---

'Cause it's a cruel,
Cruel summer,
Leaving me here on my own,
It's a cruel,
Cruel summer,
Now you're gone.

Ace of Bass- Cruel Summer

---

Boys of Summer 26-30

Melanie Ezell

---

26.

Cassie rolled over in her sleeping bag, trying to work the rock she had slept on out of the small of her back without much success. Annoyed, she climbed from her resting place beside the river and cast a glance back towards the cabin, wondering whether or not to brave going back so early in the morning.

Would Emily be awake? What would she say to her if she was? Cassie had tried to talk to the girl the night before, but all she had received in response were muffled sobs from the other girl's bunk and questioning looks from her sister and mom. She had stayed inside afterwards just long enough to grab her sleeping bag and explain to her mom and uncle about the smell before heading back out, to the same spot they had been the night before.

She shivered in the early morning dew, and quickly packed her sleeping bag away. 'If Emily isn't ready to talk to me, well, I still need to eat.' She yawned as she began the short trek back to the cabin.

"Good morning, miss 'too good to sleep in the smelly old cabin with everyone else.'"

"Good morning, Jobe." Cassie wrapped her arms around her cousin and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, causing the boy to blush. Two people could play at the 'annoying cousin' game, after all. "What's for breakfast?"

"I dunno, what'cha fixin' me?"

"Oh, ha ha." She stuck her tongue out at the older boy as she inspected the contents of the cabinets. "Pancakes okay?"

A tired Richard stumbled out from the boys' room. "Sounds fine to me," he grumbled as he collapsed into his favorite chair.

"Me, too." Kayla added in, poking her head around the bathroom door. "And a towel, while you're at it."

"AND BREAKFAST IN BED!" Ruby called from her room.

Cassie growled. "Why don't I just fix EVERYBODY breakfast, then?"

"Sounds good to me. Extra bacon for me, please, really crunchy, I don't like it when it's all rubbery."

David managed to dodge the first fork, but the second one struck him cleanly in the forehead, tines first.

"Ow! Dammit!"

"Don't harrass the cook." Richard recommended without turning. "They have all the sharp stuff at hand, and her mom's been known to slip laxatives in peoples' food when she's messed with."

The look of disgust on David's face was like a work of art as Cassie gave him her best 'Evil Grin'.

"She wouldn't."

"Watch me."

David gulped loudly, but sat down quietly and didn't say another word as Cassie set about preparing breakfast for the cabin, humming happily to herself.

---

27.

"And that's when, heh, that's when, heheh, that's when she-"

"Uncle Richard-"

"That's when she-"

"UNCLE RICHARD-"

"That's when h- she said, 'well, THAT wasn't supposed to happen.'" Richard fell out of his chair laughing as Cassie stared at him in horror. "We had to replace the drain line after that, 'cause we could never-"

"UNCLE RICHARD!!!"

"-get that damned clog out of the plumbing."

Richard continued to laugh while Cassie banged her head into the table, hoping against hope she would disappear before suffering another round of Death by Embarrassing Story. She raised her head when she heard a soft feminine laugh to find Emily chuckling along with the boys, but the moment her eyes rested on her the other girl stopped laughing and blushed, turning away from Cassie.

Cassie grinned. If Emily wasn't going to talk to her because of last night, she would just have to talk to Emily on her own. Excusing herself from the table, Cassie crossed over behind the other girl's seat and placed her hand on her shoulder, ignoring her flinch.

"Emily, can you walk with me? We need to talk."

"Uh, I dunno, I was gonna ask your sister to-"

Cassie squeezed Emily's shoulder slightly. "Please?"

Emily gulped. "O-okay."

Cassie kept one eye on the other girl as she lead them down the river and back towards the rocks from the night before. Emily hesitated only a little at the edge of the rocks before following Cassie out to the large flat stone they had used as a seat the night before.

Cassie sat herself down on the rock and wrapped her arms around her knees before looking up into Emily's eyes. "Okay, we need to talk about what happened last night."

"I'm sorry, I just... um."

