The Summer Moon

Chapter Six

Malia

My heart was pounding in my chest as Ty drove away. I didn’t understand how my mind and body always reacted so strongly to his presence and his touch. No guy had ever made me feel this way before, and while this was exciting, it also made me kind of terrified. I know if I called Alana she would tell me to just go for it, but the shy girl that grew up always listening to her mother’s rules was still inside me. And right now, she was telling me to stay as far away from Ty as I could.

I snuck back into the house as quietly as I could, then raced to my room. I didn’t want to face questions from my dad and have to lie to him about why I was outside. My head was still spinning from the fact that Ty had known my dad. I pushed the thought out of my mind when I heard a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in!” I called, as I sat down on my bed and opened a book, pretending I had been reading it.

“Hi honey, just came to check in and see how you’re doing” my dad peeked his head through the door and eyed me over.

“Oh good dad, just doing some reading.” I shrugged my shoulders, hoping not to seem too suspicious.

“Okay, well, I’m going to be heading in to work soon. There’s a bike out on the front porch. I figured you would need a way around town. Maybe you should head down to town today, meet some people or something. There are lots of kids your age around town, and I’d hate for you to spend your whole summer cooped up in this room,” I smiled at my dad. I had been hoping to do some exploring in town and a part of me was secretly hoping I’d run into Ty again.

“That sounds great dad, thanks!” I closed my book and scooted off the bed. My dad just nodded his head and was out the door. I slipped on my sneakers and packed a small bag with my sunglasses, a book, and a small towel, hoping I would find the beach. Then I headed outside to see the bike leaning against the garage door. It was a pale teal colour with a small basket on the front. I hopped on, dropped my bag into the basket, and began peddling down the street and towards the shoreline.

I looked around me and watched the stores pass by, making a mental note to come down here and go shopping one day. When I finally reached the shore line, I chained my bike up and went to sit on my towel in the sand. A group of teens that looked to be about my age were playing volleyball off in the distance, but I was way too nervous to go introduce myself.

After about an hour of suntanning, suddenly a ball hit me over the side of the head. “Oh my goodness I’m so sorry!” A girl with dark red hair came running behind it.

“No worries, it was just a ball, no big deal,” I smiled at her.

“I’m Emily, are you new here?” She came to stand in front of me and extended her hand out. I reached up and lightly shook it.

“I’m Malia. Sort of yeah, I’m just visiting my dad for the summer,” I explained.

“Oh awesome! Want to come play with us? I’ll introduce you to everyone,” Emily didn’t wait for an answer. She grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards the group. I placed my bookmark in my book and let it drop on my towel, following her over with a nervous smile.

“Hey everyone, this is Malia, she’s new!” Emily shouted as she joined the group. She went through the group of people and listed a bunch of names I knew I would have to ask her again later. I couldn’t help but notice how good looking everyone here was. They were all in amazing shape with toned bodies. Seriously, was everyone in this town hot?

“Come on Malia, you can be on our team,” a boy with curly blonde hair waved me over to their side of the net and I quickly agreed. I was eager to get my body moving again. It had only been a week since my last game with the field hockey team, but my body was craving the release that exercise gave me. I’d been so busy between my dad visiting New York and my trip here that I hadn’t even been out for my usual morning runs in a while.

We continued to play volleyball for several hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Everyone who played was friendly and I even started to learn a couple of people's names. Just as I was about to head home, Emily came running over to me again. “Hey, thanks for playing with us today. Are you busy tonight? My parents are out of town, so my brother and I are throwing a party. You should totally come!” Emily set her hand on my arm and I bit my lip. I was never a party girl but it was a good way to meet some people, and I did have a lot of fun with them today.

Malia, you came on this trip to have some fun. You don’t know anyone here, let loose a little. I gave myself a short pep talk then surprised myself by nodding back to Emily, “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“That’s great!” Emily threw her arms around me. “Tell ya what, come over after dinner. You and I can get ready together. My address is 146 Pinewood Avenue”. I nodded to her, then hopped on my bike and began peddling home for dinner. My mind was already racing about what I was going to wear tonight.

When I reached the driveway, I leaned my bike up against the garage once more and scurried in the front door. I headed straight for my room and immediately began shuffling through my wardrobe, packing several options for outfits tonight into a backpack. My heart raced, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Ty would be there tonight. I shook the thought away, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. What was it about this boy that had me so intrigued?

Time seemed to crawl up until it was finally time to leave for Emily’s house. Just as the sun began to set, I hopped on my bike and headed towards the address she had given me. I was amazed to see the huge house that Emily lived in. It was easily twice the size of my dad’s house with large modern windows and a huge pool in the backyard.

“Emily, this place is amazing,” I complimented as she showed me around.

‘Yeah we’re pretty lucky, my dad worked hard for us to live in a place like this. A lot of people around here have nice houses though,” she said as we walked into her room. Emily turned on some music and began to sing and dance around the room. I giggled and joined her as we both got ready. Emily styled my hair for me in loose curls and pinned it half up. I let her do my make-up as well and was amazed at how differently I looked after she applied some winged eye liner, mascara and dark red lipstick. I smiled at myself in the mirror.

“Girl, you look totally hot!” Emily exclaimed, clearly pleased with her work.

“I look totally different,” I giggled back. “Thank you so much Emily, I love it.”

“Anytime! I love make-up and hair styling, I’m even taking some courses in hair school right now,” that was such a perfect career for her, I thought to myself. She clearly loves to talk and from her work she did on me today I could tell she definitely has the skills. I slipped on a pair of pale blue skinny jeans that had rips all up the front and paired them with a cropped black tank top. I looked in the mirror and noticed Emily was right. I did look totally hot. My hair hung to just above my waist and you could see my belly button piercing sticking out just below my shirt.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang from downstairs and loud music began to play. Emily came out of the closet dressed in a short black skirt and a red tank top paired with tall red stilettos. “Girl, there is no way I’m letting you wear those sneakers,” she gave a nasty look towards my shoes and tossed me a pair of strappy black heels from her closet. I nervously accepted them, knowing my feet would be killing me by the end of the night, but these shoes were gorgeous. So I accepted and slipped them on, then gave myself one last look and a twirl in the mirror.

“Come on hot stuff, party time!” Emily grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the stairs and into the crowd of people flooding through the front door.