16. matthew

- Authors note

Hello everyone! I made a playlist for this chapter since I want those summer vibes to start and I want you to get an idea what they're playing on their speakers! Please note not all of these songs are clean!

Brazil - Declan McKenna

Break from Toronto - PARTYNEXTDOOR

Passionfruit - Drake

Slide - Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, Migos, Funk Wav

ball w/o you - 21 Savage

Tongue Tied - GROUPLOVE

Hard Times - Paramore

Super Rich Kids - Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt

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I meant every word I said.

I did want her.

Hailey offers to drive tonight, especially after the party last night she won't be drinking. Once we get there, I take a good look at Leo's lake house. I've only hung out with him once of twice last summer, but only with Luka.

I open the door and music is playing on the speakers. It's not too loud, but definitely not quiet. I walk around until I see some guys I recognize.

"Matthew, dude hey! How have you been?" Colton asks me. Colton's family lives up here so I get to see him every summer. I almost didn't recognize him.

"Hey. Did you dye your hair?" I ask.

"Yeah. I didn't like the brown hair. Went blonde instead. What do you think?"

"It's nice man." I say, before giving him a hug.

Colton's always been smaller than me. We always picked on him for being short as kids, but recently he's shot up in height. He's almost taller than me. I sit down on the couch and Luka offers me a beer.

"So Matty boy, do you have any plans for college?" Colton asks.

"Yeah, I'm going to Harvard." I reply, getting a shot of academic validation when all the guys faces look surprised.

"No way man. Congrats." Some guy says.

"Thanks. What about you guys?"

Most of them were going to stay close to home. Only a few were leaving the state. It made me realize how lucky I was.

Suddenly, I felt like I was back at home. These people are my true friends. I miss them all school year, and once I get back to the lake house, it feels like we've only been separated for a week.

"Hey, Morgan how's the lovers' quarrel?" Luka said.

My daydreaming is cut when I realize she's here six feet away from me.

"Hi, Luka." She responds.

"Want a beer?" I ask.

"No thanks. Do you guys have anything else though?"

"Yeah for sure. There's some more stuff in the cabinet there." Leo responds.

She opens it and grabs out a lemon lime soda. She gets a plastic cup and puts some ice in it.

"No alcohol yet?" Leo asks.

"It's only 8:30."

"Come on it's the summer," he pauses, "what's your name again?"

Morgan's face flushes and she laughs awkwardly. We make eye contact and her facial expression is begging me to help the situation.

"That's Morgan. She's at my lake house for the summer."

"Is she your girlfriend or something?" He asks.

"Is there a right and wrong answer to this question?"

"Yeah man, I was trying to find you a girl like five minutes ago. You see that girl over there? Blonde hair, blue top? I could see her top on your bedroom floor."

"You're gross man." Matthew replies as some of the guys laugh.

"Is there air conditioning in here? It's so hot." Hailey says, walking by.

"How would you know if something was hot? You think everything and everyone is hot." Luka says.

"Okay, thanks for that." She says sarcastically.

"I mean dude. Colton had a retainer. Come on." He continues.

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Hailey's first kiss was Colton. It happened when they were 12. It was around the end of July if I'm remembering it correctly. It was in the evening, right before he left after a day of swimming. I knew Hailey had a crush on him but she didn't talk about it much. I could tell she was flirting with him that whole day.

As I was packing my bag, she ran up to him.

"Hey, Colton." Hailey said, breathlessly.

"What's up?"

"I like you."

"I like you too. A lot."

I remember seeing her face light up. This was the first time she confessed to a boy, and the first time she found out a boy had a crush on her. Before I knew it, he stepped forward to kiss her.

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"Me and Colton are boys now. Right, Colton?" She holds her hand up for a high five and he stands up to meet hands.

"You dated him while he was tiny. He's hit the gym now though." Leo said, squeezing his arms.

My sister rolls her eyes and everyone laughs again. I can tell Morgan is a little more comfortable now.

"Hey do you guys want to go in the lake?" One of the guys suggests.

"We don't have our swim stuff on, though." Morgan says.

"Okay, she's going in first." Leo laughs.

We all run down to the dock and everyone jumps in. We splash each other and Luka comes with water guns. He hands one to everyone. I load mine up and start spraying it at everyone near me. I feel water hit my head behind me. It was Morgan. I load mine up again and start spraying her. She starts laughing and spraying me back.

One of the guys comes down with a speaker and he puts it on the dock before taking off his shirt and jumping in.

"Watch out, Hailey Bailey." Colton says, before spraying my sister in the face. She rubs her eyes and has mascara running down her face.

Some girls come down and they jump in. One of them grabs out their phone and we all take a photo. Some people are screaming out the song lyrics playing on the speaker, and others are still mid water gun fight. I grab Morgans hand underwater and pull her to the other side of the dock.

"Are you happy we actually went?" She asks.

