A Night at the Lake by Lucky 97 (rom com books to read TXT) 📕

stared at them until they were all looking ashamedly at their feet. At least they didn’t get my Harry Potter book wet, or I would have killed them.
“Where did y’all come from?” I finally asked. The little posse of boys seemed to have appeared out of thin air. I had never seen them before.
“We live in that house.” My rescuer pointed to the one right next to Birdie’s house. It made Birdie’s house look like Eeyore’s shack from Winnie the Pooh. “We see you every day on the float, and we wanted to say hi.”
“What a great way to say hi.” I tried to make my words as sarcastic as possible.
“This is Aaron, Carson, and Jared,” the blond boy introduced the others, “and I’m Adam. We really are sorry about all this. Could you possibly forgive us?”
“I guess,” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. Even if they were little demons, they were still pretty cute. There was silence for a few seconds while we tried to figure out what to say next.
“Could you introduce us to your sisters?” Jared, the one who was annoyingly unrepentant earlier, asked eagerly. If looks would kill, both mine and Adam’s would have burnt him to a crisp.
“Why don’t you guys start walking back,” Adam suggested, “I’ll join you in a minute.” Carson winked at him before leading the rest of the boys away from the dock. Adam shook his head once they were out of earshot. “Those are my stupid cousins,” he said apologetically, “Jared is an idiot.”
“I’m used to that sort of thing,” I replied candidly. Already, at the age of eleven, I had plenty of guys ask me for an introduction to my attractive twin sisters.
“That really wasn’t the plan. I promise it wasn't,” he laughed, “we just wanted to talk to the pretty floater girl who sits on the water all day. Then those guys had to mess it up.”
His incredibly laid-back attitude, as well as the shock that came from his unexpected compliment, made me laugh as well. Gradually, as we talked for a little longer, I found myself forgetting that just a while ago he and his buddies dumped me into the lake. Instead, I was confronted with the thought that this cute, entertaining boy was talking to me. Not Wendy, not Carrie, but me.
Later that day, Adam returned to his house, but not without offering me his old jacket that he had left on the dock while he dived in to save me. While I was talking to him I had forgotten about the cold, but after it was over chill bumps were all over my body. And not just from the wind either. I almost felt like our meeting was a dream, and in minutes I would wake up on the float without a single boy in sight. Frequently throughout that day I would pinch myself, just to make sure it was all real.
And even though the boys apologized and I knew that with a life jacket I would be perfectly safe, from then on I had a fear of the water. I could sit in a boat, I could drive a jet ski, but I was deathly afraid of falling in the lake. Instead, I liked to read a book on the porch or go exploring in the forest.
As the years flew by, I would talk to Adam occasionally when we were both outside and his cousins weren't bothering him. He would tell me all about his life; his struggles in certain high school classes, the pressures of being a high school quarterback, and his long-term girlfriend named Belinda. This last year he spoke a lot about her–both negative things that made me inwardly happy and positive things that I mostly responded to by a quick nod of the head. From what I could tell, they were deeply in love, and I tried to act indifferent about it. Adam and I were just friends, and that was all we would ever be.
But that didn’t stop me from peering out of the window at times like these, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.
I could almost see the light bulb go off in Mandy’s head. That was never a good sign. “Who are they?” she repeated her question slyly.
“Just the neighbors,” I answered with as little emotion as possible. Mandy immediately left me to go to Wendy, Carrie, and Lilly’s room. The twins were styling their dark brown hair into ponytails while Lilly was laying face down on the bed.
“Hey, could you guys tell me who those boys are over there?” She asked, and I glared at her furiously.
“Are you talking about the Avery boys?” Wendy asked excitedly, immediately stopping what she was doing and racing over towards my room. A stampede followed as all of the girls followed Wendy. Sullenly I traveled behind them, knowing instantly where this was going.
“I’ve had the biggest crush on Jared for years!” Wendy exclaimed loudly.
“No, I’ve had the biggest crush on Jared for years,” Carrie snapped back. They glared at each other for a minute, and then Lilly stepped in between them.
