Page 18 of The Summers of Us

Once introductions were over, Holden started a game of hide and seek. While he counted down from thirty, I ran silently through the aisles, across bridges, down ramps to different levels. I scanned the shadows for a good enough clump to hide in. Holden was getting dangerously close to zero so I darted into a room on the sand. It was just big enough to crawl in, so I angled my head to fit. The sand was damp and cold away from the rising sun, sharp against my bare thighs.

Holden was searching, so I pulled my legs closer to my chest, gripping tightly and breathing short, hitched breath on my knees.

I thought maybe I was the only person who’d ever been in here, but there was writing on the walls. It was jagged over the existing wood grain, like it was written over the edge of another sheet of paper. The wooden slats told stories in bleeding marker and pencil scratches.

Some were bad words people at school said when the teachers weren’t around. Some I heard Mom say to Dad when she thoughtIwasn’t around. Most of them were written by couples, hearts drawn around their names, dates faded to match their age, even notes that felt too personal for a public hide and seek spot on an island.

Pedro + Kendall; D + L; Holly + Charlie; Mac loves Milana; T & A.

My mind wandered into a flurry of questions. How many of them grew up here together? How many of them vacationed here? How many were a fleeting blend of local and tourist? Did their relationships match how faded the writing was? Should I have done them a favor and retraced their names? How did it feel to be so sure of love that you marked its existence into wood? What did love even look like?

Footsteps thundered above me, and I felt them in my skull.

Holden sang, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

The steps above stopped shaking. I allowed another shallow breath.

“Found you!” Holden peeked his head under the opening and tagged my shin.

I was the last one found, so I became the seeker next. I scared Mason and Jorge when I found them holding themselves halfway down the tall slide. I heard echoes of them duetting a song from a mile away. When I was the hider again, I joined Mason and Jorge in the floorboards of a wooden car. Even though we couldn’t really speak, hiding with them made me feel close to them, because wewere—I could almost feel their hearts beat quicker when Haven stepped too close.

Hide and seek melted into swinging. We swung in a line, hitting the highest peaks at alternating times like ripples on the sound. Mason challenged us to see who could fling our shoes the farthest. We took turns launching our shoes into the sandy grass. Jorge’s sneakers beat our measly sandals.

I was swinging barefoot, my hair a reckless mess from the wind’s noisy, coldwhooshes. I closed my eyes and pretended to be a cloud floating across the island. It felt real, like what I imagined a rollercoaster might.

Summer skies changed fast.All day, the clouds feasted on water until they got too plump to stay alive. I thought the sky would stay alive long enough for the sun to set, but I knew it wouldn’t make it through these dark gray blankets.

Haven and I read more love stories written on the castle walls, then we joined Mason on the curb. We watched Holden and Jorge skate across the white lines of the parking lot, a hilarious divide between coordinated and almost too uncoordinated to watch. Their wheels made an angry growl against the asphalt.

We talked about every single topic that entered our minds. I defended rainbow sprinkles on ice cream, but assured Mason that pistachio wasn’t too bad without bits of nuts. Mason and Haven wanted me to crush on this cute actor they both liked from one of Saray’s telenovelas. I argued that orange soda was better than cola while Haven fought for cherry. We all agreed summer was the best season. Haven whined that Mason and Jorge were the only ones in the group who could find their name on all the beach souvenirs in Beachy Keen.

“Just once, I want to find something with my name. I’d even buy those dumb pirate bottle openers!” Haven said.

Mason was in the middle of a case against tourists when a drizzle fell from the sky. The cool droplets left soft, tiny kisses on my skin.

I looked at the sky getting less gray with each drop. “Raining must make the sky so happy.”

“But isn’t the sky crying?” Through the mist, Mason blinked his blue eyes like a surfer sifting for waves in a rainstorm. “That’s what I’ve always thought.”

“I think they’re happy tears. How nice would it feel to finally shed all that weight? You can tell the sky is happier now. See how much brighter it is?” It had to be happy tears, otherwise the world wouldn’t feel so brand new afterwards. As much as it sucked to cry, it always made me feel better.

“I never thought of it that way,” Mason said.

“Quinn, you want to learn how to skate?” Jorge looked at me after another lap around the parking lot, his black hair gelled back from rain.

Mom never really made a rule against skateboards in particular, but the bandages on the boys’ knees would have put skateboards high on herDon’t Touchlist. That, and wheels. But she wasn’t here and this was summer and I thought it looked like fun, so I let Jorge teach me.

He and Holden held me steadily on the skateboard. All I could think about were bandages and wheels. And helmets—they didn’t have helmets. I squeezed Holden’s shoulder so tight I worried I’d break him. I thought about wet roads and slippery wheels. Bandages slipping off in the rain. I couldn’t stop screaming.

“Just trust yourself,” Jorge said. “You have to stay calm.”

I didn’t explain that trusting people was last on my list of talents. Pinky promises I was good at, but trust? Not so much. I managed a pinky promise to myself.Stay calm enough to get a ride in.

With a tiny push, the boys sent me reeling through the rain-soaked world. I grabbed at the raindrops like they were tangible enough to hold me there. I clenched my knees just right and leaned before I lost my balance. I was doing it. I was skateboarding. My mouth was like a cloud that couldn’t contain its excitement.

Maybe rain was actually the sky’s happiness, too heavy to hold back.

I made it a few parking spaces before I realized I didn’t know how to stop myself. I screamed for Holden and he ran over to catch me before I could scuff myself red.

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