"Yeah. This has been great." I reply, genuinely feeling the happiest I've been this whole year.

She pushes my hair out of my face and she cups my cheeks.

"What?" I ask.

"Just thinking." She responds.

We got out of the lake around 10. Some people were making out near the dock. I look around and recognize some of these people. These are kids I've known my whole life. We get up to the lake house and the amount of people in the room doubled. There was a different playlist playing here. My clothes were drying fast since it was so hot outside. Morgan is dancing beside me, before Hailey joins with her.

"Hey what's that?" She asks.

"What's what?" Morgan replies.

"Is that a hickey?"

I immediately look over to see my sister pointing at her neck. The lake must have washed away some of her makeup.

"Oh, uh. Yeah!"

My face gets hot, nervous for what Morgan says next. I don't know if she's going to play it off or confess. I'm mentally preparing to defend both of us before she replies.

"I made out with one of the guys near the dock." She says, confidently.

"Oh my gosh? Why didn't you tell me? Which one?" My sister freaks out with excitement.

"Oh, I don't know. Just one of them." She laughs.

My favourite song starts to play. I sing along and Leo notices.

"Yo, Matt. Come up here!" He says with his microphone that he's clearly been having too much fun using.

I walk over and he hands me the microphone. He encourages for me to sing it but I say no.

"Come on. I'll sing it with you." He says, grabbing another microphone.

Some people grab out their phones as we begin to sing the song full on karaoke style. I can see my sister laughing at me while holding up her phone, but I don't care. I was in the zone having fun with my friends. Once the song finishes the crowd screams and I get a high five from Colton. I walk over to Hailey and Morgan and Hailey makes fun of me. Morgan tries to compliment my singing but she ends up laughing. Someone comes to us with a disposable camera.

"Hey do you guys want to be in our photo?" She asks.

"Oh my gosh! Alexis! Hello!" My sister says.

"Is that you, Hailey? Your hair has grown so much I almost didn't recognize you!" Alexis replies. She holds up her camera and we all smile. Before we know it Alexis turns back around to catch up with Hailey.

"This is my best friend, Morgan. She's up here with us for the whole summer." She says, pulling onto Morgan's arm gently.

"Hi! You're so pretty!" Alexis says as I look to see her face light up.

"Thank you, so are you!" She replies.

When people start to leave we're still catching up with old friends while Hailey occasionally sings along to the songs that are playing. When there is only about ten people left we sit back down on the couch we started at.

"Hey do you guys want to play truth or dare?" Leo suggests.

Everyone agrees and we put an empty beer bottle on the floor. Luka spins it first and it lands on Colton.

"Truth or dare, Colty?" Luka asks, tickling Colton like he's a baby.

"Stop it man," he laughs out, "truth." He says breathlessly.

"Best kiss."

"Matt's sister." He replies, grinning. Everyone in the room looks at Hailey and she laughs, hitting him on the shoulder.

Colton spins next and it landed on Alexis.

"Truth or dare, Lexi?"

"Dare."

"I dare you," he says, pausing to think, "to show the most embarrassing photo you have from last summer."

Alexis smiles evilly at me and then shows everyone a photo from last summer of me sleeping on her couch on my stomach, drool everywhere, with no shirt on and my short are showing the smallest bit of my butt. Everyone looks at me and we all burst out laughing.

"I don't even remember that photo." I say, laughing so hard it feels like I just did an ab workout.

I then spin the bottle and it lands on Morgan. She looks at me, smiling like I won't ask her anything good.

"Truth or dare, Morgan?" I say, pausing before saying her name.

"Truth." She replies.

I don't hesitate.

"Best crush."

She looks at me and her face doesn't goes red. I grin at her, waiting for her response. Everyone looks over at her, waiting impatiently.

"Andrew Moore. Eighth grade." She looks at me confidently. She then spins the bottle. I sit there, wondering how this girl who has always been extremely shy, has shown me another side of her. I'm not upset she didn't say I was her best crush, I'm surprised that she has never been confident with me before. I like it when she's confident.

We are the last people to leave. We helped Leo clean up a bit before saying goodbye and leaving. When we get in the car, Hailey goes through her camera roll to look at her photos from tonight. I look over and see that most of them are shaky. She puts her phone down and starts the car. I look at Morgan, who's in the backseat, closing her eyes and resting her head on the window.

When we get back, I wake her up and she puts her arm over my shoulder. We walk into the lake house and notice all the lights are off.

"Wait, what time is it?" I ask.

Hailey checks her phone.

"It's only midnight. We came home earlier than usual."

"Huh. Mom must've gone to sleep."

I walk Morgan up the stairs and into her and Hailey's room. I walk down into the basement to my room. I plug my phone in and change into my pyjamas before getting into bed. I look through the photos of tonight when I receive a text from Alexis.

Text sent by "Alexis" at 12:34 AM: I know about you and Morgan