Cassie watched closely to make sure Emily wasn't going to run off again. When it seemed like she was going to stay, Cassie stood up and wrapped her in a hug. "It's alright, I was just a little surprised. I didn't know you were a, uh, les-"

"NO!" Emily jerked away and gave Cassie a hard look. "I'm not! I mean, oh, I dunno! This is the first time I've thought I liked a girl!"

"Okay, uh."

The kiss this time was slightly less of a shock, but its suddenness and urgency still threw Cassie for a loop. Caleb made a grab from the recesses of her desires to take control, and it took all her willpower to break the kiss and step back from Emily's embrace. "Emily..."

"Cassie, I-"

"Emily!" The force of her words stopped the other girl in mid- apology, the tear streaks on her face making Cassie ache to kiss her again and make it all better- but she knew that wouldn't work. "Emily. *Phew* Okay. I like you a lot Emily, really. But I don't know if we should be doing this. There's a lot about me you don't know." Emily made a move to speak, but Cassie raised her hand to stop her. If she didn't finish this now, she never would. "See, I'm... I'm..."

"What?"

"Uh..." Seeing the look on Emily's face, half hope and half fear, Cassie couldn't bring herself to reveal the uncomfortable truth of the situation. "There's someone else in my life right now," slipped from her lips before her mind caught up to her mouth and clamped her teeth shut with a sharp snap. She watched Emily's face for a reaction, and was more than surprised when she spotted a small smile tweaking the corners of her mouth.

"Avery?"

Cassie shivered. "Oh, god no!"

Now Emily's voice held a faint note of challenge as she stood with her hands on her hips. "Well, who then?"

Again, her mouth ran away before her brain could catch up. "His name's Caleb."

"Oh, really?"

Cassie cursed the day she ever agreed to wear girl's clothes as she apologized to herself for what she was about to do. "Ah, yeah. Sorry." She scratched the back of her head nervously as she tried to come up with more explanation. The crunch of pebbles underfoot signalled her that Emily was coming nearer to her again, and when she looked up into the taller girl's face, she saw an expression of mixed sadness and embarrassment, with just a touch of... relief?

"Why didn't you tell us about him when we were teasing you earlier."

This one was easy for her to field. "Please don't tell my sister. If Kayla heard about Caleb, I'd never hear the end of it." Emily nodded, and with a slight giggle gave Cassie another kiss, this time on the cheek. With a sigh, she also wrapped her in a hug. "Are we okay?"

Emily sighed into her shoulder. "I dunno. I feel so silly, though. I thought you were, well, you know, and you have been so nice to me, and I dunno, I just." Emily stiffened against her, and Cassie could feel her growing nervous again. In answer, she tightened her own grip on the taller girl. "I DO like you, and I can't promise I won't do something stupid, but I'll try not to bring any of this up again. It's gonna be hard, though. Sigh. ARE we okay? I won't kiss you again..."

"Z'okay. It isn't the first time someone's thought I was gay," Cassie whispered, trying to keep the depression in her response to a minimum. 'Sheesh, sometimes you just can't win.'

---

28.

Cassie was growing tired of fielding questions left and right from everyone in the cabin about what she had been up to with Emily, and it was with great relief that she went out hiking on her own, looking for more mushrooms for her uncle, or maybe some polk salad for the hell of it. Or a nice, green handful of poison ivy to give to David if he kept up the jerk attitude. The thought of him with his mouth and eyes swollen shut made her smile until she realized how mean it would be, though she couldn't contain a light chuckle at what ELSE would get all red and itchy if he touched IT after she gave him the ivy.

She turned the volume in her headphones up a bit more as she hopped across a series of rocks spanning the river to reach the other side, admiring the swirling patterns of the rushing water around the many large and small protrusions that made up the crossing. She remembered when she was smaller her uncle having to carry her across on his shoulders, and how he almost always would fall in and get soaked, but somehow manage to keep Caleb- her, completely dry. Not that it mattered since their destination was always the little hot spring about a quarter of a mile away for a warm relaxing soak, but it was the thought that counted.

This time, though, her goal was much closer. She had spotted the small clearing covered in wildflowers on the far bank on their way down in the canoes, but had forgot about it until today. The last thing she wanted for the moment was to be disturbed, and a nice nap among the wildflowers sounded like just the thing to give her a chance to think over things in private. Or not. She still wasn't sure whether she wanted to think about anything at all yet, or let it sit for a while. 'Not like it makes much difference, I still did the right thing- I think.'

