s alright,” I say to her previous offer,
and I can feel myself blushing. “Oh come on, everyone could use a friend. And there’s
something about you that just draws me to you,” she coos. I feel myself
blushing and I look shyly down at the ground. “Kristina, come on,” she begs,
taking my hands lightly. I look back up at her at the sound of my name and she
gives me this cute little wink, producing another blush from me. “I knew it!” she says proudly, laughing. “Knew what?” I ask, dumbly. “Oh, nothing,” she teases. As I go to cross my arms and demand information, I manage
to knock my to-go box over the railing and into the lake. Bailey giggles,
getting on her tip-toes to lean over the railing in search of my box. “Don’t worry about that. Come with me and I’ll get you
another!” she says, bringing herself back down to flat-foot. “Oh, no. That’s fine. I’m not all that hungry. I was
going to take it home and throw it out anyway,” I say truthfully. Bailey thinks for a quick second then says: “Well, how
about I take you out to dinner some other time?” I’m taken aback a bit, but find myself saying yes. ……………. I get back to my
room and throw myself on the bed. I pull the slip of paper that Bailey gave to
me, bearing her phone number. And all of a sudden I’m scared. Did I just agree
to go on a date with this girl? I am not a lesbian. Right? I’m not a lesbian?
This thought had never crossed my mind, as far as I can remember. But after
today it’s all I can think about. I’m on the verge of tears, not wanting to
accept my fate. I was terrified. I kept telling my head that I did not have a
crush on this girl, but my heart knows I did. ……………... Two weeks later, after much thought, fear, contemplation,
and getting to know myself better, I finally call up Bailey, and we agree on a
date, time, and place. I meet her that night at a local restaurant that
overlooks the lake. She looks beautiful, and her smile is as bright as ever. Over
dinner, we talk about our lives and get to know each other better. She grew up
in a small town outside of Albany, New York on a ranch. She is an only child,
and has been spoiled her whole life. However, she is very down to earth. When
she was six she was in a horrible car accident and was paralyzed from the waist
down and told she was never going to walk again. But after years of therapy she
regained her senses and now she runs track. I was short on words, just happy
with hearing her beautiful voice, and she seemed okay with that. Wait, did I
just say beautiful voice? Being a teenager is so confusing. “So, how long have you known you were gay?” I choke on my drink a bit at her question. “Oh, I’m not…” I start, but she interrupts me. “Honey, we wouldn’t be here if you weren’t gay,” she says
sweetly with a smile. I can’t help but know she’s right. “I’m still coming to terms with it, I guess,” I say
quietly. She nods in understanding. As we leave the restaurant, our dinners completely paid
for by Bailey, it is ten o’clock. “Let’s go for a walk,” she says, grabbing my hand. I’m a little nervous with the gesture, but I lace my
fingers through hers, and am surprised to find that the fit is very
comfortable. Why does this feel so right? We reach the beach part of lake and decide to sit down
and rest for a bit. The water’s calm sound makes me a bit sleepy, but I fight
it off. “So tell me your darkest secret,” Bailey says quietly. I look at her with wary eyes. I just met this girl, but
at that moment I felt like I had known her for years. I pretend to rack my
brain, trying to stall. I already know my darkest secret. She notices me
hesitating, and she pulls herself closer to me, snuggling into my arms. The
touch of her gives me chills, even though her body is warm. She’s so
comfortable with this. She knows who she is and she’s not afraid. I wish I
could be like that. “I killed my little sister.” She doesn’t have the reaction I imagined she would have.
I expected her to quickly pull herself away from me and look at me with eyes
full of fear. Instead, she snuggles in tighter and rubs circles on my thigh
with her thumb. “What happened?” she asked calmly. “She was three. I was thirteen. We were here, actually.
