Summer Love (First Love Book 1) (9 page)

The next morning, Marissa woke up lying on Chad’s chest the same way she fell asleep. Just moments after opening her eyes, she felt his arms squeeze her tighter.

“Good morning beautiful,” he said. “I’m assuming you slept well. I don’t think you moved a muscle.”

Marissa nodded as she sat up. She pulled her pony tail out and smoothed her hair before pulling it back again.  “So how much of last night went according to your plan?” she asked.

“I honestly didn’t expect you to stay with me,” he admitted. “I hoped you would, but I expected to walk you back to Lynn’s. I definitely didn’t plan on Eric crashing the party. I did however, plan on telling you how I felt. It’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now.”

“And the plan for today is?” Marissa prompted.

“A surprise,” he said. He stood up and stretched. “I’m going to shower upstairs. You can use my bathroom.” He leaned in and kissed her before leaving the room.

Marissa collapsed back on the bed. It was so insanely comfortable that she didn’t want to move. I can’t believe he gave up living here, just because he refused to break up with me. Although, he probably would have moved in with Eric by now if he hadn’t moved in with Lynn, she reminded herself. The thought of him living with the brother she had met the night before scared her. I’m glad he didn’t. After a few minutes, she was able to tear herself out of bed and into the shower, eager to see what Chad had planned for the day.

She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, attempting to pull her wet hair into a ponytail, when she heard Chad come back down the stairs.

Chad’s plan for the day was a tour of every place that something important had happened in their relationship. The boulder where they first met. The park bench on the side of the road where he had asked her out. The gazebo overlooking the lake. For the places he didn’t want to actually visit, he had drawn. The park where she had forgiven him after his breakdown. The cave where he had had the breakdown. He had even drawn a picture of the slide at the campground where they had left notes when they missed each other.

“I don’t want to risk forgetting a single moment with you,” he explained when she asked about the drawings.

They spent their afternoon sitting together on the boulder, watching everyone else play football.

That evening, the five teenagers spent the night in Chad’s basement, watching movies, sitting in the hot tub, and playing pool. For the second night in a row, Marissa fell asleep in Chad’s arms.

The next morning, Chad and Brayden drove Marissa back to the campground. Marissa didn’t want to go, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She felt so lost and alone. There was no way to call Melissa from the campground. She didn’t know when she would see Chad again.

Marissa continued spending most of her days on the playground, not knowing when Chad could show up. One day, she found a pack of cigarettes hidden in the slide and she was grateful.

The days were going by too fast. Chad was only able to visit once or twice a week because of his work schedule. She was dreading the day that she would have to leave.

Brayden had talked Lynn into letting Marissa stay at the house for a couple of days before Marissa left.

She was disappointed when it was her aunt’s van that picked her up from the campground instead of Chad’s Camry.

The next few days flew by. Every summer, it was hard for Marissa to leave, but this summer, it seemed impossible.

“I hate that I’m leaving tomorrow,” she cried on her last night. She was in the basement with the rest of the usual crowd.

“You will be back next summer, right?” Melanie asked.

Marissa nodded. “Probably around Memorial Day again, but that seems so far away.”

Chad was sitting on the couch, holding her. “We will talk all the time,” he assured her. “And I will drive down as often as I can.”

Again, Marissa nodded, but she didn’t say anything. She rested her head on Chad’s shoulder, worried about how the relationship would survive having one hundred eighty miles between them for the next nine months.

Chad stood up and took his girlfriend by the hand. He led her upstairs and out the back door.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

Chad led her around to the back of the house. He turned to her and held her face in his hands. “I know it sucks that you have to leave. Believe me, I hate it too,” he told her. “But being upset about it isn’t going to make it any easier. I already told you, we will get through this. Hopefully next year, I’ll be in Madison, and that will be a lot closer.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I love you, and it will take a hell of a lot more than a three hour drive to keep us apart.”

Marissa nodded, unable to say anything. He had never told her he loved her before. The closest would have been when he told her he was falling in love with her, but hearing those three words together were different. She wanted to believe everything would be okay. She wanted to believe that they would make it work. She couldn’t help but worry about the day the phone calls stopped, or how she would handle it if Chad found someone else.

“I have something for you,” he broke through her thoughts, pulling a small box from his pocket. As she reached for it, he pulled it away. “You have to promise you won’t open it until Tuesday.”

Marissa smiled. Tuesday was their three month anniversary. “I promise,” she told him, again reaching for the box. This time, he handed it to her. “By the way, I love you too.”

She didn’t know how long they stood outside, holding each other underneath the stars. When they returned to the basement, Chris and Melanie were gone. Brayden was walking back and forth, trying to soothe Anthony, who had apparently woken up while they were outside. Marissa took the baby from her cousin. “I’m going to miss you, little guy,” she said, kissing Anthony on the top of his head.

“I’m sure he will miss you, too,” Brayden told her.

When Marissa arrived in the beginning of the summer, Anthony was barely three months old. Now, at six months, he was sleeping through the night, rolling over, and crawling. By the time next summer came along, he would already be walking and be over a year old.

“Don’t be a stranger this year. Call me once in a while,” Brayden said as he disappeared into his room.