It didn't take her long to find a clear area away from the water to lay the blanket she had brought down. The sky was clear after the rain of the last few days, with the humidity making anything much more active than a short walk seem like torture. Cassie pulled out her book and laid down on her blanket to relax, trying to lose herself in the adventures of Harry Dresden.

She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, but she was jarred from her dreams by a gentle hand shaking her shoulder.

"Come on, Cassie, your mom sent me to find you. It's lunch time. I brought sandwiches. Uh..."

Cassie groggily opened her eyes to see Eric leaning over her and holding a picnic basket. "Hi, Eric."

"Uh, hi." The boy grinned sheepishly before standing back up, giving Cassie enough room to sit up and notice how the shadows had changed.

"How long have I been out here?"

"I dunno, maybe two or three hours? Emily told us you needed some space, so nobody bothered you for a while."

"Oh. Thanks." Cassie stretched, trying to get rid of the kink that had developed in her shoulder where she had slept on it wrong. "So what'ja bring?" She asked, clearing a spot on her blanket for Eric to sit down.

---

29.

Cassie made sure to give Eric plenty of time to get back to the house before setting out herself, and took her time crossing the river again and making her way towards the cabin. She had a lot of thinking still to do, and felt sure that she wouldn’t be able to do it if she was near everyone else. It only took her a few minutes to get back to the rocks where she had met with Emily just that morning, only to find that she was not going to be as alone as she had expected.

“Can we talk for a bit, hon?”

“Sure, mom.”

Cassie wasn’t sure whether to be happy or upset to find her mom waiting for her return. She felt for sure she needed to figure this out alone, but she also knew that her mom would stay there until she found out what was going on. ‘But how much should I tell her? This isn’t just about me, it concerns Emily too.’

Ruby gave Cassie a tight hug as she settled down next to her. “So, how’s your vacation going so far?”

Cassie shrugged, then smiled. “Okay. Good, I think. You know how much I love it out here.”

“Uh huh, you always have. I really chewed your uncle out the other day, you know. If I had known we were gonna have guests up here…”

“I know, Mom. I’m okay.”

Ruby laughed. “I noticed. You don’t need to wind your cousin up so much, though. I heard about all the little flirty things you’ve been doing just to mess with him, and I was kind of surprised when Kayla told me about just how comfortable you seem like this. I didn't think ya had it in you.”

Cassie laughed. “Mom, I’m just trying to act as much like a girl as possible, and trust me, it’s taking a lot more thought and effort than I expected.”

“Well, there are such things as tomboys, you know. Most girls aren’t as girly as you seem to think.”

“*sigh* Maybe not, Mom, but Kayla can be, and from what I’ve seen, Emily definitely is. All trying to act butch would get me this summer is left out by both groups, ya know?”

Ruby gave Cassie a gentle squeeze. “If you think so. Tell me, though- do you really want to spend the entire summer trying to act, or do you want to spend it relaxing and having fun? If you keep trying to force yourself to act like you think you should, you'll just make yourself miserable.”

“Yeah, Mom, I know.”

"Honestly, I'll admit I wanted you to be a bit embarrassed about dressing like a girl this summer. I figured we'd come up here, your cousin would rib you a bit, you'd both get over it, and that would be that. You'd have some interesting summer stories to tell if you ever chose to, but otherwise this was gonna be just family." Cassie watched as her mom deflated, almost like a balloon. 'She must have been more worried about this than I thought.' "Can you forgive me?"

Cassie didn't even have to think about her answer. "Of course, Mom. Come here." The two hugged, and Cassie was glad the conversation was finally over.

“So, tell me about what happened between you and Emily last night.”

“What?”

---

30.

After another gruelling half hour of trying in vain to sidestep her mother's questions, Cassie finally managed to break away. She had just enough time for some light sketching before dinner, if she could find the time alone, but with family and guests popping up around every turn the woods seemed just a bit too crowded. She had settled on her bunk as a good escape from the crowds, and was just starting on outlining a quick sketch of everyone swimming the day before.