We were in the country club kiddy pool playing. This boy I thought was cute at
the time asked me if he could buy me an ice-cream. I figured she would be fine
by herself for a few minutes, so I got up and left with him. I was gone for
five minutes. I come back to the pool and people are crying and shrieking. I
run over, and they are surrounding my little sister. She had tried to follow me
and ended up slipping and hitting her head. She fell into the pool face first
and drowned,” as I’m recalling the story, I find myself fighting back tears. Bailey was quiet for a moment, then says: “Ew, you
thought a boy was cute?” I laugh a little and hug her tighter to me. This feels so
natural. “You didn’t kill her, my darling. It was an accident,”
she says seriously, sitting up enough to look me in the eyes. She notices my
tears, and kisses my cheek. My stomach starts to swarm at the small gesture,
but I don’t feel the need to cry anymore. I allow myself to fall back flat, so that I’m lying,
staring up at the stars. Bailey comes right down with me, still snuggled up. “What’s her name?” “Amanda,” I say quietly, not having spoken her name in
years. “She would be eight now.” “The Amanda Kiddy Pool. That’s why it’s called that. I’ve
lived here for almost a year, but have never learned why it was called that.” I nod, not caring if she could sense it or not. I was about to fall asleep, when a bright light is shined
in my face. I open my eyes as much as I can without being blinded. “Kristina Annabelle Lovelace!” a man says angrily. I sit up quick at the sound of my father’s voice,
knocking Bailey completely off of me. “It is past midnight. You come home right this instant,
and we will talk about this in the morning.” “Dad, I’m 18!” I exclaim, not wanting to leave Bailey. “I don’t care. You still live under our roof and you
abide by our rules,” he says sternly. I give Bailey and apologetic look and rise to my feet.
She gives me a sad smile as I get pulled away. As we get back to the house, mom is still sitting up with
an angry look on her face. “Exactly where have you been?” she asks angrily. “She was on the beach, cuddled up with a girl,” my dad says,
sounding disgusted. I look at my mom to see her reaction, and her face
softens. I am filled with shock, as that was not what I had expected. “It was cold!” I lie, trying to give an excuse. “Its eight degrees outside!” my dad yells, not buying my
lie. “We will talk about this in the morning, honey,” my mom says
quietly. My dad lets go of the collar of my shirt and stomps into
the kitchen. I stay standing, still a bit confused, but mom throws her glance
in the direction of my bedroom and I manage to make my way there. As I close
the door, I can hear my father talking angrily to my mom, and my mom responding
back quietly. “You can’t seriously be okay with this?” I hear him say,
before I decide to drown them out. I’m about to get in bed, when I hear a soft knock at my
window. I look in that direction, and see Bailey. I jump to my feet and open my
window, leaning out to see her. “Are you going to be okay?” she asks, concern written
over her face. “I don’t really know. I guess I’ll find out in the
morning,” I say with a sigh. Then it hits me. “Wait, how did you know where I
lived?” She giggles. “I followed you!” I hit her playfully on the arm. She acts like it hurt
really bad, and starts to turn away to leave. I grab her arm and pull her back,
and she decides to climb through my window. “I don’t know if this is the best idea,” I whisper, not
wanting my parents to overhear. “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t stay long,” she says as she
walks around my room, admiring it. She’s about to pull out a photo album from
my book shelf, but I grab her waist not wanting her to see my childhood
pictures. She spins around in my arms, and her body is pressed tightly against
mine. I can feel butterflies swarming in my stomach, and my body fills with
heat. We stare at each other for a bit, our faces just inches away. And before
I know it, there is no distance, and her lips are pressed softly against mine. I quickly find myself kissing her back. I don’t want to
stop, but she pulls way and smiles at me. “I better go,” she says. I give her a pouty face and she laughs. She gives me one
last peck on the lips and then is out my window, disappearing into the darkness.
………… I
don’t see or talk to Bailey for two weeks after that, and those two weeks were
hell. My dad grounded me, to my mother’s objections, and took away my phone. I
also wasn’t allowed to leave the house without them. I couldn’t sneak out my
window at night, because my dad locked it from the outside. On top of that, I
was never alone with my mother, and if I was it was for only a few short
minutes. I had no one to talk to, and I was losing my mind not being able to
see Bailey. I knew I really liked this girl, and that I had never felt like this
before. I had only dated a few times, and never a girl, but this felt
different. It felt right. At the end of two weeks, I finally got my phone back.