“I like that one.” She shyly pointed to a guy with blue eyes and blond hair. I had to admit, he was pretty cute. He had the same hair as Adam.
“His name is Aaron,” I said, then feeling ashamed, looked away. It felt like we were spying on them.
Suddenly, all of the girls jumped back. “They saw us! They saw us!” Carrie and Wendy squealed in unison. I was already out of the way, but when I turned back to cautiously look I could make out Adam’s face looking directly at us. I jumped even farther back, a blush blossoming on my cheeks. Mandy laughed at my expression.
“Let’s go outside,” Mandy smiled smugly, “I think they have noticed us now.”
“There is no way I’m going out there. I don’t have any makeup on.” Right then I looked like dying rat.
“Well, we are going to put some on you!” Mandy immediately got into her full-focus mode. I didn’t know which was worse; going outside without the makeup or having Mandy try and smother my face with foundation.
“No, no, no, I’ll do it.” I pushed her away, walking over to the bathroom. Mandy followed me, intent on making me suffer. She kept snatching away the eyeliner or mascara and tried to put it on me herself. Eventually I just gave up and went downstairs. I looked around, but Wendy, Carrie, and Lilly were nowhere in sight.
“Where are my sisters?” I called to Mandy, searching through the living room and the kitchen. Birdie was cleaning the dishes, and I went to help her dry them. The window in front of the sink was rough and scratched, and I could barely see out of it.
Ten seconds later, I froze. The twins and Lilly were already out there, talking to the guys! I could tell even from here that my sisters were flirting with Jared, even though he was my age and they were two years older. Jared was fawning over them both, probably in mental heaven by now. It wasn’t every day that a sixteen-year-old guy got to flirt with two pretty eighteen-year olds.
Mandy suddenly appeared, tugging on my arm. When I turned to look at her, I saw that she was wearing makeup as well, and that she had quickly styled her hair. “Let’s join them!” she excitedly said. Anticipation seared through me as I followed her.
We opened the door and immediately the group, standing by the lake, turned to look. My heart began to beat erratically when Adam raised his hand in greeting to both of us.
“Hey!” He smiled, and before I knew it Mandy had tugged me all the way over to the group. I mustered up a smile in return, while inwardly thinking about my appearance. Why didn’t I put on more makeup? Why didn’t I make my hair look less like a wasp’s nest? I didn’t care quite as much before, but now it was really bothering me. However, Adam didn’t seem to notice or care. “Looks like you’ve gotten even prettier since last year!” Adam complimented me, ruffling my hair like I was a little kid.
A guy with bright red hair and dark green eyes held out his hand to me. “I’m Mark,” he introduced himself, “a friend of Adam’s.” His hand was warm when I shook it. I could tell Mandy was impressed by him; she was making doe eyes already.
We talked for a while, making more introductions and asking about each others’ activities and hobbies. Adam was unusually quiet when we talked about school—there was no jibber jabber about his girlfriend and other stuff like that. Mark and Mandy were hitting it off, already flirting within minutes of their meeting.
Soon Jared, as always, began to cook up a plan. “We are going to Sunset Cliffs tonight for a campfire. Do y’all want to come?” he asked, looking pointedly at my sisters. They immediately squealed in unison.
“I don’t know.” I decided to act as the voice of reason within the group. “Birdie doesn’t like for us to go to Sunset Cliffs. She says it’s dangerous.”
“Oh, this is no big deal,” Jared replied, “we won’t be on the cliffs. We will be in the forest next to the cliffs. We do it all the time and nothing bad has ever happened.” Adam and the rest of the boys were nodding their heads as well.
Words could not describe the desire I had to spend time near Adam at the campfire. However, I had no clue how I would convince Birdie to let us go. She had the strangest animosity towards those cliffs, forbidding us from ever going near that place. Even the slightest mention of that name made Birdie freeze.
I expressed my concerns to the group, but Jared quickly brushed it off. He was obviously very eager to spend some quality time with my sisters. “Here’s what we can do,” he said, “we could sneak away at eleven o’clock tonight. Then our parents won’t know anything about it.”
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