“I will,” she promised.

Chad and Marissa were left alone with Anthony. “I better get him to bed,” Chad said quietly.

Marissa nodded, handing Chad his son. “I won’t see you before I leave will I?” She knew her grandparents would be picking her up insanely early in the morning.

Chad shook his head. “I’ll be working. Call me as soon as you make it home.”

“I will.”

Chad leaned in and kissed her one more time before he and Anthony went upstairs.

Marissa collapsed on the couch after he was gone. She cried herself to sleep.

She woke up a few hours later, when her grandfather honked from the driveway. As she jumped up, she noticed a piece of paper next to her.

Wanted to see you again, but didn’t want to wake you. Talk to you soon. I love you.

Chad

Marissa smiled and shoved the note into her bag as she walked up the stairs and climbed into the truck. She made one last look at the house as her grandfather drove her back to her life at home. She tried to catch a glimpse of Chad as they drove by the gas station, but she didn’t see him.

Marissa rested her head on her grandma’s shoulder and drifted off to sleep. She didn’t wake up until the truck pulled into her driveway.

She was home. The reality of being in a long distance relationship had begun to set in and she locked herself in her bedroom, unwilling to face the world. She didn’t know when she would see Chad again. She didn’t know if he would move on because of the distance between them.

One thing she did know was that she was in love. She couldn’t imagine her life without Chad, despite the short time she had been with him.

Next summer will be better than ever, she thought. And by the end of summer, Chad should be living in Madison, which is less than an hour away. We will be able to make this work.

Thank you for joining my through my journey in writing. The conclusion to this story will be available soon, and I hope you continue the series. What more can be thrown at Marissa and Chad?

I love interacting with my fans! Be sure to ‘like’ my Facebook page (
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Harley has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember, but like the character Marissa, she wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to share her words with the world. She met the person who inspired Chad’s character when she was a teenager, and he encouraged her to write. Harley struggled for years to find the words to write Chad’s story, giving up several times.

Recently, Harley’s grandmother, who raised her, was diagnosed with Stage Four breast cancer, and Harley needed to escape to a different world where she didn’t have to deal with reality. This was the perfect opportunity to revisit this story. Now nothing can stop her from getting her words out to the public.

She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their five children.

To learn more, visit
www.facebook.com/harleyturner.author

Want to know what happens to Marissa and Chad’s relationship after she returns home? Find out now in Autumn Goodbye, the conclusion to the First Love series. Available now in the Kindle store and on Amazon. Here is a preview.

For the first time ever, Marissa didn’t want the first day of school to come. She wanted summer back. She didn’t want to be back in her home town, but instead she longed to be back at her aunt’s house with her cousin. And Chad.

As she walked to school with her best friend Melissa on the first day of eighth grade, Marissa was silent.

“Okay, seriously, you are the one that actually likes school! Snap out of it! You are acting like me!” Melissa hated school. Even though Marissa did most of her homework for her the previous year, Melissa never turned it in, and she was forced to repeat seventh grade.

“I can’t help it. I miss Chad, and I don’t even know when I will see him again,” Marissa complained.

Marissa was thirteen years old, very tall for her age, with long dark blonde hair and brown eyes. She was good in school and generally enjoyed the learning environment, despite the fact that she couldn’t stand most of her classmates. Melissa had also recently turned thirteen. She was much shorter than her friend, and had long dark curly hair and green eyes.

Chad was Marissa’s boyfriend. She had met him two summers ago while spending the summer with family like she always did. Chad was a seventeen year old bad boy, but Marissa was madly in love with him. She didn’t care that he was on probation for robbing a liquor store. She didn’t care about the age difference or about his history of drug problems. She loved spending time with him and his six month old son, Anthony.

“How are you going to manage keeping the relationship a secret? Don’t you want to run through the streets screaming?” Melissa had never met Chad, but she had heard all about him from her friend. She liked seeing Marissa happy, but at the same time she didn’t like Chad. She thought he was a bad influence on Marissa.
That’s my job
, she thought.
I’m supposed to be the bad influence.

“I don’t have a choice,” Marissa replied. “If my mom ever finds out, she will seriously kill me!”

Melissa tossed the cigarette she was smoking before the girls crossed the street onto school grounds. “You are excellent at keeping things from her,” Melissa pointed out.

She was right. Marissa couldn’t imagine what her mother’s reaction would be if she knew Marissa was smoking, although it wouldn’t be near as bad as her finding out about Chad. The girls walked into the building and to the locker that they shared before separating and beginning their day.

Marissa and Melissa didn’t even bother to compare schedules, because they knew they would have no classes together. As Marissa checked hers, she saw that she again had two classes that she had to venture into the high school on the other side of the building for. Advanced math and English classes were no surprise to her.

Once school started, Marissa was able to keep Chad off her mind for a little bit. She threw herself into her school work and was surprised how fast the day flew by. Before she knew it, she was meeting Melissa for the walk home.

As soon as they reached Marissa’s house, the girls tore up the stairs and locked themselves in Marissa’s room so she could call her boyfriend.