My mom pulled me aside alone to talk to me. “I love you no matter what,” she said. I smile up at her
in gratefulness. “And you’re father does, too. He just needs more time.” I nod. “So, you’re okay with me being…gay?” I asked, only
having come to full terms with it myself recently. “Honey, I knew since you were three,” she says, smiling. I laugh a little, but understand. I always have been a
tomboy. “Mom, I’m so scared,” I say honestly. She smooths my hair down and kisses my forehead. “Why, honey? Because you’re a little bit different than
everyone else? Everyone has something about them that makes them different from
others,” she says, trying to stop my tears from spilling over. “I just…I don’t know. I really like this girl, mom. It
just feels…right,” I say, leaning my head against her chest. “If it feels right, then chase that feeling. You have to
embrace yourself, Kris. Until then it’s going to be a little scary. Everything
is scary at first. Like a rollercoaster. The first ride is terrifying, but
after that you want to go again and again. Or, you absolutely hate it and never
want to go again. You won’t know until you try. Don’t let anyone, including
your father, stop you from being who you are.” “Will he ever be okay with it?” I ask. “Of course he will. Like I said, you just need to give
him some time. It just came as a shock to him,” she explained. “But, why can’t he be as excepting as you are?” I ask,
more tears welling up in my eyes. “Oh, sweetie. You’re father and I aren’t the same people.
But we both love you the same. I promise you it will be okay. Now, go see your
girl,” she says, getting up. After she leaves, I check my phone. Quite a few texts and
voicemails from Bailey, and I check them all. They say cute things like “I miss
you” and “I hope everything is okay.” I leave the house as fast as I can and
walk the short distance to the marina, in search for Bailey. After about ten
minutes I am about to call her, when I see her laying out on the beach. I sneak
up on her, and lay down next to her quietly. She has her eyes closed, so I know
she doesn’t see me. Before I do anything to get her attention, I look at her.
Her blonde hair is up in a bun, and she’s got thick sun glasses on. Her
earrings glisten in the sun light, and her neon pink bikini makes her skin look
even tanner. My gaze falls on her stomach; a toned, tan stomach with a play boy
bunny belly button ring. When I’m done
looking at all her beauty, I lie down and loop my arm over her stomach. She
jumps into a sitting position and pushes her glasses up on her head. I prop
myself up on my elbows and give her a smirk while she catches her breath. When
she is fully recovered, she gives me a big hug and a giant kiss. “I missed you so much!” she says into my neck. “I missed you, too,” I say softly. “How are you? Is everything okay? What did your parents
say?” she shoots at me. I laugh and place my hands on her shoulders. “Calm down,
cutie. Everything is fine. Mom is good, dad needs time,” I explain. She sighs
with relief. “I was so worried they would pack you up and send you
home!” “I would find my way back,” I say. She flashes a big
smile at me and hugs me again. “You wanna go out tonight? My treat.” She nods quickly. “Oh yes, that’d be wonderful! What do
you have in mind?” I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her waist.
I plant soft kisses on her neck in-between telling her: “It’s a surprise. Dress
nice, my darling.” ………………… I
pick Bailey up at her house at six. She’s wearing a cute little purple sun
dress, and I have on nice jeans and a polo. I take her hand and walk her down
to C dock. When I step on my family’s boat, she stops. “Is this yours? It’s beautiful,” she says in awe. I step
back and look at the personally designed Cobalt speed boat and smile. I grab
her hand and lead her on deck. She sits next to me at the wheel, and we make
our way to the little island. I can tell she has figured out where we are going
by the look on her face. We have reached Sea View Island, which is home to a
very nice restaurant. I dock the boat and lead my lady to the restaurant. We eat and talk, catching up over the last two weeks we
have missed. She didn’t do much, just went on a few runs and sun tanned all
day. I didn’t have much to tell her, since I was stuck in my room every day. When
we leave, and are back on the boat, I decided to take her to the tiny island my
family owns. The ride is about an hour, but the water and the girl by my side
make it go by quickly. “I’ve never been here before,” she says in amazement as
she looks around. There is a little beach, and flowering trees all around. I
decide not to tell her my family owns it, because I don’t like to brag. We sit
down on the beach and watch as the sun sets. “These past two weeks really got me thinking,” I say, as
I stroke Bailey’s hand with my thumb. “I’ve really come to terms with who I
am…and I thought a lot about you.” I see a grin creep across Bailey’s face.
