Page 1 of The Summer of Us

CHAPTER ONE

Paige combed a hand through her brown cotton-soft curls and blew out a breath.

A weathered black travel case was propped open on the bed in front of her, neatly-folded shirts stacked together in swathes of pearly white and blue, her signature colours.

Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?

She flicked an appraising glance around her room, the plush grey carpet hidden beneath piles of tossed clothes and jeans she had decided not to bring with her and chewed on her fingernails; a habit she had been trying to shake for years, with little success.

Before she could figure out what was missing, her phone began to vibrate against the nightstand, almost toppling over the edge as she swooped to catch it.

With a short huff, she slid the pad of her thumb across the screen and answered without checking the caller ID. Only one person would be phoning her at half-past eight in the morning.

“Thank God you’re awake.” Olivia’s voice was as cheerful as a summer breeze.

“I had to set three alarms, but I made it,” Paige said, adjusting the bottle of sun cream peeking out of the case’s rear compartment. “You’re still coming for nine, right?”

“Absolutely,” Olivia confirmed with a click of her tongue. “How’s the packing coming along?”

Paige cast a dubious glance over the tangle of sheets, clothes and cosmetics scattered along her bed. “I should have listened to you and packed everything last night,” she admitted.

Olivia let out a short laugh. “Seriously, Paige, when was the last time you went on holiday?”

Paige shifted the phone and counted the years off her fingers. “Let’s see… at least eight years. Maybe more. I’m a little out of practice with this sort of thing.” She hadn’t been on a proper vacation since before her parents split, and her memories of sun and sand were all too distant.

Moving aside the travel case, she perched on the end of her bed. She was still wearing her cotton grey and pink pyjama shorts, and she stretched out her pale, freckled legs with a sigh. “I never realised how little summer clothes I owned until I had to pack for this trip,” she continued with an abysmal groan.

“You have always been a fan of jumpers.”

“Yeah,” Paige muttered, casting a wry look at the cable knit jumpers and grey sweatshirts poking out of her wardrobe, woefully abandoned in favour of loose cotton shirts.

“Anyway, I’d better let you go. I bet you’re not even dressed yet. I’ll be there soon!” She hung up with a breezy goodbye, and Paige tossed her phone onto the bed, stretching her arms over her head with a sigh.

Her blue bedroom curtains fluttered in the early-morning breeze, warm sunlight pouring in through the windows and scattering rainbows along the bare walls as the light refracted through the sun-catcher stuck to the glass. It had been a present from Olivia on Paige’s fourteenth birthday; a butterfly stencil that filled her room with vibrant colours on sunny days. The edges had started to peel and lose their adhesiveness over the last three and a half years, but Paige couldn’t bring herself to take it down.

Nestled between the sheets behind her, her phone buzzed with a message. She opened the notification.

Olivia: Btw, don’t forget to pack your toothbrush!

Paige snapped her fingers together. That’s what she’d been forgetting. A faint smile tugged at her lips as she typed out a reply.

Paige: You know me too well.

Somewhere outside her room, Paige heard a door creak open and then the slow shuffle of footsteps across the landing. Her mother was finally awake. Part of her had been hoping to slip out before her mum was up. She hadn’t been entirely enthusiastic about Paige going on holiday to begin with. Paige figured it had something to do with jealousy or guilt—that she had to rely on someone else to take her own daughter on vacation—but she tried not to dwell on it. Her mother tended to be bitter about most things, and Paige had learned to take her mum’s grievances with a pinch of salt.

With a glance at the time—almost twenty-to-nine—she changed into a pair of denim shorts and a white cap-sleeve shirt, and pulled her short brown hair back to her neck, cinching it with a bobble to keep it out of her face. It had grown just long enough to tie back now, but a few short strands still drifted over her eyes, curling against her pink, freckled cheeks.

“Alright, just gotta grab my toothbrush, and I’m ready,” she muttered to herself, zipping up her travel case and tidying up the crumpled sheets on her bed. She didn’t want to work up a sweat before stepping out into the 26°C heat, so she left her floor in a partial jumble-sale state and called it done.

There was a short tap against her bedroom door, and Paige’s mood soured for just a moment before she fixed her expression into something more neutral.

“Yeah?”

The door creaked open, and her mother’s tired face peered through the widening gap.

“When are you leaving?” That was it. No good morning pleasantries, straight to the point.

Paige pressed her hands against her thighs, letting her gaze drift over her mother’s shoulder as she stood in the open doorway. “Olivia’s picking me up at nine.”

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