A few minutes into the conversation, Melissa left to walk home, leaving Marissa alone to talk to Chad.

“Did you cheat and open your present yet?” Chad asked as soon as he answered the phone. Before Marissa had left to come home last week, he had given her a small box and made her promise not to open it until the following day, which would be their three month anniversary.

“Nope. It’s sitting on my dresser waiting for tomorrow morning,” she assured him. She didn’t add that she had seriously considered opening it as soon as her grandparents had dropped her off at home.

“You should wait until after school so you can talk to me while you open it.”

The conversation continued for half an hour before Chad had to leave for work. He worked part time in a small gas station, even though he didn’t need to have a job. He had a large trust fund waiting for him when he turned 18 the following spring, and had more than enough money to survive on before that day came.

Chad asked Marissa about the first day of school. He wouldn’t begin his senior year for a couple of weeks yet. Marissa asked him how Anthony was doing. When they hung up, Marissa called Melissa and told her how the conversation went.

When she was done on the phone, Marissa started in on homework. While most kids would complain about homework on the first day of school, Marissa welcomed the distraction. She had dropped volleyball this year, and cheerleading practice didn’t start until later in the week.

The next day after school, Marissa practically drug Melissa to her house. She couldn’t get there fast enough. She picked up the phone and dialed Chad’s number as she placed the box on her bed.

“Open it yet?” he answered the phone.

“About to now,” she told him as she opened the box. When she saw what was inside, she almost dropped the phone. A thin silver chain held a small silver heart locket. Inside the locket, there was a picture of her on one side and a picture of Chad on the other. Tears filled her eyes as she reached behind her neck to clasp it on.

“Do you like it?” he asked her.

Marissa had honestly forgotten he was on the phone. “Yes! I love it!” she exclaimed. “But it’s too much!”

“No, it’s not enough. Not even close.”

The conversation continued late into the evening. They talked so long that Marissa didn’t have time to call Melissa to tell her what the present was. By the time her homework was done, it was time for bed.

It didn’t take long for Marissa to fall into a routine. Mondays and Wednesdays she stayed after school for cheerleading practice. Most Fridays, she had a game to cheer at. That left only two days a week to rush home and talk to Chad for as long as she could. If he was working, she spent the time on the phone with her cousin Brayden.

A few weeks into the school year, Marissa was walking home with Melissa. It was a Friday afternoon, and Marissa was in her cheerleading uniform. She had an hour to get home and get something to eat before she had to be back at the school for the game.

The girls were only a block away from the school when Marissa saw the familiar dark blue Firebird drive passed them and stop on the side of the street. Marissa threw her backpack to the ground and raced toward the car, reaching it as Chad stepped out.

Chad seemed to have grown since Marissa had seen him, only a couple of weeks before. He was now a couple of inches taller than her. His blonde hair, still untamed, fell passed his ears. His bright blue eyes lit up when he saw her dressed in her uniform.

“Why did you never tell me you were a cheerleader?” he asked as she jumped into his arms.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, avoiding his question. She honestly didn’t know why she had never told him.

“Well for one, someone has a birthday coming up, and I needed to bring down your present.”

Marissa’s hand went up to the heart shaped locket that she had never taken off. “No more presents,” she said. “My birthday isn’t until Sunday anyway. Why did you cut school to come down here today?”

Melissa had caught up and handed Marissa her bag. Marissa introduced them to each other.

“I didn’t cut school just to see you, even though that alone would have been enough of a reason for me,” he explained after introductions. “I had court today, and I am officially emancipated.”

Again, Marissa threw her arms around him. “That’s fantastic!”

“Do you have to go straight home or can you go for a ride?” he asked the girls.

Marissa looked at Melissa. “Are you coming to the game?”

Melissa shook her head. “That’s your scene, not mine. Come over after?”

Marissa nodded, and Melissa began to walk away.

“I have an hour before I have to be back at the school,” Marissa told her boyfriend as she jumped into his car.

“Well, I’m here all weekend. Chris is back at the hotel with Anthony,” Chad said as he began to drive. “We are staying at the hotel right off the Interstate.”

“That’s where I’m having my birthday party tomorrow!” Marissa exclaimed.

“That might make it easier to see you.”

“So tell me how court went,”

“Basically, the judge looked at my bank account to make sure I can financially support myself and Anthony. The fact that I work even though I don’t need the money helped a lot. My grades from last year were amazing, thanks to you. My probation officer even said it would be a good idea for me to be on my own. The only downside is that my trust fund is now sealed until I turn 21, but that won’t be a problem. I can easily survive for three and a half years on what I have in the bank. I’m at Lynn’s until the end of the month, but I already have an apartment to move in to next month. Chris is helping me keep my grades up. Anthony is in day care during the school day, and someone is always willing to watch him while I work.” Chad stopped talking as he pulled into the parking lot of a small sandwich shop. “Hungry?”

Marissa nodded. “I’m so proud of you! You should bring Chris and Anthony to the game tonight,” she suggested.

“I might just do that.” Chad walked around and helped Marissa out of the car. As usual, he refused to let her pay for her food.

After they finished eating, it was time for Marissa to head back to the school. Chad dropped her off and drove away.