“You’re absolutely beautiful, Bailey Jane, and amazing, and I’ve never met
someone quite like you. My attraction to you is strong, and I don’t want anyone
else. So, Bailey Jane Stanford, will you be my girlfriend?” She looks at me with wide eyes, a huge smile on her face.
“Yes, Kristina!” she answers, and kisses my lips. I kiss her back, and pull her
body close to mine. It’s starting to get very late, so we decide it’s time to
head back. We can’t stop kissing each other, and we don’t want to leave, but we
know we will see each other again in the morning. “Let’s do this again sometime,” I say, as I kiss her at
her doorstep. She nods enthusiastically, and kisses me one last time before
entering her house. I walk the five blocks back to my house, with a very
happy heart. I knew I was falling for this girl. ……………… We did go back to the island two weeks later. By this
time, Bailey had been over for dinner and met the family, and vice versa. My
dad was weird about it at first, but when he met Bailey, he loved her. One
night I had come home, and he was sitting in the front room by himself crying. I
was taken aback, but I approached him slowly. He hugged me tightly, apologizing
for being so angry at me at first. He told me he loved me unconditionally, and
that he felt terrible for what he did. I forgave him. I was falling in love with Bailey, and I felt
like she was falling for me too. It had only been two weeks, but feelings were
running strong. We went on many little dates, but none as big as the one I took
her on. In the second week of June is when we went back to the
Lovelace Island. It was her 18th birthday, and I wanted to treat
her. I had been to the island earlier that day while she was celebrating with
family to set up for the occasion. I had made her favorite meal, open faced
turkey sandwiches, stolen a bottle of wine from the fridge, and baked her a red
velvet cake. I led her into the house on the island, which she had
never seen before, and led her to the kitchen. I had our meals already laid out
on the table with candles lit, and I pulled out flowers I had hidden and gave
them to her. “Baby, it looks beautiful,” she says, leaning back into
me. I wrap my arms around her from behind and she leans her
head back for a kiss. I kiss her softly on the forehead and she closes her
eyes. We stand like that for a moment, but then I kiss her softly on the neck
and say: “Let’s go eat before it gets cold.” We devour our meals, both having not eaten a big lunch.
The cake I made is small, but perfect for two. She loves it, and gets icing all
over her mouth. The wine is amazing, and we both get a little tipsy. “Open it,” I say, shoving a small gift back across the
table. “Oh, baby. You didn’t have to get me anything,” she says,
as she stars opening the bag. “Of course I did. You’re my girlfriend and I…” I was
about to say “I love you”, but I stopped myself, not wanting to seem like I was
moving too fast. She didn’t seem to notice. She pulled out a box and opened it,
revealing a custom made “Bailey” necklace with an infinity sign at the end and
diamonds throughout the letters. A huge smile breaks out across her face and
she jumps up to hug and kiss me. “I love it so much!” she exclaims as I fasten it around
her neck. I kiss her neck when I’m done, and she meets my lips with hers. When
I pull back she begins to yawn and I laugh, taking her hand and leading her to
the bedroom. We get into the large bed, but we only use about 1/3 of
it, because she snuggles up to me. “Thank you for everything,” she says into my neck. I kiss
her forehead in response. I lie there for a while, wide awake. Bailey tries to get
comfortable on me, and ends up with one of her hands palm down against my
chest. It sends shivers down my spine, and I allow her to rest it there for a
bit before I can’t handle the sensation calmly anymore. I take her hand and
lace her fingers in mine, and use my other arm to pull her body up so that our
faces are inches apart. She looks at me with happy eyes that glisten in the
moonlight that is coming through the window. I pull my fingers through her hair
and bring her lips to mine. We kiss softly at first, but then it starts to get
a bit rough, each of us biting each other’s lip occasionally. Her soft hand
slides up the back of my shirt, and I feel her fumbling with the hooks on my
bra. I pull back for a moment: “Are you ready? Are you okay?”