“So how was your talk with Mom?”

“It was… wait, was that your idea?” Cassie was less than happy with another interruption- her day had seemed to be nothing more than one after another- but was hoping that perhaps picking a fight with Kayla would help her to relieve some of the tension.

Kayla’s laughter was enough answer for Cassie. She was starting to get angry- what right did Kayla have to go off and do something like that?- when Kayla smiled at her. “It wasn’t so much my idea as something Mom wanted to do but didn’t have the courage to.” Kayla’s face grew more serious as she continued to look at Cassie. “She really was upset about getting you into this position, and I think after the way Emily came back last night she was worried she had found out. You’ve been trying really hard to fit in with us, and I let her know that, but you know what Mom’s like.” Cassie did. Overprotective in the extreme most of the time, for one thing. It had amazed her that her mom would even consider the clothing thing in the first place, but sometimes her mom’s decisions were confusing.

A loud voice from the kitchen, probably Jobe, Cassie thought, called out to them. “Hey, dinner’s ready you two. You gonna eat or what?”

"Just a minute! God, I swear that David kid's a bad influence on him," Kayla hissed from her bunk. "He wasn't this annoying last summer."

"He's always been like this, I'm just usually tormenting you so much you don't notice."

"That's for sure!" Kayla grinned. "You know, I think so far this has been one of my favorite summers out here."

That caught Cassie's attention, and she turned from her sketch padto stare at her sister.

"Seriously! You've been a lot cooler than usual, and it's been fun."

That hurt. "You're just saying that because I'm stuck like this."

Kayla shook her head vigorously. "Not at all! It's been fun, yeah, but mostly it's just that you haven't been a little jerk to me all the time."

"What! I am not a jerk!"

"Yes, you are!" Kayla insisted. "You're not that bad at home, most of the time, but you're as bad as that David guy most of the time when we're out here." Cassie gave her a suspicious look. "Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but some of the pranks you used to play on me were just mean."

Cassie was about to throw her pen or her sketch pad at her sister, anything to make her stop complaining, but took a second to cool down and think. Had she really been that bad? "So this summer's better for you because I'm acting like a girl?"

Kayla started laughing loudly again. "You're kidding, right? That's been entertaining, no doubt. It's funny seeing you being yourself one moment and the next trying to act like what you think a girl would do. You need to ease it up a bit. No, I could do without the girl thing, it's mostly just been nice you actually doing things with me."

"Really?"

"Really!" Kayla agreed.

Cassie smirked. "But I thought older sisters were supposed to hate having to do things with their little brothers... and sisters, too."

Kayla shrugged, and propped herself up on her elbows, laying across her bunk. "Well, Mom and Uncle Richard are pretty close, and I always just thought it'd be fun if we could get along like they did. Do. I mean, like, we usually go climbing in the summer together and stuff, but it's usually just 'cause we have to be safe or everyone else is going too. Now, we can go together just to hang out and have fun TOGETHER, you know?"

'I think I do.' Cassie nodded, and, because it felt like the right thing to do, hopped down from her bunk and landed in Kayla's. "Yup."

"DINNER NOW OR I'M EATING YOURS!!!"

"COMING JOBE!" The two yelled through the door together, and Kayla gave Cassie a quick squeeze before they both got out of the bunk and headed out to dinner.

---

NOTES:

Alright, it's been a while since I posted. Here's a little head's up. I know this chapter was a bit dialoguey (is that a real word? Evs.) I had to get it out of the way, and that's what took so long to write it. I'll no doubt be going back and re-editing it at some time in the very near future, but since I FINALLY got it finished last night I figured ya'll might want to see what's been taking so long. It still doesn't feel quite right to me- it's a bit flat, to be honest. But I couldn't move past here without getting it out of the way. There'll be more drama between the girls in later chapters- trust me on that :P I picked a kind of weird way to write this story, with five mini-chapters making up each day, for what I plan on being a three week vacation, for a total of 100 mini-chapters. It's gonna take a LOT longer to write than I ever thought, though hopefully not as long as I'm spending on Echoes.

Melanie E.