Page 6 of To Love or to Lose
The sun is beating down on us, and it is certainly hot enough to swim. This is a rarity in Connecticut, usually by the time the calendar hits September our days are no longer blistering, and instead only mildly warm.
Sometimes though, on days near the beginning of the month, we’ll get lucky. Today happens to be one of those days.
“Of course it is, because I don’t ask dumb questions,” I say, grinning as I pull my t-shirt over my head, folding it neatly before discarding my shorts.
I hear a whistle from one of the nearby groups of boys. “Looking good, Alderidge!”
My head snaps to the direction of the noise, even though I already recognize the voice.
Standing not even twenty feet away from our blanket is none other than Logan Callaghan, the eldest child of the richest family in Fairwood, and who I consider being one of the best friends I’ve ever had.
All of us grew up together: Logan, Luke, Winnie, Eloise, and me.
Our parents are best friends, since our moms had all gone to Fairwood together. They stayed friends into their adult years, all of them marrying and having children roughly around the same time, making it inevitable that the five of us become inseparable.
On top of Winnie and Logan also being neighbors, Logan’s sister, Mae, and my sister, Gwen, have become as inseparable as us older kids.
But even then, we’re all in the same grade at school with lots of similar classes, causing our paths to cross frequently.
“I’m sure you were justwaitingfor a show, weren’t you, Callaghan?” I yell back sarcastically.
“You know me too well, Gen!” He smirks.
I flip him off.
By the looks of it, most would assume that Logan is a scumbag and that I hate him for it.
And if anyone were to bring this assumption to my attention I would probably go along with it because I like to push his buttons.
The truth is, Logan Callaghan is the farthest thing from a scumbag—whatever that may be. He respects people, especially women, more than any other person I know (probably because he grew up surrounded by hardass women) and any comments exchanged between us are in genuine fun.
He jogs over, leaving his group of friends behind and revealing his true intentions. “How are you ladies doing today?” He mockingly curtsies once he’s standing in front of us. “Are you staying for the fireworks tonight?”
“I’m not sure if we’ll be staying that late.” I shrug, looking toward the girls, who are lathering themselves in sunscreen.
“Well, you should,” Logan says, “I know it’s past your bedtime and all, but it’s really fucking fun.”
“I’ll think about it,” I reply. “But if you’re the one lighting them off, that may be an issue.”
He feigns offense. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He knows exactly what I mean.
“It should be pretty obvious why I don’t trust you with explosives.”
Eloise cuts in, “L, who’s your friend over there?”
Winnie and I both turn toward the group of boys Logan had left, noticing the one Eloise is talking about.
I’m sure that I’ve never seen him before, which is unusual. Not that I’m the best at remembering namesin relationto faces, but I’ve gotten fairly good at recognizing one or the other.
“Oh, that’s Jameson,” he says, confusing me more since I don’t recognize the name.
“That’s all you’re going to tell us?” Eloise scoffs.
“Ladies,” Logan narrows his eyes toward us. “Iam not your inside source. If you want to find out everything there is to know about my new friend, then go ask him yourselves.”
“We aren’t asking you for his social security number, jackass. We just want to know what he’s doing here, where he came from,” I tell him.
“Jameson’s staying with me for the school year as a foreign exchange student. He’s from London,” Logan answers.