I ask, making sure I’m not pressuring her. “Baby, I’m ready.” We go back to kissing, and articles of clothing begin to
come off. It’s not until we are both completely naked that I stop and look at
her. The moonlight makes her tan body look even more beautiful, and I realize I
am seeing her completely, in her most vulnerable state.. I kiss her one last
time before we make sweet love for the first time. ……… When we are done, she cuddles up next to me as always.
Her soft skin presses against mine, and I’ve never felt happier. Her breaths
started to even out, and I thought she was asleep, but she lightly kissed my
breast and looked up at me. “What, baby?” I ask softly, smoothing down her hair. “I love you,” she says softly. I kiss her on the forehead and hold her tight in my arms.
“I love you, too, baby girl.” She gets back into her sleeping position and moments
later is fast asleep. ………… “Kristina, baby, what makes you love me?” Bailey asked
one day, about a week later, as we laid on a dock, our hair hanging over the
edge. “Everything about you, Bails. Your smile, your laugh,
your eyes, your hair. Everything about you is perfect to me. I wouldn’t trade
you for the world.” She rolls over onto her stomach and smiles at me. She
plants a kiss on my lips and then leans her head on my chest. “What’s going to happen to us?” she asks quietly, after a
few minutes of silence. “What do you mean, love?” I ask. She sits up, propping her chin on her hands. “I mean, we
are both going off to college next year. You’ll be in California, and I’ll
still be here in North Carolina. That’s so far away,” she says, tears welling
up in her eyes. I pull her back down to me, wrapping my arms tightly
around her. “You know, ever since I was 14 I wanted to get so far
away from here. I never had a reason to stay. I mean, yeah, I had my family,
but it’s easy enough for me to see them. But, things have changed. I have a
reason to stay, now,” I say, not showing any emotion on my face. Bailey looks at me with a confused look on her face, and
I burst out laughing. “Oh, honey. I was going to surprise you with the news
tonight! I cancelled my admission at Berkely and made it official at UNC
yesterday!” Bailey furrows her brow, definitely not the reaction I
had expected. “You didn’t have to do that for me. You’ve wanted to go
to Berkely since you were a kid. I don’t want you to give up your dreams for
me,” she says. I take her hands in mine and kiss them. “Baby, you are my dream. UNC has a great PT
program, and I’ll get to be with you.” I’m guessing she accepts the news now, because she smiles
brightly. “You know, people think I’m crazy. Planning my life at
such a young age with a girl I just met. But this is real, Kris. I’ve never
felt surer about anything,” she says. “I agree completely. But, you are pretty crazy,” I say,
jokingly. She shoves my shoulders playfully, but just enough that I
fall over the dock and into the lake. When I resurface, Bailey looks at me with
an apologetic look, but I can tell she is fighting off laughter. She holds out
her hand to help me out, and I take it, but I pull her in along with me. She
shrieks as she falls, as any typical girl would do. “I’m going to kill you!” she sputters, wiping water out
of her eyes. “Gotta catch me first!” I say as I take off swimming down
the lake. ………………… As the Fourth of July rolls around, the atmosphere at the
marina changes. Everyone seems happy and the air feels lighter. People are
putting out decorations, preparing for the big day. I’m excited to experience
Bailey’s first Fourth here with her, and she seems pretty excited too. My mom
is busy baking for the community cook out that takes place every year, so
Bailey and I are in charge of decorating the outside of the house. My little
brothers are useless, however, they are just as in love with Bailey as I am, if
not more, so we are able to convince them to help a little. The fireworks are
being delivered, and children are running around with sparklers, celebrating a
little early. I love the Fourth of July. ………………. When the day is finally here, I wake up excited, with
Bailey in my arms. We stayed at the island house again last night. “Wake up, my little darling,” I say, kissing her nose
repeatedly. She groans a little and rolls to her other side. I laugh and wrap
my arm around her, grabbing her breast. “Krissy, I’m up!” she moans. I kiss her back and hop out
of bed, making my way to the bathroom. “Man, this shower sure will be cold all by myself,” I say
in a you-better-get-your-butt-out-of-bed tone. She rolls onto her back and looks at me. “Really?” she
says, sounding a bit annoyed. “Yes, now get up!” I say, smacking the bed with a towel. She slowly gets out of bed, and we enjoy a nice shower
together before heading back to the mainland. When we arrive, the town is already buzzing. Patriotic
songs are constantly playing on the speakers at the docks, and people all over
are wearing red, white, and blue. All restaurants and stores, except the main
convenience store, are close for the day. Everyone is busy cooking and
decorating for the big cookout. Some people have already claimed their spots
for the fireworks show. Bailey and I spend the whole day together, enjoying
ourselves. We play with snappers and colored smoke bombs, entertaining my
brothers while my parents are busy. When six o’clock rolls around, we all head over to the
cook out. Kids are splashing in the pool, not listening to their parents
telling them it’s time to eat. When we reach the country club center, we find
ourselves a seat and take turns getting food so that no one takes our place.
The whole town is here. “You like it so far?” I ask Bailey as she leans into my
arm and I rub her side. “So much. It feels like a giant family reunion,” she
says. I laugh, because her statement is pretty accurate. We finished eating, stuffed to no end. It’s starting to get
dark out, so the fireworks should be starting soon. Bailey and I find ourselves
and spot on a dock, and spread out the blanket and sit down. We talk and kiss
in anticipation of the show. “They are always amazing here,” I say, remembering all
the past years. “I can’t wait!” In about another hour, the show starts. It’s slow going
at first, the least impressive fireworks to start. They start picking up, and
Bailey cuddles into me happily. “Bailey, kid, wanna come light one?” We both look up and see her dad standing over us. “Sure, daddy, be there in a second!” She starts to stand up, but I hold her back. “Bails, I don’t know about this. Fireworks can be pretty
dangerous,” I say, a scared feeling inside of me. “Don’t worry, babe. I’ve done it before. My dad use to
run them back home. He knows what he’s doing,” she explains to me calmly. “Alright, baby. Be careful. I love you,” I say before she
kisses me. “I love you, too! I’ll be right back!” Bailey follows her dad and I lean back, trying to relax. The show is going great, and I can still see Bailey. She
looks like she is having a blast. It’s time for her and her dad to light one,
and I watch as they light the fuse and run back to get in the clear. But the
firework doesn’t go off when it should. There’s a few moments of silence, and
then a huge explosion of fire. …………… That summer, I lost the love of my life. It was a faulty firework, there is no way they could have
known. Something went wrong in the manufacturing and it went undetected. Bailey was pronounced dead on the scene. Her father was
rushed to the nearest hospital. When he came to, they told him his little girl
had died. He killed himself three days later. I don’t understand how something to good can be taken
away so fast. Bailey’s necklace was salvaged, and I was the lucky recipient. People
looked at me with depressed eyes for days, so I just stopped going out. I’ve lost 20 pounds since her death, and I’ve
begun to drink. At her funeral, I was asked to speak, but when I went up front,
I just stood there staring at the picture of her next to her casket. I shut everyone out and became a recluse. I never smiled,
I never laughed. I didn’t have a reason to without Bailey.
I use to love the Fourth of July, but after this year, I
hate it. © 2014 Kendra KleinAuthor's Note
|
StatsAuthorKendra KleinILAboutI am 18 years old and I love to write in my free time. I also love art and music. more.. |